Most Anticipated Books of 2025

I was late to the party with Sangu Mandanna’s last romance, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, and it’s a mistake I won’t make again. Next up is a story about a reluctant innkeeper who’s lost her magic after resurrecting her great aunt from the dead. She has a chance to get her power back, but she has to work with a grump librarian/once upon a time one-night stand. Plus, there’s a talking fox. It’s unclear whether this is a sequel to the previous witch-centered book, but it does seem to take place in the same cozy English world, and I couldn’t be more excited to go back.

This book sounds like a profoundly moving exploration of Black autistic identity, informed by the author’s background as a neurodivergent woman and mother. It’s been high on my to-read list, and I’m excited to finally read it this spring. It follows Aiden, a Black and autistic high school student who dreams of following his older brother Brandon’s footsteps and making the football team. But when his chance finally comes, rising tensions among the other players culminate in a crisis on game day that tests Aiden and Brandon’s relationship.

I’ve never read a V. E. Schwab book, but this looks like the perfect place to start. In her Instagram announcement for the book, she said, “The toxic lesbian vampires are coming,” and that’s enough to sell me on it. She also says this book is “a reckoning — both with myself and with my work” and that it’s a departure from trying to make herself and her stories “smaller, more palatable.” I can’t wait to see what that means. This follows three women in different time periods and locations — 1530s Santo Domingo de la Calzada, 1830s London, and 2019 Boston — whose immortal lives become intertwined.

Tarot cards and a missing person case? Yes, please. I loved Mia Manansala’s Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery series so I’m thrilled to read the author’s first YA book. High schooler Danika Dizon loves reading people’s tarot cards. But after she does a tarot reading for a classmate, the girl goes missing. The young woman’s younger sister asks Dizon to help find her. Dizon seizes the opportunity, wanting to show her parents that she can follow in their PI and mystery-solving footsteps. In an interview, Manansala told me that with the exception of the first tarot card reading, she pulled cards for all the subsequent ones. How cool!

Okorafor has always blended literary qualities into her Africanfuturism science fiction. With Death of the Author, though, she’s taking that to new heights. Zelu is a disabled Nigerian-American woman who has put success above everything in her life. When she finally pens and publishes her science fiction novel, everything changes. She’s catapulted into stardom, but her novel’s meaning becomes lost, distorted, and soon begins to change the entire world.

Isla arranges a trip to Japan to learn about her great-great-grandfather’s origins, which point to him being a samurai. In Kagoshima, she gets swept back to the late 19^th-century Samurai era. Unaware of the customs of the time, she’s rescued and assisted by a samurai named Keiichirō, whom she eventually falls in love with. Isla, having traveled through time, is aware of future events. Will she fight for a future in a past where Keiichirō dies? This book has taught me a great deal, especially about Japan’s Satsuma Rebellion and a little bit of Japanese history. It’s an atmospheric journey through history that also provides my romantasy fix.

Award-winning editor Wendy N. Wagner is sure to bring what we need in 2025, and that’s a horror tale of finding what’s missing and uncovering secrets and terrors beyond the imagination. Erin’s brother Bryan has been missing for years. He seemed to disappear into thin air within the lush forests of the Pacific Northwest. Erin resolves to discover what happened to her brother and travels there, and what she finds instead is a girl in a creek, among other forces beyond reckoning. If you (like me) are seeking comfort in beautifully written horror, especially as we freefall into 2025, put Girl in the Creek on your TBR.

Wilkerson is the author of Black Cake, a bestselling novel praised by general readers and critics alike, so expectations—mine included—are high for her sophomore novel. When “sweeping” and “multi-generational epic” are used to describe a book, you have my attention. My interest in these books peaked with Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi and I haven’t stopped searching for more of the same. I don’t think this novel is going to be like Homegoing, but I do believe it will be an engaging, powerful page-turner, and I can’t wait to lose myself in this story about an affluent Black family, the tragic murder of a son, and its repercussions on a daughter.

Selby’s debut memoir is about their experience working as a wildland firefighter. After learning the skills for two years, they then joined a specialty-trained team called the hotshots. This book follows five fire seasons of Selby’s experiences and learning how to navigate the intricacies of the work alongside rampant machismo and sexism from the mostly male crews with which they worked. They marry those personal experiences with a look at the ways in which American fire policies have made land stewardship and protection more challenging. Why has policy, for example, ignored hundreds of years of Indigenous knowledge? This looks so damn fiery!

This year brings another installment in Huda Famey’s hilarious and poignant comic memoir series. It’s Huda’s junior year and she’s all prepared to do all of the things that will help her get into the best college possible. But then she gets some earth-shattering news: her parents are divorcing. Huda isn’t handling the news well. How will the Muslim community react? What will it be like living with her family? Is her future even going to be anywhere that she hoped it could be? Everything feels completely out of control, but as she finds a new normal, perhaps she’ll find that things in her world are, somehow, even better now.

