The most anticipated reads of 2025

‘I did an evil thing to be put in here, and I’m going to have to do an evil thing to get out.’

Horror fans: mark your calendars. Finally we have a new book from the much-loved Grady Hendrix, author of The Final Girl Support Group. St. Augustine, Florida. 1970. Fifteen-year-old Fern has just arrived at Wellwood House, a 'home' for unwed mothers. Every second of her and the other teenagers' days is rigidly controlled by adults who claim to know what's best. Then Fern is given a book about witchcraft, and the balance of power suddenly shifts. But such gifts always come with a price. And it's usually paid in blood.

Eva is sixteen and living in Brooklyn when she meets super-rich Upper East-Sider Jamie in the hospital her grandmother is dying in. So begins this coming-of-age debut novel from short story writer Clare Sestanovich. As Eva goes to university, and falls in and out of love, Jamie spirals away from her into a world of radical politics and religion. But they're both looking for the same thing: a way to define themselves and their beliefs in a divided and unjust world. 

The co-creator of Adventures on Trains returns with a brand new series – think Indiana Jones meets the time travel of Doctor Who. One night, Sim discovers why he and his mum never stay in one place for very long: she can open doors in time, and the sinister Council of Keys want to find her. Running for their lives and into a time travelling mission to find a lost tomb with a powerful door to Ancient Egypt, Sim and his friends must solve the mystery of the golden heart scarab before the Council finds them. Will their time run out?

Get ready to meet Patch Simmons, your new favourite diarist, in this hilarious YA rom-com debut from actor and comedian Harry Trevaldwyn. Patch has decided that this is the year he will get a boyfriend, and it will either be Peter, who's just moved from New York, or his best friend Sam. Whether or not they actually like boys – or him – is a problem for later. "Funny, voicey and fresh. Patch makes Georgia Nicolson seem demure and composed," says Elle McNicoll, author of Some Like it Cold.

Helen Scheuerer, author of the Legends of Thezmarr series, brings us her new enemies-to-lovers romantasy, set five years later. Wren Embervale wants to concentrate on her main interest: vengeance. But when a new poison is used in an attack on a king, she is offered a place at an ancient academy to try to find an antidote – and she must conquer a gruelling series of deadly trials to get in. Even more deadly may be the man supposedly protecting her, Torj Elderbrock, whose last charge was a victim of Wren's previous life as an assassin. . .

Garrett Carr's debut takes us to Ireland's west coat in the 1970s, where a baby is found alone on the beach. Adopted by fisherman Ambrose Bonnar, the boy captivates Bonnar's family and the close-knit town immediately, through love, worry and envy. Set over twenty years, this is a tale of ordinary lives made extraordinary, and a quiet community attempting to adapt in a fast-changing world.

Living in south London, doing her best to support her family after being abandoned by her father as a child, twenty-three-year-old Sirad Ali is pretty sure this is not the life she really wants. Then, on her commute to work, she's suddenly transported to an alternate life in present-day Mogadishu, and encounters Ubah, the woman she could have been had her parents not fled to London during the Somali Civil War. On her equally sudden return to Greenwich, Sirad must find a way to continue with her normal life. But then Ubah mysteriously appears in London.

The author of The Attic Child is back, with a powerful dual narrative historical novel. To the world Mrs Copplefield is the epitome of Victorian propriety: an exemplary society lady who writes a weekly column advising young ladies on how to be better wives. Only Adeline has never been a good wife or mother; she has no claim to the Copplefield name, nor is she an English lady. Now a black woman, born in Africa, who dared to pretend to be something she was not, is on trial in the English courts with all of London society baying for her blood. And she is ready to tell her story.

Queen of eco-friendly cleaning and gardening tips, Nancy Birthwhistle, returns to her cooking roots with Nancy's Green and Easy Kitchen. Delicious recipes shows us how to cook and eat in a sustainable and budget-friendly way, from batch-cooking the basics to avoid ultra-processed food to great ideas for leftovers. From stocks, soups and preserves, to weekday family meals and celebration dinners – and a bit of everything in between – Nancy has you covered in the kitchen with plenty of solutions for a greener way of life without breaking the bank.

