52 Books Coming Out in 2025 That You Need to Know About - Part 2
Gird your TBR a little bit harder, now
Hi book friends,
I was giddy about the response to last week’s “Part 1” of my 2025 most-anticipated list. The comments section was filled with folks getting a head start on library holds, placing pre-orders, and curating their Goodreads “Want to Read” shelf. I have truly found my people!
And… I think this week’s installment might be even more exciting. We have all the genre fiction (the romances; the thrillers), the oddballs (my list of wildcards), and we’re capping it off with the auto-buy authors all but guaranteed to top bestseller lists this spring. Without further ado:
* = I’ve read and can enthusiastically endorse
‘Shippers, start your engines!
26. First-Time Caller by B.K. Borison | Feb 11: I adored Lovelight Farms, but am excited to see Borison expand beyond that series with a new Sleepless in Seattle-inspired rom-com about a radio DJ whose show goes viral after a young girl calls in asking for dating advice for her mom.
27. Summer in the City by Alex Aster | Mar 25: Do you remember a couple years ago when this authors’ romantasy series went viral on TikTok before it even released? Well, now she’s back with her contemporary romance debut, and I’m intrigued (and not just because of the fancy NYC-themed sprayed edges). In this one, a screenwriter with writers’ block runs into a past-hookup who becomes her unlikely muse.
28. Swept Away by Beth O’Leary | Apr 1: This adventure romance’s marketing copy asks: “What if you were lost at sea...with your one-night stand?” and I, an avid romance reader, say, “Well, I certainly haven’t read this trope before…” Is it just zany enough to work? Time will tell.
29. Passion Project by London Sperry | Apr 8: An aimless twenty-something reeling from the death of her first love sets out to find passion again with the help of the first date she stood up. The author’s bio declares her a writer of “sad-girl romances with happy endings,” a proposition that really appeals to me.
30. Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory | Apr 8: Jasmine Guillory is back after a 2.5 year hiatus with a F/F romance following a freshly single woman looking to explore the dating scene and her sexuality who enlists Napa Valley’s biggest flirt to give her—as the title implies—flirting lessons. FUN! I love a dating lessons trope.
31. What Happens in Amsterdam by Rachel Lynn Solomon | May 6: A marriage of convenience—she needs a visa; he needs a wife to inherit a canal-front family home—turns into something more. If you’ve ever dreamed of running away to Europe and starting a new life (and who among us hasn’t?), this one is for you.
32. Maine Characters* by Hannah Orenstein | May 13: In the wake of her father’s death, consummate city-girl Vivian arrives at her late dad’s beloved Maine lake house, only to come face-to-face with a half-sister she didn’t know existed. Part family drama, part romance, this one has strong Elin Hilderbrand vibes, but with lobsters and lake cruises instead of hydrangeas and high-rollers.
I’m a certified scaredy cat, but even I can’t resist the lure of these. (Even if it means not sleeping for a week!)
33. A Girl Like Us by Anna Sophia McLoughlin | Feb 11: Succession meets Saltburn. Honestly, say less. But in case you need more: A reality TV star marries the most eligible bachelor on the planet, but when there’s a murder in the family, the former party girl turns detective to find out what really happened.
34. This Book Will Bury Me by Ashley Winstead | Mar 25: True crime junkies, this one is for you! A group of amateur sleuths who met on an online message board set out to unravel the mystery around the shocking death of three sisters. Surprise, they bit off more than they bargained for!
35. Saltwater by Katy Hays | Mar 25: From the author of The Cloisters comes a thriller about an old-money family and a decades-old death at their Capri villa. Brimming with family secrets and rich people glamour, I fear I won’t be able to resist.
36. I Want You More by Swan Huntley | May 21: A ghostwriter moves into the Hamptons home of her subject, a celebrity chef. But it’s not just the chef’s voice the ghostwriter takes on, it’s her clothes, her mannerisms, and soon… her whole identity.
37. Tell Them You Lied by | May 27: A toxic friendship between art school classmates takes on new layers when one disappears after a mugging staged by the other. (What?! Bonkers!) The mugging was only supposed to scare her friend, but as the days tick by, she begins to wonder if she’s the mastermind or the pawn. (Also… this cover!!)
38. Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell | June 24: Real talk: I can’t make heads or tails of this premise (a restauranteur dies; his wife and daughter receive a package from an old friend containing a lighter belonging to the recently deceased; a seemingly unrelated florist struggles with money), but I read my first Lisa Jewell last year and loved it so much that I’m ready to follow her pretty much anywhere.
39. The Last Ferry Out by | May 20: A woman heads to the desolate island where her fiancée died and is embraced by a mysterious group of expats, but the more she learns, the more convinced she becomes one of them is her deceased fiancée’s killer.
I’m not immune to good marketing copy, and these hooked me!
