Shelf control? Never heard of it.

Clear your calendar and cancel your plans. The only thing you need this month is a good book—and we’ve found so many of them. From sun-drenched second chances and slow-burn heartbreak to gothic darkness and the kind of rage that quietly reshapes a woman’s entire world, this month’s literary offerings arrive with the urgency of a well-timed plot. Whatever you’ve been waiting for—the perfect escapist read, a book that finally articulates something you couldn’t name, a story that breaks you open and then, miraculously, puts you back together—it’s on this list. We’d say pace yourself, but we both know you won’t.

Scroll below to see all the new books to read in March 2026.

New books to read in March 2026: 

A Far-Flung Life

M.L. Stedman

When the MacBride family’s world splinters beyond repair, fate, it seems, has more in store for them. A Far-Flung Life is a heartwrenching and beautiful book about the decisions we make in the wake of tragedy—about legacy and land, family and grief, and the things that befall us beyond our control. Set against the breathtaking desolation of a million-acre sheep station, the books vividly focus on the themes of secrets, sacrifice and the fierce love that compels us to protect what matters most.

Release Date: 3 March

In Her Own League 

Liz Tomforde

When Reese Remington—MLB’s first female team owner—gets stuck with a maddeningly attractive field manager, Emmett Montgomery, who questions her every decision, her life gets complicated, especially when she needs the world to see past her gender in the male-dominated sport. Under relentless scrutiny with zero room for error, distractions are off-limits until forced proximity during long hours and endless away games reveals the fire beneath Reese’s control and leaves Emmett completely captivated. As heated banter ignites into sizzling chemistry and professional boundaries dangerously blur, Reese faces an impossible choice: protect her hard-won career from those waiting for her to fail, or risk everything for the man who finally sees her for who she truly is.

Release Date: 3 March

Just Friends

Haley Pham

From BookTok’s reigning darling, Haley Pham, comes Just Friends, a luminous debut about Blair and Declan—childhood best friends whose one stolen kiss changed everything, until one devastating moment ended it all. Four years later, Blair is back in their sun-bleached coastal hometown of Seabrook, and the coffee shop job she desperately needs comes with one impossible complication: Declan is behind the counter. Told across dual timelines that trace the tender ache of first love and the more complicated terrain of second chances, Just Friends is as romantic as it is emotionally devastating—a story about the dreams we carry, the wounds we hide, and the rare people who always feel like coming home.

Release Date: 3 March

No Matter What

Cara Bastone

From the author of Ready or Not and Promise Me Sunshine comes a tender, slow-burning romance about a marriage quietly unravelling—and the unlikely act that begins to mend it. It’s been a year since Roz and Vin survived a traumatic car accident, and their once-happy Brooklyn life has splintered into separate rooms and averted glances—until Roz discovers Vin has signed a new lease, and the end becomes suddenly, painfully real. Determined to rebuild herself even if she can’t rebuild her marriage, she throws herself into a Friday figure drawing class, leaning on her best friend Raffi for distraction. The only problem? Raffi is Vin’s sister. And when Vin—impossibly kind, devastatingly familiar—offers to be her model, Roz can’t exactly say no. What follows is achingly intimate: two people who stopped seeing each other slowly learning to look again, tracing the contours of old love and asking whether what’s broken can still be made whole.

Release Date: 3 March

The Secret Lives of Murderers’ Wives

Elizabeth Arnott

Three women bound by the most humiliating secret imaginable find each other in the wreckage and decide they are done being underestimated. Set against the sun-scorched California summer of 1966, The Secret Lives of Murderers’ Wives follows Beverley, Elsie, and Margot: a control-obsessed mother, a sharp-minded journalist fighting to be taken seriously in a newsroom full of men who don’t, and a glamorous woman who has made an art form of pretending everything is fine. What unites them is singular and devastating—each married to one of the state’s most infamous killers—now dead or imprisoned—leaving their wives to carry the weight of a question the world won’t stop asking: how could they not have known? But when a new string of murders surfaces, these three overlooked, quietly brilliant women realise they may be the most qualified people alive to follow the trail.