The wait is almost over for the epic follow-up to Cassandra Clare's first adult novel, the New York Times bestseller Sword Catcher. Lin and Kel once again find themselves entangled with the ruler of Castellane’s criminal underworld. As the simmering tensions in their city-state reach a fever pitch, they must decide who to trust when any false move means death – or worse.

There's always a sense of anticipation around a new book from the author of Room and The Wonder. Inspired by a famous rail disaster (we challenge you to Google 'Montparnasse derailment' and not go on to want to read this book), The Paris Express is a brilliant historical thriller set in late nineteenth-century France. We travel on the Granville to Paris express train, amongst huge wealth and startling poverty, railway crew and artists, statesman and anarchists, secrets and lies; everyone bound together by the fate of the Paris Express.

This standalone Crowns of Nyaxia novel introduces us to trained assassin Sylina just as she begins a crucial mission: infiltrate the army of invading brutal vampire conqueror, Atrius, earn his trust, and kill him. But when she finally joins his ranks, Sylina discovers a side of him that she does not expect, forging a connection between them that could cost her everything. 

Take Succession and add some magic and you're on your way to capturing the spirit of Olivie Blake's latest morally grey fantasy novel. Who will inherit Wrenfare Magitech? Will it be Meredith, successful CEO of her own company, recent curer of mental illness and a complete fraud? Arthur, soon to lose his seat in Congress, and his wife? Or Eilidh, former world-famous ballerina now blighted by injury? It's time for the Wrens to wrestle with their rivalries and unrealised potential.

Two competing stories – and genres – combine to peel back the nature of grief in this startlingly original debut novel. When Benjamin dies at his own birthday party, Abigail's world is quite literally split in two. On one side, she attempts to grasp the reality of her brother's death, while on the other everything is not quite what it seems: an eminent detective has arrived to track down the murderer, and there's suddenly a butler, a gardener and a locked-room mystery where everyone is a suspect.

If you loved The Cat Who Saved Books, you'll have been waiting for this one, and if you're yet to discover the joys of Sosuke Natsukawa's uplifting tales of talking cats and the power of literature, you are in for a treat. Thirteen year old Nanami has noticed that books keep disappearing from the library. Spotting a suspicious man behaving strangely, she decides to follow him – only to be intercepted by a talking tabby cat called Tiger. Are they brave enough to find the missing books together?

Megan Hunter is proving herself to be a truly versatile writer, moving from the note-like prose of dystopia The End We Start From (recently adapted into a film starring Jodie Comer) to the unsettling contemporary fable The Harpy. This, her third novel, sees her skillfully master a new style and genre once again. Days of Light follows Ivy, a young woman whose life is forever changed when her brother Joseph drowns near their family home. At his funeral, she meets the man she will marry and the woman she will love, setting the course for a life marked by unconventional choices. Spanning from 1938, through World War II, and into the twenty-first century, the novel traces Ivy's journey in a world shaped by art, love, and the search for meaning.

The author The Lamplighters returns with another breathtaking mystery. Eighteen years ago, the man who killed Birdie's sister was sent to prison. Now, in January 1989, Jimmy Maguire is out. And Birdie wants him to pay with more than years. But there's more to their relationship than Birdie likes to admit. Did Jimmy kill Birdie’s sister, or is he the only one she can really trust? 

How better to mark the twentieth anniversary of the first Logan McRae novel than with a brand new one? We can't even tell you the title yet, but we can say that things are not going well for Aberdeen's NE Division: everyone's off sick, no-one's allowed any holiday and someone has firebombed a hotel. Detective Inspector Logan McRae is left to kick off a major murder investigation with a skeleton staff of misfits, idiots and malingerers.

