It’s a hard task to choose a favourite among your children, but we had to do it. May is a jam-packed month for new book releases and we were on struggle street this month, trying to choose which books were the crème de la crème.
Honourable mention to Tom Hank‘s new book, Justin Cronin‘s The Ferryman and Brandon Sanderson‘s Tress of the Emerald Sea. You were all a major slay.
Below is all of the new books our sticky little hands couldn’t wait to devour, from a dark thriller about an obsessive bookseller to a Hunger Games-inspired fantasy, but with dragons.
Best new fiction releases in May
The Collected Regrets of Clover
About the book:
If you’re a fan of The Midnight Library and need another heartwarming, soul-nourishing read to make you appreciate life, then this is for you.
In her work as a ‘death doula’, Clover Brooks ushers people peacefully through their last days, collecting their final words into three notebooks: ADVICE, CONFESSIONS and REGRETS. But Clover spends so much time with the dying that she’s forgotten how to live.
Can her clients’ hard-won wisdom – and the inspiring love story of a spirited old woman named Claudia – show Clover the way to a happy ending? After all, what’s the point of giving someone a beautiful death if you can’t give yourself a beautiful life?
Release Date: May 2
Where to buy: Amazon ($22.99) | Booktopia ($26.95) | Dymocks ($32.99) | QBD ($22.99)
Over This Backbone by Ya Reeves
About the book:
Through an epic journey across Australia, Over This Backbone is a novel about the things we bury. From walking away after walking a long way to saying ‘I’m fine’ when you mean the opposite, this book is an ode to the Aussie landscape and we love it for it.
Peta has a plan that she is determined to follow – a timeline, things to prove – but nothing is as expected. She is ghosted by wild dogs, almost trampled by horses, hunted down by the police, dehydrated and flooded-in; but none of this compares to the rollercoaster that is her relationship of the past year.
Shifting between Peta’s journey across the Australian Alps Walking Track and her past, we learn about Peta and Ben’s tumultuous connection, her attempts to extract herself, and her subsequent experiences in the South Australian desert that both liberated and shattered her.
Release date: May 3
Where to buy: Amazon ($26.25) | Booktopia ($28.50) | Dymocks ($34.99) | QBD ($34.99)
The Dangers of Female Provocation by Zoe Coyle
About the book:
Female rage is in, but I suspect the ending of this book won’t be so simple. It’s giving Promising Young Woman.
Odessa Odin has it all – a successful career, an adoring husband and a close circle of friends to whom she is fiercely loyal. On the surface they’re living a glittering London life of wealth and cosseted privilege, but underneath this veneer lies painful truths of betrayal, neglect and unfulfilled ambitions. It’s a tightrope of holding themselves and their marriages together as their men transgress the promises they made at the altar with the blithe entitlement they’ve enjoyed all their lives. For the women, there’s just too much to lose.
When Odessa discovers her husband is having an affair, her carefully constructed life falls away, and the mask slips to reveal a vast reservoir of rage. Training her sights on her friends’ husbands, Odessa becomes an avenging warrior – aiming to chasten them into being better partners, picking them off one compromising situation at a tim But as Odessa’s mission becomes all-consuming, it blinds her to the reality that the score is about to be evened in a way she could never anticipate.
Release date: May 4
Where to buy: Amazon ($34.99) | Booktopia ($28.90) | Dymocks ($34.99) | QBD ($34.99)
Best new thriller releases out in May
The Guest by Emma Cline
About the book:
You might recognise the name Emma Cline as the author of The Girls, a fictional spin on the Manson Family cult. Well, she’s done it again, folks. Her new novel is about a woman in her 20s named Alex, who isn’t exactly a good person, but she’s very good at pretending to be someone she isn’t. As a grifter, Alex floats from home to home to survive, preying on the compassion of others for survival – at least until her secrets are uncovered. This is an addictive, thrilling read full of drama and featuring Cline’s unique, female voice.
One misstep at a dinner party and the older man she’s been staying with dismisses her with a ride to the train station and a ticket back to the city. With few resources, but a gift for navigating the desires of others, Alex stays on the island.
She drifts like a ghost through the gated driveways and sun-blasted dunes of a rarefied world, trailing destruction in her wake.
Release date: May 23
Where to buy: Amazon ($23.99) | Booktopia ($26.95) | Dymocks ($32.99) | QBD ($32.99)
Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater
About the book:
Shut the front door – obsessive, intoxicating and oh-so-dark, we couldn’t possibly be any more into this crime thriller debut. *Adds straight to the top of TBR pile*
Roach – bookseller, loner and true crime obsessive – is not interested in making friends. She has all the company she needs in her serial killer books, murder podcasts and her pet snail, Bleep. That is, until Laura joins the bookshop.
Smelling of roses, with her cute literary tote bags and beautiful poetry, she’s everyone’s new favourite bookseller. But beneath the shiny veneer, Roach senses a darkness within Laura, the same darkness Roach possesses. As Roach’s curiosity blooms into morbid obsession, it becomes clear that she is prepared to infiltrate Laura’s life at any cost.
