Loan Stars is the readers’ advisory tool that allows libraries across Canada to indicate popular upcoming titles. Using LibraryData, the library data aggregation service, the forthcoming titles with the most orders become Loan Stars top picks!
The July 2026 Loan Stars Adult Canadian top 10 list features ten books that have at least one author, illustrator, translator, or editor (in the case of an edited collection of material) who is a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada.
You can see each book and find out a bit more about them in the list below, or you can download our poster if you want to display it, say in your library or on social media. (Tag us: @LoanStarsCA!) You can also view these titles on CataList in this catalogue.
July 2026 Adult Canadian List
Loan Stars top pick:
Getting Away with Murder
by Shari Lapena 🍁
9780385699563 | Thrillers
Description:
The tenth thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Couple Next Door.
"Shari Lapena is far and away one of the best psychological thriller writers in the world . . . She is intensely bingeable." —Lisa Jewell
Jill and Ted adore their New York brownstone the way others adore their children. They have carefully, expensively, made every inch of it their own. It reflects who they are, their status and tastes. With the grand mahogany staircase and state-of-the-art kitchen, it is the stuff of glossy magazines and real-estate dreams. It is their sanctuary.
So when Ted's inheritance runs out and he makes a bad investment, they panic. How can they protect their beloved home and enviable lifestyle?
The answer is obvious. Or at least, it is obvious to Jill and Ted. The death of one wealthy family member—from whom they stand to inherit millions—could solve all their problems. Together, they will get away with murder.
As long as they trust each other.
As long as neither makes a mistake.
As long as there are no surprises . . .
Mistress of the Persian Boarding House
by Marina Nemat🍁
9781037803314 | Historical
Description:
A stirring, intimate novel inspired by the life of Marina’s paternal grandmother.
Born into the elegant comfort of upper-class Russian society at the turn of the twentieth century, Zina yearns for independence and a life she can call her own. After the Bolsheviks topple the Czarist government, she narrowly escapes with her husband and adopted daughter. But once they arrive in Tehran, tragedy strikes again, and she finds herself alone and impoverished.
At a modest boarding house, Zina must start over. There she meets women from Russia and Iran—outsiders like her, seeking refuge. They support one another through childbirth, illness, political unrest, and a pandemic. Amid the turmoil, Zina’s path crosses that of the ambitious Reza Khan, future shah of Iran. Their relationship becomes a welcome escape, enduring decades of hardship and sorrow before culminating in a heart-wrenching climax.
Sweeping, tender, and unforgettable, Mistress of the Persian Boarding House is a moving portrait of the enduring bonds forged between women who choose each other as family.
The Intrigue
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia🍁
9780593874356 | Noir
Description:
From the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic and Velvet Was the Night comes a sizzling noir about desire, danger, and greed, in which seduction is the ultimate con.
Handsome con artist Ulises has long charmed lonely women via letters to steal their money, but money is hard to come by in 1940s Mexico. Ulises knows his looks won't last forever, and he's desperate to get his hands on a real fortune.
He thinks he's found it when he captivates his newest correspondent, Perla, the owner of a small-town boardinghouse in picturesque Veracruz. But when he meets her, he finds something he didn't expect. The woman has a niece, Inés, who is as observant as she is desperate to escape her aunt’s household.
When Inés discovers Ulises' true intentions, she wants in on the scheme. They’ll convince her aunt that Ulises is a great catch, Perla will marry him, and her money will vanish. Easy, fast and clean.
But Perla is not the desperate, silly spinster Ulises imagines. She harbors secrets. And although Ulises does not believe in true romance, Inés is more alluring than he bargained on. Suddenly, a simple plan may become perilously complicated.
Venture into the streets of a small town where the patina of convention and good manners conceals a cauldron of avarice and lust.
The Autumn of Madame Hélène
by Kurt Palka🍁
9780771026362 | Historical
Description:
Featuring the beloved character from The Piano Maker, bestselling novelist Kurt Palka is back with a heart-wrenching story of courage, family, and enduring friendship.
The Autumn of Madame Hélène takes us back to the small town of St. Homais in Nova Scotia, Canada, where Hélène Giroux is dealing with many changes, among them the loss of her long-time partner, health issues, and disturbing professional difficulties.
