Some stories begin with what’s been lost and what comes after. These literary fiction novels explore the lasting impact of love, grief, memory, family, and the choices that continue to shape lives long after the moment has passed. Rich in emotional depth and unforgettable characters, they offer poignant reflections on what remains when everything else has changed.
Scarlet Yearnings Beyond First Glance (The Scarlet Yearnings Collection)
by Scarlet Ibis James
Release Date: June 1, 2026
What happens after the first spark of love? In twelve powerful stories set between Harlem and the Caribbean diaspora, Black women confront betrayal, friendship, family history, and second chances. Scarlet Yearnings: Beyond First Glance explores the moments when relationships are tested and the choices that reshape a life.
Nothing Important, Everything Important
by T.L. Johnson
Release Date: May 28, 2026
A wrong-number message becomes a quiet, unexpected anchor in her evenings. As the silence between replies begins to matter more than the words, something shifts. Told over ordinary days, this is a restrained, intimate novel about connection, timing, and the moments that quietly change everything—how something small becomes impossible to forget.
Amber Unscripted
by Kirsten Pursell
Release Date: –
Back in the childhood home she never thought she’d return to, Amber begins the messy work of reinvention. With honesty and sass from her fellow Harlots, she faces the story she’s long avoided, setting the stage for her next chapter. This is the final novel in The Scarlet’s Harlots Trilogy. It reads as a standalone, but is even better in sequence.
Fever Dream
by Elsie Silver
Release Date: May 19, 2026
Professional bull rider Emmett Bush is not looking for love. He’s looking for a paycheck to save his family’s farm from bankruptcy. So when he agrees to be the leading man on a hot new reality dating show, Romance Ranch, he’s already decided it’s all one big performance.
Westerly
by Susan Donovan Bernhard
Release Date: June 1, 2026
In 1946, two German sisters, child refugees in a program dubbed Operation Shamrock, arrive in Ireland to live in foster care while Europe recovers from war. Nearly fifty years later, on a fateful day in a bustling Maine farmhouse, an Irish newspaper clipping threatens to unravel Faye Sullivan’s carefully constructed life with her husband, William, and daughters Maeve and Molly.
The Quitters Club
by Jessica Strawser
Release Date: June 1, 2026
When four ride-or-die friends reunite for a getaway, they’re desperate for a break, a chance to reconnect. But each is hiding a deeper reason why. Marie feels like an impostor teaching “How to Say No” seminars while her marriage has evolved into something she never said yes to. Brooke’s most heartfelt goal—motherhood—is proving out of reach.