1. Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling)
Start with: The Cuckoo's Calling
Upcoming book: Career of Evil (Book #3)
Release date: October 20, 2015
What it's about: Private detective Cormoran Strike and his assistant Robin Ellacott run around London, investigating a supermodel suicide, a missing manuscript, corrupt multimillionaires, dangerous packages, and all sorts of intrigue.
2. Millennium series by Stieg Larsson and David Lagercrantz
Start with: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Upcoming book: The Girl in the Spider's Web (Book #4)
Release date: August 27, 2015
What it's about: Tech genius Lisbeth Salander, with the help of journalist and publisher Mikael Blomkvist, fights to solve the mystery of a young woman's disappearance and ends up mixed up in a grisly world of crime, corruption, and violence.
3. Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich
Start with: One for the Money
Upcoming book: Tricky Twenty-Two (Book #22)
Release date: November 17, 2015
What it's about: Stephanie Plum is out of money and talks her way into a job as a bounty hunter, following fugitives and solving mysteries around New Jersey.
4. Red Rising trilogy by Pierce Brown
Start with: Red Rising
Upcoming book: Morning Star (Book #3)
Release date: January 12, 2016
What it's about: Red Rising's dystopian future is color-coded, divided by caste. Darrow is a Red, the lowest, realizes he's been fed a lie for his entire life of labor and leads a fight against the ruling class for the future of the rest of civilization.
5. The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
Start with: Cinder
Upcoming book: Winter (Book #4)
Release date: November 10, 2015
What it's about: Humans and cyborgs live among each other on the crowded earth of the future, while the "lunar people" watch and wait to move in. In a re-telling of Cinderella, second-class cyborg Cinder falls for a handsome prince and finds herself involved in an intergalactic struggle for freedom.
6. The 5th Wave trilogy by Rick Yancey
Start with: The 5th Wave
Upcoming book: The Last Star (Book #3)
Release date: May 17, 2016
What it's about: Sixteen-year-old Cassie Sullivan is one of the remaining few humans left after waves of alien invasions all but destroyed Earth as we know it. As she roams the world looking for the brother she hopes is alive, she meets the mysterious Evan Walker, who knows more about Cassie than she realizes.
7. Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas
Start with: Throne of Glass
Upcoming book: Queen of Shadows (Book #4)
Release date: September 1, 2015
What it's about: Another quasi-retelling of Cinderella, Throne of Glass follows teenage assassin Celaena Sardothien as she unintentionally uncovers conspiracies about the corrupt kingdom for which she fights.
8. A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
9. The Dagger and the Coin series by Daniel Abraham
Start with: The Dragon's Path
Upcoming book: The Spider's War (Book #5)
Release date: January 26, 2016
What it's about: The epic series looks at institutions of civilization — noble houses, doomed armies, corrupt commerce, ancient priesthoods — as they start to give way to growing tensions and inevitable war.
10. Crossfire series by Sylvia Day
11. Desperate Duchesses by the Numbers by Eloisa James
Start with: Three Weeks with Lady X
Upcoming book: Seven Minutes in Heaven (Book #3)
Release date: TBD
What it's about: This series of stand-alone regency romances follow the duke who falls for the woman meant to find his wife, the duchess who wants as little of her husband as possible, and the seductive scoundrel who wants only the woman least suited for him — an etiquette expert.
12. The Tudor Court series by Philippa Gregory
Start with: The Constant Princess
Upcoming book: The Taming of the Queen (Book #4)
Release date: August 13, 2015
What it's about: The series of standalone historical fiction covers all manner of bad behavior surrounding the Tudors — from the royals to the peasants, the politics to the romance.