July’s Best New Fiction

Truly Madly Guilty, by Liane Moriarty
In her latest page-turner, New York Times bestseller Moriarty (The Husband’s Secret, Little Big Lies, What Alice Forgot) explores how one small moment can destroy everything. Best friends Erika and Clementine gather with pals for a casual backyard barbecue, right before a tragedy changes their lives forever, and puts everything they thought they knew about themselves and each other into question. A fast-paced, nonlinear narrative that will have you puzzling together the before, the after, and the in between.

Magic: A Novel, by Danielle Steel
In Steel’s latest, every year in Paris, a small circle of friends reunite for the White Dinner. Candlelit, elegant, and decidedly enchanted, it’s a moment when lives intertwine—and maybe unravel. Three very international couples connect and disconnect in this drama-filled romp that follows one year in the lives of a forged family of seven friends (and lovers) on the cusp of upheaval.

Heroes of the Frontier, by Dave Eggers
Literary icon Eggers returns with a fun, funny take on heartbreak, family, and an escape from the mundanities of suburban America. When her slacker ex Carl tries to take her kids to meet his new fiancée’s family, Ohio dentist Josie grabs them up and makes a run for it, heading to the far reaches of Alaska in an old RV they call the Chateau. Rambling and thoughtful, Eggers’ latest ruminates on Josie’s great escape—dreamy on paper but not so flawless in execution—and the run-for-the hills wish so many of us harbor in the back of our busy minds.

The Light of Paris, by Eleanor Browne
The author of the acclaimed The Weird Sisters returns with The Light of Paris. Madeline seems like she has it all: a great marriage, home, family. But she feels trapped by her controlling husband and the trappings of perfection. She has always looked up to her grandmother Margie, but discovering a journal from the woman’s youth uncovers a woman she hardly knew, who relished the freedom of a trip to Jazz Age Paris. As her marriage shatters, Madeline decides to re-create her grandmother’s adventure, but soon realizes that even the most flawless façades can hide some unseemly secrets.

The Singles Game, by Lauren Weisberger
Weisberger (The Devil Wears Prada) is at again with this revealing look at the professional tennis world. Charlie Silver is at the top of her game, and she’s given up nearly everything to get there. She used to be the squeaky clean type, but her new coach Todd has transformed her into the Warrior Princess, ruthless on the court and off. But is her new jet-setting life worth the toll it takes?

Falling, by Jane Green
The latest from bestseller Green (Jemima J, The Beach House, Summer Secrets) focuses on Emma Montague, a 30something Brit who long ago abandoned the stiff confines of England for a fast-paced life in Manhattan. But that life has taken its toll, so she decides to move to the quiet waterfront hamlet of Westport, Connecticut. There, she meets charming, steady single dad Dominic, who might just be the stabilizing force she needs. Unless, of course, an unexpected tragedy makes her lose her footing for good.

Belgravia, by Julian Fellowes
Downton Abbey fans rejoice. Belgravia—till now only available serialized—finally hits shelves in complete form. In classic Fellowes style, it’s another drama-filled examination of Brit mores and values, this time set in posh 1840s London, where the old school upper classes begin to rub shoulders with the newly wealthy industrialists—and boy, is there some chafing! Secrets, lies, scandal, and star-crossed romance abound, all of it as juicy and addictive as you’ve come to expect from Fellowes.

Nine Women, One Dress, by Jane L. Rosen
Get your beach bag ready. Rosen’s debut romp is a delicious page-turner that makes a perfect vacation read. Told in quick vignettes, in the vein of ensemble comedies like Love Actually, it’s the story of nine women connected by a little black dress (from Bloomingdale’s, of course) that everyone covets. While it reads light and fun, Rosen manages to touch on some of the very real heartache marking each character’s experience.

The Muse, by Jessie Burton
Following her bestselling The Miniaturist, Burton’s Muse tracks the history of a painting discovered by Trinidadian art museum worker Odelle Bastien, who falls into the compelling and tragic tale of the man behind the work, doomed 1930s artist Isaac Robbles. As she unravels his past, particularly the relationships between him, his sister Teresa, and heiress Olive, with whom their lives become intertwined, she discovers a story weighty with questions about art and class, creation and destruction, and passion and ambition.

Valley of the Moon: A Novel, by Melanie Gideon
From the author of social media comentary Wife 22 comes this decidedly unexpected follow-up. A startling, richly detailed time-travel romp, Valley centers on Lux Lysander, a single mom in 1970s San Francisco, as she falls into a time lapse that puts her in a lost Sonoma village from the early 1900s. Like other such stories, Gideon’s allows its narrator to travel back and forth, creating a parallel narrative and dual lives, and exploring the conflicts that come with them, juxtaposing the modern and the timeless.