I will be honest, I'm quite excited for 2025; so many great books are releasing, so why not take a look, and maybe put some in your radar.

For this list, I decided to mix traditionally published, indie published and self-published; I will miss many books because trust me, I can't be as exhaustive as I would like, but let's dive in!

Prequel Novella to the Graven, by Essa Hassen (Grimdark Magazine / July 2025)

It’ll be a fun, brutal, cinematic, sensory introduction to the bubble multiverse for new readers, and answer some origin story questions for trilogy fans. A wayward culinarian finds himself dropped into a battle royale hunt across the most dangerous planet in the multiverse, through a wilderness of alien ecology like Scavengers Reign, and featuring the creative cooking of Delicious in Dungeon. His specialty is transuniversal physics and how materials transform between pocket universes—a skill that can be as deadly as it is delectable. Look forward to this in July 2025!

Once Was Willem, by M.R. Carey (Orbit Books / 4th March 2025)

From the bestselling M. R. Carey comes an utterly unique and enchantingly dark epic fantasy fable like no other.

This is the tale of Once Was Willem, who - eleven hundred and some years after the death of Christ, in the kingdom that had but recently begun to call itself England - rose from the dead to defeat a great evil facing the humble village of Cosham.

Pennick for all its beauty was ever a place with a dark reputation. The forests of the Chase were said to be home to nixies and boggarts, and there was a common belief, passed down through many generations, that the castle housed an unquiet ghost of terrible and malign power. These rumours I can attest were all true; indeed they fell short of the truth by a long way . . 

The Last Contract of Isako, by Fonda Lee (Orbit Books / 9th October 2025)

  Inspired by samurai movies and Fonda’s former business career, The Last Contract of Isako is a searing space opera like no other that takes aim squarely at late-stage capitalism. Get ready to meet an aging contractor, Ithmus Isako, whose final mission thrusts her deep into a world of espionage and sword fights on an isolated colony planet.  

Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame, by Neon Yang (TorDotCom / 6th May 2025)

A new Queer, Asian-inspired fantasy novella about a renowned dragon slayer who never takes her armor off in public, Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame reads like She Who Became the Sun meets The Mandalorian, with dragons!

The fiercely independent nation of Quanbao is isolated, reclusive, and something of a mystery to the rest of the world. It is rumored that there, dragons are not feared as is right and proper but instead loved and worshiped.

Yeva is perhaps a strange emissary to these people. Not only because their face has never been seen in public, but because they are a hero born to a birthright that makes them suited for their task—hunting dragons.

And so the dragon hunter must woo Quanbao's queen—the Lady Sookhee—to understand what secrets she is hiding. A woman reasonably suspicious of Yeva's intentions, and the imperial might of the throne she represents, Sookhee bears the burden of the safety of her entire people. How can she trust this stranger newly arrived to her court, a weapon forged in blood and fire, to understand what her people need and how best to safeguard their future?  

Loyalty to the Max, by Maya Darjani (28th May 2025)

Max Dupont stars in his own adventure in the second installment of the Broken Union series, taking place one year after Ancient as the Stars.

Captain Maxine Dupont of the Earth Union is a rogue. A maverick. A clear-headed arbitrator of right and wrong– rules be damned.

But even Max stumbles when he encounters his latest challenge. The Union is collaborating with former enemy Mars to fix the collapse of interstellar travel–but at the cost of vulnerable citizens. Max has to figure out where his loyalties lie–and if treason is a price he's willing to pay for doing the right thing.

Lieutenant Ren Yilmaz has finally found a crew. A home. A rewarding career, on the ESS Knight.

But Ren gets drawn into a web of espionage. Her captain, Max, has shady dealings with anti-Union rebel groups and assigns her shipmates off-the-books tasks. It's Ren's duty as an officer to investigate. But snooping can be disastrous. Not only would she be betraying her newfound family, but Ren has secrets too–and if she digs too far, her own past as a spy could get spectacularly exposed.  