Release date: April 26
Where to buy: Amazon ($24.74) | Booktopia ($26.95) | Dymocks ($32.99) | QBD ($32.99)
Search History by Amy Taylor
About the book:
Ever heard of Daphne du Maurier‘s deliciously Gothic thriller, Rebecca? You know the one that got an adaptation starring Downton Abbey and Cinderella‘s Lily James? Regardless, read the book, watch the original Alfred Hitchcock film and maybe the remake – they’re good. Search History is a modern retelling of this literary classic, but with Fleabag vibes. Chef’s kiss.
After fleeing to Melbourne in the wake of a breakup, all Ana has to show for herself is an unfulfilling job at an overly enthusiastic tech start-up and one particularly questionable dating app experience. Then she meets Evan. Charming, kind and financially responsible, Evan is a complete aberration from her usual type, and Ana feels like she has finally awoken from a long dating nightmare.
As much as she tries to let their burgeoning relationship unfold IRL, Ana can’t resist the urge to find Evan online. When she discovers that his previous girlfriend, Emily, died unexpectedly in a hit-and-run less than a year ago, Ana begins to worry she’s living in the shadow of his lost love. Soon she’s obsessively comparing herself to Emily, trawling through her dormant social media accounts in the hope of understanding her better. Online, Evan and Emily’s life together looked perfect, but just how perfect was it? And why won’t he talk about it?
Release date: May 2
Where to buy: Amazon ($27.99) | Booktopia ($26.95) | Dymocks ($32.99) | QBD ($32.99)
Best new fantasy book releases in May
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
About the book:
Dragons, Hunger Games-esque vibes, a dark academia setting and a steamy, slow burn enemies-to-lovers romance? We’re sold.
20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to live a quiet life among books. Now, the commanding general — also her mother — has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders. With fewer dragons than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter — like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.
Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret. Alliances will be forged. Lives will be lost. Traitors will become allies or even lovers. But sleep with one eye open because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.
Release date: May 2
Where to buy: Amazon ($16) | Booktopia ($26.95) | Dymocks ($32.99) | QBD ($24.99)
Dragonfall by L.R. Lam
Okay, clearly we are suckers for both dragons and slow burn enemies-to-lovers romance, because here’s another book that fulfils those tropes. Honestly, there’s no such thing as too much of a good thing.
Long ago, humans betrayed dragons, stealing their magic and banishing them to a dying world. Centuries later, their descendants worship dragons as gods. But the gods remember, and they do not forgive.
Thief Arcady scrapes a living on the streets of Vatra and steals a powerful artifact whose magic holds the key to a new life among the nobles at court and a chance for revenge. The spell connects to Everen, the last male dragon foretold to save his kind, dragging him through the Veil. Disguised as a human, Everen soon learns that to regain his true power and form and fulfil his destiny, he only needs to convince one little thief to trust him enough to bond completely–body, mind, and soul–and then kill them. Yet the closer the two become, the greater the risk both their worlds will shatter.
Release date: May 9
Where to buy: Amazon ($24.74) | Booktopia ($26.95) | Dymocks ($32.99) | QBD ($32.99)
The Isles of the Gods by Amie Kaufman
About the book:
Magic? Check. Romance? Check. Slumbering gods? Check. Oh and let’s not forget a prince, some gangster dens, forgotten temples and a journey across high seas. What more could you be looking for in a fantasy novel? Better yet, especially one from NYT-bestselling author, Amie Kaufman of The Aurora Cycle series.
Selly has saltwater in her veins. So when her father leaves her high and dry in the port of Kirkpool, she has no intention of riding out the winter at home while he sails to adventure in the north seas. But any plans to follow him are dashed when a handsome stranger with tell-tale magician’s marks on his arms commandeers her ship under cover of darkness: He is Prince Leander of Alinor, and he needs to cross the Crescent Sea without detection so he can complete a ritual on the sacred Isles of the Gods.
Selly has no desire to escort a spoiled prince anywhere, and no time for his entitled demands or his good looks. But what starts as a leisure cruise will lead to acts of treason and sheer terror on the high seas, bringing two countries to the brink of war, two strangers closer than they ever thought possible and two dangerous gods stirring from centuries of slumber.
Release date: May 2
Where to buy: Amazon ($18.75) | Booktopia ($19.99) | Dymocks ($24.99) | QBD ($19.99)
Best new non-fiction releases in May
She and Her Pretty Friend by Danielle Scrimshaw
This cheeky book is full of heart and follows the lives of women throughout Australia’s history that were clearly lovers but stubbornly remembered as “just friends” — something that is *still* going on to this day.
Throughout history, women’s relationships have been downgraded and diminished. Instead of lovers, they are documented as particularly close friends; the type that made out, worked, lived, and are buried together. Besties, if you will.
In this retelling of Australian history — where each chapter centring on a specific person, couple, or time period — Scrimshaw explores how colonisation altered ideas of sexuality, how the suffrage movement in Australia created opportunities for queer women, and details her own part in creating queer history.
Release date: May 3
Where to buy: Amazon ($35.99) | Booktopia ($29.25) | Dymocks ($35.99) | QBD ($35.99)