Multi-award-winning fantasy author Jen Williams' first foray into YA romantasy is epic in every sense. In a world where gods and monsters roam the earth, and a group of near-humans called the Sleepless are cursed to share their bodies with evil spirits, Elver is the guardian of a dangerous forest, her skin poisonous to other humans. Artair, however, is not human, he's one of the Sleepless, and co-inhabits his body with the manipulative and scheming Lucian. When the three of them meet, the paths they choose are set to burn the very foundations of their world. 

The sixties. Teenager Edith has been sent by her mother to rural Italy. She must find her sister Lydia, a ballet dancer, help as she gives birth, then make a phone call which will seal all their fates. Decades later, another phone call changes the course of Edith's best friend Maebh's life, as an American man claiming to be her brother asks to meet. This new novel from bestselling author Sarah Moss explores familial love, migration and new beginnings.

If you like your literature bittersweet, funny and painfully relatable, this debut novel is for you. Maggie, Harley and Róise are friends on the brink: of triumph, catastrophe, or maybe just finally growing up. Their crumbling Belfast house share has been witness to their roaring twenties, but now fault-lines are beginning to show. The three girls are still grieving the tragic death of their friend, Lydia, whose room remains untouched. Their last big fight hangs heavy over their heads, unspoken since the accident. And now they are all beginning to unravel.

The new book from V. E. Schwab, the No. 1 Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, is a triumph: dark, lovely and utterly bewitching. We move from Santo Domingo de la Calzada, 1532, to London, 1837, and Boston, 2019. We move with three young women, their bodies planted in the same soil, their stories tangling like roots. One grows high, one grows deep, one grows wild. And all of them grow teeth. Schwab has written a fierce new take on the immorality tale and this queer love story features death, resurrection, hunger, and rage. 

A shocking act of violence brings long-held resentments and rivalries to the surface in Hal Ebbott's elegant debut. Amos and Emerson have had an unbreakable friendship for over thirty years. Their wives are close. Their daughters grew up together. They're enjoying a wealthy middle age. But now their worlds have been shattered and each must choose whom and what they love most.

The story of the Alterman family is one of maybe-lived lives, parallel worlds and possibilities. It's 1938, and Sonja is leaving behind her parents and brother in Nazi-occupied Austria to travel to safety in London. She is the only one who survives. It's 1966 and Sonja's mother Fania works in Montreal, having lost her entire family in the war. It's 2016 and Fania's husband lives in Vienna, as he always has. Surely none of these realities can co-exist, and yet they seem to be drawing closer. This book is what happens when grief and hope collide.

Get ready for the new novel from one of 2024's breakout cosy fantasy authors, Lucy Jane Wood. Set in the same world as debut Rewitched, Uncharmed follows Annie Wildwood as her perfect world is thrown into chaos by a troubled teenage witch she has been asked to mentor.

In his Booker Prize shortlisted novel, Percival Everett lays out a precise and painful depiction of the Antebellum South on the cusp of Civil War, shot through with his trademark dry humour and semantic flair. The novel is told from the perspective of James (formerly ‘Jim’), the affable companion of Huckleberry Finn in Mark Twain’s novel. Crucially in Everett’s re-telling, James is resurrected from the graveyard of racist archetypes, and is given multiple dimensions and a character arc of his own: when James embarks on a quest to secure his wife and daughter’s freedom, Huck tags along for the ride.

The Women follows twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath. Raised on California’s idyllic Coronado Island and sheltered by her conservative parents, she's always prided herself on doing the right thing, being a good girl. But in 1965 the world is changing, and she suddenly imagines a different path for her life. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she impulsively joins the Army Nurses Corps and follows him there. Amidst chaos and heartbreak, Frankie finds strength in female friendship and learns the value of sacrifice and commitment. This emotionally charged novel illuminates the often-forgotten stories of women who bravely served their country.

