Best new release books to check out this month

The best, new release book recommendations for each Bookfinity Reader Type.

May has arrived, ushering in a new collection of must-read books that promise to captivate, challenge, and inspire every type of reader. At Bookfinity, we believe your reading preferences are as unique as you are, which is why we’ve handpicked a selection of exciting new releases to match all our Reader Types. Whether you’re a Fiction Enthusiast, an Adventure Seeker, or a Curious Explorer, you’re bound to find a story that speaks to your soul. Explore our top picks for May and uncover your next favorite book!

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Beach Reader

The Last Ferry Out

by Andrea Bartz

New York Times bestselling author of Reese's Book Club pick We Were Never Here

On a trip to the tropical paradise where her fiancée died, a young woman begins to suspect the death was no accident--and the killer's still on the island.

Paradise hides a deadly secret.

See more for Beach Reader.

Bookworm

Old School Indian

by Aaron John Curtis

A Kirkus Editor's Pick - A Most Anticipated Book of 2025: Cowboys & Indians Brit + Co Debutiful

A coming-of-middle-age novel about an Ahkwesáhsne man's reluctant return home and what it takes to heal.

Abe Jacobs is Kanien'kehá ka from Ahkwesáhsne--or, as white people say, a Mohawk Indian from the Saint Regis Tribe. At eighteen, Abe left the reservation where he was raised and never looked back.

See more for Bookworm.

Dragon Slayer

The Knight of the Moth

by Rachel Gillig

From NYT bestselling author Rachel Gillig comes the next big romantasy sensation, a gothic, mist-cloaked tale of a young prophetess forced on an impossible quest with the one knight whose future is beyond her sight.

Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens.

See more for Dragon Slayer.

Galactic Guru

Over Growth

by Mira Grant

This is just a story. It can't hurt you anymore.

Since she was three years old, Anastasia Miller has been telling anyone who would listen that she's an alien disguised as a human being, and that the armada that left her on Earth is coming for her. Since she was three years old, no one has believed her.

See more for Galactic Guru.

Game Day Hero

Ballistic

by Henry Abbott

The biggest victories of medical science--over polio, smallpox, heart attacks, and the like--are stories of prevention. Then there's sports, where we just run around until something breaks, leading to pain, frustration, and sometimes even expensive surgery. Injuries are a major cause of society's growing mobility crisis. What if we could predict and prevent them?

See more for Game Day Hero.

The Hobbyist

The Emperor of Gladness

by Ocean Vuong

Ocean Vuong returns with a bighearted novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive

One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker.

See more for The Hobbyist.

Leading Lady

The Names

by Florence Knapp

The extraordinary novel that asks: Can a name change the course of a life?

In the wake of a catastrophic storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, to register her son's birth. Her husband, Gordon, a local doctor, respected in the community but a terrifying and controlling presence at home, intends for her to name the infant after him. But when the registrar asks what she'd like to call the child, Cora hesitates...

See more for Leading Lady.

Lifelong Learner

Big Dumb Eyes

by Nate Bargatze

From one of the hottest stand-up comedians, Nate Bargatze brings his everyman comedy to the page in this hilarious collection of personal stories, opinions, and confessions.

Nate Bargatze used to be a genius. That is, until the summer after seventh grade when he slipped, fell off a cliff, hit his head on a rock, and "my skull got, like, dented or something." Before this accident, he dreamed of being "an electric engineer, or a doctor that does brain stuff, or a math teacher who teaches the hardest math on earth."

See more for Lifelong Learner.

Maverick

Is A River Alive?

by Robert Macfarlane

Hailed in the New York Times as "a naturalist who can unfurl a sentence with the breathless ease of a master angler," Robert Macfarlane brings his glittering style to a profound work of travel writing, reportage, and natural history. Is a River Alive? is a joyful, mind-expanding exploration of an ancient, urgent idea: that rivers are living beings who should be recognized as such in imagination and law.

See more for Maverick.

Modern Romantic

The Love Haters

by Katherine Center

It's a thin line between love and love-hating in the newest laugh out loud, rom-com by New York Times bestselling author Katherine Center.

Katie Vaughn has been burned by love in the past--now she may be lighting her career on fire. She has two choices: wait to get laid off from her job as a video producer or, at her coworker Cole's request, take a career-making gig profiling Tom "Hutch" Hutcheson, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Key West. The catch? Katie's not exactly qualified. She can't swim--but pretends that she can.