Checks, Balances & Proper Procedure in Monster Hunter, by Sean O'Boyle (Spring 2025)

Welcome to The Wavering Plane. Home to many odd and wonderful nations. One such country is The Galzarian Empire; proud, defiant and slightly paranoid - with plenty of paperwork to boot.

Here, disagreements are more often solved with a quill, than a blade. In this great Empire, every aspect of life has the requisite laws, forms and reports- and that includes monsters.

For Rella Trattle, clerk at the Monstrosity Parliament, horrid tales of bestial encounters are ordinary and mundane. Monsters kill folk, monsters get slayed, forms must be filled. Nothing surprises her anymore.

That is until a seemingly routine case report lands on her desk, throwing hundreds of years of Galzarian statute out the bloody window, and causing a bureaucratical mess she must solve alone.

Rella is a master with ink and parchment, but it’ll take more than that to unravel this Star-blinding nightmare

Disgraced Return of the Kaps Needle, by Renan Bernardo (Dark Matter INK / 15th April 2025)

  The Kap’s Needle left Earth for the planet Kapteyn D with promises of glory, wealth, a new home for whoever wanted to leave the blue planet. But now it’s the return trip. The mission has failed in corruption, bad management of resources, and disillusion. Aboard the Needle, the biospheres are failing; the crew is depressed and addicted to a new drug called Happiness. Having lost a daughter in Kapteyn D, Life Support Manager Reva is now merely a tax collector, deciding who can breathe and who should be sent to O1, the old comms deck where there’s not enough oxygen to survive for long. When Captain Horvat decides to perform a corruption sweep to repair his own mistakes, Reva knows she’ll be caught and her son Randy would be sent to O1. It’s in First Officer Hannah, the person who destroyed her life, that she’ll have to trust and lend a hand to overthrow Captain Horvat. Even if it costs lives that are already suffocating. 

City of All Seasons, by Oliver K. Langmead and Aliya Whiteley (Titan Books / 29th April 2025)

A vibrant and emotional science fantasy about cousins trapped in mirrored worlds – the resplendent and verdant summer city and the ice-carved wastes of the winter city. For fans of Every Heart a Doorway and This is How You Lose the Time War.

Welcome to Esther Pike's Fairharbour – a city stuck in constant summer, its walls crumbling in the heat, its oppressive sunlight a relentless presence.

Winter and Summer alike, have both fallen under the yoke of oppressive powers, that have taken control after the cataclysm.

But both Fairharbours were once a single, united city. And in certain places, at certain times, one side can catch a glimpse of the other. As Jamie and Esther find a way to communicate across the divide, they set out to solve the mystery of what split their city in two, and what, if anything, might repair their fractured worlds.  

Mere Flesh, by Catherine Labadie (14th February 2025)

Wynnifred Treloar has everything she needs to succeed as a budding occultist on the cusp of vowing her allegiance to king and country... and marrying the most tame yet influential man in society she can find. Yet everything is not enough for her when she knows more than she can dream of will be withheld from her because of who she is.

Breaking one rule after another, she sacrifices portions of her body to summon a demonic entity to take over the world. There should be no harm in it: demons are only dark energy, after all, and Wynnifred is a prodigy. When the demon she summons into a circle vows she'll die screaming and when omens plague her friends and estate. Wynnifred begins to realize there are worse mistakes to make than marrying the wrong society darling.

Like beginning to fall for the demon's allure.

Destiny's Doom, by Vaughn Roycroft (February 2025)

Brin “Bright Eyes” saw beyond what others could. In her parents, most saw Dania’s greatest warriors, leaders in the conquest of Pontea. Brin saw a couple still bound by love, but fractured by betrayal and haunted by what might have been. Her father, Vahldan, once hailed as the Bringer of Urrinan, a distant shadow who never spoke her name. Her mother, Elan, the foretold guardian of destiny, forever scarred by a war she couldn’t win.

