All the January 2025 Prepub Alerts in one place, plus a downloadable spreadsheet of all titles from every post.

Fiction

Pop Fiction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Austin, Emily. We Could Be Rats. Atria. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781668058145. 256p. $27.99. FICTION

Bestselling Austin (Interesting Facts About Space) returns with a story about the bonds of sisterhood. Sigrid has resisted conformity and the expectations of adulthood, frustrating her older sister Margit. As Sigrid grapples with a painful past and the loss of her best friend to the opioid epidemic, the sisters manage to find their way back to each other.

Carr, Charlene. We Rip the World Apart. Sourcebooks Landmark. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781728270449. 464p. $27.99. FICTION

Intertwining the stories of three women from one family, Carr (Hold My Girl) writes a multigenerational novel that explores motherhood, race, and trauma. A family flees Jamaica for Canada, hoping for a better life, but instead they experience racism, police violence, and an unplanned pregnancy.

Evison, Jonathan. The Heart of Winter. Dutton. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593473542. 368p. $28. FICTION

Abe Winter and Ruth Warneke had a disastrous blind date in college that managed to turn into an enduring marriage. Bestselling Evison (Again and Again) portrays their 70-year relationship across decades of ups and downs, as the couple navigate how to continue to be there for each other while facing illness and dwindling independence.

Fagan, Kate. The Three Lives of Cate Kay. Atria. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781668076217. 288p. $27.99. FICTION

Fagan, Emmy Award–winning journalist and bestselling author of What Made Maddy Run, makes her fiction debut. Cate Kay is the reclusive author of bestselling books made into hit movies, but she’s been hiding her real identity for years after a tragedy sent her on the run. After a shocking revelation, she realizes it’s time to face her past.

Fargo, Layne. The Favorites. Random. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593732045. 464p. $28. FICTION

Inspired by Wuthering Heights, Fargo (They Never Learn) creates a tempestuous love story set in the world of figure skating. Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha are a formidable duo on and off the ice, until a shocking incident at the Olympics ends their partnership. Ten years later, Katarina decides to finally share the whole story.

Genova, Lisa. More or Less Maddy. Scout. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781668026168. 368p. $28.99. FICTION

In the latest from neuroscientist Genova (author of the bestselling novel Still Alice, adapted into an Oscar-winning film), Maddy Banks is a stressed-out freshman at NYU. She’s depressed and overwhelmed, and then a manic episode leads to a bipolar disorder diagnosis. Now she must learn to navigate her new reality as she struggles with how being bipolar affects her identity, relationships, and dreams.

Goodman, Allegra. Isola. Dial. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593730089. 400p. $28.99. FICTION

Goodman’s latest (after Sam, a Read with Jenna pick) is inspired by a real 16th-century French noblewoman. When heiress Marguerite is orphaned, her controlling guardian, Jean François de la Roque de Roberval, makes her destitute. After discovering her relationship with a servant, Roberval maroons Marguerite and her lover on a desolate island, where they attempt to survive the harsh conditions.

Kauffman, Rebecca. I’ll Come to You. Counterpoint. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781640096714. 224p. $26. FICTION

Award-winning Kauffman (Chorus) writes a family saga full of ’90s nostalgia about the lives of a couple struggling to become pregnant, another couple with a health crisis, and a woman whose husband has left her; these plots intersect and converge dramatically over the course of a year.

Lange, Tracey. What Happened to the McCrays? Celadon. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781250328434. 352p. $28.99. FICTION

Two years after leaving his wife and family, Kyle McCray returns to his hometown to help his father recuperate from a stroke. He doesn’t receive a warm welcome, but he finds an opportunity for a second chance when he’s asked to coach the struggling middle school hockey team. Bestselling Lange’s (The Connellys of County Down) latest receives a 75K-copy first printing.

