New Book Releases | March 31, 2026

Including print, ebook, and audiobook editions

March is going out swinging. This week's new book releases include a dark romance finale that's been building heat for two books, Alex Aster's first adult romantasy (finally!), Tana French closing out the Cal Hooper trilogy, and Brandy telling her story in her own words for the first time.

Whether you're looking for enemies-to-lovers, a sword-wielding revenge quest, atmospheric Irish crime, or a memoir that's forty years in the making. This is one of the strongest release weeks of the year.

If you're catching up on March releases, start with New Book Releases March 24, 2026.

Shopping for this week's releases? You can support Ink & Imaginings by purchasing through the affiliate links below at no extra cost to you!

Game On by Navessa Allen Book Cover

Game On by Navessa Allen

Into Darkness #3

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If you've been waiting for Stella and Tyler's book since Caught Up left you feral, the wait is over and it's exactly as chaotic as you hoped.

Tyler Neumann has been searching for his father. Not for a heartfelt reunion — he wants to destroy the man. And he'll use anyone to get there, including Stella McCormick, the tattooed heiress he loathes. When Tyler blackmails Stella into playing his girlfriend and infiltrating her own family's social circles, she sees right through him. The problem? Hate and attraction are a dangerously volatile combination, and what starts as fake dating spirals into something neither of them can walk away from.

This is the Into Darkness series at full volume — enemies-to-lovers with scorching banter, morally gray characters who earn every ounce of your emotional investment, and the kind of slow-burn tension that makes you forget to eat lunch. Allen's writing is somehow both laugh-out-loud funny and genuinely dark, and the payoff here is deeply satisfying.

Why you'll love it:

  • Enemies-to-lovers, fake dating, blackmail, and of course forced proximity
  • Brat play done right (this is the book everyone's been talking about on BookTok)
  • B&N exclusive edition features foil accents, a bonus chapter, and designed sprayed edges
  • 12-hour audiobook for your next road trip or cleaning marathon

Content note: This is dark romance with morally gray characters. Check the content warnings at the beginning, Allen includes them for a reason.

If you haven't started the Into Darkness series yet, Books That Will Wreck Your Weekend has a few more reads to keep you up past midnight.

Fantasy & Romantasy

Starside by Alex Aster Book Cover

Starside by Alex Aster

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Alex Aster's adult romantasy debut is here, and if you've been waiting for her to level up from Lightlark this is it.

Hundreds of years ago, a brutal war split the world in two. Starside is the realm of magic and immortals, descendants of the gods. Stormside is where mortals fight for scraps of that power. Every fifty years, the gates open and fifty challengers make a deadly quest across Starside for a pool of magic that can heal, grant wealth, or extend life. Most people are after the magic. Aris is going to kill the gods.

As a child, a goddess set fire to her village and murdered her family. Now Aris has to survive the Culling, the king's brutal competition to choose his fifty challengers, armed with nothing but a claimed sword and a secret tied to her family's death.

The world-building here is ambitious, the sword-based magic system is genuinely creative, and the enemies-to-lovers with Harlan Raker (the king's guard who betrayed her years ago) is the slowest, most agonizing burn.

Why you'll love it:

  • Aster's first adult fantasy so it's darker and more complex than Lightlark
  • Enemies-to-lovers slow burn with a morally complicated king's guard
  • Sword-based magic system, ancient creatures, a dragon, and feminine rage
  • Gorgeous deluxe edition with stenciled edges and illustrated endpapers (first printing only)
  • If you love ACOTAR, Throne of Glass, or Fourth Wing, this belongs on your radar

This is the kind of book that could launch a major new adult romantasy series. Get in early.

Thrillers & Mystery

The Keeper by Tana French

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If you've been living in Ardnakelty with Cal Hooper since The Searcher, this is going to hurt, because it's the last one.

On a cold night in a remote Irish village, a young woman named Rachel Holohan turns up dead in the river. She was about to be engaged to the son of the local big shot, and her death cracks the community wide open. Cal, the retired Chicago detective who's built a quiet life here with his fiancée Lena and the headstrong teenager Trey, gets dragged back into the knot of generational grudges and local power plays he's been trying to avoid.

French's gift is making you feel the cold air, hear the dogs in the fields, and sense the tension beneath every seemingly casual conversation at the pub. She writes communities the way they actually work, loyalty and suspicion woven together so tightly you can't separate them. This is atmospheric, precise, emotionally devastating crime fiction, and the farewell to Cal Hooper is going to stay with you.

Why you'll love it:

If you're looking for more atmospheric reads, check out Books Better on Audio French's audiobooks are an experience of their own.

