Top 9 Reese Witherspoon Book Club Reads for Your 2026 TBR

If you’re trying to build your 2026 TBR but don’t know where to start, let me help. I love Reese Witherspoon’s book club. I haven’t read the full picks, I’ve created a post featuring 12 must-read books from Reese’s book club. However, if you’re still feeling overwhelmed, let me narrow it down to the top 9. In this post, I’ll share Reese Witherspoon’s top book club picks guaranteed to keep you up all night. I promise you won’t be disappointed

Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

Beth thinks she has built a peaceful life with her husband, Frank. But everything changes when Frank’s brother shoots a dog that belongs to Gabriel Wolfe, the boy Beth once loved and never forgot. Gabriel returns to the village with his young son, who reminds Beth of the child she lost. Beth must decide who she is now, and whether she can walk away from the life she built. Broken Country is a slow, powerful love story with the twists of a thriller.


Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.

As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.

A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.

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The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan

Cate Kay is a famous author, but the world doesn’t know who she really is. She built a huge career using a fake name to hide from her past. Years earlier, Cate and her best friend dreamed of escaping their hard lives and becoming stars. But a tragedy destroyed that plan, and Cate has been running ever since. Now a shocking truth pushes her to return home and finally face the story she has been avoiding, her own. The Three Lives of Cate Kay has mystery and emotion.



The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo meets First Lie Wins in this electric, voice-driven debut novel about an elusive bestselling author who decides to finally confess her true identity after years of hiding from her past.

Cate Kay knows how to craft a story. As the creator of a bestselling book trilogy that struck box office gold as a film series, she’s one of the most successful authors of her generation. The thing is, Cate Kay doesn’t really exist. She’s never attended author events or granted any interviews. Her real identity had been a closely guarded secret, until now.

As a young adult, she and her best friend Amanda dreamed of escaping their difficult homes and moving to California to become movie stars. But the day before their grand adventure, a tragedy shattered their dreams and Cate has been on the run ever since, taking on different names and charting a new future. But after a shocking revelation, Cate understands that returning home is the only way she’ll be a whole person again.

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The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl

Margaret Renkl spends a year watching the animals and plants in her backyard, from the first crow in January to the last bluebird in December. Each short chapter shows how nature brings joy but also sadness as the world changes. Renkl also shares small moments from her own life, grown children coming home, memories of family, and the shifting world around her. With gentle writing and beautiful artwork, The Comfort of Crows is a quiet reminder to pay attention to the natural world and hold on to hope.


In The Comfort of Crows, Margaret Renkl presents a literary devotional: fifty-two chapters that follow the creatures and plants in her backyard over the course of a year. As we move through the seasons—from a crow spied on New Year’s Day, its resourcefulness and sense of community setting a theme for the year, to the lingering bluebirds of December, revisiting the nest box they used in spring—what develops is a portrait of joy and grief: joy in the ongoing pleasures of the natural world, and grief over winters that end too soon and songbirds that grow fewer and fewer.

Along the way, we also glimpse the changing rhythms of a human life. Grown children, unexpectedly home during the pandemic, prepare to depart once more. Birdsong and night-blooming flowers evoke generations past. The city and the country where Renkl raised her family transform a little more with each passing day. And the natural world, now in visible flux, requires every ounce of hope and commitment from the author—and from us. For, as Renkl writes, “radiant things are bursting forth in the darkest places, in the smallest nooks and deepest cracks of the hidden world.”

With fifty-two original color artworks by the author’s brother, Billy Renkl, The Comfort of Crows is a lovely and deeply moving book from a cherished observer of the natural world.

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The Heir Apparent by Rebecca Armitage

The Heir Apparent follows Lexi Villiers, a young doctor. She is living a simple life in Tasmania when a helicopter lands with terrible news, her father and brother have died in an accident. Her grandmother is the Queen of England, and Lexi is suddenly next in line for the throne, even though she never wanted royalty. Back in London, she faces a doubtful public, a family full of secrets, and an uncle who wants the crown for himself. Lexi has one year to choose between duty and the life she left behind, including the man she was starting to love.


An irresistible modern fairy tale about a British princess who must decide between her duty to her family—or to her own heart.

It’s New Year’s Day in Tasmania, and the life Lexi Villiers has carefully built is working out she’s in the second year of her medical residency, she lives on a beautiful farm with her two best friends Finn and Jack, and she’s about to finally become more-than-friendly with Jack—when a helicopter abruptly lands.