From the walls of the stone city that kept her safe but held her captive, Brin fixated on the mountains that separated the so-called civilized world of Pontea from the wild and free land that called her home. It was not a call she could heed—not when the only passage through was guarded by warriors who considered her an outcast. Not with the mighty Tiberian army closing in, vowing to purge Pontea of her people. Not in the face of a looming prophecy that promised the upheaval that now felt inescapable.

Yet as she trained with her uncle, learning the art of the Skolani Blade-Wielders, a new vision sparked within her—one that might bridge the realms of Dania and Pontea and rewrite the fates of the old world and the new.

Can Brin Bright Eyes forge a path only she sees? Or will she, too, succumb to Destiny’s Doom?

An Empire of Dirt & Lies, by Joshua Walker (2025)

In the wake of the Siege of Adira, lives have changed forever. The Theradoran army has collapsed after what appeared to be an assault in their favour, and the new Adiran King, Sefil, will lead the way for the alliance.

At the cost of finding her father's killer, the presumed-dead Queen Esme finds herself in the enemy's hands, living with a new name and an insurmountable task: destroy the Empire of Therador from the inside out.

Aobian fighters rescue their exiled one, Drift, and reveal the weight of hundreds of years worth in secrets. Lies are more valuable than truths, and only time will tell how far the truth can really go. One book of histories may be the answer, but Drift's search is urgent, and time is running out.  

Secret Lives of the Dead, by Tim Lebbon (Titan Books / 26th August 2025)

A dark folk horror tale of a deadly family curse, crime and murder that is sure to turn your blood cold, from the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of Netflix's The Silence.

When Jodi, BB and Matt decide to burgle a derelict country home as a thrilling dare, they become embroiled in a twisted legacy of supernatural terror. There are rumours of a bizarre curse hanging over the hoard of antiques and jewellery within the house. And unbeknownst to the others, one member of the trio has darker motives for breaking into the property.

Lem is a brutal man obsessed with a gruesome family legend. He is determined to right the wrongs of the past and lift the curse placed on his bloodline. By completing the work of his father and bringing a bizarre selection of scattered relics back together, he hopes to be free of the malign influence that has hounded every generation of his family for two centuries.

Across a single day a deadly pursuit will culminate on the desolate, storm-swept Crow Island, and those involved are given cause to wonder… can believing in a curse deeply enough bring its own bad luck?

Whispers of the Storm, by Z.B. Steele (28th March 2025)

REDLIN OF THE WOLVES

VANGUARD, LEGEND, ASSASSIN, REAPER

Listen to my

I wasn't always the monster they see me as. Half of the songs they sing are stories of my grandeur. The other half are tales of my misdeeds.

The sad truth is that they're all true.

So, listen to my tale and learn why it all happened. Learn the reason for the war, the reason for all the death.

Listen to my tale and listen well. I won't be alive long enough to tell it again.

A moody, banter-laced, violent, and poetic framed story - Z.B. Steele presents Whispers of the Storm, book one of Song of the Damned.

What Wakes the Bells, by Elle Tesch (Feinwel & Friends / 11th March 2025)

Inspired by an ominous Prague legend, What Wakes the Bells is a lavish gothic fantasy by debut author Elle Tesch.

Built by long-gone Saints, the city of Vaiwyn lives and breathes and bleeds. As a Keeper, Mina knows better than most what her care of Vaiwyn’s bells means for the sentient city. It’s the Strauss family’s thousand-year legacy―prevent the Vespers from ringing, or they will awake a slumbering evil.

One afternoon, to Mina's horror, her bell peals thirteen times, shattering the city’s tenuous peace. With so much of the city's history and lore lost in a long-ago disaster, no one knows the danger that has been unleashed―until the city begins to fight back. As the sun sets, stone gargoyles and bronze statues tear away from their buildings and plinths to hunt people through the streets. Trapped in Mina’s bell, the soul of a twisted and power-hungry Saint festered. Now free of his prison, he hides behind the face of one of Vaiwyn’s citizens, corrupting the city and turning it on itself.

