It’s always fun to pick up books by the authors we know and trust, but there’s nothing like discovering a new author and falling in love with their writing at the very beginning of their career. There’s so much to look forward to, and so many new talents to uplift! That’s why we’ve curated a list of 15 debut novels from 2026 that you need to add to your TBR. Whether you’re a lover of romance, fantasy, or literary fiction, there’s an author on this list whose debut novel is going to be right up your alley. Pick up one of these brilliant books if you love supporting new voices in fiction.
TRIGGER WARNING: Some of the books on this list contain mentions of death, trauma, and abuse. Please exercise personal care when reading.
The Daughters of Rosebud by Sonny Buttar
In this poignant story about loyalty, sisterhood, and love, Salma Chaudhry leads a quiet life as a teacher, avoiding deep attachments and thoughts of her past until one day her estranged father calls and upends her simple life. 18 years ago, in the small town of Rosebud, the painful conflicts in Salma’s family forced her to choose between her sister, Asma, and her parents. Now, she finally has the chance to understand her family history like she never has and reconcile with the father she thought she’d never be close to again. The Daughters of Rosebud is the perfect read for anyone who believes in healing, reconciliation, and the bonds between family.
Pole Dancers at the Red Barn by Susan L. Katz
In this illuminating, interconnected novel-in-stories spanning the 1940s through the ’80s, Katz chronicles the lives of five pole dancers, their club owner, and their mothers. They dance together at the Red Barn in Easton, Pennsylvania, and they each have deeply personal struggles and traumas passed onto them by their resilient but imperfect mothers. Pole Dancers at the Red Barn weaves together these people’s stories to paint a picture of our capacities for surviving trauma, taking risks, and finding ourselves in spite of the hardships that threaten to hold us back from our own lives.
Nowhere to Go but Everywhere by Jessica Rao
Helena Vinci has just dropped out, desperate to travel and find herself in “the real world” instead of college classrooms, when she finds herself at a crossroads. She’s torn between three men and the vastly different life paths they represent — a fellow slacker with wanderlust, a DJ, and a politician whose promise of financial security has a price she may not be willing to pay. With beautiful prose, retro aesthetics, and an honest depiction of the youthful desire to rebel and escape, Jessica Rao’s debut is a stunning lesson about finding yourself without ever needing to run away.
Saturn Returning by Kim Narby
When college students Jordan and Trace meet for the first time, their friendship feels immediate and cosmic. Then comes Silvia: a transfer student who befriends the girls and starts up a romance with Trace that changes Jordan and Trace’s connection forever. Ten years later, the three women are still linked by their past, but Jordan lives in New York while Trace and Silvia are in Seattle, on the verge of marriage. It’s right at the culmination of their Saturn return that Trace calls Jordan and reveals the secrets and desires she’s tried to hide all these years. A messy meditation on love, friendship, and queerness interwoven with romance and astrology, Saturn Returning is a compulsively readable debut you can’t miss.
Witch Season by Julia Bianco
Looking for an addictive contemporary fantasy to fall in love with? Witch Season is fierce, fast-paced, and packed with romance and danger. It’s Katherine Barnes’s job to uphold the rules of the Aestas coven in Los Angeles and bring new, unsettled witches into the fold. Now Silas Khatri, heir to the most powerful coven in the world, has come to challenge Aestas for some of their unconventional practices, and Katherine wants nothing more than to get rid of him. But as a greater, more sinister enemy rises to threaten the witch world as she knows it, Katherine has no choice but to team up with Silas and do everything they can to protect their precious covens.
Our Cut of Salt by Deena Helm
Nuhad, Haifa, and Marina. A grandmother, daughter, and granddaughter: three Palestinian women with a profound connection to Nuhad’s childhood home in Haifa — a home with mysteries and wounds of its own. When Nuhad dies, Marina resolves to visit the house in Haifa and connect with her family’s culture and history in ways she never has. But when she arrives, she realizes that what had once been a home is now a place of sickness and secrets. Nuhad tries to give warnings from beyond the grave, but Haifa has no choice but to return to the house before it’s too late for her daughter, Marina. Together, the three women must confront the house’s history before it destroys them.
Muñeca by Cynthia Gómez
Simultaneously romantic and surreal, this is the vivid, Gothic tale of Natalia Fuentes and Violeta Miramontes. When young witch Nati learns that Violeta, the young heiress to Spanish colonial wealth, has come down with a mysterious illness, she’s certain there’s dark magic involved, and that she can be the one to break the spell and earn a reward for her help. Then the two of them meet and start to form a deeper connection, and Nati must suddenly face the ghosts she’s tried so hard to bury. Can she save Violeta? And what will her determination to do so cost her?
