Our 20 Most-Anticipated New Book Releases of 2025

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Homeseeking by Karissa Chen

30.0010% OFF$27 at Amazon

Release date: Jan. 7, 2025

Karissa Chen’s debut novel, Homeseeking, is a tender love story that Reader’s Digest Books Editor Tracey Neithercott says is at the top of her 2025 reading list. “Homeseeking sounds epic in scale, a sweeping story about war and history and home,” she says. “But everything I’ve read about the novel says its beating heart is its characters, and that combo is my weakness. I plan to set aside a day to binge the whole book.”

Meet Suchi and Haiwen. These childhood friends and onetime lovers lived very different lives during the Chinese Civil War. Sixty years later, their worlds collide again at a market in Los Angeles, but moving forward isn’t as easy as picking up where they left off. Homeseeking is intimate in its focus on a single couple but sweeping in its universal truths about how lives are forever changed by war.

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Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor

30.007% OFF$27.90 at Amazon

Release date: Jan. 14, 2025

Death of the Author by New York Times bestselling author Nnedi Okorafor is metafiction at its finest. Zelu, a Nigerian American writer, has lost her job and a book deal. So she sits down to pen a story for her eyes only: A science-fiction narrative about AI and androids in a post-human world. It’s all well and good until the lines between fact and fiction start to blur. This book-within-a-book is equal parts sharp social commentary and deeply human storytelling. “Death of the Author hooked me with its clever setup, but what really sold me—and had me immediately downloading an advanced copy—was the fact that the main character is disabled,” Neithercott says. “Okorafor explores disability through Zelu’s story and the story Zelu writes, diving into what it means to be human.”

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Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao

28.9930% OFF$20.28 at Amazon

Release date: Jan. 14, 2025

Readers who got their hands on advanced copies of Water Moon swooned over the author’s world-building in this fever dream of a fantasy novel. Of all the new book releases on our list, this might be the most enchanting, with its Studio Ghibli–esque plot and atmospheric cover illustration. The premise is straightforward: A Tokyo woman inherits a magical pawnshop where customers can sell their deepest regrets. When a young physicist steps through the shop door, the two set off on a mission to find the woman’s missing father. On a dreamlike journey through mist and magic, they uncover hidden worlds beyond imagination.

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We Are Watching by Alison Gaylin

$30 at Amazon

Release date: Jan. 28, 2025

I adore new book releases that are seriously twisty and original. And mystery mastermind Alison Gaylin has gifted us this with the tense psychological suspense in We Are Watching. What happens when you are the subject of a conspiracy theory? To what lengths will people go to harm you when they’re convinced you are the villain? In We Are Watching, a series of bizarre and jarring events leads author and bookshop owner Meg Russo to believe a group of doomsday believers is out to get her. It began with a deadly car crash, but where will it end?

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Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito

24.9910% OFF$22.49 at Amazon

Release date: Feb. 4, 2025

Here’s a chance to read the book before the movie. Though Victorian Psycho won’t land at your nearest library or bookstore until February 2025, actress Margaret Qualley has already signed on as the star of the upcoming film adaptation, slated for a 2026 release. In what the publisher calls a “gruesome and gleeful new novel,” a governess with a penchant for the macabre struggles to squelch compulsions to kill her peculiar charges. Advance readers say it’s visceral, weird and wickedly funny Gothic satire.

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All Better Now by Neal Shusterman

21.9920% OFF$17.59 at Amazon

Release date: Feb. 4, 2025

Neal Shusterman has mastered the art of YA dystopian fiction, so it’s no surprise that his latest, All Better Now, is one of the most hotly anticipated books to read in 2025. It’s a pandemic book, but not in the way you might think. Crown Royale kills about 4% of its victims, but those who survive experience a rewarding side effect: complete and utter bliss. But what happens to a society devoid of negative emotions? And who gets to decide whether the aim is world peace or stopping the spread?