Littell, Robert. Bronshtein in the Bronx. Soho. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781641296861. 208p. $25.95. FICTION

Bestselling and award-winning Littell (A Plague on Both Your Houses) imagines 10 weeks in the life of Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in 1917. Driven from Russia and on the run, Trotsky arrives in New York and contemplates his purpose in the weeks leading up to the February Revolution that toppled Czar Nicholas II.

Okorafor, Nnedi. Death of the Author. Morrow. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780063391147. 448p. $30. FICTION

Bestselling Okorafor (Like Thunder) has won every major prize in speculative fiction (including the World Fantasy, Nebula, and Eisner Awards and multiple Hugos), and two of her series are in development at HBO with George R.R. Martin. Her newest is a work of metafiction about a disabled Nigerian American woman who writes a life-changing far-future epic about AI. With a 150K-copy first printing.

Steel, Danielle. Never Say Never. Delacorte. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593498644. 256p. $29. FICTION

In the latest from bestselling chart-topper Steel (Resurrection), Oona Kelly Webster is devastated when her husband leaves her for someone else, and then her editing job is eliminated. After deciding to take their planned 25th wedding anniversary trip to France by herself, Oona unexpectedly finds a second chance at love and happiness in the French countryside.

Swyler, Erika. We Lived on the Horizon. Atria. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781668049594. 288p. $27.99. FICTION

Bestselling Swyler (Light from Other Stars) pens a future dystopian tale. After a series of cataclysms, the walled city of Bulwark, run by an AI, was founded to house and protect human survivors. But now a war is brewing that could upend the order that has been established, and bio-prosthetic surgeon Enita and her personal AI are being drawn into it.

Underhill, Edward. The In-Between Bookstore. Avon. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780063357631. 336p. $28. FICTION

YA author Underhill (This Day Changes Everything) makes his adult debut with a healing novel of love and discovery. When Darby, who is trans, returns to his small hometown, he experiences a timeslip at the bookstore where he worked in high school. Encountering his pre-transition self, Darby wonders if he might be able to create a better present for himself. With a 75K-copy first printing.

Young, Adrienne. A Sea of Unspoken Things. Delacorte. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593598702. 336p. $29. FICTION

Bestselling Young’s (The Unmaking of June Farrow) newest features a set of twins. James has always been deeply connected to her brother Johnny, to the point that she can feel what he feels. Upon his death, she travels to California to settle his estate; there she meets again the only man she has ever loved and dives into a web of secrets.

Literary Fiction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chen, Karissa. Homeseeking. Putnam. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593712993. 512p. $30. LITERARY FICTION

Chen, editor in chief of Hyphen magazine and former senior fiction editor at The Rumpus, debuts with a novel she spent a decade writing. As it explores the Chinese diaspora and the lives of two lovers, the narrative spans 60 years and moves between Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Los Angeles.

Desai, Anita. Rosarita. Scribner. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781668082430. 112p. $22. LITERARY FICTION

Desai, a three-time Booker Prize shortlistee and one of India’s most important writers, offers a new novel. Bonita, who has left India to study in Mexico, unexpectedly encounters her mother’s mysterious past through the figure of a stranger she calls the Trickster.

Dorabji, Tara. Call Her Freedom. S&S. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781668051658. 320p. $28.99. LITERARY FICTION

Dorabji won Simon & Schuster’s Books Like Us grand prize for this novel, her debut. The family saga, set in the Himalayas between the late 1960s and 2022, tells the story of mother and daughter, generational secrets, sacrifice, and dreams against a backdrop of colonialization and militarization.

Ghenim, Amira. A Calamity of Noble Houses. tr. from Arabic by Miled Faiza & Karen McNeil. Europa. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9798889660507. 432p. $28. LITERARY FICTION

Ghenim’s first novel to be translated into English (a finalist for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction) explores Tunisia’s sociopolitical history from the 1930s to the present day, as 11 voices each tell their version of one momentous evening in 1935 whose effects reverberated across two families.

