Upcoming Debut Novels

Find a list of debut titles listed in our March Library Journal ad below:

• An Unlikely Spy by Rebecca Starford: A twisting, sophisticated World War II novel following a spy who goes undercover as a part of MI5—in chasing the secrets of others, how much will she lose of herself?
  
  
• Nobody, Somebody, Anybody by Kelly McClorey: A moving and darkly comic debut novel about an anxious young woman who administers a self-made “placebo” treatment in a last-ditch attempt to rebuild her life.
  
  
• Down Range by Taylor Moore: In this action-packed debut thriller for fans of C.J. Box, DEA agent Garrett Kohl fights to protect his home on the Texas High Plains when a vicious criminal enterprise threatens his family.
  
  
• Black Girls Must Die Exhausted by Jayne Allen: The first novel in a captivating three-book series about modern womanhood, in which a young Black woman must rely on courage, laughter, and love—and the support of her two longtime friends—to overcome an unexpected setback that threatens the most precious thing she’s ever wanted.
  
  
• The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers: The award-winning poet and essayist makes her fiction debut with this magisterial epic—an intimate yet sweeping novel with the freshness and forcefulness of Homegoing, The Turner House, and The Water Dancer—that chronicles the journey of one American family from the centuries of the colonial slave trade through the Civil War to our own tumultuous time.
  
  
• The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid: In the vein of Naomi Novik’s New York Times bestseller Spinning Silver and Katherine Arden’s national bestseller The Bear and the Nightingale, this unforgettable debut— inspired by Hungarian history and Jewish mythology—follows a young pagan woman with hidden powers and a one-eyed captain of the Woodsmen as they form an unlikely alliance to thwart a tyrant.
  
  
• God Spare the Girls by Kelsey McKinney: A mesmerizing debut novel set in northern Texas about two sisters who discover a dark secret about their father, the head pastor of an evangelical megachurch, that upends their lives and community—a coming-of-age story of family, identity, and the delicate line between faith and deception.
  
  
• Sisters in Arms by Kaia Alderson: Kaia Alderson’s debut historical fiction novel reveals the untold, true story of the Six Triple Eight, the only all-Black battalion of the Women’s Army Corps, who made the dangerous voyage to Europe to ensure American servicemen received word from their loved ones during World War II.
  
  
• In Polite Company by Gervais Hagerty: This luminous and captivating debut novel sneaks the reader inside the private lives of Charleston’s aristocracy, following the journey of a former debutant who forges a path from tradition to seize a future meant for her all along.
  
  
• All Her Little Secrets by Wanda M. Morris: In this fast-paced thriller, Wanda M. Morris crafts a twisty mystery about a Black lawyer who gets in over her head after the sudden death of her boss—a debut perfect for fans of Attica Locke, Alyssa Cole, Harlan Coben, and Celeste Ng, with shades of How to Get Away with Murder and John Grisham’s The Firm.

Additional debuts:

• A Lowcountry Bride by Preslaysa Williams: A heartwarming Avon debut of love, forgiveness, and new beginnings set in the beautiful South Carolina Lowcountry.
  
  
• The Donut Trap by Julie Tieu: Julie Tieu sparkles in this debut romantic comedy, which is charmingly reminiscent of the TV show Kim’s Convenience and Frankly in Love by David Yoon, about a young woman who feels caught in the life her parents have made for her until she falls in love and finds a way out of the donut trap.
  
  
• Happy Endings by Thien-Kim Lam: With her debut novel, Thien-Kim Lam serves up a sexy second-chance romance about exes with unfinished business. When working together reignites their passion, will these former flames sizzle or get burned all over again?
  
  
• The Anatomy of Desire by L.R. Dorn: A modern tale of American striving, social media stardom, a fatal love triangle, and a young woman on trial for murder—a mesmerizing reimagining of Theodore Dreiser's classic novel of crime and punishment, An American Tragedy.
  
  
• The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams: An unforgettable and heartwarming debut about how a chance encounter and a list of library books helps forge an unlikely friendship between two very different people—a lonely London widower and a troubled teenager.
  
  
• Fault Lines by Emily Itami: For fans of Sally Rooney and Helen Fielding, a witty, sharp, and moving debut novel exploring the frustrations of motherhood, the imbalance of a marriage, and the loss of self as a family builds around you.
  
  
• Nice Girls by Catherine Dang: A pulse-pounding and deviously dark debut, written with the psychological acuity and emotional punch of Luckiest Girl Alive and All the Missing Girls, that explores the hungry, angry, dark side of girlhood and dares to ask what is most dangerous to a woman: showing the world what it wants to see, or who she really is?

-Lainey