Best January - June 2025 Book Releases

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Welcome to 2025, bookworms! Here are the weird and wonderful adult books that are coming out in the next six months. I'll write another post for young adult and middle grade books.

Note: Publishing is notorious for changing the release date of books. Don't come for me if the dates in this post are wrong. I'm trying my best! I promise!

😍  January - June 2025 Book Releases  🔖

Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao

Adult Fantasy

January 14, 2025

On a backstreet in Tokyo lies a pawnshop, but not everyone can find it. Most will see a cozy ramen restaurant. And only the chosen ones—those who are lost—will find a place to pawn their life choices and deepest regrets.

Hana Ishikawa wakes on her first morning as the pawnshop’s new owner to find it ransacked, the shop’s most precious acquisition stolen, and her father missing. And then into the shop stumbles a charming stranger, quite unlike its other customers, for he offers help instead of seeking it.

Together, they must journey through a mystical world to find Hana’s father and the stolen choice—by way of rain puddles, rides on paper cranes, the bridge between midnight and morning, and a night market in the clouds.

But as they get closer to the truth, Hana must reveal a secret of her own—and risk making a choice that she will never be able to take back.

Why I want to read it: I'm ready to admit that I enjoy light fantasy. This book sounds like it has the right amount of magic. Right amount = the magic system won't take my whole brain to understand. The premise reminds me of Stephen King's Needful Things, but with less gore. Less gore might be good.

Buy it on Amazon

Witchcraft For Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

Adult Horror

January 14, 2025

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood Home in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.

Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who knows she’s going to go home and marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.

Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid…and it’s usually paid in blood.

Why I want to read it: I love the cover. It's very 1970s. Grady Hendrix is rapidly becoming one of my favorite horror authors. His books are funny and clever. I highly recommend Horrorstör and The Southern Book Club's Guide To Slaying Vampires. They'll keep you entertained and give you something to think about.

Buy it on Amazon

Emily Wilde's Compendium Of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett

Adult Fantasy

February 11, 2025

Emily Wilde has spent her life studying faeries. A renowned dryadologist, she has documented hundreds of species of Folk in her Encyclopaedia of Faeries. Now she is about to embark on her most dangerous academic project: studying the inner workings of a faerie realm—as its queen.

Along with her former academic rival—now fiancé—the dashing and mercurial Wendell Bambleby, Emily is immediately thrust into the deadly intrigues of Faerie as the two of them seize the throne of Wendell's long-lost kingdom, which Emily finds a beautiful nightmare, filled with scholarly treasures.

Emily has been obsessed with faerie stories her entire life, but at first she feels as ill-suited to Faerie as she did to the mortal world—how could an unassuming scholar like herself pass for a queen? Yet there is little time to settle in. Wendell's murderous stepmother has placed a deadly curse upon the land before vanishing without a trace. It will take all of Wendell's magic—and Emily's knowledge of stories—to unravel the mystery before they lose everything they hold dear.

Why I want to read it: This is the third Emily Wilde book. Have I read the second one? No. Am I saving the second one so I can reread the first one and then binge the next two? Yes. This series is very creative. I love the banter between Emily and Wendell. It makes me happy.

Buy it on Amazon

Something In The Walls by Daisy Pearce

Adult Horror

February 25, 2025

Newly minted child psychologist Mina has little experience. In a field where the first people called are experts, she’s been unable to get her feet wet. Instead she aimlessly spends her days stuck in the stifling heat wave sweeping across Britain, and anxiously contemplating her upcoming marriage to careful, precise researcher Oscar. The only reprieve from her small, close world is attending the local bereavement group to mourn her brother’s death from years ago. That is, until she meets journalist Sam Hunter at the grief group one day. And he has a proposition for her.

Alice Webber is a thirteen-year-old girl who claims a witch is haunting her. Living with her family in their crowded home in the remote village of Banathel, Alice’s symptoms are increasingly disturbing, and money is tight. Taking this job will give Mina some experience; Sam will get the scoop of a lifetime; and Alice will get better, Mina is sure of it.

