“Change can be difficult, but it’s how we grow. It can be the hardest thing to realize you can’t hold on to something forever”
If you’re looking to keep ahead of the reading curve, this is the list for you. From TikTok sensations to Instagram’s most-loved bookstagram picks, these are the books influencers are talking about so far in 2026. Whether you’re hunting down your next must-read novel, a trending thriller, or a thought-provoking non-fiction, these titles are making waves across social media and capturing the attention of readers everywhere. Social media buzz has become a powerful guide for discovering popular books everyone is reading, and following recommendations from influencers is a fun way of ensuring your bookshelf stays current. Today at What We Reading, we’re curating the most hyped, talked-about, and shareable reads of 2026, covering a range of genres and styles. Get ready to add some of these trending books of 2026 to your reading list and join the conversations that are sweeping across BookTok!
The Night We Met – Abby Jimenez
We’re kicking off our list of books influencers are talking about with the latest release by serial bestselling romance author Abby Jimenez, The Night We Met. In everyone’s life, there’s a split-second decision that can change everything. For Larissa, it came when choosing which guy to ride home with after a concert. That night, she had no idea she’d met the perfect man. She and Chris are great together. For the first time amid all her side hustles to scrape by, everything feels easy.
But Chris isn’t the one who drove her home that night. Chris is her boyfriend’s best friend. All Chris wants is for Larissa to be happy. Standing by on the sidelines is slowly killing him, but making a move would destroy someone else. And he’s just not that guy.
Release date: 31 March 2026
The Calamity Club – Kathryn Stockett
In 1933, Oxford, Mississippi, prohibition is on the wane, and the Great Depression was tightening its grip. Eleven-year-old Meg, one of the unadoptable “big girls” at Lafayette County Orphan Asylum, fights each day to keep her spirit unbowed. Birdie, unmarried and outspoken, has come to town to ask her social-climbing sister for something for her family. And Charlie is a woman with a past, but fuelled by fire, fury, and grit. When their fates converge, these women come up with a plan to take back control of their lives.
Promising to make you laugh, cry, and cheer, The Calamity Club is an epic testament to resilience, friendship, and the fierce, funny women who know that calamity can be the spark of new beginnings. From the author of the #1 bestseller The Help, this is Kathryn Stockett at her absolute best, and is guaranteed to have plenty of influencers buzzing in 2026.
Release date: 5 May 2026
Honey – Imani Thompson
Yrsa is in a funk. When her best friend, Nina, confesses to having an affair with her professor, and that he’s stolen her research, Yrsa is mad. On the quad, Yrsa bumps into the professor and witnesses his death: an unfortunate incident involving his San Pellegrino and a bee allergy. What she sees that afternoon awakens something within her: a taste for murder. Emboldened, Yrsa decides to chase that high, and soon, no sexist, misbehaving man within commuting distance is safe.
With every murder, Yrsa feels a greater sense of meaning and purpose – finally, her doctoral research feels useful. But how long can killing in the name of feminist and racial solidarity justify her actions? Will her rampage ever assuage her feelings of rage and revenge? And how long until her actions – and buried family secrets – come back to haunt her?
Release date: 5 May 2026
The Serpent And The Wings Of Night (Crowns Of Nyaxia #1) – Carissa Broadbent
For humans and vampires, the rules of survival are the same. The adopted human daughter of the Nightborn vampire king, Oraya, carved her place in a world designed to kill her. Her only chance of becoming something more than prey is entering the Kejari: a legendary tournament held by the goddess of death herself. But winning won’t be easy amongst the most vicious warriors from all three vampire houses. To survive, Oraya is forced into an alliance with a mysterious rival.
Everything about Raihn is dangerous. He is a ruthless vampire, an efficient killer, an enemy to her father’s crown, and her greatest competition. Yet, what terrifies Oraya most of all is how drawn to him she feels. The Serpent and the Wings of Night is the first book in a new series of heart-wrenching romance, dark magic, and bloodthirsty intrigue that is sure to be a hit with romantasy influencers this year.
Release date: 16 August 2026
Crux – Gabriel Tallent
Dan and Tamma are two teenagers in their last year of high school in the southern Mojave Desert. One is a gifted golden child, the other a mouthy burnout. Climbing boulders in trash-strewn parking lots during cold desert nights, they seal their unique bond and dream of a life of adventure.
As the year progresses and adult reality looms, they are rocked by change and pulled apart by irreconcilable obligations. Differences of class, talent, and prospects take on new importance; options dwindle, and their decisions grow ever more perilous and consequential. It feels inevitable, finally, that something must give. Gabriel Tallent has produced one of the best books influencers will be talking about in 2026 in Crux, a soul-searching novel about risking everything to change your life.