See more for Modern Romantic.

Self-Starter

We Can Do Hard Things

by Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, Amanda Doyle

The #1 New York Times bestselling authors and award-winning podcasters

When you travel through a new country, you need a guidebook.

When you travel through love, heartbreak, joy, parenting, friendship, uncertainty, aging, grief, new beginnings--life--you need a guidebook, too.

We Can Do Hard Things is the guidebook for being alive.

See more for Self-Starter.

Serial Reader

Parent's Weekend

by Alex Finlay

From the bestselling author of If Something Happens to Me, comes one of 2025's most anticipated thrillers.

In the glow of their children's exciting first year of college at a small private school in Northern California, five families plan on a night of dinner and cocktails for the opening festivities of Parents Weekend. As the parents stay out way past their bedtimes, their kids--five residents of Campisi Hall--never show up at dinner.

See more for Serial Reader.

Spiritual Seeker

Capture the Moment

by Suzanne Woods Fisher

She's ready for adventure--isn't she?

Kate Cunningham is facing the opportunity of a lifetime. As a zoo photographer, she's spent years photographing animals in carefully controlled environments, but now National Geographic has dangled an irresistible prize: If Kate can snag a unique photo of a legendary bear in Grand Teton National Park, they just might publish it. It's the kind of challenge Kate has been waiting for, and she's eager to prove herself in the wild. 

See more for Spiritual Seekers.

Stunt Double

The Peepshow

by Kate Summerscale

*Named a Best Book of 2024 by FT * Nominated for the Women's prize for nonfiction*

From the Edgar Award-winning author of The Haunting of Alma Fielding, the tale of two journalists competing to solve the notorious Christie murders in postwar London

In March 1953, London police discovered the bodies of three young women hidden in a wall at 10 Rillington Place, a dingy rowhouse in Notting Hill. On searching the building, they found another body beneath the floorboards, then an array of human bones in the garden.

See more for Stunt Double.

Time Traveler

My Name is Emilia Del Valle

by Isabel Allende

In this spellbinding historical novel from the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Petal of the Sea and The Wind Knows My Name, a young writer journeys to South America to uncover the truth about her father--and herself.

In San Francisco in 1866, an Irish nun, abandoned following a torrid relationship with a Chilean aristocrat, gives birth to a daughter named Emilia del Valle. Raised by a loving stepfather, Emilia grows into an independent thinker and a self-sufficient young woman.

See more for Time Traveler.

Trendsetter

SNAFU

by Ed Helms

From actor, comedian, writer, and host of the hit history podcast SNAFU, Ed Helms brings you an absurdly entertaining look at history's biggest blunders, complete with lively illustrations.

History contains a plethora of insane screwups--otherwise known as SNAFUs. Coined during World War I, SNAFU is an acronym that stands for Situation Normal: All F*cked Up. In other words, "things are pretty screwed up, but aren't they always?"

See more for Trendsetter.

Woke Up Like This

The Incandescent

by Emily Tesh

Instant national and international bestselling author, winner of the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards.

"Look at you, eating magic like you're one of us."

Doctor Walden is the Director of Magic at Chetwood School and one of the most powerful magicians in England. Her days consist of meetings, teaching A-Level Invocation to four talented, chaotic sixth formers, more meetings, and securing the school's boundaries from demonic incursions.

See more for Woke Up Like This.

World Traveler

Captain Kidd

by Samual Marquis

A breakneck adventure of war, romance, and politics in the golden age of piracy.

Captain William Kidd stands as one of the most notorious "pirate" outlaws ever, but his legend is tainted by a bed of lies. Having captivated imaginations for more than three hundred years and inspired many stories about pirates, troubling questions remain. Was he really a criminal or is the truth more inconvenient: that he was a buccaneer's worst nightmare, a revered pirate hunter turned fall guy for scheming politicians?

See more for World Traveler.

Young at Heart

Out of Air

by Rachel Reiss

Wilder Girls meets Outer Banks where a group of scuba diving friends stumbles across lost treasure, a legendary cave, and a new type of power... that comes at a price.

The deeper you go, the darker you fall.

Phoebe "Phibs" Ray is never more at home than when she's underwater. On a dive six months ago, she and her four closest friends discovered a handful of ancient gold coins, rocketing them into social media fame. Now, their final summer together after high school, they're taking one last trip to a distant Australian island to do what they love most - scuba dive.

See more for Young At Heart.

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