Hélène’s resilience is tested further when she and her daughter, Claire, are stalked by Claire’s violent ex-husband, Thomas. As Thomas’s threats escalate, certain painful choices will need to be made.
Told with mesmerizing detail and compassion, here is an engrossing story about courage and family, and about difficult decisions with life-altering consequences.
Our Wild Familiars
by Dan Werb🍁
9781039056824 | Animals
Description:
A Globe and Mail Best New Book of Summer 2026
A dazzling journey into the hidden lives of the wild animals who’ve found ingenious ways to survive and thrive in human communities—from Writers' Trust Weston Prize-winning author and renowned Canadian epidemiologist Dan Werb.
Synanthropes—or wild animals who live alongside humans—have always been an immutable part of the tapestry of our lives. They are the reason we hear birdsong in the morning and skittering throughout the day, and why we take such pains to fix lids to our garbage cans. But they are so much more than that, too: epidemic vectors, churners of soil, ecosystem evolvers, spiritual lodestars, and, sometimes, sharp-toothed marauders making their way through our most intimate spaces with cruel intent. But beyond their quotidian impact on our lives, synanthropes have a critical part to play in how our communities are shaped and how sustainably they will function. These creatures are ambassadors from nature, arbiters of our planet’s future, and a key influence on our species’ ongoing evolution; and something essential has shifted with them.
We are entering a fraught era of environmental disruption, habitat destruction, and human population expansion that is ravaging formerly wild and untouched lands. And with that, we are coming face to face with an entirely new class of synanthropes that are bringing chaos and danger—as well as opportunity—to our doorstep. These creatures, so long dismissed, are forcing us to reckon with them.
Through vivid storytelling, Our Wild Familiars brings to spectacular life the world’s most successful synanthropes, from bats, raccoons, and crows, to some of its weirdest, including the Giant Pacific Octopus. Acting as a guide to the curious, Werb reveals how the cracks in our millennia-long efforts to shield ourselves against the outside world might just lead us to a new and necessary harmony with nature—or to an ever more savage future.
The Paris Thief
by Lisa Rochon🍁
9781443472708 | Historical
Description:
An immersive, brilliantly researched novel that explores morality and duplicity and how love can survive betrayal, inspired by the unacknowledged women who saved some of the world's great masterpieces, from the bestselling author of Tuscan Daughter.
Paris, 1939. As the Nazi invasion of France looms, Mathilde Payer, an unassuming curator at the Louvre, is charged with moving the museum's massive collection of art into hiding in the sprawling Chateau de Chambord. At the heart of the collection is the priceless masterpiece, Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Mathilde vows to guard the painting and its secret location with her life.
Paris, 1911. Paris is alight with the avant-garde art scene when Mathilde, a young and impetuous artist, arrives from Alsace to follow her dreams. Though she quickly becomes muse to Picasso, she is drawn to Vincenzo, a young Italian painter and a carpenter at the Louvre. His passion for Mathilde is only matched by his resentment of Napoleon's theft of his country's greatest treasures, including the iconic Mona Lisa. When the newspapers scream that the Mona Lisa has been stolen from the Louvre, Mathilde is both horrified and thrilled to discover the painting hidden in a trunk at Vincenzo's garret apartment where it will remain for almost two years…
As the fate of France and the fate of the most valuable art collection in the world hang in the balance, one woman carries a secret in her past that threatens the safety of the world's most famous painting. In this immersive, brilliantly researched novel of love, duplicity and loyalty, Lisa Rochon has captured the human impulse to create and own art, often at any cost.
The Lure of Wolves and Whispers
by Amanda Connolly🍁
9781443475938 | Fantasy
Description:
A propulsive and atmospheric romantasy about a desperate young woman who risks everything to buy the forbidden magic that could save her sister’s life and finds herself bound to a dangerously alluring rebel leader. For readers of One Dark Window, Fourth Wing, and A Fate Inked in Blood.
On the mist-shrouded isle of Eireann, buying magic comes with a horrific price.
