Welcome to Future Fiction, my reimagining of the Waiting on Wednesday meme! There are so many amazing new books coming out, that I can no longer pick just one. My goal with Future Fiction is to share at least three new books each week, a combination of recent cover reveals and books that I’ve recently added to my TBR pile. I’m still going to be linking up with Wishful Endings/Can’t Wait Wednesday, and I also want to give a shout out to Jill at Breaking the Spine for starting the original Waiting on Wednesday meme. I hope you’ll find some new books to add to your TBR piles, and as always, I look forward to hearing what YOU’RE looking forward to:-D
Note the first two covers use the “main characters back to back” design. I swear that wasn’t planned! In any case, take a look at these three amazing covers:
A cozy vampire vacation mystery set in a seaside Italian village, featuring a reformed vampire, his magical talking cat, and a handsome, brooding detective
Bastian may be a vampire, but he doesn’t bite.
Not anymore, at least.
These days, Bastian just wants to live his best undead life: visit charming Italian villages, maybe dance in the square with a cute boy, all with Whitby, his best friend (and magical talking cat) by his side. What he doesn’t want? To stumble across a dead body on the beach, a girl who appears to have been killed by a vampire.
It wasn’t Bastian. He swears—on his own grave.
But the local police chief doesn’t trust Bastian, or any vampire, for that matter, so he assigns detective Nico De Luca to keep an eye on him until his trial. And while Bastian normally wouldn’t complain about having a gorgeous, mysterious man by his side, he has more important things to worry about, because the police chief has called the Vampire Council, and if the real killer is still at large when they arrive, the whole town could be in danger. As more bodies begin to pile up, Bastian, Whitby, and De Luca must get to the bottom of who in Vernazza is framing vampires, before it’s too late.
Charming, twisty, and laugh-out-loud funny, Be Still My Unbeating Heart by Josh Winning is a delightful romp through a swoon-worthy magical murder mystery.
Be Still My Unbeating Heart by Josh Winning. Releases in August 2026 from G.P. Putnam’s Sons. A queer cozy vampire mystery that takes place in Italy? With a very cool cover and an awesome title? AND it’s written by Josh Winning:-) All this adds up to a book I’m dying to read!
Sticks and stones may break their bones, but he’ll just resurrect them.
Four years ago, Sikras ‘Catseye’ Nikabod had it all: a beautiful wife, friends and family, and the endless luxuries that came with being the all-powerful necromancer to the queen.
Now, his brother-in-law is a walking corpse, he’s wanted for tax evasion, his oldest friend, Vessik, has slaughtered thousands of the queen’s people with a skeleton army, and his wife is dead. Sort of.
With the kingdom under threat, it’s only natural for the queen to task Sikras with the totally normal, not-at-all-cruel chore of brutally murdering his dearest friend. Sure. Great. It’s not like he already failed to stop Vessik’s reign of terror twice or anything.
Turns out, it’s hard to kill a monster when you can’t stop remembering the good man he used to be. Harder still when you’re pretty sure his descent into madness is kind of, sort of, hypothetically … all your fault.
Raise a glass. Raise the dead. Just don’t raise your hopes.
Hopeless Necromantic by Shiloh Briar. Releases in June 2026 from Orbit Books. Another cute cover, and the story sounds like a lot of fun. I believe this was originally self published, and I’m excited to try it!
A young woman is lured to her late fiancé’s remote island estate—only to uncover eerie family secrets, a haunting past, and a monstrous hunger stirring beneath the sea in this deliciously atmospheric horror debut from New York Times bestselling author Hannah Whitten.
When Claire’s fiancé mysteriously dies of an unknown neurological illness, she’s prepared to sink back into the lonely life she lived before. Orphaned by a freak boating accident in her childhood, she never expected to find connection like she did with Elias, anyway. Their relationship wasn’t perfect—his coldness, his secrets, his strange aversion to the ocean—but what relationship is?
When Elias’s family reaches out—his incredibly wealthy family, from whom he was estranged—and invites Claire to a three-day wake at Harrow Point, their family home on a private island, Claire is given the chance to find family again. To belong to something, just like she’s always wanted. Just like Elias knew she was desperate to have.