Out steps her grandmother’s right-hand-man, with the tragic news that her father and older brother have been killed in a skiing accident. Lexi’s grandmother happens to be the Queen of England, and in addition to the shock and grief, Lexi must now accept the reality that she is suddenly next in line for the throne—a role she has publicly disavowed.

Returning to London as the heir apparent Princess Alexandrina, Lexi is greeted by a skeptical public not ready to forgive her defection, a grieving sister-in-law harboring an explosive secret, and a scheming uncle determined to claim the throne himself.

Her recent life—and Jack—grow ever more distant as she feels the tug of tradition, of love for her grandmother, and of obligation. When her grandmother grants her one year to decide, Lexi must chart her own will it be the one determined by an accident of birth, or by her own heart?

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First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston

First Lie Wins follows Evie Porter, a woman who takes on new identities for every job her secretive boss assigns. Her latest target is Ryan Sumner, but getting close to him makes the job complicated. Just as she starts imagining a different life, her real identity, the one she’s tried to hide, shows up in town. Now Evie has to stay ahead of her past while trying to protect her future.

The identity comes first: Evie Porter. Once she’s given a name and location by her mysterious boss Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the mark: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job.

Evie isn’t privy to Mr. Smith’s real identity, but she knows this job will be different. Ryan has gotten under her skin, and she’s starting to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie can’t make any mistakes—especially after what happened last time.

Because the one thing she’s worked her entire life to keep clean, the one identity she could always go back to—her real identity—just walked right into this town. Evie Porter must stay one step ahead of her past while making sure there’s still a future in front of her. The stakes couldn’t be higher—but then, Evie has always liked a challenge

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Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

Juniper Song, a bestselling author, isn’t who she says she is. Yellowface pulls you in fast as her fake identity starts to fall apart, uncovering secrets that keep you turning pages.

Athena Liu is a literary darling and June Hayward is literally nobody.

White lies
When Athena dies in a freak accident, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the ambiguous name Juniper Song.

Dark humour
But as evidence threatens June’s stolen success, she will discover exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

Deadly consequences…
What happens next is entirely everyone else’s fault.

With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.

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Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

A mother sees her son commit a shocking crime on Halloween night. But the next morning, she wakes up in the past—before the murder happens. Each day takes her further back in time, and she realizes the only way to save her son is to uncover what went wrong and stop the crime before it ever begins. Wrong Place, Wrong Time is one of my favorite thrillers from Reese’s book club.

Can you stop a murder after it’s already happened?

It is midnight on the morning of Halloween, and Jen anxiously waits up for her 18-year-old son, Todd, to return home. But worries about his broken curfew transform into something much more dangerous when Todd finally emerges from the darkness. As Jen watches through the window, she sees her funny, seemingly happy teenage son stab a total stranger.

She doesn’t know who the victim is, or why Todd has committed such a devastating act of violence. All she knows is that her life, and Todd’s, have been shattered. 

After her son is taken into custody, Jen falls asleep in despair. But when she wakes up… it is yesterday. The murder has not happened yet—and there may be a chance to stop it. Each morning, when Jen wakes, she is further back in the past, first weeks, then years, before the murder. And Jen realizes that somewhere in the past lies the trigger for Todd’s terrible crime…and it is her mission to find it, and prevent it from taking place.

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The Guest List by Lucy Foley

The Guest List is about a glamorous wedding on a remote island off the coast of Ireland quickly turns into a nightmare. The perfect couple, the fancy venue and the exclusive guest list set the stage for a celebration that should go smoothly. As drinking games, awkward speeches and messy friendships collide, someone ends up dead. Now everyone at the wedding is a suspect.

A wedding celebration turns dark and deadly in this deliciously wicked and atmospheric thriller reminiscent of Agatha Christie from the New York Times bestselling author of The Hunting Party.

The bride – The plus one – The best man – The wedding planner – The bridesmaid – The body

On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.

But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.

And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?

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Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Daisy grows up in 1960s Los Angeles, chasing music, slipping into clubs, and living fast. At the same time, The Six, led by Billy Dunne, is rising in the rock scene. When a producer pairs Daisy and Billy together, their talent and tension creates a legendary band. Told as an oral history, Daisy Jones & The Six follows their rise, their chaos, and the making of a music legacy that defined the seventies.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ’n’ roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.

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Are you excited to start reading these?

Let me know which one is your first pick.

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