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I've just knocked off my 110th read for the year – including some of July's best new releases.

Here's the best of the bunch, vetted and loved by yours truly, from thriller-royalty to ballsy romance and a mesmerising family epic.

But first, watch the Parenting Out Loud hosts on the book you should add to your reading list. Post continues below.

Country People by Daniel Mason.

Out July 7.

Honestly, I didn't expect to be as completely taken by Country People as I was. I enjoyed Mason's big, beloved novel, North Woods a few years ago but nothing that really stuck in my brain. This one, however, is bloody magical. It is the perfect amount of offbeat and whimsical and clever for me to think, 20 pages in, 'I love this book'.

When my four-year-old asked what I was reading, I told her it was a story about a family; a dad, mum, brother and sister who move to the country with their dog and meet new people and explore the forests together.

"Like an adult's Faraway Tree?" she asked. Surprisingly close.

Mason nails the pace, with a drilled-down focus on odd moments and mesmerising side stories and facts. He introduces more characters than seems feasible, but somehow it all hums. Halfway through, in fact, the whole way through, I had no idea where it was going, and as a plot-driven reader that would normally make me mentally sign off, but I was so, so into this.

The voracity with which I was reading did lull in the second half, but the observations on parenthood, America, conspiracy-world, nature, small towns, academia and the community radio interludes made it hard to put down.

It Could Have Been Her by Lisa Jewell.

Out June 30.

What's it called when your name has some bearing on you as a person? Nominative determinism? Something something? Lisa Jewell sticks to that theory because damn, her thrillers are such gems.

Like everyone else who's read it, I Iovvved None Of This Is True and have been waiting for her to blow us away again. Now, her latest, It Could Have Been Her is nearly out and I got my mitts on it and read it in several hours. It is disgustingly tense and dark and freaky and I refused to keep it in my room in case its sinister vibes infected me. So yep, it's good.

In a nutshell: Jane is on the backend of her third divorce and looking for something to throw herself into. Then a girl goes missing in her patch of English countryside and an encounter she once had with a house of horrors comes full circle. 

She's good! Cancel all plans indeed. 

Good Intentions by Jessy Wu.

Out June 30.

Calling all fellow corporate drones, fans of Industry, Succession and hottttt lovvvvve storrriesss! Good Intentions is the salve we need in this morally farked, $ obsessed world.

Nadia and Jake met in uni, fell in love over the saucy background of investigative, corruption-busting journalism. Then Nadia followed the dollar signs to NYC's land of venture capitalism (da-dum). What starts as a campus love-story becomes a corporate greed all-in.

I don't think I could have inhaled this any faster. As someone who has made a career in similar capitalist hellspaces, this kept my mouth agape and soul wide open. Wu's own background in tech start-up venture capitalism, and then journalist for the Australian Financial Review, among others, means she knows this world front to back. And it shows.

Yay, investigative journalism! Yay, big ballsy court hearings! Yay, morals! Yay, love! Yay, debut Aussie authors!! 

Worry Doll by Laura McPhee-Browne.

Out June 30.

Darling of the Aussie lit scene, Worry Doll follows McPhee-Brown's beloved novels Cherry Beach and Little Plum with another that will haunt you long after the last page. This is an unnerving and stunningly observed double portrait of two women, Heloise and Lacey and the obsessive, mismatched and maddening affair that follows. The writing is confident and seductive - a pitch-perfect exploration of the delusions of love. 

Wish there had been another section from Heloise after Lacey's to answer all the questions I still have. Will be a great one to discuss in your book club.

The Mortons by Justine Larbalestier and Scott Westerfeld.

Out July 21.

Hello, dark academia! Hello gothic thriller! The Mortons immediately spun me into the world of a modern-day, old-money crime family who live by a strict code of extortion and assassination.

I was consumed from the first pages — expertly tailored vintage wardrobes, elaborate cocktails and a boarding school where legacy families learn to exercise control over their wealthy peers. 

The world-building here is elite, sinister and so much fun. While the first half is stronger than the second – take me back to the college halls! – it's twisty, twisted and there's a second book in the works, so hopefully we'll be back with the batshit Morton's soon.

For more from Charley, follow @book_smut on Instagram.

Feature image: Supplied.