I am obsessed and in love with this witchy series! You get a secret government department of witches (originally founded by Anne Boleyn), action, deep friendship, good vs evil, real laughs, and the reading experience of giving a giant middle finger to oppressors. Plus, the audiobooks are narrated by Aoife McMahon and then Nicola Coughlan (aka Penelope Featherington, aka Clare Devlin), which is an added chef’s kiss. All that is to say, I will tackle someone for the final book in the trilogy, Human Rites!

Sapphic vampire classic Carmilla is finally getting a full-length adaptation, and I can’t wait! In Dunn’s adaptation, Lenore is unhappily married to a big-time steel mogul. When they take in a girl injured in an accident at the edge of their estate, Lenore finds herself increasingly intrigued by her, even seduced…despite the increasing clues that Carmilla’s beauty might hide serious danger. It’ll be everything we hope for in a gothic vampire romance—blood, darkness, puzzling illnesses, unsettling attraction—with a big gay twist.

Kimberly Lemming knows how to write ridiculous spicy SF/F like nobody’s business! Much like her Mead Mishaps series, the first of her new Cosmic Chaos books is one part silly, two parts sexy, and all around a fantastically fun time. The story follows a wildlife biologist abducted by aliens and dropped into a world full of dinosaurs and two horned hotties claiming she’s their fated mate. It’s the alien polycule you didn’t know you needed, but trust me when I say you need it.

I flew through Sue Lynn Tan’s Daughter of the Moon Goddess, and I’m ready for this standalone romantasy set in the same ancient Chinese mythology-inspired world. Liyen is a young heir poised to inherit the Tianxian throne when things start to get nasty. She’s poisoned and her grandfather saves her, but angers the immortals in the process. Then, once the immortal queen sends the God of War to attack Tianxia, Liyen’s grandfather dies. To save her people, she will travel to the Immortal Realm, form alliances, and even maybe fall in love…maybe even with that very same God of War.

As a big fan of Rebecca Romney’s delightful history of the printed book, Printer’s Error, I cannot wait to read about what she uncovered in researching Jane Austen’s reading habits. Our educations include reading the classics that influenced today’s authors. Why aren’t we reading the books that influenced Jane Austen? This book makes a case for why we should. A few years back, I wrote about Jane rescuing seven gothic novels from obscurity through Northanger Abbey. I expect Romney’s book to rescue dozens more amazing novels. I’m so ready for this book to completely blow up my TBR.

Dark academia fantasy by R.F. Kuang was always going to land on my list of books to look forward to in 2025, and that’s before I realized Katabasis involved a descent into actual Hell. Two grad students of Magick at Cambridge have to put their rivalry on ice to save their professor’s soul after he dies in an accident that is maybe one of their fault. They make the journey to h-e-double-hockey-sticks armed with Dante and Orpheus as their guides and enough chalk to draw the Pentagrams they’ll need to cast their spells. Surely nothing could go wrong in the bad place! I am so excited for this.

I have to admit that this book got put on my radar for the absolutely gorgeous cover. Luckily, the story inside is also right up my alley. It follows Angela Gutierrez, a librarian who goes viral for a video talking about being a late bloomer and asexual. Now, she’s putting on a scavenger hunt where the winner gets to be her first kiss. She’s getting help from her unrequited crush, Krystal Ramirez. But the more time they spend together, the more Angela begins to hope that the kiss might come from Krystal instead. This looks absolutely adorable, and I’m a sucker for a sapphic romance with a librarian main character.

Jamie is your quintessential queer New England academic with a remarkable secret: she is a powerful witch. Her mother, Serena, has been isolating and grieving for years after the death of her wife and whatever happened to her professional life. Jamie is deep in a centuries-old magical book but makes time to teach her mom some magic in hopes of coaxing her out of hiding; however, Jamie doesn’t know the full story of what happened in Serena’s life years ago, and before long, she finds herself having to uncover secrets, solve mysteries, and learn the true nature of magic before both of their lives are ruined. I cannot wait to dive into this book.

Last year I read a book that reimagined the life of La Malinche, the Nahua woman who was Hernan Cortes’ translator in his conquest of what we now call Mexico. I said out loud that I wanted more Malinche lit and days later, I got word of this retelling. I love stories that examine the narratives of maligned women (Circe, Stone Blind, Kaikeyi), putting their experiences into context and considering who shaped those narratives in the first place. La Malinche was almost certainly a victim herself, yet she is one of the most reviled and misunderstood women in Mexican history. I cannot wait to see what Chapa does with her story in this historical fantasy retelling.

Inspired by African American and Arthurian legend, the third book in Tracy Deonn’s Legendborn Cycle is the exciting continuation of the award-winning YA fantasy series. Once again, Bree Matthews has difficult decisions on her hands as magical threats continue to mount. Now isolated from the Legendborn Order, her ancestral ties, and her friends, Bree is more alone than she’s ever been. She is stubborn, clever, and brave, but will she be able to pay the cost of the bargain she’s made with a dangerous force? Deonn is a triple threat with myth, storytelling, and character at her fingertips. I cannot wait to see what she does next.

