July 2026: Discover Previews
Lean into the heatwave with July’s hot new titles.
This month, the temperature is rising in more ways than one, with writers bringing enough heat to rival the scorching weather currently holding us hostage in our air-conditioning-less homes. Luan Goldie’s Between Yesterday and Tomorrow (Juniper) actually features characters hiding from a summer heatwave while falling for each other – I am only doing one of those things, unfortunately.
In romance, we have hot, high-stakes love stories. Emily Rath’s Devour Me (Tor Bramble) turns up the heat with witches, wraiths and a tangled MMF romance, while Kathryn Moon’s Lola & the Millionaires: Part Two (Bloom Books) continues the booming “why-choose” trend with steamy angst and intensity. And it does not stop there. Burning up non-fiction is Rombutan’s Hockey Boys (Macmillan), where you can control the heat with 40 sizzling hockey romance illustrations to colour at your (p)leisure. Alongside this romantic tension, writers are interrogating the unease at the heart of these rising temperatures: Jenni Daiches’ novel They Know Where They’re Going (Scotland Street Press) imagines a drought-ravaged Britain where water has become a source of conflict, Tracy Fuad’s poetry collection Portal (the87press) captures the strange mix of eco-grief, climate anxiety and loss that defines contemporary life, and Hilary Watson’s Menagerie Street (Seren) balances examinations of ecological precarity with cautious hope.
If you will allow me to stretch the theme even further, warmth abounds in non-fiction and children’s, from the sensory pleasures of Suyin Du Bois’ Eating Air (The Emma Press) to the joyful celebration of Jamaican cooking in Jessica Wilson’s Rasta Granny’s Rainbow (Two Hoots), illustrated by Rochelle Falconer.
