There are quite a few books I am excited to read that are releasing this year, here are the ten that I am most looking forward to!
1. Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett
Expected publication 11th February 2025
Emily Wilde #3
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.
- Goodreads.
I absolutely adored the first two books in this series, so I am excited to see what happens next for Emily and Wendell!
2. The Geographer's Map to Romance by India Holton
Expected publication 8th April 2025
Love's Academic #2
Professor Elodie Tarrant is an expert in magic disasters. Nothing fazes her - except her own personal disaster, that is: Professor Gabriel Tarrant, the grumpy, unfriendly man she married for convenience a year ago, whom she secretly loves.
Gabriel is also an expert in magic disasters. And nothing fazes him either - except the walking, talking tornado that is his wife. They've been estranged since shortly after their wedding day, but that hasn't stopped him from stoically pining for her.
When magic erupts in a small Welsh village, threatening catastrophe for the rest of England, Elodie and Gabriel are accidentally both assigned to the case. With the fate of the country in their hands, they must come together as a team in the face of perilous conditions like explosions, domesticated goats, and only one bed. But this is easier said than done. After all, there's no navigational guide for the geography of the heart.
- Goodreads.
The first book in this series was so much fun, I can't wait to read more of the world and be introduced to this new couple!
3. The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst
Expected publication 15th July 2025
Terlu Perna broke the law because she was lonely. She cast a spell and created a magically sentient spider plant. As punishment, she was turned into a wooden statue and tucked away into an alcove in the North Reading Room of the Great Library of Alyssium.
This should have been the end of her story... Yet one day, Terlu wakes in the cold of winter on a nearly-deserted island full of hundreds of magical greenhouses. She’s starving and freezing, and the only other human on the island is a grumpy gardener. To her surprise, he offers Terlu a place to sleep, clean clothes, and freshly baked honey cakes - at least until she’s ready to sail home.
But Terlu can’t return home and doesn’t want to - the greenhouses are a dream come true, each more wondrous than the next. When she learns that the magic that sustains them is failing - causing the death of everything within them - Terlu knows she must help. Even if that means breaking the law again.
This time, though, she isn’t alone. Assisted by the gardener and a sentient rose, Terlu must unravel the secrets of a long-dead sorcerer if she wants to save the island - and have a fresh chance at happiness and love.
- Goodreads.
This is set in the same world as The Spellshop which I really loved last year and thought was so adorable, and I'm curious to see what happens with the main character of this story and to see more of the world!
4. A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna
Expected publication 15th July 2025
Sera Swan used to be one of the most powerful witches in Britain. Then she resurrected her great-aunt Jasmine from the (very recently) dead, lost most of her magic, befriended a semi-villainous talking fox, and was exiled from her Guild. Now she (slightly reluctantly and just a bit grumpily) helps her aunt run an enchanted inn in Lancashire, where she deals with her quirky guests' shenanigans, tries to keep said talking fox in check, and longs for the future that seems lost to her. But then she finds out about an old spell that could hold the key to restoring her power...
Enter Luke Larsen, handsome and icy magical historian, who arrives on a dark winter evening and might just know how to unlock the spell’s secrets. Luke has absolutely no interest in getting involved in the madcap goings-on of the inn and is definitely not about to let a certain bewitching innkeeper past his walls, so no one is more surprised than he is when he agrees to help Sera with her spell. Worse, he might actually be thawing.
Running an inn, reclaiming lost magic, and staying one step ahead of the watchful Guild is a lot for anyone, but Sera Swan is about to discover that she doesn’t have to do it alone... and that the weird, wonderful family she’s made might be the best magic of all.
- Goodreads.
This was actually on last year's list of anticipated books but it got pushed back to this year, so I've been looking forward to this one for a while! The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches was a wonderful book from this author so I'll be happy to read to another cosy romance from her.
5. The Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison
Expected publication 11th March 2025
The Chronicles of Osreth #4, The Cemeteries of Amalo #3
Thara Celehar has lost his ability to speak with the dead. When that title of Witness for the Dead is gone, what defines him?
While his title may be gone, his duties are not. Celehar contends with a municipal cemetery with fifty years of secrets, the damage of a revethavar he’s terrified to remember, and a group of miners who are more than willing to trade Celehar’s life for a chance at what they feel they’re owed.
