Late 2023 Most Anticipated Canadian Releases

Happy Tuesday y’all! How is your year shaping up so far? Mine is just like every year, full of work and household stuff! Why should now be any different? This week Jana, over at That Artsy Reader Girl, is asking us to share Our Most Anticipated Releases for the second half of 2023. True to me, I decided to narrow down the list a bit. Want to see my Late 2023 Anticipated Canadian Releases?

All of these authors have Canadian connections. Books are listed in order of their Canadian release date. All titles are linked to Goodreads.

Now let’s look at my ten Late 2023 Most Anticipated Canadian Releases!

Sunshine Nails by Mai Nguyen

Vietnamese refugees Debbie and Phil Tran have built a comfortable life for themselves in Toronto with their family nail salon. But when an ultra-glam chain salon opens across the street, their world is rocked.

Complicating matters further, their landlord has jacked up the rent, and it seems only a matter of time before they lose their business and everything they’ve built. They enlist the help of their daughter, Jessica, who has just returned home after a messy breakup and a messier firing. Together with their son, Dustin, and niece, Thuy, they devise some good old-fashioned sabotage. Relationships are put to the test as the line between right and wrong gets blurred. Debbie and Phil must choose: do they keep their family intact or fight for their salon?

The Damages by Genevieve Scott

What I remember best about that week in January is trying to keep track of all the lies I told.

1997: For Ros, starting university at Regis is an opportunity for reinvention–a chance to be seen as interesting, to be accepted by the in-crowd, and maybe even get a boyfriend. But when she meets her roommate, Megan, with her pleated jeans and horse-print bedding, she sees her as a social liability. Outside of their dorm room, Ros distances herself from Megan and quickly befriends the cool kids, seeking status at all costs. Just after winter break, an intense ice storm hits campus, triggering a reckless, days-long dorm party, during which Megan goes missing. Ros is blamed for the incident and abruptly dropped by her social circle, casting a shadow over the next two decades of her life.

2020: Ros’s former partner, Lukas, the father of her eleven-year-old son, is accused of a sexual assault. The accusation brings new details of an old story to light, forcing Ros to revisit a dark moment from her past. Ros must take a hard look not only at the father of her child but also at her own mistakes, her own trauma, and at the supposed liberal period she grew up in.

The Crow Valley Karaoke Championships by Ali Bryan

A prison escape, a bear on the loose, botched lyrics. What more could go wrong with Crow Valley’s most anticipated night of the year?

A year after forest fires ravaged the town of Crow Valley and claimed the life of Dale Jepson―karaoke legend, local prison guard, and all-around good guy―the community hosts a high-stakes karaoke competition. But when a convicted murderer escapes from nearby Crow Valley Correctional, residents discover there’s more on the line than local, perhaps even national, karaoke fame.

In this darkly comedic, fast-paced ride through an unforgettable small town, five residents with intimate connections to Dale and drastically different goals for the night will collide into, conspire with, and aid one another as they scramble to make it successfully through the evening under the scrutinizing watch of neighbors.

To the soundtrack of classics belted out with abandon, voices will crack, cars will be stolen, marriages will falter, and kids will slip away in search of trouble. And maybe, just maybe, lives will be transformed for the better.

The African Samurai by Craig Shreve

In 1579, a Portuguese trade ship sails into port at Kuchinotsu, Japan, loaded with European wares and weapons. On board is Father Alessandro Valignano, an Italian priest and Jesuit missionary whose authority in central and east Asia is second only to the pope’s. Beside him is his protector, a large and imposing East African man. Taken from his village as a boy, sold as a slave to Portuguese mercenaries, and forced to fight in wars in India, the young but experienced soldier is haunted by memories of his past.

From Kuchinotsu, Father Valignano leads an expedition pushing inland toward the capital city of Kyoto. A riot brings his protector in front of the land’s most powerful warlord, Oda Nobunaga. Nobunaga is preparing a campaign to complete the unification of a nation that’s been torn apart by over one hundred years of civil war. In exchange for permission to build a church, Valignano “gifts” his protector to Nobunaga, and the young East African man is reminded once again that he is less of a human and more of a thing to be traded and sold.

After pledging his allegiance to the Japanese warlord, the two men from vastly different worlds develop a trust and respect for one another. The young soldier is granted the role of samurai, a title that has never been given to a foreigner; he is also given a new name: Yasuke. Not all are happy with Yasuke’s ascension. There are whispers that he may soon be given his own fief, his own servants, his own samurai to command. But all of his dreams hinge on his ability to protect his new lord from threats, both military and political, and from enemies both without and within.

A magnificent reconstruction and moving study of a lost historical figure, The African Samurai is an enthralling narrative about the tensions between the East and the West and the making of modern Japan, from which rises the most unlikely hero.

The Christmas Wager by Holly Cassidy

One rivalry. Eight days until Christmas. Let the holiday games begin.

When LA-based real estate developer Bella Ross arrives in the sleepy mountain town of Maple Falls, she has one mission: to acquire the local failing Christmas shop, Always Noelle, securing the promotion of her dreams. Nothing can get in her way. Except the shop owner’s stubborn grandson, Jesse Harrison.