The latest edition in the sensational Before the Coffee Gets Cold series translated from Japanese, is out in paperback in May 2025. Four new guests enter the mysterious Tokyo café, each with a secret wish, each hoping to go back in time to fulfil it as their coffee is poured . . .

This lost treasure from beloved author Lucinda Riley has been reworked and given new life by her son Harry Whittaker. Born and raised in a small village on the Yorkshire moors, Leah Thompson grows more beautiful with each passing day. When she catches the attention of the influential, troubled Delancey family, she knows her life will never be the same again. Years later, Leah has taken the modelling world by storm, and is living in the lap of luxury. But her past follows her like a dark shadow, mysteriously intertwined with the tragic tale of two young siblings in Poland during the Second World War. As two generations of secrets threaten to explode, Leah is haunted by a fatal, forgotten prophecy from her past, and must fight to challenge the destiny that has been mapped out for her in the stars.

'Your friends would probably describe me as nice. But guess what? I can't stand your friends.'

Come for the jaw-dropping insider view and vicarious thrill of a sociopath recounting their darker impulses, stay for the redemptive love story and fascinating insights you could only get from a sociopath who is also a doctor of psychology. Ever since she was a small child, Patric Gagne knew she was different. Finally diagnosed as an adult, she soon realised that the official descriptions of sociopathy were far from the full story. With help, and a change in perceptions, is there a way for sociopaths to integrate happily into society? And can she find it before her own behaviour goes a step too far?

What actually happened when Eilis returned to New York? Long Island is the long-awaited sequel to Colm Tóibín's prize-winning, bestselling novel Brooklyn. Eilis and Tony have built a secure, happy life; twenty years married and with two children looking towards a good future. But then a man with an Irish accent knocks on their door, and everything changes. Did Eilis make the wrong choice marrying Tony all those years ago? Is it too late now to take a different path?

A man’s body is found by a local dog walker on the common outside Rosebank, a care home for trouble teens. The victim is Josh, a staff member. DI Vera Stanhope is called out to investigate the death. Her only clue is the disappearance of one of the home’s residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spence. Vera can’t bring herself to believe that a teenager is responsible for the murder, but even she can’t dismiss the possibility. Vera, Joe and new team member Rosie Bell are soon embroiled in the case, and when a second body is found near the Three Dark Wives landmark, superstition and folklore begin to collide with fact.

When Dwayne and Alice Odom are killed, the police report states clearly that it was a drug overdose. So why is their daughter, Betty, claiming that’s not the truth? Entangled in a web of disbelief and danger, Betty Odom's only ally comes in the form of Travis Devine, a bodyguard on the run from a skilled predator. But when an informant is found murdered, Devine knows this job is perhaps even more dangerous than the one he’s running from . . . and the true enemy may be on his side. With Baldacci's signature blend of suspense and revelation, To Die For promises a journey fraught with risk, secrets, and the quest for justice.

When James Taylor arrives late for a funeral, he has to stand at the back of the small church. But, as the service progresses, Taylor notices a man six rows in front of him. At first he thinks he must be mistaken, but the more he looks at the man, the more convinced Taylor becomes that this is his old schoolfriend Rufus Rorke. But he died two years ago. . . Meanwhile, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace has been alerted to a number of suspicious deaths that he can’t get out of his mind. But how are they linked? And could they possibly be connected to Rufus Rorke?

Olifantshoek, Southern Africa, 1688: The Cape's violent south-east wind carries whispers of the unquiet dead through a deserted valley. Suzanne Joubert, escaping war-torn France, seeks the truth of her cousin, the she-captain and pirate Louise Reydon-Joubert, who vanished at the Cape over six decades ago. Centuries later in Franschhoek, journalist Isabelle Lepard, another Joubert, searches for her ancestors in Olifantshoek. She's determined to restore the women of her lineage to history. But she quickly discovers that the tragedies and crimes of the past are far from over. Isabelle faces a race against time if she is not only going to discover the truth but escape with her life. This is the fourth and final instalment in the Joubert Family Chronicles series.