Time is running out, and the only chance Mina has to stop the destruction and horrific killings is finding and destroying the Saint’s host. Everyone is a suspect, including Mina's closest loved ones. She will have to decide how far she’ll go to save her city―and who she’s willing to kill to do it.  

Wraith and the Revolution, by A.J. Calvin (18th June 2025)

Kye Verex is trapped.

Due to a fluke of genetics, the decisions of the galaxy’s elite, and a lack of finances, he’s stuck on his polluted and noxious home world indefinitely. And it’s slowly killing him.

Then his more fortunate sister returns one day, bringing the promise of salvation. Kelsey has always hoped to find the means to pull him out of his desperate cycle of survival, but it has taken years. Now, she has a plan, one that will cure his genetic condition and clear him for interstellar travel.

The catch?

He has to sign over his very existence – and a portion of his humanity – to Zylar Inc., the galaxy’s most prominent and notorious corporation, in exchange for the necessary treatment. Is his cure worth the cost?

Witch Queen Rising, by Savannah Stephens (Gollancz / 25th September 2025)

Phine was born of the Bayou; now the Tick Witch has come home.

Presided over by their Prime, New Orleans witch clans have hidden in plain sight for centuries. With her unique power, Seraphine Barreau should have been the witches crowning jewel, instead she was their shameful secret, shunned for her syphoning ability and forced to flee the city. When the former Prime dies, the mantle unexpectedly passes to Phine, and the Tick Witch is summoned home.

Dragged back into the simmering tension of New Orleans' supernatural underbelly, Phine attempts to sort through the shattered pieces of her past, while maintaining the truce between the blood-thirsty Vampires, the reality altering Sidhe, and the Shifters, led by her former lover.

When the source of their magic is cursed by a parasitic blight, witchkin, living and dead, turn on Phine. As war with the Vampires spills blood onto the streets of New Orleans, Phine allies herself with the terrifying Queen of Nightmares and heads into the depths of the bayous to find answers. Together, these two magical abominations will make people rue the day they crossed the Tick Witch.  

Girl in the Creek, by Wendy N. Wagner (Tor Nightfire / 15th July 2025)

The Girl in the Creek by Hugo Award winner Wendy N. Wagner is an atmospheric and eerie story about a Pacific Northwest forest that seems to be devouring all who enter. A perfect read for fans of T. Kingfisher and Jeff VanderMeer’s cli-fi cosmic horror.

The Clackamas National Forest has always been a sanctuary for evil—human and alien.The shadows of looming trees and long-abandoned mines shelter poachers and serial killers alike. Then there’s the ruined hotel on the outskirts of picturesque small town Faraday, Oregon, nestled in the foothills of Mt. Hood. The one drowning in mushrooms and fungus not even the local expert can identify.

Not to mention the stacks of missing persons cases.

Freelance writer Erin Harper arrives in Faraday to find out what happened to her brother, whose disappearance in the forest has haunted her for years. But someone else has gone missing. And when Erin finds her in the creek, the girl vanishes again — this time from the morgue, and days later her fingerprints show up at a murder scene.

Maybe it’s a serial killer, or maybe it’s the spores infecting the forest and those lost inside. Erin must find answers quickly, before anyone else goes missing. But she might be next…  

Mists of Memory, by N.C. Scrimgeour (5th March 2025)

She had no need for the tides to be kind, not if she became the storm…

The Selkie Isles were meant to be a safe haven for Isla Blackwood, a place she could finally call home. Instead, she finds herself hunted across the sea for a pelt the Grand Admiral will do anything to recover.

But the Admiralty isn’t the only threat on the horizon. A terrible mist sickness plagues the isles, carried by the vengeful spirits of fallen selkies. To stop it, Isla will need to learn the lost secrets of her mother’s rare magic—if she can earn the trust of those who call her an outsider.

