Can't Wait Wednesday #247

 

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine.

How did Joe Goldberg become Joe Goldberg? What led to his first love…first obsession…first kill?

Find out in the highly anticipated prequel to New York Times bestselling author Caroline Kepnes’s hit You series, which inspired the blockbuster Netflix show.

Joe Goldberg is ready for his life to start. He’s seventeen years old, working in Mr. Mooney’s bookshop, falling in love with every girl on the subway all while wondering who will be the one. He knows what he A woman who will force him to get his GED, go to night school, and make something of himself. But who would ever fall in love with him?

Then he spots MISSED CONNECTION, NYC Bookstore Babe.

Someone is looking for Joe. And that someone is Vail Gunderson, a production assistant with a passion for rom-coms. The only she’s twenty-four, which means that Joe has no choice but to lie about his age…and, naturally, nearly everything else in his life. Joe thinks he’s found true love, but when Vail needs more convincing that Joe is her happily ever after, he’s determined to convince her…no matter what it takes… 

With her incisive and darkly comedic prose, Caroline Kepnes captures Joe poised on the edge of manhood, entering the vicious, dog-eat-dog New York dating scene for the very first time, and buffeted by forces that will determine what kind of man he will become—and how he will write his own twisted love story.

I still need to read the last YOU book but this has been a fun series! It was surprising to me but yeah, I am pretty hooked! Just need to circle back to Joe's last "adventure" before I read his "first" one!

TITLE: You First
AUTHOR: Caroline Kepnes
PUBLISHER: Random House
GENRE: Thriller
RELEASE DATE: June 9, 2026

A mystical new YA series that blends fantasy, sci-fi, and romance.

All seventeen-year-old Dusty wants is to escape into books and the wilderness that surrounds her mountain home. What she doesn’t know is that there’s something waiting for her in the shadows of the forest.

One morning, Dusty wakes up with dirt on her feet. Then she realises that her body and senses are changing. And after a chance encounter with quiet and mysterious Will, she feels an attraction unlike anything she’s experienced before. It isn’t just an emotional connection making her heart beat faster—it’s a thirst.

But Dusty isn’t the only person experiencing strange events in Black River. Darker forces are at play, and Dusty must uncover the mystery—or risk losing everything and everyone she loves…

This one sounds soooo intriguing! And this cover! Gah! I need it!

TITLE: Black River
AUTHOR: Ruby Jean Cottle
PUBLISHER: Henry Holt and Co.
GENRE: YA Paranormal
RELEASE DATE: June 9, 2026