The unofficial start of summer is upon us, and we don’t know about you, but when the weather gets warmer and sunnier, we always feel more and more inspired to crack into a good book.
Longer days and (hopefully) some time off gives us more time to read than ever, and with new reads publishing each and every month, we’ll never run out of irresistible new releases to get lost in. Our favorite publishers have already given us the opportunity to preview June’s hottest new books, offering a little something for every kind of reader. Keep scrolling to discover three June 2026 release we adored and why you should check them out the moment they drop.
Backstabbers by Eliza Jabore – June 2
There’s something quite exhilarating about watching characters make the worst decisions possible again and again in the midst of life-and-death situations, and that’s why Eliza Jabore’s Backstabbers had us on the edges of our seats from start to finish.
It follows Jade Edelman and her two best friends, Stef and Zoe, who’ve been practically inseparable since middle school. Now in their late 20s, they pride themselves on their yearly adventures, with this year’s outing taking them to the Bones Hollow Trail in Washington State. Not only is it a pretty treacherous hike known for an abnormally high number of missing hikers, but years ago, it was prowled by a serial killer known as The Bones Hollow Hunter. It’s been years since the killer has struck, but Jade’s on edge thanks to her friends’ insistence on listening to a true crime podcast about his horrific crimes along the trail.
Braving the elements—and the threat of bears and mountain lions—would be enough, but when Stef twists her ankle hours and hours from civilization, the situation gets dire. They have no choice but to seek refuge at a creepy cabin in the woods, whose lone inhabitant in an equally frightening mountain man who may not be as friendly as he lets on. Soon enough, Jade discovers that her friends had ulterior motives for this trip, and as they get more and more daring with their investigation, it’ll take an act of true friendship to keep them all alive. With their lives at stake, however, the friends’ true colors begin to show, and the secret fragility of their bond comes to light for the first time, threatening absolutely everything.
Backstabbers is a truly wild ride, and while we thought we were in for one kind of story beginning on the hiking trail, all of our expectations were thrown at the window upon the friends’ arrival at the cabin. This book is seriously tense, stressful and often grisly as Jade watches her friends do the last thing they should at every turn—and then starts making those kinds of decisions herself. We don’t say too much, but we found its conclusion very satisfying.
(Backstabbers via Bantam)
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You Won’t Forget Me by Mazey Eddings – June 9
If you’re in the mood for a sweet and grounded sapphic friends-to-lovers romance, we can’t recommend Mazey Eddings’ You Won’t Forget Me highly enough.
The story follows the passionate and musically gifted Cubby Clark, songwriter and guitarist of a band that’s just about to catch its big break when her jerk of an on-again, off-again boyfriend (and bandmate) Connor leaves the group. That wouldn’t be the end of the world, except Connor’s first solo song becomes an overnight hit—and it’s a diss track painting Cubby as something that couldn’t be further from the truth. As much as she’s always wanted to make a difference with her music, being in the public eye instantly makes her a target for hate from Cubby’s fangirls to the point where it starts taking over her life, and completely stifling her creativity.
At least Cubby still has the rest of her band. There’s the keyboardist, Harry, who always drew Connor’s suspicion and envy, and the bassist, Darcy, who’s been Cubby’s best friend since they were little. Both of these relationships are tested, however, when a romantic-looking photo of Cubby and Harry goes viral on the same night that Cubby and Darcy hook up. As confused as she is about her new feelings for her friend, Cubby is heartbroken when Darcy pretends nothing happened, and decides she must also play along and bury everything she’s feeling in order to save the friendship. They feel distant for the very first time, made worse by the decision to spin up a fake-dating scenario with Harry in order to drum up publicity around their first U.S. tour. Being stuck in cramped hotel rooms and tour buses with Darcy over the duration of the tour isn’t making the matter any better, and with her reputation, her musical future and the most relationship of her life on the line, she’ll have to decide which risks are which taking and which desires she’ll need to bury forever.
You Won’t Forget Me brings together so many things we love, crafting a stirring romance based in music, friendship and creativity that always felt authentic. The characters feel fully lived in and real, and it’s easy to see why Cubby would so constantly feel pulled in different directions. Despite her growing success, Cubby really goes through the wringer in this story, from being used by her ex to becoming the victim of a targeted bullying campaign on social media to becoming fully addicted to the impossible task of controlling the narrative around her life, which makes it all the more gratifying when she comes to embrace herself and gets her happily ever after.
(You Won’t Forget Me via St. Martin’s Griffin)
A Botanist’s Guide to Tradition and Treachery by Kate Khavari – June 9
And anyone hunting for a cozy and captivating historical mystery is bound to be entranced by Kate Khavari’s A Botanist’s Guide to Tradition and Treachery.
This is actually the fifth mystery in the Botanist’s Guide series following botanist and research assistant Saffron Everleigh in the 1920s. This time around, she’s heading out on her first-ever expedition, joining her fiancé Alexander Ashton on a trip to Turkey to investigate plants discovered at an ancient ruin. Saffron can’t wait to finally do real research in the field, but unfortunately, she’s been assigned to work under under historian Joseph Clark, who seems to take pleasure in belittling and undermining her at every step.
Things would be difficult enough if all she had to deal with was misogyny, but soon, Saffron comes to believe someone aims to harm her. First, she contends with a drugged drink, then an encounter with a venomous snake, nearly being crushed under falling stones and even getting enclosed within an ancient passage. Worse, she doesn’t feel she can bring up these events for fear of being seen as a hysterical and difficult woman. But when a young man close to her studies is murdered with an unusual poison, Saffron—a poisons expert—is the first to come under suspicion. She intends to apply her talent for crime-solving, only to be promptly arrested for the killing. But getting put away in a cell isn’t enough to stop Saffron, Alexander and the friends they make along the way from untangling a wild web of stolen antiquities, smuggling and past schemes and bringing the perpetuators to justice.
A Botanist’s Guide to Tradition and Treachery immediately endeared us to heroine Saffron Everleigh, with storytelling that’s leisurely yet engaging, and countless twists and turns we could have never predicted. It’s easy to feel for Saffron and her frustration with the rampant sexism typical of the period, realizing her very valid complaints will go unheard and even get her in trouble. We also enjoyed the way the third-person perspective shifts between Saffron and Alexander, highlighting the differences in their treatment (and just how swoon-worthy Alexander’s trust of his fiancée truly is). We haven’t read the other books in the series just yet, and we found that they weren’t essential to appreciating A Botanist’s Guide to Tradition and Treachery, but at this point, we’re keen to check them all out next.
(A Botanist’s Guide to Tradition and Treachery via Crooked Lane Books)
Missed our favorites from last month? Click HERE to check out all or our favorite book releases of May 2026.