Even if that family is a little strange. Even if their coastal home stirs up memories of the accident that killed her parents and sister. Even if Ash, Elias’s older brother, seems insistent on Claire leaving as soon as possible.
As she dives deeper into the world of Harrow Point, she will uncover the nature of her own traumatic connection to the ocean. There is something swimming in the bowels of Harrow Point, and it is hungry…
Reliquary by Hannah F. Whitten. Releases in August 2026 from Run For It. I’ll admit I wasn’t that impressed by Whitten’s For The Wolf, but let’s see how she does with horror! This cover gets an A+ and it’s kind of making me uncomfortable, lol.
I have Hopeless Necromantic on my TBR. I wanted to read it at the beginning of the year but then I saw that a big Editor bought the right for it and they were planning a new edition so I decided to wait for it. But I am sooooooo intrigued by this one.
And the first one you mentioned sounds good too!!
I did see it’s a reprint, I’m glad it’s getting another shot at publishing:-)
These are all stunning covers! I did a double take about the last one, which is very clever (the cover, I mean LOL). I saw Winning’s one on BS, and I thought it was beautiful – not to mention, it does the content so much justice (I read one of the latest drafts when Josh reached out to me for an authenticity read regarding the Italian setting etc.).
Yes, I love that last cover, it’s unnerving but clever. So cool that you got to read Josh’s book already! I’m excited now for the Italy parts:-)
Hopeless Necromantic instantly caught my eye because I’m obsessed with books that have necromancer characters. I don’t know why I’m just always drawn to those books! And it is pretty funny that the first two covers both have characters back to back! 😛
I have read some great books with necromancers too. And this one sounds great!
Okay all of these sound excellent and I can’t wait to try them. Thanks for putting them on my radar!
I hope we both get to read them!
Be Still My Unbeating Heart looks adorable!
I know, and the fact that it’s set in Italy is a bonus!
All three of these sound good. That seems like a change of pace for Winning but I definitely want to give it a try. Seems like lots of authors are dipping their toes into cozy fantasy. Great picks this week!
It definitely is a change of pace from his last book! I’m curious to see how it goes.
Oh my gooood. Hopeless Necromantic!? Are you kidding me? That looks amazing hahah. I love the cover.
Wishing you cozy chaos and untamed joy — Ash
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Thanks Ash! Isn’t that a great cover?
A cozy vampire vacation mystery
…Okay, apparently that’s all it takes for me to be in, ahahaha.
LOL it’s catchy right?
I love the look of Hopeless Necromantic – though it might lurch into something a whole lot darker than the cover and blurb – suggest… I’ve recently got caught out like that. And I’m a huge fan of Hannah Whitten, but I’ll give this one a miss because I’m guessing it’ll be a bit too dark for me. I love the sound of Be Still My Beating Heart:)). Thank you for sharing, Tammy!
I’m very fond of the first two titles, too:-)
Intrigued by the first two! I still need to read Shadow Glass by Josh Winning, lol. I like Whitten, but I don’t know that a gothic horror is my thing. That one will probably be a pass for me; I’ve also been kinda underwhelmed by both series finishers of hers, unfortunately.
I’m still on the fence with the Whitten book. I’m going to wait for some reviews to come out. And Shadow Glass is a blast!
Had to laugh about your comment on the first two covers. Sometimes things just work out that way. 🙂
Maybe it’s trending right now??
Haha, I noticed the similarity between the two covers right away, I actually thought they were from the same series or something!
It was funny that both covers were revealed at the same time too:-)
Hopeless Necromantic is on my TBR!!!
Those two first covers are so similar! I like the sound of both of them to be honest. Not sure about the Whitten book although the cover is great.
Lynn 😀
I hope Reliquary works better for you than For The Wolf did. I loved the authors last series (the first two books in it anyway as I hopelessly need to check out the finale still) so I have high hopes for it. And I love the skeleton bard in the background of the second cover lol.