40. This Love by Lotte Jeffs | Jan 14: It’s only a wildcard because I haven’t heard much about it, but one tidbit has stuck: “A queer One Day.” Two women meet in their final year of university and make a pact to have a child together someday. Over the next decade, they reconcile this once-dreamt future with their ever-diverging paths. My only question is if I have the emotional fortitude to read this if it’s as emotionally destructive as its comp title.
41. Blob: A Love Story by Maggie Su | Jan 28: A woman adrift in her life discovers a blob—with eyes?—in the alley behind a bar and brings it home to mold into her ideal boyfriend. God, this sounds so weird. I’m positive I will either love or hate it. No in between.
read it and said if you liked Piglet you’d probably enjoy this, too.42. Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live by Susan Morrison | Feb 28: I love SNL. I love SNL lore. Since I almost exclusively do non-fiction on audio, this will come down to the narrator and also how gossipy it is (hopefully very!).
43. I Leave it Up to You by Jinwoo Chong | Mar 4: I don’t read many books with male narrators, but this book about a man who wakes up from a two-year coma to discover the world has moved on without him intrigues me. Out of options, he returns to help run his parents’ struggling New Jersey sushi restaurant. (The Gabrielle Zevin blurb calling it “funny and tender, with characters whose lives are satisfyingly messy” certainly doesn’t hurt.)
44. Hot Air by Marcy Dermansky | Mar 18: I’ve read one other book by this author and it was A RIDE. Her latest sounds similarly unhinged. A woman is on her first date in seven years, when her summer camp boyfriend (now a billionaire) and his perfect wife crash land their hot-air balloon in her date’s swimming pool. Also, what an eye-catching cover!
45. Fun for the Whole Family by Jennifer E. Smith | Apr 15: I think Smith’s adult debut, The Unsinkable Greta James, is an underhyped gem, so I’m looking forward to her latest about four adult siblings. Once inseparable, they’re now estranged until one sister—now a famous actress—summons her siblings to a small town in North Dakota.
You’ve probably heard about these, but in case you haven’t… let me be your hero, baby!1
46. Back After This by Linda Holmes | Feb 25: Holmes became an auto-buy author for me after her debut (Evvie Drake Starts Over) pulled me out of my early pandemic reading rut. And her newest is about a podcast host (!) taking a break from romance, until her big break is predicated on publicly dishing on her dating life. What could go wrong?
47. Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez | Apr 1: This premise does next to nothing for me, but Jimenez has earned my trust with a string of solid-gold emotional rom-coms. In her latest, a couple—one half of which is a smoking hot veterinarian—share one phenomenal date and plan to leave it at that… but can’t.
48. Great Big, Beautiful Life by Emily Henry | Apr 22: I’m excited to see EmHen step outside her waterfront rom-com comfort zone with this new one about two writers competing to pen the memoirs of a mysterious heiress. Will we get a secondary historical timeline?
49. One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune | May 6: I was already excited for this pseudo-sequel2 to Every Summer After, telling Charlie’s love story (the other brother), but the unhinged reaction DMs/videos from early readers that Fortune has been posting to IG have turned me feral. I may have to bump this up to my “next up” position.
50. The Love Haters by Katherine Center | May 20: Oh how I love a Katherine Center book! They tend to be a bit zanier than other cult-following rom-com authors, but are packed with so much heart. In her next, a journalist accepts a career-making assignment profiling a Coast Guard rescue swimmer—also the most scientifically good looking man on earth—except she may have lied about her credentials. Namely, she can’t swim.
51. It’s A Love Story by | May 27: Apparently fake credentials and T.Swift-inspired titles are trending, because Monaghan’s latest has both. A former tween star on the cusp of mainstream success exaggerated her ability to get a pop megastar (who also happened to be her first kiss) to write a song for her new movie. To make good on her word, she has to team up with another once-crush and the last person she’d want to owe a favor to. Am I smelling a love triangle?
52. Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid | Jun 3: Our first new TJR in almost three years and I am parched for her signature brand of recent-historical underestimated-female-driven drama. This one takes us to space (literally!), as it follows a female astronaut in the 1980’s whose experience of love makes her question her place in the universe.
Curious what else you’re excited about that I may have missed. Tell me in the comments!
Happy reading,
Becca
P.S. Putting this guide together was quite an undertaking (one I love, but still). If you value this work and are in a position to afford it, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Book recs are always free, but paid subscribers get access to travel guides, more personal content (like this month’s peek inside 6 people’s journals—including mine!), Q&A’s, and more. Paid subscribers also make free work like this possible.
Please go back and re-read that sung in an Enrique Igleseas voice if you didn’t already… we’ll wait.
It follows a character from Fortune’s debut Every Summer After, but she says you don’t need to read it to enjoy this one.
Thank you so much Becca! Promise no love triangle 😂
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