Release Date: 3 March

Across The Vanishing Sky

Catherine Cowles

Braedyn Winslow never planned to return to Starlight Grove, but with a son to raise and a disappearance that never stopped haunting her, she’s back, and she’s digging. What she didn’t anticipate was the rugged, reclusive neighbour next door: Dex Archer, local legend, man of few words, and the product of a violent history he’s spent years trying to outrun. But Brae sees past the walls he’s built—the loyalty underneath, the quiet ferocity and the tenderness he doesn’t advertise. When her digging gets her closer to the truth, Dex needs to do everything he can to save her, even slipping back into his previous dark world.

Release Date: 3 March

Love Song

Elle Kennedy

Who doesn’t love a next-generation series? Elle Kennedy is bringing us nostalgia with her standalone romance based on the Off-Campus series. A summer-themed romance, Love Song follows Blake Logan as she escapes to her family’s lake house in Tahoe after a brutal breakup. Excited for a summer of no men and no drama, her world comes crashing down when Wyatt Graham arrives—her childhood crush that shattered her pride at sixteen. As they spend the summer together, the tension rises, and they slowly find themselves tangled in the sheets. But, just as they finally give in to the pull, tragedy tears them apart, leaving their hearts in pieces. When fates bring them back together, they must decide whether their love is worth fighting for. 

Release Date: 17 March

Innamorata

Ava Reid

Dark, gothic and visionary, Ava Reid’s soul-consuming fantasy about necromancy and vengeance is about to be your next favourite read. Building her life on revenge, Lady Agnes is ordered to capture the secrets of death magic and avenge her family’s fallen honour. But, when she meets Luiprand, the golden prince—the man who is betrothed to her beloved cousin—she falters. She must make sure she doesn’t fall in love, but it’s harder than she thinks. 

Release Date: 17 March 

Hunt The Villain

Rina Kent

A dark, intoxicating enemies-to-lovers story with an electric charge from the very first page. As heirs to rival mafia empires, Yulian and Vaughn are thrown together by circumstance and kept apart by everything else—their worlds, their obligations and the unspoken rules of men like them. He is brash and volatile, the precise opposite of everything the Vaughn values, and yet the more he sees of Yulian—truly sees him—the more those carefully maintained walls begin to fracture. What ignites between them is forbidden in every sense of the word. And when tragedy forces them apart, back into the parallel lives that were never supposed to intersect, the distance proves impossible to hold.

Release Date: 24 March

Game On

Navessa Allen

If you’re ready to wade into darker waters—the kind where shadows, desire and danger tether together—then perhaps it’s time to indulge in a dark romance laced with just enough humour to keep it animated. Game On will make you feel recklessly alive with every page—an enemies-to-lovers with comical banter and scorching hot spice. Tyler Neumann blackmails Stella McCormick—a woman he loathes—to be his girlfriend, so he can get into her family’s circle of friends. On a hunt to destroy his father, Tyler and Stella must make their relationship believable, but the problem is that they can’t seem to keep their hands off each other.

Release Date: 31 March

The Night We Met

Abby Jimenez

If there’s anything we know about Abby Jimenez, it’s that she never fails to write a heartwrenching book filled to the brim with laughter, beautiful layers, and messy choices. Set in Minnesota, The Night We Met unravels the reality that certain decisions can alter your life in either the best or worst ways. For Larissa, her split-second decision was choosing which guy to ride home with after a concert—a decision that’s slowly killing her, since the one she rejected, Chris—her boyfriend’s best friend—is, after all, the perfect man for her. Standing on the sidelines could destroy the person they both love wholeheartedly, but learning to be selfishly happy seems beautiful, too. 

Release Date: 31 March