Celehar does not have to face these impossible tasks alone. Joining him are his mentee Velhiro Tomasaran, still finding her footing with the investigative nature of their job; Iäna Pel-Thenhior, his beloved opera director friend and avid supporter; and the valiant guard captain Hanu Olgarezh.
Amidst the backdrop of a murder and a brewing political uprising, Celehar must seek justice for those who cannot find it themselves under a tense political system. The repercussions of his quest are never as simple they seem, and Celehar’s own life and happiness hang in the balance.
- Goodreads.
I've really enjoyed every book in this series so far so I'm sure this will be another great one, although I do miss Maia from The Goblin Emperor and hope we get to return to his story at some point, getting to know Celehar more in these books has been really interesting and I'm excited to see how his journey continues.
6. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab
Expected publication 10 June 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.
- Goodreads.
I always enjoy V.E. Schwab's books and this one definitely has an intriguing concept so I'll be curious to see what it's like!
7. Among the Burning Flowers by Samantha Shannon
Expected publication 16th September 2025
Roots of Chaos #0.5
It has been centuries since the Draconic Army took wing, almost extinguishing humankind.
Marosa Vetalda is a prisoner in her own home, controlled by her cold father, King Sigoso. Over the mountains, her betrothed, Aubrecht Lievelyn, rules Mentendon in all but name. Together, they intend to usher in a better world.
A better world seems impossibly distant to Estina Melaugo, who hunts the Draconic beasts that have slept across the world for centuries.
And now the great wyrm Fýredel is stirring, and Yscalin will be the first to fall...
- Goodreads.
I was really impressed with The Priory of the Orange Tree when I read it, it had such detailed world building and a brilliant plot, so I was excited to find out that after A Day of Fallen Night we have another prequel to learn more about the world!
8. The Dark Mirror by Samantha Shannon
Expected publication 25 February 2025
The Bone Season #5
Paige Mahoney is outside the Republic of Scion for the first time in more than a decade - but she has no idea how she got to the free world. Half a year has been wiped from her memory.
As she makes her way back to the revolution, her journey takes her to Venice, where she learns a dangerous secret - one that could change the face of the war between humans and immortals. Before she can return to London, she must help the Domino Programme unravel the sinister Operation Ventriloquist.
And it soon becomes clear that the one person who could recover her memories - Arcturus Mesarthim - might also hold the key to saving Italy.
- Goodreads.
Each book in this series so far has been pretty thrilling and I have so many questions about what's going to happen in this next book, so we'll see what answers we get in this book and what new questions it creates!
9. Lore Olympus: Volume 8 by Rachel Smythe
Expected publication 6th May 2025
Lore Olympus #8
Revelations rock Olympus as Persephone’s trial ends, threatening to throw the gods into a new war.
Though Persephone and Hades become closer than ever after she opens up to him about all she has endured, their peace is shattered when another truth is revealed: Apollo is Zeus’s son. The announcement shocks the pantheon, and the king of the gods realizes that the would-be usurper wants Persephone’s power to take the throne.
Zeus banishes Persephone to the Mortal Realm and, out of fear, cuts it off entirely from the rest of the gods. This decree succeeds in undercutting Apollo’s plan, but also inadvertently begins a decade-long divine cold war when Hades strikes back by shuttering the Underworld. With the gods scattered and weakened, Kronos uses the ensuing bedlam to finally escape his imprisonment and begin staging his own coup.
Persephone has only one choice when she discovers all the realms on the verge of collapse: Descend into the Underworld to try to defeat the power-hungry Titan, claim her rightful place as queen, and reunite with her one true love.
- Goodreads.
Each volume of this comic has been so much fun to read, I'm excited to get this next one and see more of the beautiful art and find out what happens next for Hades and Persephone!
10. The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig
Expected publication 10th May 2025
The Stonewater Kingdom #1
Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum's windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams.
Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil's visions. But when Sybil's fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral's cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she'd rather avoid Rodrick's dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god.
- Goodreads.
I haven't read anything by Rachel Gillig yet, but this summary definitely sounds like something I'd enjoy, and I'm curious to see what it will be like!
Those are the ten books I'm anticipating the most that are releasing this year, comment below if you're excited about any of these too, or if you have different books you're looking forward to!