Release date: 20 January 2026
Woman Down – Colleen Hoover
Her words used to set the page on fire. But a viral backlash forced Petra Rose to take a hiatus. Branded a fraud and fame-hungry opportunist, she learned the hard way what happens when the internet turns on you. Now, with her next suspense novel outlined and savings nearly depleted, she retreats to a secluded lakeside cabin, hoping to find inspiration. Then he shows up.
Detective Nathaniel Saint arrives with disturbing news, his presence igniting a creativity in her she thought long burnt out. Soon, Petra’s fictional cop character starts to mirror the very real cop who’s becoming her muse. When Saint begins to take his role in her career a bit too seriously, however, Petra is forced to confront the chaos she created. But doing so could cost her more than the reputation she’s been trying to salvage in this viral 2026 thriller by Colleen Hoover.
Release date: 13 January 2026
Sunrise On The Reaping (The Hunger Games #0.5) – Suzanne Collins
As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honour of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes. Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.
When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He is torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the games begin, Haymitch understands that he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.
Release date: 18 March 2026
Son Of Nobody – Yann Martel
Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad were not the only ancient tales of the Trojan War. In Son of Nobody, Yann Martel composes a new the Psoad, an epic in free verse that follows a goatherd’s son, Psoas of Midea, who leaves his wife and family to fight at Troy. Psoas meets his doom, and the poem of his life is lost – until a Canadian academic studying at Oxford, Harlow Donne, discovers its relics thirty centuries later.
As Harlow assembles and comments on the fragments in footnotes, he retrieves memories of his wife and daughter, and wrestles with questions of ambition, family, and responsibility in both the ancient and modern worlds. If you loved The Song of Achilles or Emily Wilson’s The Iliad, you’ll absolutely adore this new, breathtaking feat of the imagination from the acclaimed author of Life of Pi.
Release date: 31 March 2026
The Ballad Of Falling Dragons (Moonfall #2) – Sarah A. Parker
Raeve’s thirst for vengeance continues to burn, as does her love for Kaan Vaegor – a staunch beacon from a past she’s yet to face. With Rekk’s blood still fresh on her hands, she learns that the world will face its most devastating moonfall yet.
Desperate to save his kingdom from ruin, Kaan’s crown has never felt so heavy. His many larks to scattered friends and family remain unanswered, and time is running out. As allies merge and enemies surge with bloodlusting agendas of their own, secrets brew hot enough to burn, but none so mighty as the truth nesting within the icy depths of Raeve’s long-forgotten past.
Release date: 19 May 2026
Caller Unknown – Gillian McAllister
There is nothing that Simone won’t do for her daughter, Lucy. Before Lucy sets off for university, the pair depart the UK for Texas for a holiday. But when Simone awakens on their first morning in the desert, Lucy is gone, missing from their rental cabin. In her place is a cell phone, and a voice on the other line issues a shocking ransom demand. Though Simone’s husband urges her to bring in the local authorities, she knows she can’t take any chances.
What she finds at the isolated meetup spot changes everything. A catastrophic chain of events is set in motion with chilling consequences that extend beyond Simone and her family. What follows is one of the most high-octane 2026 thriller stories through the small towns and punishing deserts of remote Texas, where Simone’s courage – and morality – is pushed to the brink.
Release date: 5 May 2026
A Darker Shore: Letters From Ketterdam (Six Of Crows #2.5) – Leigh Bardugo
In the years since the violent upheaval caused by the auction of Kuwei Yul-Bo, the merchants of Ketterdam have been under attack. All by the mysterious sea captain and her ship, The Wraith. Now, two investigators meet to uncover the truth behind the latest disaster: a massacre on an island off the shores of Ketterdam.
Among the evidence collected is private correspondence between notorious crime boss Kaz Brekker and an anonymous sailor aboard the Wraith known only as “I.” Follow along with the lead investigator as he tries to piece together how such a disaster transpired, and explore the Grishaverse like never before with this latest instalment in the Six of Crows series by Leigh Bardugo.
Release date: 30 June 2026
Graceless Heart (The Spellbound History Quartet #1) – Isabel Ibanez
In fifteen-century Volterra, sculptress Ravenna Maffei enters a competition hosted by a secretive, immortal family who offer an invaluable boon to the victor. Desperate to win so she can save her brother, Ravenna reveals a rare magical talent – a dangerous act in a city where magic is forbidden. She is kidnapped by the Luni family and taken to Florence. There, Ravenna is forced into an impossible task where failure means certain death at the hands of Saturnino dei Luni, the family’s enigmatic and merciless heir.
Meanwhile, Ravenna’s forbidden magic does not go unnoticed. The Pope, waging war against Florence, the Medici, and magic itself, has his own interest in her abilities. As alliances shift and war brews on the horizon, Ravenna must navigate the treacherous line between survival and betrayal, between love and duty. With time running out, the choices she makes in this gripping new 2026 fantasy novel will determine not just her own life, but the fragile balance of magic and power that could unravel Florence itself.
Release date: 13 January 2026
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