Both refuse to budge until an unlikely wager is struck: Bella and Jesse will compete in the Maple Falls Holiday Games, an annual tradition of eccentric feats of strength and skills. Winner decides the selling price. They’ll give each other a run for their money, but as the competition heats up, Bella and Jesse’s icy feelings toward each other begin to thaw. It’ll take a Christmas miracle for them to admit there’s a spark, but what if it’s just another game?

Three Holidays and a Wedding by Uzma Jalaluddin and Marissa Stapley

As strangers and seatmates Maryam Aziz and Anna Gibson fly to Toronto over the holidays–Maryam to her sister’s impromptu wedding and Anna to meet her boyfriend’s wealthy family for the first time–neither expect that severe turbulence will scare them into confessing their deepest hopes and fears to one another. At least they’ll never see each other again. And the love of Maryam’s life, Saif, wasn’t sitting two rows behind them hearing it all. Oops.

When Anna, Maryam, Saif, and Maryam’s sister’s bridal party are snowbound at the quirky Snow Falls Inn–on the outskirts of a picture-perfect town where a holiday romance starring Anna’s actor-crush is being filmed–chaos ensues. But as Maryam and Anna start to feel the magic of Snow Falls–and find love beyond their deepest hopes–they just might realize there’s no place they’d rather be for the holidays.

The Defector by Chris Hadfield

Israel, October 1973. As the Yom Kippur War flares into life, a state-of-the-art Soviet MiG fighter plane plummets to an unexpected landing. NASA Flight Controller and former US test pilot Kaz Zemeckis watches from the ground—unaware that its arrival will pull him into a high-stakes game of spies, lies, and secrets that hold the key to Cold War air and space supremacy.

For within that plane is a Soviet pilot pleading to defect, offering a prize beyond the workings of the Soviets’ mythical “Foxbat” MiG-25, the fastest, highest-flying fighter plane in the world. But trusting him is risky, and Kaz must tread a careful line. As Kaz accompanies the defector into the United States, to the military’s most secret test site, he must hope that, with skill and cunning, the game plays out his way.

The Tragically Hip ABC by The Tragically Hip, Drew Macklin, Clayton Hanmer, Julia Breckenreid, Bridget George, and Monika Melnychuk

A love letter to The Tragically Hip, one of Canada’s most beloved bands, this ABC picture book features illustrations from four renowned Canadian illustrators.

The Tragically Hip, fronted by the late Gord Downie, is a legendary, bestselling Canadian band. And now, almost forty years of music can be appreciated in a brand-new ABC picture book! From “A is for Ahead by a Century” to “N is for New Orleans is Sinking” all the way to “Z is for Frozen in My Tracks,” this illustrated ode to the band will be enjoyed by readers of all ages. 

The Predictable Heartbreaks of Imogen Finch by Jacqueline Firkins

Imogen Finch has just been through her seventeenth breakup. She saw it coming, so she’s not as crushed as she might be, but with all seventeen of her exes leaving her for other partners, she’s come to believe a prediction her well-intentioned and possibly clairvoyant mother made over twenty years ago: that Imogen would never come first at anything or to anyone. Is her love life failing due to a magical curse? Insufficient effort? Poor timing or personality mismatches? Everyone has opinions on the matter. Imogen’s ready to give up altogether. But when Eliot Swift, her secret high school crush, returns to their small coastal town after a decade of nomadic travels, Imogen has new motivation to try again. Eliot’s full of encouragement. He suggests that her curse is not only imagined, it’s easily breakable. All they need is one win–any win–and she can believe in love and in herself again.

From trivia games to swimming races to corn-shucking contests, the pair sets out to snag Imogen her first first. But when victory proves more elusive than Eliot anticipated, and when his deep-seeded wanderlust compels him to depart for far away places, Imogen fears sshe’sdestined to remain in second place forever. Fortunately for them both, sometimes magic lingers in the most unexpected places. And love is far from predictable.

It Happened One Christmas by Chantel Guertin

Will magic happen under the mistletoe?

All year long, Zoey Andrews lives and breathes Christmas–not just because she loves everything about the festive season, but because, as the director of countless Christmas movies, she’s perpetually (and happily) surrounded by 24/7 holiday cheer. And this year Christmas has come After years of making other people’s movies, Zoey finally has the chance to make her own. There’s just one thing standing in her way of Benoît Deschamps, the sexy, bearded, grouchy and utterly frustrating, plaid shacket-wearing tree-farm-owner-slash-mayor who refuses to grant Zoey the permit to film in Chelsea, the cozy and snowy Quebec hamlet at the center of her screenplay.

With just four days left before Christmas, Zoey must change Ben’s mind, but not before an unscripted ice storm leaves them stranded in the middle of nowhere, with nothing except . . . each other.

Will Ben’s chilly resolve shatter Zoey’s Christmas movie wish? Or will Zoey be able to melt through his stubbornness–and maybe even his heart?

What do you think of my Late 2023 Most Anticipated Canadian Releases? Are there any that you’re adding to your TBR? What are some of your late 2023 most anticipated releases?

Looking for some more books to read? Check out my other bookish lists, book reviews, and monthly reading wrap-ups.