The Beheading Game: A Novel by Rebecca Lehmann

 

  

The Beheading Game: A Novel by Rebecca Lehmann. Crown, a division of Penguin Random House, 2026. Adult historical fiction.

    If you are a fan of Tudor history, you will want to find this tale of Anne Boleyn!  Lehmann has woven a creative tale of Anne who, of course, was beheaded by King Henry VIII, but Anne awakens, sews her head back on herself, and seeks revenge for her own death.

   With the help of a young man named John and a woman named Alice, Anne begins her journey at the Tower and heads (no pun intended!) to find Henry while hoping to protect their small daughter, Elizabeth. The narrative reads well with many details about life during this era.  While readers know this is totally fiction, it is a fun read filled with historical tidbits. It's hard to imagine a happy ending because Anne is, after all, DEAD, but the story is resolved in a most satisfying and incredible way. 

The Windsor Affair: A Novel by Melanie Benjamin

 

The Windsor Affair: A Novel by Melanie Benjamin. Delacorte Press, 2026. Historical fiction.

    Was it Alice Roosevelt who is claimed to say something like "If you can't say anything nice about anyone, come sit here beside me?" If you are like that, you will love this dishy fictional novel about the former Queen Mum, Elizabeth, and the Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson. 

Beginning with the early life of Elizabeth and tracing how she met the Duke of Windsor himself and apparently turned down two proposals from his brother Bertie before she said she would marry him, Benjamin recounts almost every single story about Elizabeth's long life and what she thought about Wallis. Wallis, of course, was American and a fashion plate. What a contrast to the little smiling rose Elizabeth! 

The early life of Wallis is covered, too, and her first two marriages and divorces. The infamous "China dossier" and other scandously details are described. 

When the Duke abdicated the English throne to marry "the woman I love", the newly married couple moved to France, then served a time in the Bahamas during WWII, and traveled extensively to New York. 

Interestingly, Queen Mary, the mother of Bertie and the Duke of Windsor, David, makes an appearance with several of her own chapters to put in her own take on the family. Elizabeth became the mother of another Queen and grandmother of King Charles. Wallis never had children and died basically alone.

An afterword by the author includes several other historical fiction titles. All of the main characters are now long dead. Of course, their thoughts and actual conversations are, for the most part, made up while based sometimes on what others said or observed. It IS a work of fiction! 

Pretty Dead Things: A Novel by Kelsey Cox

 

 Pretty Dead Things: A Novel by Kelsey Cox. Minotaur Books, 2026. Adult fiction.

 In 2000, a young woman disappeared in Anhalt, Texas. Now it's 2025 and time again for the Lone Star Princess Pageant. Ingrid has come home for the first time since her sister's disappearance. She must revisit friends and pageant competitors and find answers to her big questions. The excavations at Sherman Ranch provide unexpected findings and a big storm cuts the electricity at an inopportune time. Tension builds, old grudges reappear, and things become deadly.

   What attracted me to this novel in the first place was the Texas setting and the transplanted to Texas author. She did not disappoint. The book is full of beautiful young women (even one with a double name: Sarah Lynn) who want to compete in a beauty pageant, gorgeous new home                                          communities with amenity centers, controlling mothers, and other typical                                        tropes. 

Yesteryear: A Novel by Caro Claire Burke

 

Yesteryear: A Novel by Caro Claire Burke. Alfred A. Knopf, 2026. Adult fiction.

     When Natalie Heller Mills marries her husband, Caleb, one of the sons of a want-to-be President, and they buy Yesteryear Ranch, and she becomes a social media darling, her life is very different from what she has expected. Then, she wakes up in 1805.

     Another in the novels that explore trad wife life through fiction, this book will spark book group discussions about the role of women in the past and in the present. The novel is full of religious and political ideals of the characters and may inspire readers to consider what they believe themselves.

Mr. and Mrs. Dixon Hide a Body: A Novel by Jennifer Holdich

 

 Mr. and Mrs. Dixon Hide a Body: A Novel by Jennifer Holdich.

Sourcebooks Landmark, 2026. Adult mystery.

Daisy Dixon certainly married up when she wed James Dixon, but her life is not the one she expected. She has even day dreamed about doing away with James. But, when James drinks too much and Daisy has to drive them home from a business party, Daisy unexpectedly hits a man and kills him. James insists they must hide the body. And there the story really begins!

Definitely filled with tongue in cheek British humor, this novel hides more than one body. Ultimately, Daisy lives at the manor house and has a life of her own. If readers can get over that Mr. Dixon may not be the only villain in this story, they can laugh out loud at the antics of the characters. 

Down with the Shipmans by Meg Mitchell Moore

 

Down with the Shipmans: A Novel by Meg Mitchell Moore.

William Morrow, 2026. Adult fiction.

When Calvin Shipman summons his three grown daughters back to the beach house where their summer memories lie, they come back to New Hampshire. Jordan, the eldest, is a single career woman whose personal life is at loggerheads with her work life. Natalie, married with three small children (Evangeline, Scarlett, and Caspian) who come with her, is having problems with her online life about the Vermont dairy farm he and her husband run. Mae, the youngest, is single and living out of her car in Colorado and boarding a pitt bull dog to make some money.

Calvin has remarried after the fairly recent death of the girls' mother. And not to just anyone, but to Kara, the hospice nurse who helped all of them during the death and grieving process. Now Calvin is ready to sell the beach house. As he tells them, the important thing is family, not a house...

The tale unspools like any good beach read, The daughters are well described and current issues make it timely. From trad wife to the me, too movement, Moore hits all the modern notes. The plot makes readers both feel like they might know these characters and still want to know what happens to them. Pack this one in your summer bag for vacation!

Judy Blume: A Life by Mark Oppenheimer

 

 

Judy Blume: A Life by Mark Oppenheimer. Gale, 2026. Large print edition. Adult biography.

Almost everyone in America can tell you that Judy Blume is an award-winning author of books for children and adults. Her children's books totally changed the publishing landscape to include issues that girls really wanted to read about...themselves! This biography delves into the life of Judy Blume, her complicated early family, her three marriages, her daughter and son, and other personal details. By the end, at age 86, Blume and her husband, George Cooper, have opened a bookstore in Key West, Florida and perhaps she is still writing. She is an advocate for free speech and other authors including many of the more contemporary ones who well remember reading Blume's books as children. Many of her works have been adapted into movies, television specials, and theatre productions.

 

Born February 12, 1938, Judith Marcia Sussman entered life in a Jewish family in Elizabeth, New Jersey. This became the nucleus for many of her early children's books, the most famous of which may be Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret. 

Oppenheimer has extensively interviewed and researched Blume's life. He provides sources at the end of the book. This work does not gloss over the difficult parts but shows a very human author who cares about her readers, agents, publishers, as well as family and friends.