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We All Live Here by Jojo Moyes

30.0030% OFF$21 at Amazon

Release date: Feb. 11, 2025

New York Times bestselling author Jojo Moyes returns with another character-driven novel about flawed, relatable people. I’ll admit it: It took me a few chapters to ease into We All Live Here. Some protagonists hook me instantly. Some sidle up softly, not unlike the characters involved in the multiple love stories featured in this book.

Meet Lila Kennedy, a middle-aged mom and author down on her luck. Her husband’s new girlfriend is pregnant. Her mother just died. And is this really the best time for her estranged father to show up and move in? Messy, funny and heartwarming, this new book release is perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult or women’s fiction in general.

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The Garden by Nick Newman

$29 at Amazon

Release date: Feb. 18, 2025

If you’re looking for eerie, slow-burn books to read in 2025, check out The Garden. It’s the postapocalyptic story of two elderly sisters who live in a decaying house surrounded by a walled garden. Evelyn and Lily have never known another human. Then one day, a boy suddenly appears. His presence shakes up their routine and threatens their strong, quiet bond. Part dystopian fantasy, part horror, this book is perfect for fans of Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

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Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis

28.007% OFF$26.04 at Amazon

Release date: Feb. 25, 2025

Nussaibah Younis’s debut novel, Fundamentally, tackles weighty questions like “Who has the right to dictate someone else’s beliefs?” while delivering bold, biting humor and deeply compelling characters. Nadia is reeling from recent heartbreak when she receives a jaw-dropping job offer from the United Nations: travel to Iraq to deradicalize former ISIS brides. Once there, she’s thrown into a bureaucratic nightmare, where she quickly realizes she’s out of her depth. But an encounter with a young ISIS-affiliated refugee gives Nadia a new purpose, putting her on a journey that will change her forever.

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Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

32.0010% OFF$28.80 at Amazon

Release date: March 4, 2025

A list of most-anticipated 2025 book releases wouldn’t be complete without a mention of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, whose fans (me included!) have been eagerly awaiting her next fiction book since Americanah published in 2013. Dream Count follows four very different women and their struggles to love and be loved. There’s Chiamaka, a Nigerian travel writer living in America; her best friend, Zikora, a shattered lover but successful lawyer; Omelogor, Chiamaka’s outspoken, powerhouse cousin in Nigeria secretly wrestling with self-identity; and Kadiatou, Chiamaka’s housekeeper, an immigrant woman tasked with parenting her daughter in a new country. Through these stories, the bestselling and award-winning author asks big questions: What truly defines happiness? And how much control do we have over it?

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The King’s Messenger by Susanna Kearsley

$26.99 at Amazon

Release date: March 4, 2025

Looking for some Outlander-like romance in the new book releases on your TBR list? The King’s Messenger is equal parts historical fiction and fantastic love story. It follows a royal messenger with a supernatural gift who is sent to convict an innocent man of murder. As he grapples with growing feelings for the accused’s daughter, he must navigate a thickening web of political alliances while questioning exactly where and when his duties end. The book blends two of my favorite book genres—romance and suspense—which is why I nabbed an advance copy and started reading right away.

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Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

28.9930% OFF$20.29 at Amazon

Release date: March 4, 2025

It’s rare for a film studio to chase after the rights to a story that hasn’t even published yet, but that’s what happened with Clare Leslie Hall’s upcoming dramatic romance novel, Broken Country. Sony’s 3000 Pictures secured the rights, with Reese Witherspoon set to direct, according to Deadline. Will it join the ranks of the best book-to-movie adaptations? Time will tell! For now, add this 2025 release to your cart. It’s a suspenseful and romantic read about a woman whose first love abruptly reenters her life. The problem? She’s married. His sudden appearance unleashes a host of questions—and the domino effects get deadly.

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The Manor of Dreams by Christina Li

28.9930% OFF$20.29 at Amazon

Release date: March 11, 2025

Hailed as “Mexican Gothic meets The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo,” Christina Li’s latest, The Manor of Dreams, is an atmospheric thriller that tackles what some people must pay for the great American dream. Vivian Yin, an Oscar-winning Chinese actress, has died, and two Chinese American families are laying claim to her sprawling, unkempt estate. When the feuding families move into the mansion, a series of bizarre and eerie events makes them wonder if the place is haunted—and if so, by whom … or what?