Dangerland! by Erin Singer
Looking to laugh and swoon at the same time? Pick up Dangerland! by Erin Singer. Kurt Richter and Eugenie Zepp grew up in Vegas together, and he’s been in love with her since they were kids — always nearby, but never together. Now they’re in their fifties, both divorced, and their kids are in town with plans, conflicts, and hurts of their own, and Kurt decides it’s time to finally declare his love for her. Could it finally be the right time for them, or will their romance only make a bigger mess of things than they’ve already made? As said by bestselling author Rainbow Rowell, “I’d never get tired of the dialogue (so funny) or the twists (genuinely shocking), and I’d never get tired of the way Erin Singer portrays Las Vegas.”
Burn the Sea by Mona Tewari
In this stunning historical fantasy that reimagines the Portuguese attacks on South India in the 1500s, Abbakka Chowta has spent years training to become a blade in service to her sister, the queen. Then an attack from the giant half-man, half-snake Porcugi rattles Ullal and changes Abbakka’s fate and duty to her homeland forever. Desperate to protect her people from having to suffer either colonization or total devastation, Abbakka must use everything she’s learned and even consider marrying a neighboring king to protect Ullal from the Porcugi. But will even that be enough?
Good News by Alexa Yasemin Brahme
If you love novels that are as messy as they are stylish, this one’s for you. When contemporary artist Maggie’s MFA thesis earns a lackluster response, she throws herself into an obsessive work spiral that cuts her off from every other part of her life. She’s ignoring her Turkish mother’s calls, growing distant from her boyfriend, Rob, and she can’t stand the fact that her perfect brother is dating her art-world rival. Still, she’s able to hold it together at least a little bit — until her smooth-talking art critic ex, Rakib, reappears, and she’s suddenly questioning everything. Good News is the perfect read for artists, readers in their 20s, and anyone who knows what it’s like to doubt every aspect of your life at once.
Leave and Come Back by Lavanya Lakshmi
Bollywood film-lover Simran has just started to fall for the man of her dreams when she receives an invitation to her cousin’s two-week Indian wedding — at the family home she’s been avoiding for seven years. Though she doesn’t plan to bring her new boyfriend Leo along, he crashes the engagement party by accident, and suddenly Simran and her cousins have no choice but to follow the lead of their favorite Bollywood movie and trick the judgmental family matriarchs into adoring him. Not only is Simran reuniting with the family and pretending not to know her own boyfriend, but she’s also facing every old grievance and family conflict she’s been avoiding forever. Can her relationship with Leo make it through this long, chaotic wedding? Can she?
A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing by Alice Evelyn Yang
Written in stunning, atmospheric prose and inspired by Chinese history and folklore, this is the story of Qianze. She hasn’t seen her father, Ba, in years, but when he shows up on her doorstep looking like a different person and warns her of a prophecy tied to her family’s dark and mysterious history, she knows he’s back. Then, as she’s grappling with his reappearance and wrestling with what she may or may not owe him as his daughter, she starts to have nightmares and visions of terrifying spirits and monsters. Suddenly, Qianze is enmeshed in the dark family history she once longed to know more about, and she has no choice but to face the prophecy and all that it means for her and her family.
She Made Herself a Monster by Anna Kovatcheva
Yana is a vampire slayer — or so she tells the people whose towns in 19th-century Bulgaria she “saves” from the monsters of the night. The truth is, Yana is a con artist who convinces townsfolk of vampires in their midst so she can vanquish the imaginary threat and leave the people’s hearts full of hope and relief when she leaves. Then she meets Anka, a teenage orphan in a desolate town who’s on the brink of being forced into marriage by the village Captain. When they meet, Yana and Anka hatch a plan to save Anka from her dreaded fate. To dream up a monster who can help them take control of both their lives in ways they never have. This is a haunting, cathartic feminist tale you simply can’t miss.
Like This, But Funnier by Hallie Cantor
Interested in reading a story that balances laugh-out-loud humor with profound explorations of morality and self-hatred? Then you need to add Like This, But Funnier to your TBR immediately. This literary fiction debut follows Caroline, a 34-year-old TV writer whose life is being taken over by her career and professional envy when she stumbles upon her therapist husband’s client notes — then repeats what she reads to a producer. It’s not long before the Hollywood machine takes over, and suddenly, Caroline is pitching someone else’s personal life story to become a TV show. Her husband has no idea, let alone his client, and Caroline is stuck between her obsession with success and her own ailing morality.
Unprecedented Times by Malavika Kannan
We all remember what everyone kept saying when the COVID pandemic hit in 2020: “These are unprecedented times.” Well, Malavika Kannan’s debut novel explores love, pain, self-discovery, and growing up within the context of that very time. Rishi has just spent her first semester at Stanford making friends, having new experiences, and writing all about them when COVID hits and changes everything. Suddenly, Rishi’s already complicated relationships are being subjected to the strain of unprecedented times, and there’s no telling what’s going to happen next.
That’s it for our list of 15 incredible debut novels that came out this year. Thank you for taking a chance on these amazing new authors!
Looking for emotionally devastating novels to read? Find recommendations here!
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