Years after the High King banned magic, whispers persist that a mage remembered only as the Martyr lies in hiding, waiting to lead the people into their powers once more.
For Maeve, the stories are just that, stories. Magic is gone. The Martyr is a fantasy, and her mages were banished long ago. But when her sister is gravely injured, she risks impalement on the dreaded Black Dock for a chance to buy the forbidden magic that could save her sister's life and trade her own loyalty to a ruthless and dangerously alluring rebel leader.
Bound to do the rebel leader’s bidding, Maeve begins to suspect he knows more about the stories of the Martyr than he lets on. But as she probes deeper into his dangerous plotting, a dark past emerges tying him to a prince who could be even more brutal than his father — and who could hold the key to whether they will live or die. With the Isle on the brink of war, trust and survival come at a terrible cost— one that will tear her world, and her heart, in two.
The Table Where We Meet
by Jess Janz🍁
9781443477864 | Memoirs
Description:
We all want to be known. Most of us just don’t know how to begin. A tender and practical book about creating meaningful connection in a world of small talk, for readers of Dolly Alderton, Scaachi Koul and Sarah Polley
When Jess Janz found herself craving deeper conversations—but trapped in a world of small talk—she took a leap. What started as a casual idea in a hair salon soon became Dinner With Strangers: a growing movement where guests gather around a table, introduce themselves without ever mentioning work, and share who they are beyond the job title. No scripts, no expectations—just curiosity, courage, and a seat at the table.
In The Table Where We Meet, Jess reflects on what she’s learned from hosting dinners with more than a thousand strangers across North America. In ways that are both tender and practical, she explores what it means to belong, how to ask better questions, and why connection requires us to risk being truly seen. Alongside her insights are unforgettable stories—funny, heartbreaking, deeply human—that reveal how much we all have in common when we finally let our guard down.
This is a book for anyone who’s ever felt alone in a crowd, tired of surface-level chatter, or unsure how to bridge the gap between isolation and intimacy. The Table Where We Meet is a guide, a memoir, and a quiet revolution—one dinner at a time.
Book Club Boyfriend
by Jenny Holiday🍁
9781538778197 | Romance
Description:
Their messiest chapter might actually be their best one yet.
Blair Kellermoon—blond, bubbly, former rom-com star—has always worried no one would take her seriously as a producer. And with her latest film project stalled indefinitely, she’s starting to think desperate times call for desperate measures. Enter bestselling author Jack Branksome: beautiful writer, awful person.
Yet somehow he and Blair have become unlikely text-friends, despite his very public refusal to participate in her celebrity book club. And he’s confessed he’s dealing with his own nightmare: the hotly anticipated novel he can’t seem to write.
So Blair does something unthinkable: she invites him to stay at her pool house. Now they’ve become two misfits bonding over movie nights, cheesy pasta, befriending wild crows, and solving the mystery of the weirdly green pool. Blair was sure she knew exactly how her story would end. But Jack might be proof that it’s only just beginning...
Canada's UFO Secrets
by Chris A. Rutkowski🍁
9781459755437 | Supernatural & Unexplained
Description:
How does the Canadian government handle information about UFOs? Veteran researcher Chris A. Rutkowski reveals all.
Polls show that millions of Canadians believe they’ve seen a UFO. Are these strange phenomena alien visitors? Meteors? Advanced foreign technology?
Chris A. Rutkowski has been researching Canadian UFO reports since the 1970s and has gained an unparalleled understanding of how they are handled by government agencies. While the Canadian government and military have taken these reports very seriously, they have been unsure of how to manage them and have looked to Rutkowski and other Canadian researchers for advice.
With increasing public interest and recent calls for a federal agency to manage reports, it’s clear that UFO sightings matter more than they ever have before, and Canadian researchers have become integral to international UFO studies.
In Canada’s UFO Secrets, Rutkowski reflects on decades of investigation, tracing the development of Canadian UFO policy and detailing remarkable sightings, including cases never before revealed to the public.
Want to be the first to know which titles made it to the Loan Stars lists? Sign up for our newsletter. You can also find out more about the program at loanstars.ca.
Find out which titles made it to the July 2026 Loan Stars Adult Canadian list.