While some people prefer memoirs and biographies, others like to read fictional tales ranging in genre from love stories to suspenseful mysteries. Female authors write across a variety of fiction genres, and many famous female novelists have highly anticipated titles coming out this year. Adding these books to your reading list or pre-ordering copies is just one way to support women during Women’s History Month and all year long.
We rounded up 15 fiction books set to publish this spring, all of which are written by female authors. The books are all highly anticipated according to Goodreads, which was determined based on the number of times a book was added to members’ want-to-read shelves. We listed them in order of publication date, starting this month and ending in June.
‘The Cartographers’ by Peng Shepherd
- Goodreads: 4.18-star average rating from 236 ratings
- Publication Date: March 15
A young woman finds a strange map in her deceased father’s belongings. The map holds a secret that leads her on an adventure and to learn the truth about her family’s dark history.
‘Peach Blossom Spring’ by Melissa Fu
- Goodreads: 4.35-star average rating from 1,375 ratings
- Publication Date: March 15th
In this book, author Melissa Fu walks readers through the history of modern China told through the fictional story of one family. It’s inspired by her father’s real-life experiences and discusses immigration, identity and the quest to find a place to call home.
‘The Book of Cold Cases’ by Simone St. James
- Goodreads: 4.12-star average rating from 672 ratings
- Publication Date: March 15
Set in Claire Lake, Oregon, a true-crime blogger interviews a woman acquitted of two cold case murders. As they meet regularly at the woman’s house, the blogger begins to feel uneasy and wonders if there are more dangers lurking around her.
‘The Diamond Eye’ by Kate Quinn
- Goodreads: 4.43-star average rating from 191 ratings
- Publication Date: March 29
“The Diamond Eye” is based on a true story — it details the experiences of a mother who becomes a soldier after Hitler’s invasion of Ukraine and Russia. She eventually makes her way to Washington, D.C., and finds a friend in First Lady Elenor Roosevelt as an enemy returns from her past.
‘Sea of Tranquility’ by Emily St. John Mandel
- Goodreads: 4.46-star average rating from 540 ratings
- Publication Date: April 5
Readers are led through time as characters find themselves inhibiting different places, from Vancouver Island in 1912 to the moon 500 years later. But they all have the same brief and puzzling experience, through which the author questions what it means in relation to the nature of time.
‘The Candy House’ by Jennifer Egan
- Goodreads: 3.9-star average rating from 310 ratings
- Publication Date: April 5
In “The Candy House,” character Bix Bouton’s “Own Your Unconscious” technology allows people to access every memory they’ve ever had and share memories in order to access those of others. As multiple characters’ paths intersect over several decades, readers learn about the technology’s consequences.
‘Portrait of a Thief’ by Grace D. Li
- Goodreads: 3.86-star average rating from 394 ratings
- Publication Date: April 5
This book was inspired by the true story of Chinese art disappearing from Western museums. The main character, Will Chen, plans to steal the pieces back, which gives readers insights into topics like diaspora, the colonization of art and the complexity of the Chinese American identity.
‘Memphis’ by Tara M. Stringfellow
- Goodreads: 4.35-star average rating from 248 ratings
- Publication Date: April 5
Joan, a 10-year-old girl, leaves her home with her mother and sister due to her father’s violence. The women make their way to Joan’s mother’s ancestral home in Memphis, and over the next few years, Joan is forced to confront other instances of violence within her family and finds solace in making art.
‘Book Lovers’ by Emily Henry
- Goodreads: 4.55-star average rating from 1,316 ratings
- Publication Date: May 3
Literary agent Nora Stephens spends a month in Sunshine Falls, North Carolina, with her sister. During the vacation, she continuously runs into an editor she’s previously met and has to decide whether she’ll change her life for him.
‘The Hacienda’ by Isabel Canas
- Goodreads: 4.44-star average rating from 127 ratings
- Publication Date: May 3
During the Mexican War of Independence, Beatriz’s father was executed and her home was destroyed. After, she gets married and moves into her new husband’s estate in the countryside, which she soon discovers may be haunted.
‘This Time Tomorrow’ by Emma Straub
- Goodreads: 4.43-star average rating from 150 ratings
- Publication Date: May 17
Author Emma Straub — who co-owns Books Are Magic in Brooklyn, New York — tells the story of Alice, who travels back in time to 1996 on the eve of her 40th birthday. As she relives her 16th birthday, Alice reunites with the 40-year-old version of her father.
‘Yerba Buena’ by Nina LaCour
- Goodreads: 4.20-star average rating from 295 ratings
- Publication Date: May 31
“Yerba Buena” is author Nina LaCour’s first adult novel. It chronicles Sara Foster’s life after she runs away from home at 16. Years later, she takes a job arranging flowers at a restaurant where she begins to have an affair with the married owner and needs to decide if she should come clean about her past.
‘Woman of Light’ by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
- Goodreads: 4.37-star average rating from 62 ratings
- Publication Date: June 7
After her brother is run out of town by a violent white mob, Luz “Little Light” Lopez has to fend for herself in 1930s Denver. She has visions that transport her to her Indigenous homeland and as she learns about her family’s history, she works to save them from disappearing.
‘The Woman in the Library’ by Sulari Gentill
- Goodreads: 3.99-star average rating from 229 ratings
- Publication Date: June 7
After a woman is heard screaming at the Boston Public Library, security guards instruct everyone inside the reading room to stay there until they identify the threat. This book tells the story of four strangers who sit at the same table while waiting to leave, one of whom may be a murderer.
‘More Than You'll Ever Know’ by Katie Gutierrez
- Goodreads: 4.23-star average rating from 22 ratings
- Publication Date: June 7
“More Than You’ll Ever Know” is told through alternating timelines: one in 1985 and one in 2017. It’s the story of a woman caught leading a double life after one husband murders the other, and decades later, a true crime writer who wants to tell her story.
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