Get ready for this gripping, unsettling work of literary horror! Imagine something inexplicable happens to someone you love, and there are no answers. That is what happens to strangers Jake and Mariko. They carry around a grief for an unexplained loss in their lives, until they meet in an airport and discover their loved ones both knew the same mysterious woman. Fueled by this knowledge, Jake goes on a hunt for other people who knew her. It’s a search that will go back decades, and reveal a woman unlike anything the world has seen before. I need everyone to read this ASAP, so more people can be irreparably haunted by it, please and thank you.

I adored Parachute Kids, a middle grade graphic novel about three undocumented Taiwanese immigrant siblings trying to make it without their parents in California. The second book in the series continues to follow the trio as Jia-Xi gets a new job, Ke-Gang acquires a crush, and Feng-Li celebrates her 11th birthday. Their parents are still awaiting Visa approval in Taiwan. This series is based on the author’s experiences. I can’t wait to read this second book in the series!

Out from Hub City Press — an indie press based in South Carolina — Plum is a coming-of-age novel of the internet age. J grew up in a house with an alcoholic father and a mother who only ever seemed interested in appeasing him. So for J, her brother was her whole universe. They have big plans to get out and see the world. But when her brother disappears, so do her dreams of a different life. With little left to her, J searches the internet for escape. Ultimately, J must realize that the only person coming to save her is herself. Dark and unflinching, Plum is a novel you won’t want to miss.

There has never been a time when I couldn’t rely on Kevin Wilson to deliver a book full of heart and humor. This year, we’re getting a road trip tale from him. The book follows Madeline, who lives with her mother on a farm in Tennessee. Her father abandoned them 20 years ago and things have been just fine since. But then Reuben pulls up and claims he’s Mads’s half-brother because his father abandoned the family 30 years ago. And oh, there’s a whole family of others out there related to one man. Now, they’re on a wild trip across the country in a PT Cruiser to collect them all and track down their collective father. Found family indeed!

Kristen Arnett is a maestro of dark humor, known for twisting familiar setups into fresh punchlines. So when I heard she was writing a novel about a horny lesbian clown in Florida, I knew it was going to be just the right amount of demented. It’s a hilarious book with an opening scene so shockingly absurd that you simply must see what happens next. But it’s also so much more: a story about choosing laughter over tears, a contemplation on committing to the bit, and a pursuit of high art in low places. Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One is a zany and emotionally resonant book with plenty of tricks up its sleeve.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia + witches feels like it was plucked from my personal wishlist. Minerva is a grad student researching the history of horror literature, specifically the work of an obscure author of dark fiction. She learns that the author’s most famous work was inspired by a true story wherein that author, at the same university that Minerva attends, harbored an obsession with her glamorous roommate who then mysteriously disappeared. The more Minerva learns about that story, the more the events remind her of the stories her nana told her about her childhood in 1900s Mexico, ones that involve a run-in with a witch… I want it now!

Lex Croucher is a staple of the queer romantasy genre, but their upcoming young adult novel seems like it will lean heavily on fantasy and magic worldbuilding. Briar and Seb are best friends, but when Seb gets into the Temple School of Thaumaturgy, Briar has to come to grips with his unmagical existence. Briar then gets a job looking into the library of magical textbooks that not even those enrolled at the school have access to. This book is already exciting with the promise of friendship drama, dark academia, and magic mystery.

Sarah MacLean’s historical romance novels are my all-time favorites, but I’m extra excited to read her contemporary debut this year. Alice has built her own life away from her billionaire family and their dysfunctional, secret-keeping ways. But the death of her father brings her back to the family’s private island off the coast of Rhode Island. And an inheritance game, which requires she stay for a week and complete a series of tasks, will keep her there. Family mysteries and memories abound in a sea of grief, rivalry, and love. And mention of the handsome Jack Dean, a trusted colleague of Alice’s father, hints at a strong romance plot line!

Sutanto’s Aunties series filled my soul, and when she wrote the standalone Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, I was delighted. And I wasn’t the only one. Folks loved Vera—Chinatown teahouse purveyor-turned-private eye—so much that Sutanto wrote a follow-up. In her second Vera Wong book, everyone’s favorite meddler finds herself getting bored without a murder to solve. When she learns of a suspicious death, she can’t help but investigate…even when this new case places her and her friends in danger. Once more, Sutanto brings all the LOLs, while also touching upon weighty issues.

I love alien fiction because it is actually about the human condition; aliens are a way to slightly distance ourselves from our deepest desires and feelings while holding up a mirror with flashing lights to remind us that it is OKAY to lean into those things. They make us, well, human.

Captain Iona plans to help rescue her alien brother who has arrived on Earth and disguised himself as a movie star to go undetected. But then there’s a malfunction and Captain Iona accidentally begins an alien invasion, full of teen aliens who find themselves in the weirdest, scariest, and best scenarios they could have ever imagined. Each of the stories links back to The Event, the night the rescue mission went south.