But instead of improving, Alice’s behavior becomes increasingly inexplicable and intense. The town of Banathel has a deep history of superstition and witchcraft. They believe there is evil in the world. They believe there are ways of dealing with it. And they don’t expect outsiders to understand.

Why I want to read it: Creepy remote village! And creepy children! That's a premise I can't pass up.

Buy it on Amazon

The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica

Adult Horror

March 4, 2025

From her cell in a mysterious convent, a woman writes the story of her life in whatever she can find—discarded ink, dirt, and even her own blood. A lower member of the Sacred Sisterhood, deemed an unworthy, she dreams of ascending to the ranks of the Enlightened at the center of the convent and of pleasing the foreboding Superior Sister. Outside, the world is plagued by catastrophe—cities are submerged underwater, electricity and the internet are nonexistent, and bands of survivors fight and forage in a cruel, barren landscape. Inside, the narrator is controlled, punished, but safe.

But when a stranger makes her way past the convent walls, joining the ranks of the unworthy, she forces the narrator to consider her long-buried past—and what she may be overlooking about the Enlightened. As the two women grow closer, the narrator is increasingly haunted by questions about her own past, the environmental future, and her present life inside the convent. How did she get to the Sacred Sisterhood? Why can’t she remember her life before? And what really happens when a woman is chosen as one of the Enlightened?

Why I want to read it: Normally, I wouldn't read a horror book about cults because I know too much about cults. The cults in horror are too Hollywood and don't make sense to me. However, I'm intrigued by the author. Her work has won tons of awards and has creeped out readers all over the world. I want to be one of those readers!

Buy it on Amazon

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

Adult Literary Fiction

March 4, 2025

Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty of life here, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, eighteen and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, seventeen, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; nine-year-old Orly, obsessed with botany, fears the loss of his beloved natural world; and Dominic can’t stop turning back toward the past, and the loss that drove the family to Shearwater in the first place.

Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore. As the Salts nurse the woman, Rowan, back to life, their suspicion gives way to affection, and they finally begin to feel like a family again. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting her heart, begins to fall for the Salts, too. But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers the sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, the characters must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late—and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.

Why I want to read it: So many reasons. #1. Antarctica #2. Nature. #3. Secrets. #4. Found family. Also, it's probably time for me to read a Charlotte McConaghy book. I constantly see them on "best books" lists. I want to know what the hype is about.

Buy it on Amazon

The Antidote by Karen Russell

Adult Fantasy

March 11, 2025

The Antidote opens on Black Sunday, as a historic dust storm ravages the fictional town of Uz, Nebraska. But Uz is already collapsing—not just under the weight of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl drought, but beneath its own violent histories. The Antidote follows a "Prairie Witch," whose body serves as a bank vault for peoples’ memories and secrets; a Polish wheat farmer who learns how quickly a hoarded blessing can become a curse; his orphan niece, a basketball star and witch’s apprentice in furious flight from her grief; a voluble scarecrow; and a New Deal photographer whose time-traveling camera threatens to reveal both the town’s secrets and its fate.

Russell's novel is above all a reckoning with a nation’s forgetting—enacting the settler amnesia and willful omissions passed down from generation to generation, and unearthing not only horrors but shimmering possibilities.

Why I want to read it: New Karen Russell book! This is not a drill! Karen Russell is one of my all-time-favorite writers. I don't understand how a human can be so brilliant. Her stories are like puzzles. Y0u start out with a bunch of odd pieces that don't seem to make sense. Then everything snaps together at the end, and you're kind of stunned. How does she find meaningful connections between such random stuff? Her books are weird, but in a way that makes complete sense.