Nothing Tastes as Good by Luke Dumas

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Part body horror, part social commentary, entirely unhinged. Emmett Truesdale enrolls in a clinical trial for a weight-loss product called Obexity. The results are miraculous, and the side effects include lost stretches of time, overwhelming cravings, and the nagging suspicion that Obexity might be turning him into a literal monster. Think The Substance meets Stephen King, wrapped in sharp commentary about diet culture and what it means to be treated as human only when you fit a certain mold.

Dumas's debut A History of Fear was called "disorienting, creepy, paranoia-inducing," and this is even more unsettling. If you like your thrillers with teeth (pun very much intended), this one delivers.

Killing Me Softly by Sandie Jones

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From the author of the Reese's Book Club pick The Other Woman comes a domestic thriller set in an idyllic Cotswolds village where a once-perfect couple turns on each other after a tragedy. Told from both perspectives, it's a cat-and-mouse game where you genuinely can't tell who's playing whom. Jones knows how to write obsession that feels uncomfortably real.

The Adjunct by Maria Adelmann

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A razor-sharp campus thriller about a woman navigating the absurdity of academia adjunct teaching, crumbling finances, and the creeping realization that the system runs on exploitation and silence. Adelmann describes it as being about class, power, sex, and "feeling uncategorizable." Her debut How to Be Eaten was a critical hit, and this follow-up trades fairy-tale satire for the horror of the modern university. For readers who loved My Year of Rest and Relaxation or Fake Accounts.

The Fourth Wife by Linda Hamilton

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The Hacienda meets "Sister Wives" in this gothic historical horror debut. It's 1879 Utah Territory, and Hazel Russon has been commanded to become the fourth wife of a man she's never met. The good news: Jacob Manwaring is handsome and attentive. The terrifying news: all his wives live together in a crumbling manor that oozes blood from the walls, fills with phantom music, and hosts apparitions that grow worse by the day. Drawing on real Mormon folklore and the author's own polygamous ancestors, this is atmospheric, feminist, and genuinely spine-tingling. If you loved Mexican Gothic or The Hacienda, put this at the top of your list.

Family Lies by Karen Rose

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Karen Rose is one of those authors who never lets you down. If you've read her before, you know exactly what you're getting. Tight plotting, high stakes, characters you care about within the first chapter. Family Lies continues her streak of romantic suspense that keeps you reading past your bedtime.

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Romance

Wait With Me by Amy Daws

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If you've been reading Amy Daws since her indie days, this is a homecoming. She built one of the most devoted fanbases in contemporary romance through self-publishing, and now she's making her traditional debut with Mira. For readers who are new to her — Daws writes the kind of rom-coms where the banter is actually funny, the chemistry is earned, and the emotional beats land without feeling manipulative. This is a great entry point.

Literary Fiction

Ruins by Lily Brooks-Dalton

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From the author of The Light Pirate comes a novel about an ambitious archaeologist chasing a lost empire that nobody else believes existed. Professor Ember Agni is balancing an unfulfilling academic career and a crumbling marriage when a former student contacts her with a discovery that could change everything. What follows is part quest narrative, part obsession story — a woman risking it all for an idea the world has dismissed. Brooks-Dalton's previous novel Good Morning, Midnight became Netflix's The Midnight Sky, and The Light Pirate was a GMA Book Club pick. She writes speculative-literary fiction that reads like a thriller, and Ruins might be her most compelling yet. For fans of Babel by R.F. Kuang or The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.

The News from Dublin by Colm Tóibín

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A new short story collection from a master of the form. If you've read Brooklyn or Long Island, you already know Tóibín's gift for quiet emotional precision — the kind of writing where a single sentence can realign your understanding of an entire relationship. This collection takes readers across the globe and through time. Perfect for reading one story at a time with your morning coffee.

The Last Letters of Sally and Walter by Cammie McGovern Book Cover

The Last Letters of Sally and Walter by Cammie McGovern

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This is perfect Book club fiction. An epistolary-framed story about love, memory, and the things left unsaid. McGovern writes emotionally intelligent literary fiction, and this is the kind of book that will have your book club arguing for an hour about whether the characters made the right choices.

Mothers and Other Strangers by Corey A. Haydu Book Cover

Mothers and Other Strangers by Corey A. Haydu

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A domestic drama about the complicated bonds between mothers and the people who survive them. Haydu moves into adult literary fiction with a story about family dynamics that feel specific enough to be personal and universal enough to be unsettling.

Only a Little While Here by María Ospina (translated by Heather Cleary)

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With characteristic precision and intensity, Ospina trains our attention on the lives of five creatures: a migratory songbird dazzled by city lights, an orphaned porcupine saved by kindness, two dogs grieving the loss of their human companions, and a determined beetle transported to a vast, unimaginable world.