All the Other Mothers Hate Me by Sarah Harman

$29 at Amazon

Release date: March 11, 2025

I picked up All the Other Mothers Hate Me looking for a juicy mystery with an unreliable narrator, and wow, did Sarah Harman deliver. Our protagonist, Florence, is the queen of bad decisions. (I’m team Other Mothers, I thought more than once.) But Florence is also just another mom on a mission—even if that mission involves tampering with evidence and framing innocent bystanders to protect her son, the prime suspect in a kidnapping case. Sure, she also has reason to suspect Dylan, but isn’t it a mother’s job to love unconditionally? This dramatic, fast-paced read is being developed into an FX TV series by the creator of The Bear, so read it before it hits your streaming devices.

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Happy Land by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

$29 at Amazon

Release date: April 8, 2025

Imagine an America in which a community of freed Black people founded a kingdom in the hills of North Carolina. The kingdom is Happy Land, and protagonist Nikki’s grandmother is convinced the place is real. In this beautifully layered multigenerational historical fiction story, Nikki delves into her estranged family tree to try to uncover the truth about the past.

“I would’ve picked up this book sight unseen, knowing Dolen Perkins-Valdez was behind the story,” says Neithercott. “I’d even buy it for that stunning cover alone. But what makes this one of my most-anticipated books of the year is the fact that it’s based on history. Yes, the Kingdom of Happy Land was real, and this is its story.”

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Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

29.0030% OFF$20.30 at Amazon

Release date: April 22, 2025

Emily Henry has been a #BookTok darling for a few years, and a whopping five of her books have been acquired for film or TV series adaptations. So our list of the most-anticipated new book releases of 2025 wouldn’t be complete without her next contemporary romance, Great Big Beautiful Life. The plot gives me Beach Read vibes: Two writers have every reason to keep their distance (in this case, they’re competing for the chance to write the biography of an isolated, scandal-wrecked heiress), but there’s an undeniable attraction every time they step into the same room.

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The Names by Florence Knapp

$30 at Amazon

Release date: May 6, 2025

“Chris Whitaker has called it ‘magnificent.’ Ann Napolitano says it’s ‘truly gorgeous.’ With endorsements like those, there’s no chance I’m passing up Florence Knapp’s debut novel, The Names,” says Neithercott. “The book sounds like a beautiful exploration of fate and the ripple effects of choice.”

Through three what-if storylines—all possible paths for the same characters—Knapp explores how a single decision can reshape a life. Meet Cora, a mother faced with the sudden task of naming her infant son alone. Will it be Bear, Julian or Gordon? Each child will be richly layered with all the joy and heartbreak of his one wild and precious life.

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Immaculate Conception by Ling Ling Huang

28.007% OFF$26.04 at Amazon

Release date: May 13, 2025

A good friend is hard to find, but how close is too close? Ling Ling Huang’s Immaculate Conception details the unsettling unraveling of a codependent friendship between two artists. While Mathilde’s career soars, Enke struggles. But then she marries a billionaire developing a controversial technology that allows one user to enter someone else’s mind. If Enke slipped into Mathilde’s brain, what secrets would she learn? This explosive new book release explores themes of jealousy, greed, classism and toxic female friendships in a modern dystopia.

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The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater

$30 at Amazon

Release date: June 3, 2025

“You had me at Maggie Stiefvater,” says Neithercott. “I’ve been a fan of her young adult novels for years, and I’m expecting the same lyrical prose and lifelike characters in her adult debut. The plot sounds fascinating, but in her skilled hands, it has the potential to be truly magical.”

So what’s The Listeners about? Set in a luxury hotel in West Virginia during World War II, the story follows June Hudson, a hotel manager struggling to maintain fragile inner and outer peace while hosting Nazi diplomats under government orders. Throw in some spy drama, romantic intrigue and Appalachian folklore, and you’ve got a character-driven read perfect for fans of complex emotional narratives like works by Kate Morton and Amor Towles.