Our Favourite Books Of Spring 2026
If you’ve resolved to read more in 2026, the literary goddesses have your back: this season features a stellar crop of new releases. Here are 11 of my favourite spring 2026 reads, plus three other recent-ish releases I think you'll love.
Wild People Quiet by Tara Gereaux
Secretary Florence Banks lives happily in small town 1940s Saskatchewan—but her life is built on a big secret: the fact she bleaches her brown hair once a month to conceal the fact she’s Métis. No one is the wiser, until her past comes crashing back and Florence’s carefully constructed life implodes. She can’t go back to her old one‚ either; after she reconnects with the family she cast off three decades ago, the government forcibly relocates their community to a “rehabilitation farm” (as the Saskatchewan government did to real-life Métis communities at the time). Will Florence be able to rebuild again—or has she lost too much? Out now.
The Book Tour by Emily Ohanjanians
In this smart enemies-to-lovers romance, first-time author Ana Movilian embarks on a book tour with Ryan Grant, the high-minded publicist who seemingly doesn’t have a lot of outward enthusiasm for her work. Was I surprised when—mild spoiler alert—Ryan turns out to be both an Ana superfan and incredibly sexy? Absolutely not, but I enjoyed the depth to both Ana and Ryan’s backstories, as well as the buzzy publishing world backdrop (Ohanjanians is a Toronto-based book editor). Out now.
Unshaming by Jowita Bydlowska
After publishing her bestselling 2013 recovery memoir Drunk Mom, Bydlowska relapsed, “slowly, then instantly.” Unshaming traces the Toronto writer’s bumpy road to recovery—as well as the impact her alcoholism has had on her relationship with her beloved son—and interrogates the role that shame plays in addiction. Bydlowska’s story contains equal parts heartbreak and hard-earned triumph, with a final scene that’s nothing short of transcendent. Out now.
Kin by Tayari Jones
The American Marriage author returns with a powerful novel about two childhood friends—“motherless girls that everyone felt sorry for”—from the American South whose forever intertwined lives take vastly different turns. Don’t forget to breathe while you’re reading this heartbreaking masterpiece, and don’t just take it from me; like American Marriage, Kin is also an Oprah’s Book Club pick. Out now.
Lauren’s father died in a car accident when she was 15, but she doesn’t remember it—because her mother undid it, using a silver ticket that allows her, just once, to have a do-over. All the women in Lauren's family have them, but the tickets are both miracle and curse. Thirty-seven-year-old Lauren—happily married but desperately trying to get pregnant—struggles with when to use hers. You’ll be left guessing (and perhaps second guessing some of your own life decisions) until the very end. Out now.
Once and Again by Rebecca Serle
Definitely Thriving by Kerry Clare
After losing her job and imploding her marriage, Clemence moves back home to Toronto and starts “cobbling together a life out of scraps and other peoples’ furniture.” Much to her surprise, her lo-fi new life—working in a bookshop, reconnecting with her family, having mediocre sex with a highly neurotic guy and eating whatever the heck she wants for dinner—agrees with her. This cozy read has some hilarious lines (“...you’re talking about a family, not a flash mob,” says Clemence when her always pregnant sister admits she’s not sure she wants another kid) and an almost too-happy ending, but it’s impossible not to root for Clemence as she slowly finds herself. March 17.
Mother Is Watching by Karma Brown
Tilly is an art conservator and married mom of one living in a futuristic world that faces constant climate crises and a plummeting birth rate. Shortly after she takes on a top-secret work project—restoring a painting called The Mother, one of four pieces by a mysterious artist with a tragic backstory—she discovers she’s unexpectedly pregnant and faces a series of bizarre and terrifying events that seemingly originate from the painting (not to mention a lot of state control and misogyny in relation to her pregnancy). I had no idea where this propulsive horror read was headed; I will also never look at moths the same way again! March 17.
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
If you’ve ventured down the Ballerina Farm rabbit hole, clear your calendar for Yesteryear. This shockingly twisty novel about a Hannah Neeleman–like tradwife influencer who is suddenly thrust into a 19th-century funhouse mirror version of her highly filtered life is the best book I’ve read so far this year. It’s so good, in fact, I wished it was about 500 pages longer. April 7.
American Fantasy by Emma Straub
Fifty-year-old Annie—newly divorced and newly demoted—embarks on a four-day ’90s boy band–themed cruise while her sister, the Boy Talk superfan who booked their tickets, is stuck at home with a broken leg. Unlike her sister, Annie forced herself to abandon Boy Talk in college—so why does she start crying when sees the band onboard? As the ship loops around the Bahamas, she bonds with her firebrand roommate, hooks up for the first time since her divorce and realizes that life is still full of surprises. April 7.
Our Perfect Storm by Carley Fortune
Frankie gets engaged after losing herself in an “easy” relationship, which gets considerably harder after her fiancé dumps her, seemingly without reason, on their wedding weekend. George, her best friend from childhood, convinces her to take her dreamy Tofino, B.C., honeymoon with him—and their complicated baggage. As they spend the week surfing and hiking and sharing a honeymoon suite with only one bed, Frankie says she prides herself that they’ve never “muddled things up with sex and romance.” The foreshadowing couldn’t be more obvious, but honestly, who’s complaining? May 5.
The Body Riddle by Sam K MacKinnon
As they recover from their long-awaited chest surgery in the Winnipeg apartment they share with their cis girlfriend, 29-year-old Lex is left with a lot to navigate in this contemplative debut—including their evolving relationship, a crush on a cute trans co-worker and the realization that changing their body doesn’t make understanding themselves any easier. May 19.
Plus three other recent-ish books I read and loved
Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
Set in a world where bots can be purchased for companionship or domestic labour, Annie Bot explores the relationship between a sex doll named Annie and Doug, her human owner/lover. I was surprised by how much empathy I felt for Annie by the end of the book, and I thought a lot about how—bot or not—so many women are burdened by the expectations of their partners.
The 10-Year Affair by Erin Summers
After Cora meets Matt at a playgroup—both are married, both have young kids—she spends the next 10 years imagining what would happen if they had an affair. I don’t want to give too much away, but the dizzying highs of Cora’s fantasy life come crashing down to earth in a painfully mundane way. Plus, Summers’ observations about the hipster culture of Cora and Sam’s upstate New York town—including a recurring bit about natural wine trends—are hilarious.
Liberty Street by Heather Marshall
I’ve often wondered what it would have been like to work at Chatelaine during its groundbreaking Doris Anderson era. So did author Heather Marshall. In Liberty Street, her new dual timeline pageturner, one of Marshall’s heroines is an editorial assistant at the magazine during Anderson’s heyday who goes undercover at a women’s prison to chase a story she hopes will be her big career break. Here’s more about the book, which I could not put down.
Want more book reccos? Here's what I read and loved last spring, last summer and last fall.
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Maureen Halushak is the editor-in-chief of Chatelaine. Outside of work she's an avid runner, writer, reader and dog walker.