Back in the capital, Darce Galbraith prepares to set sail with the enemy fleet. Surrounded by danger, he will do all he can to sabotage their search—even if it means risking the wrath of the Grand Admiral himself.A storm is ready to break on human and selkie alike, and only the tides know what’s waiting on the other side…

Mists of Memory is the gripping sequel to Sea of Souls, a dark fantasy saga filled with folklore and monsters, ancient magic and high-seas adventure. Perfect for fans of Adrienne Young, Katherine Arden and Naomi Novik.

This Vicious Hunger, by Francesca May (Orbit Books / 26th August 2025)

From the author of Wild and Wicked Things comes a dark gothic fantasy about two young women struggling to find the freedom of choice in a world where their path feels predetermined. Turning to each other, they soon find themselves sinking deeper into a world of beauty, poison, and the insatiable quest for knowledge. 

Thora Grieve finds herself destitute and an outcast after the sudden death of her husband only a few weeks into their marriage, but a glimmer of hope arrives when a family friend offers her spot at a university to study botany under a famed professor. Once at the university Thora becomes entranced by a mysterious young woman, Olea, who emerges each night to tend to the plants in the professor's private garden.

Thora soon that a mysterious illness prevents Olea from leaving the garden. Hungry for connection, Thora befriends Olea through the garden gate and their relationship quickly and intensely blossoms. The visceral connection between Thora and Olea unlocks an obsessive desire in Thora as she throws herself into finding a cure for Olea's ailment. But is this really love or is it merely lustful intoxication? Thora's finally found the freedom to pursue her deepest desires, but at what cost?

The Possession of Alba Diaz, by Isabel Cañas (Berkley / 19th August 2025)

When a demonic presence awakens deep in a Mexican silver mine, the young woman it seizes must turn to the one man she shouldn’t trust… from bestselling author Isabel Cañas.

In 1765, plague sweeps through Zacatecas. Alba flees with her wealthy merchant parents and fiancé, Carlos, to his family’s isolated mine for refuge. But safety proves fleeting as other dangers soon bare their teeth: Alba begins suffering from strange hallucinations, sleepwalking, and violent convulsions. She senses something cold lurking beneath her skin. Something angry. Something wrong.

Elías, haunted by a troubled past, came to the New World to make his fortune and escape his family’s legacy of greed. Alba, as his cousin’s betrothed, is none of his business. Which is of course why he can’t help but notice her every time she enters a room or the growing tension between them… and why he notices her deteriorate when the demon’s thirst for blood grows stronger.  

Anji Kills a King, by Evan Leikam (Titan Books / 13th May 2025)

The unlikely assassin of the king flees from a group of ruthless mercenaries as the country falls to ruin, in this gripping, gritty and action-packed fantasy adventure from a Booktok and podcast sensation. Perfect for fans of R.F. Kuang, H.M. Long and R.J. Barker.

Anji works as a castle servant, cleaning laundry for a king she hates. So when a rare opportunity presents itself, she seizes the chance to cut his throat. Then she runs for her life. In her wake, the kingdom is thrown into disarray, while a bounty bigger than anyone could imagine lands on her head.

On her heels are the fabled mercenaries of the Menagerie, whose animal-shaped masks are magical relics rumored to give them superhuman powers. It's the Hawk who finds Anji a surly, aging swordswoman who has her own reasons for keeping Anji alive and out of the hands of her fellow bounty hunters, if only long enough to collect the reward herself.

With the rest of the Menagerie on their trail, so begins an alliance as tenuous as it is temporary―and a race against death that will decide Anji's fate, and may change the course of a kingdom.  

Red Rabbit Ghost, by Jen Julian (Orbit Books / 22nd July 2025)

A cynical young outcast confronts his small town’s dark secrets in this atmospheric and haunting debut horror novel from brilliant new voice Jen Julian.

The town of Blacknot is not what it appears, and a place deep in the woods known only as The Night House is calling... 

