12 Escapist Books for When the Real World Just Feels Too Overwhelming

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission, and if he fails, humanity and Earth will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. He’s millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. Alone on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And thanks to an unexpected ally, he just might have a chance.

Scarlett Vandermeer prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. Swim captain Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. It’s how he wins gold medals and breaks records. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a secret slips out, and everything changes. So they start an temporary arrangement. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water…

They’ve loved each other in a thousand lifetimes. They’ve killed each other in every one. Evelyn can remember all her past lives, and in every single one, she’s been murdered before her eighteenth birthday by Arden, a supernatural being linked to her soul. The problem is that she likes her life now, and her little sister needs her in order to stay alive. If Evelyn wants to save her sister, she’ll have to find the centuries-old devil who hunts her through each life before they find her first, figure out why she’s being hunted and finally break their curse, and try not to fall in love . . . again.

“Are you happy with your life?” Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the kidnapper knocks him unconscious. He wakes up strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college professor but a celebrated genius. Is it this life or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how will Jason make it back to the family he loves?

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams, but the high pay comes with a top-secret assignment. The government is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible. She is tasked with working as a “bridge”: living with and monitoring an expat from 1847, Commander Graham Gore. Over the next year, the bridge falls haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined.

Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena’s a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I. June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work. But emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. June discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

In this brutal world, defiance is met with death. Laia and her family do not challenge the Empire. But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy.
There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier, who secretly wants to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. Their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.

In the small town of Monta Clare, Missouri, girls are disappearing. When the daughter of a wealthy family is targeted, the most unlikely hero emerges—Patch, a local boy, who saves her and is kidnapped instead, leaving heartache in his wake. Patch and those who love him soon discover that their search for answers will lead them to truths that could mean losing one another. This atmospheric thriller is more than just a mystery, offering a unique twist on a love story.

You were born to a king, but you marry a tyrant. You stand by helplessly as he sacrifices your child to placate the gods. You watch him wage war on a foreign shore, and you comfort yourself with violent thoughts of your own. This was not the life you ever deserved. So, slowly, you plot. When your husband returns in triumph, you become a woman with a choice. Accept him or exact your revenge; infamy follows both. You bide your time and force the gods’ hands in the game of retribution. If power isn’t given to you, you have to take it for yourself.

Clementine’s aunt always said her apartment was a pinch in time, a place where moments blended together like watercolors. But Clementine never expected to meet a strange man standing in the kitchen. The kind of man that, before it all, she would’ve fallen head-over-heels for. And she might again. Except, he exists in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact. And she, quite literally, lives seven years in his future. Clementine knows that if she lets her heart fall, she’ll be doomed. She doesn’t want to get too close to anyone—she isn’t sure her heart can take it.

It’s the return of the gladiators, and prisoners are com­peting for the ultimate prize: their freedom. Prisoners compete in death matches before packed arenas in America’s increasingly dominant private prison industry. If all goes well, Loretta Thurwar will be free in just a few matches. As she prepares to leave her fellow prisoners, Thurwar considers how she might help preserve their humanity in defiance of the games. But CAPE’s own­ers will stop at nothing to protect their status quo.

When Lauren returns home late one night, she is greeted by her husband, Michael. There’s only one problem—she’s not married. But according to her friends and the photos on her phone, they’ve been together for years. As Lauren tries to figure out how this is possible, Michael goes to the attic to change a lightbulb, and a new man emerges. She realizes her attic is creating an infinite supply of husbands and wonders, if swapping lives is as easy as changing a lightbulb, how do you know you’ve taken the right path?