30 Summer Debut Novels You May Have Missed

Posted by Cybil on August 28, 2020


There’s nothing like picking up a debut novel and feeling like you’ve found your new favorite author.

As the season comes to a close, we wanted to round up the most popular adult debut novels published in the U.S. from June through August to highlight some new voices that you can say you “discovered.”

From the Booker Prize longlisted The New Wilderness to the first contact sci-fi of Axiom’s End, there’s a fantastic novel here for whatever reading mood you find yourself in.


Do you have a debut novel recommendation? Share it with your fellow readers in the comments below!

Check out more recent articles:
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Comments Showing 1-17 of 17 (17 new)

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message 1: by Lucas (new)

Lucas The Cat And The City by Nick Bradley came out recently as well and looks absolutely delightful! Glad to see Kaufman's book on the list tho!


message 2: by Joe (new)

Joe Holzer Quality reading here. Most excited for Winter Counts.


message 3: by Jillian (new)

Jillian Some of these I actually had not heard of but now I'm super excited for!


message 4: by Emmanuelle (new)

Emmanuelle If I Can't Have You by Charlotte Levin


message 5: by Jessie Lexvold (new)

Jessie Lexvold Can


message 6: by Randa (new)

Randa please


message 8: by SA (new)

SA Whiting I loved Some Come Home by Odie Lindsey.


message 10: by Kyah (new)

Kyah Merritt Can an author recommend their own work here?


message 11: by Jo Ann (new)

Jo Ann Michael Connelly's Fair Weather!! Why is he always left off of Goodreads Lists??


message 12: by Joshua (new)

Joshua Goldman https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4... The Likely World by Melanie Conroy-Goldman.
Twenty years of addiction to cloud, a drug which wipes the user's short-term memory, have left single mom Mellie with her mind in fragments. With the help of a tough-minded sponsor, and motivated by her own medically-challenged daughter, Mellie clings to a fragile sobriety. Then, on the evening of her twenty-ninth day sober, a stranger pulls into her driveway ...

From my review: loved the novel and couldn’t put it down except when I had to put it down because Mellie after being sober for almost a month is risking her recovery and her toddler’s well-being when she’s drawn back to Cloud. I really wanted to know what happened in Mellie’s life, but she can’t help me. Years of cloud use hasn’t just erased short-term memory, but much of her life is gone or inaccessible. But flashbacks to her earlier life helped me piece things together, or is she recovering these memories?


message 13: by Kellie (new)

Kellie Blank I'm loving Zo by Xander Miller Zo


message 14: by knightley (new)

knightley i haven't heard of some of these books, but they sound so interesting!


message 15: by Erwin (new)

Erwin Wallpaper I guess I missed it


message 16: by CORNELIUS (new)

CORNELIUS  BLACKSTONE The tales of a phoenix: odyssey to the underverse


message 17: by Saltafimlu (new)

Saltafimlu summertime saga I'm super excited for!


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