Jesse Calloway hadn’t planned to return to his repressive, backwoods hometown of Blacknot, North Carolina, after only one year away at college, but an anonymous messenger has lured him home. Eighteen years ago, his mother died under unexplained circumstances. Every story he has heard is incomplete. Now, the messenger claims to have the answers. But Jesse will have to hunt for them.

Alice Catherine, the daughter of a local pork manufacturer, obsesses over Jesse in turn. To her, he is a key player in unearthing the dark family history she’s convinced her father is concealing. Alice knows Jesse must find the answers himself, with the hope that once he does, he’ll help her change both their futures. 

But Jesse’s path to Alice isn’t a straight line, and his questions are stirring up issues with locals, including his much older and well-armed ex-boyfriend, Harlan. When an old fling of Jesse’s goes missing and Alice’s plans start to unravel, it’s clear there’s more at stake than either of them could imagine. On a collision course littered with psychotropic fungi, time-warping magic, and far too many alligators, Jesse and Alice will need to determine how far they are willing to go for the truth, and whether they can trust each other enough to get there…  

Overgrowth, by Mira Grant (Daphne Press / 6th May 2025)

Annihilation meets Day of the Triffids in this full-on body horror/alien invasion apocalypse.

This is just a story. It can't hurt you anymore.

Since she was three years old, Anastasia Miller has been telling anyone who would listen that she's an alien disguised as a human being, and that the armada that left her on Earth is coming for her. Since she was three years old, no one has been willing to listen.

Now, with an alien signal from the stars being broadcast around the world, humanity is finally starting to realize that it's already been warned, and it may be too late. The invasion is coming, Stasia's biological family is on the way to bring her home, and very few family reunions are willing to cross the gulf of space for just one misplaced child.

What happens when you know what’s coming, and just refuse to listen?

The Mercy Makers, by Tessa Gratton (Orbit Books / 17th June 2025)

A talented heretic must decide between the pursuit of forbidden magic, or the ecstasy of forbidden love—either way, her choice will upend the world, in the start of a sweeping, romantic epic fantasy trilogy by New York Times bestselling author Tessa Gratton.

Can an empire trip and fall on a mere strand of silk? 

Iriset is a prodigy and an outlaw. The daughter of a powerful criminal, she dons her alter ego Silk to create magical disguises for those in her father’s organization, but she longs to do more with her to enhance what it means to be human by giving people wings, night-sight, and other abilities; to unlock the possibilities of gender and parenthood; to cure disease and even to end mortality itself.

Everything changes when her father is captured and sentenced to death. To save him, Iriset must infiltrate the palace and the empire’s fanatical ruling family. There, she realizes she has a chance—and an obligation—to bring down the entire corrupt system. She'll have to entangle herself in the lives of the emperor and his sister, getting them to trust and even to love her. But love is a two-way street, and Iriset’s own heart holds the most mysterious and impenetrable magic of all.  

The Crimson Fire, by Abel Montero (May 2025)

Gods walk among men, but the empire they have forged is on the brink of collapse.

As whispers of rebellion grow louder, Ensin Andik uncovers a sinister plot that threatens the very foundation of the divine reign. Every discovery pulls him deeper into a dangerous web, forcing him to confront truths that could shatter his unshakeable loyalty.

On the other side, Eshfen, a ruthless rebel with a cunning mind and a thirst for chaos, stokes the flames of dissent. He sows doubt in the hearts of the people, challenging the gods' right to rule and sparking a dangerous game of shadows that could bring down empires.

Caught between loyalty and self-discovery, Shadi, a young noblewoman, grapples with the weight of family honor and the desire for independence. With her fiercely devoted bodyguard, Darjin, by her side, Shadi must navigate the treacherous waters of loyalty, love, and betrayal, where every choice could be their last.

As destinies intertwine and alliances shift, these four must face the gods themselves — or watch the world they know crumble to ashes.

In THE CRIMSON FIRE, loyalties will be tested, truths will be unmasked, and power will be up for grabs. Will the gods’ reign endure, or is the age of mortals ready to rise?