6 Must-Read Novels New in Paperback This June

Historical fantasy fans, rejoice! The June Book Club Favorites pick, Signe Pike’s THE LOST QUEEN is the first installment in a stunning trilogy. THE LOST QUEEN brings a forgotten queen of sixth-century Scotland back to life, and fans can’t get enough of Languoreth and her twin brother, Lailoken. The pair fight to preserve the old world of their ancestors on a changing continent. Part romance, part political intrigue, and part myth, THE LOST QUEEN rightly restores Languoreth’s place in the legend of Merlin.

Stephen Markley’s debut explores in lyrical prose many of our hot-button topics: financial recession, the opioid crisis, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, climate change, and increasingly tense racial and political dynamics. One night in summer 2013, four former classmates find themselves together again in their small Ohio town, each haunted and harrowed by the reality of life in our day and age. Murder, drugs, depression, love, and loss will keep you turning the pages of this not-to-miss novel.

Alexia Arthurs makes her literary debut with HOW TO LOVE A JAMACIAN, an extraordinary short story collection that will break your heart and leave you wanting more. From a story about an estranged twin brother, to a wild teenager brought back to Jamaica, to a ghost haunting an athlete at his Iowa college, the stories in the collection give voice to the myriad, complex, beautiful, and strange experiences of Jamaican immigrants and their families back home.

THE GREAT BELIEVERS tells two interwoven stories of heartbreak in the wake of the AIDS epidemic. In 1985, Yale Tishman is working as the development director for an art gallery when the virus disrupts his life. Thirty years later, a woman tracking down her estranged daughter discovers photographs of her brother, whose life was claimed in the 1980s by AIDS, a coincidence that brings the characters together in their shared loss.

An unforgettable debut from a refreshing, nuanced storyteller, AN OCEAN OF MINUTES is about the endurance of human beings and the complexity of love. When Polly’s boyfriend, Frank, is diagnosed with a deadly strain of the flu, she decides to travel twelve years into the future in exchange for a life-saving treatment for Frank. Polly finds herself five years too far in the future, alone, poor, and forever changed in a country that she does not recognize. Can love persist in such dire circumstances?

Stephen King’s tome of a book, THE OUTSIDER, is finally available in a commute-friendly size. Terry Maitland is a beloved teacher, husband, father, and coach in Flint City. When the town is rocked by the news that Terry’s fingerprints are found on the violated body of a dead eleven-year-old boy, everyone is shocked. The investigation leads to more horror and more questions as the town—and readers—begin to wonder just who can be trusted.