Buy it on Amazon

O Sinners! by Nicole Cuffy

Adult Literary Fiction

March 18, 2025

Faruq Zaidi, a young journalist reeling from the recent death of his father, a devout Muslim, takes the opportunity to embed in a cult called The Nameless. Based in the California redwoods and shepherded by an enigmatic Vietnam War veteran named Odo, The Nameless adhere to the 18 Utterances, including teachings such as “THERE IS NO GOD BUT THE NAMELESS,” “ALL SUFFERING IS DISTORTION,” and “SEE ONLY BEAUTY.” Faruq, skeptical but committed to unraveling the mystery of The Nameless, extends his stay over months, as he gets deeper into the cult's inner workings, compassionate teachings, and closer to Odo. Faruq himself begins to unravel, forced to come to terms with the memories he has been running from while trying to resist Odo's spell. 

Why I want to read it: Well, it's a cult book. That's enough to get my attention. I'm interested in this book because it's about grief and cults. In real life, grief and stress are definitely things that drive people toward cults. That's not something I've seen explored in fiction very often.

Buy it from Amazon

Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History And Persistence Of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green

Adult Science Nonfiction

March 18, 2025

Tuberculosis has been entwined with humanity for millennia. Once romanticized as a malady of poets, today tuberculosis is a disease of poverty that walks the trails of injustice and inequity we blazed for it.

In 2019, John Green met Henry, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone while traveling with Partners in Health. John became fast friends with Henry, a boy with spindly legs and a big, goofy smile. In the years since that first visit to Lakka, Green has become a vocal and dynamic advocate for increased access to treatment and wider awareness of the healthcare inequities that allow this curable, treatable infectious disease to also be the deadliest, killing 1.5 million people every year.

In Everything is Tuberculosis, John tells Henry’s story, woven through with the scientific and social histories of how tuberculosis has shaped our world and how our choices will shape the future of tuberculosis.

Why I want to read it: Um . . . why is a curable, treatable disease killing 1.5 million people a year? That's not okay! I think I've read all of John Green's books except one. I tend to like them because he's good at exploring complex topics in ways I can understand. Also, he's funny, so that's a bonus.

Buy it on Amazon

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

Adult Horror

March 18, 2025

A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits.

Why I want to read it: Historical western horror! There's not enough of that in the world. I want to read more Stephen Graham Jones novels. I've only read Mongrels, and it's a book that has stuck with me because of its sheer weirdness. It's a realistic book about werewolves, which is an odd thing to say until you've read it. It's memorable for sure.

Buy it on Amazon

The Incandescent by Emily Tesh

Adult Fantasy

May 13, 2025

Doctor Walden is the Director of Magic at Chetwood Academy and one of the most powerful magicians in England. Her days consist of meetings, teaching A-Level Invocation to four talented, chaotic sixth formers, more meetings, and securing the school's boundaries from demonic incursions.

Walden is good at her job―no, Walden is great at her job. But demons are masters of manipulation. It’s her responsibility to keep her school with its six hundred students and centuries-old legacy safe. And it’s possible the entity Walden most needs to keep her school safe from―is herself.

Why I want to read it: I want to know if I like dark academia. I'm not sure. Maybe that should be my project for 2025. I should read all the popular dark academia books and discover why TikTok is so obsessed with the genre. I like "dark," and I've spent the majority of my life in "academia." It seems like something I should enjoy.

Buy it on Amazon

Atmosphere: A Love Story by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Adult Historical Fiction

June 3, 2025

Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s Space Shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.

Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easy-going even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warm-hearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.

As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant.

Why I want to read it: I'll read anything Taylor Jenkins Reid writes. She creates characters who are deeply flawed and fascinating to read about. Plus, this book has space! I freakin' love space! (And I'm mad at Netflix for canceling all its space shows. Stop making them if you're just going to cancel them after one season!)

Buy it on Amazon

Bury Our Bones In The Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab

Adult Fantasy

June 10, 2025

Santo Domingo de la Calzada, 1532.
London, 1837.
Boston, 2019.

Three young women, their bodies planted in the same soil, their stories tangling like roots.

One grows high, and one grows deep, and one grows wild.

And all of them grow teeth.

Why I want to read it: The synopsis is not helpful. I have no idea what this book is about! It's V.E. Schwab, so I'm going to guess it's about women who commit violence. Sometimes you need a good feminine rage story.

Buy it on Amazon

Which 2025 release are you looking forward to reading?