Nonfiction

Phases: A Memoir by Brandy Book cover

Phases: A Memoir by Brandy

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Brandy's memoir drops the same week as her Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony, and this is the real version of a story most people only know the highlights of.

She signed her first record deal at 14. Went platinum at 15. Starred in Moesha. Made history as the first Black actress to play Cinderella, alongside Whitney Houston as the fairy godmother. From the outside, she was the blueprint for the teenage "it" girl. But behind the scenes, she was dealing with bullying, body dysmorphia, mental health struggles, and the relentless pressure to maintain a perfect image.

If you loved The Meaning of Mariah Carey or I'm Glad My Mom Died, this one is for you.

How to Be Okay When Nothing is Okay by Jenny Lawson Book Cover

How to Be Okay When Nothing is Okay by Jenny Lawson

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Jenny Lawson's readers are fiercely loyal and once you read her, you'll understand why. The author of Furiously Happy and Broken returns with 100 humorous, heartfelt tools and tricks she relies on to keep going through depression, anxiety, and ADHD. Chapters include "Wash Your Brain More Than You Wash Your Bra" and "Work on Easy Mode."

It's funny, it's tender, and it's the kind of book you'll want to keep on your nightstand for the hard days. If you've ever struggled with self-doubt or creative burnout, this was written for you.

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Also Out This Week

The Faraway Inn by Sarah Beth Durst From the NYT bestselling author of The Spellshop, a cozy fantasy about a heartbroken teen who escapes to her great-aunt's rundown Vermont B&B only to discover the inn is hiding something otherworldly. Handsome groundskeeper's son included. If you loved The Spellshop or Legends & Lattes, this one is for you

In My Tudor Era by Kate Bromley A grad student visits Hampton Court Palace and wakes up trapped in the body of Catherine Howard, Henry VIII's fifth wife, the one who lost her head. Her PhD is in psychology, not history, but even she knows this doesn't end well. What follows is a time travel romance with three dangerously hot Tudor men competing for her attention (a champion jouster, a courtier who thinks they're secretly married, and the king's groom who won't take a hint), a ticking clock she can't outrun, and a raunchy, irreverent energy that makes you forget you're reading about someone who might get beheaded. If you like your historical romance with a modern heroine who has zero chill about her situation, this one is a blast.

Butter Book by Anna Stockwell A love letter to butter from the former Bon Appétit and Epicurious editor. It's shaped like a stick of butter, the pages are creamy yellow, and the recipes are the kind of thing you'll actually make on a Tuesday night. Start with the grown-up buttered pasta.

The Moonshine Women by Michelle Collins Anderson Three sisters take over their father's moonshine business in Prohibition-era Missouri Ozarks. Historical fiction about sisterhood, reinvention, and survival. For fans of Jeannette Walls and The Dollmaker.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What books are coming out March 31, 2026?

This week's biggest releases include Game On by Navessa Allen, Starside by Alex Aster, The Keeper by Tana French, Phases: A Memoir by Brandy, and Ruins by Lily Brooks-Dalton, plus 15 more titles across dark romance, romantasy, thrillers, literary fiction, and nonfiction.

What is the best romantasy releasing this week?

Starside by Alex Aster is the standout romantasy, it's her first adult fantasy novel, featuring a sword-based magic system, enemies-to-lovers slow burn, and a revenge-driven heroine on a quest to kill the gods. If you love ACOTAR or Fourth Wing, this is your book.

Are there new dark romance books releasing this week?

Yes, Game On by Navessa Allen is the third book in the #1 New York Times bestselling Into Darkness series. It's enemies-to-lovers with fake dating, blackmail, brat play, and morally gray characters. The B&N exclusive edition includes sprayed edges and a bonus chapter. If you're looking for more dark romance, check out Books That Will Wreck Your Weekend.

Are there new thrillers or mysteries releasing March 31?

This is a strong week for crime and thriller readers. The Keeper by Tana French closes out the Cal Hooper trilogy, Nothing Tastes as Good by Luke Dumas is a body-horror thriller about a weight-loss drug with monstrous side effects, Killing Me Softly by Sandie Jones is a domestic cat-and-mouse, The Fourth Wife by Linda Hamilton is a gothic historical horror set in 1879 Utah, and The Adjunct by Maria Adelmann is a campus thriller.

Are there new memoirs releasing this week?

Yes, Phases by Brandy is the week's biggest memoir, telling her unfiltered story from Mississippi church choirs to platinum stardom and the struggles she hid behind a perfect public image. Jenny Lawson's How to Be Okay When Nothing is Okay is a funny, heartfelt toolkit for living with depression and anxiety. Ty Herndon's What Mattered Most is a country music memoir, and Jowita Bydlowska's Unshaming is a raw addiction recovery story.

What are you reading first? Drop your pick in the comments. I love seeing what your favorites are each week.