Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.
Today’s topic is Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2026
All the books I’ve chosen for this topic are by authors I’ve read and loved before and I feel pretty confident that I’ll love these ones too! I’m so excited for them! However, I made a promise to myself that I would prioritize some of the older books on my TBR, so I’m going to pace myself and try to be a good TBR reader.
Top Ten Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2026
- Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett – Expected publication date: Feb 17, 2026. I loved the Emily Wilde series, and based off of this new title, I think I love it already.
- Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman – Expected publication date: Feb 10, 2026. I love the Dungeon Crawler Carl series by the same author, and Book 8 is supposed to be out May 12 but there wasn’t any cover design out yet, so I went with this unrelated book instead and I’ll probably read it too!
- All Hail Chaos by Sarah Rees Brennan – Expected publication date: Feb 17, 2026. The first book in the series, Long Live Evil, surprised me by how much I ended up loving it, so of course I’m reading this second one!
- Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher – Expected publication date: Mar 24, 2026. I love so many of Kingfisher’s works, she’s an automatic read for me.
- The Book Witch by Meg Shaffer – Expected publication date: Apr 7, 2026. I mean, a witch with the power to go into books and interact with the world? It’s my dream!
- The Escape Game by Marissa Meyer & Tamara Moss – Expected publication date: Apr 7, 2026. I love a good mystery/thriller, and this one sounds so good.
- The Shippers by Katherine Center – Expected publication date: May 19, 2026. Just assume that I’ll read anything Katherine Center writes. I love her books!
- Platform Decay by Martha Wells – Expected publication date: May 5, 2026. This is Book 8 in the Murderbot Diaries series, which I love and must continue with!
- Whistler by Ann Patchett – Expected publication date: Jun 2, 2026. I loved Bel Canto and I feel like this one will make me feel all the emotions too.
- The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden – Expected publication date: Jun 2, 2026. Arden’s writing gives me such mystical and magical vibes. I need this.
Are you anticipating any of these books? Have you read any books by these authors? What books are you looking forward to?
I like to feature books on lists like this that I’m more sure than not that I’ll enjoy and so I added Katherine’s! Your list also reminds me that I was curious about Marissa’s book. Seems like it could be a fun mystery. 🙂
I’m so excited about all these books for different reasons! I really hope The Escape Game turns out to be great!
Whistler is on my list, too. Ann Patchett! Squee!
Yes yes yes!! I’m also hoping to reread Bel Canto this year if possible!
I share The Shippers with you but then many of us have that one on our list. Hope you get to read and enjoy all these.
I love that so many of us love her books!
I’ve got the Heather Fawcett book and The Book Witch on my list too!
Have a great week!
Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog
My post:
https://budgettalesblog.wordpress.com/2026/01/13/top-ten-tuesday-most-anticipated-books-releasing-in-the-first-half-of-2026/
I hope they’re both great reads for the both of us! Happy TTT!
I’m curious about Agnes Aubert, and have the book on my TBR.
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/my-most-anticipated-canadian-2026-releases-january-june/
Yes, me too! I’m excited about it!
The Book Witch sounds so good! And the cover is stunning 😊.
If you’d like to visit, here’s my TTT: https://thebooklorefairyreads.wordpress.com/2026/01/12/top-ten-tuesday-the-most-anticipated-books-releasing-in-the-first-half-of-2026/
I’m looking forward to these. The Escape Game sounds like it could be really fun.
I really hope it is too!
Yes, the cover is so pretty!
I’m lucky to have an ARC of Fawcett’s book, and I’m hoping I’ll get one of Dinniman’s. I’m adding Book Witch to my WTR now
Thanks for sharing tour #TTT
I have high hopes for both their books! I hope you enjoy them too!
Ah, I forgot Platform Decay on my list! I really need to get round to my ARC of that. Excellent choices!
Oooh, I hope it’s good! I’m excited for it, and hopefully the next season of the tv adaptation is coming out soon too!
I’m looking forward to a new Katherine Center book, too!
Oh yes! They’re always such a joy to read!
THE BOOK WITCH sounds amazing! I hadn’t heard of it before. I loved THE WISHING GAME, so I definitely want to read more by Shaffer.
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
Bookish books for the win! I love them!
Whistler has gone on my wishlist because I’ve never read a book by Ann Patchett despite knowing she has a great reputation.
I’ve only read one book from her and loved it so I hope this one is good too!
The Heather Fawcett is on my list too. I love her work. I think I might need to read Operation Bounce House as well!
I don’t know if Operation Bounce House will be as good as the author’s Dungeon Crawler Carl but I hope so and I hope you enjoy it!
This is the second time I’ve seen Whistler on a list this week. It sure sounds good.
It does! I’m excited for it!
I added Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter to my buddy read list last year. It sounds so cute!
Here is our Top Ten Tuesday. Thank you!
It really does! How can I resist?!
Awesome list!
Thank you!
I am intrigued by The Escape Game myself. I hope it lives up to my mental excitement!
You can checkout mine here:
https://readintowonderland.blogspot.com/2026/01/t5t-most-anticipated-early-26.html
Same!!
The Book Witch and The Shippers are on my list!
Love it! I’m excited for them both!
Murderbot! Murderbot! Murderbot! (Can you tell I’m looking forward to that one? 😉
I’m also curious about The Unicorn Hunters. 🙂
Murderbot! Murderbot! Murderbot!! I love it!!
The Unicorn Hunter sounds good.
It really does! I’ve loved the author’s previous works so I really hope this one’s good too!
I am excited for several of these!! I wish they would approve my request for The Escape Game. haha! I hope you enjoy them all.
I hope they approve your request for The Escape Game too!!
The Book Witch made my list too! I almost added The Escape game as well. I hope you enjoy these!
Thank you! I’m really excited about them!
Awesome list! I am very excited for Whistler, The Book Witch and The Unicorn Hunter😁
Ooh, I still haven’t read Arden’s most popular trilogy but The Unicorn Hunter has such a pretty cover! Might just have to add it to my TBR radar anyway, lol 👀 I’m super excited for Agnes Aubert and Operation Bounce House as well! I hope you enjoy all of these books 🙂
Katherine Center’s book is very popular! I hope you enjoy all of these!
I will keep an eye out for Agnes Aubert 🙂
My TTT: https://laurieisreading.com/2026/01/13/top-ten-tuesday-backlist-books-i-hope-to-read-in-2026/
I’m somehow yet to read any books by Katherine Center, so maybe I need to rectify that this year! Really looking forward to Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter 🙂