Han Kang. We Do Not Part. tr. from Korean by e. yaewon & Paige Aniyah Morris. Hogarth. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593595459. 272p. $28. LITERARY FICTION

Han won the International Booker Prize for The Vegetarian and the Prix Medicis Étranger for this newest when it was published in France last year. It is a story of friendship, Korean history, the Jeju massacre, and traumatic memory.

Kim Jiyun. Yeonnam-Dong’s Smiley Laundromat. tr. from Korean by Shanna Tan. Pegasus. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781639368037. 304p. $25.95. LITERARY FICTION

Kim’s debut, a bestseller in Korea, is a literary healing fiction title about a laundromat in Seoul that is a haven for its patrons. When a notebook is left behind amid the laundry, customers begin to write diary entries in it and eventually join forces to solve a mystery and make the world a better place.

Krouse, Erika. Save Me, Stranger: Stories. Flatiron. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781250240330. 224p. $26.99. LITERARY FICTION

Krouse, who won the Edgar Award for her memoir Tell Me Everything, turns to short stories with this collection, featuring a haunted bed-and-breakfast in the Rockies and an ice-cream truck driven by a teenage runaway.

Shamieh, Betty. Too Soon. Avid Reader. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781668046548. 320p. $28.99. LITERARY FICTION

Shamieh, founding artistic director of the Semitic Root and playwright-in-residence at the Classical Theatre of Harlem, debuts with a multigenerational novel about a family of Palestinian American women between 1948 and 2012, as they struggle to forge their own lives and find love on their terms.

Upadhyay, Samrat. Darkmotherland. Soho. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781641294720. 768p. $32. LITERARY FICTION

Whiting Award winner Upadhyay, whose last novel, The City Son, came out in 2014, returns with a work of epic length, set in a dystopian reimagined version of Nepal and featuring two intertwining storylines about politics, interpersonal relationships, and power.

Mystery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abrams, Maria. Death in the Downline. Quirk. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781683694144. pbk. 304p. $18.99. MYSTERY

Down-on-her-luck Drew runs into her ex–best friend Steph when she moves back home. Drew soon becomes involved in the multi-level marketing scheme in which Steph seems to be thriving. When a distributor dies under mysterious circumstances, Drew starts investigating, hoping to save herself and her friend. Horror writer Abrams (She Who Rules the Dead) turns to mystery.

Chern, Lina. Tricks of Fortune: A Play the Fool Mystery. (Katie True, bk. 2). Bantam. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593500682. pbk. 336p. $18. MYSTERY

Following her LJ-starred debut, Play the Fool, Edgar Award winner Chern returns with a second Katie True mystery, which can be read as a stand-alone. Tarot-reading Katie is embroiled in a case involving a murdered police officer who saved her when she was a child. Things get complicated when the chief suspect in the murder is Katie’s best friend.

Donovan, Kemper. Loose Lips. (Ghostwriter Mystery, bk. 2). John Scognamiglio Bks. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781496744548. 336p. $28. MYSTERY

Donovan follows bestseller The Busy Body, an Indie Next and LibraryReads pick, with this second case featuring his nameless ghostwriter heroine. This time the action takes place on a cruise that’s focused on a writing seminar. Multiple plots will be afoot as an attendee is murdered and still others are sickened.

Dove, Laurie L. Mask of the Deer Woman. Berkley. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593816103. 336p. $29. MYSTERY

Nonfiction author and journalist (and former mayor of Valley Center, KS) Dove’s first novel stars ex–Chicago detective Carrie Starr, who takes the position of tribal marshal on the reservation where her father grew up. Reeling at the death of her own daughter, Starr finds herself investigating other missing girls and seeing the figure of the legendary deer woman, who might be either comfort or retribution.

George, Nicholas. A Lethal Walk in Lakeland. (A Walk Through England Mystery, bk. 2). Kensington Cozies. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781496745293. 288p. $27. MYSTERY

The second “A Walk Through England Mystery,” following George’s debut, A Deadly Walk in Devon, sees former San Diego detective Rick “Chase” Chasen on a coast-to-coast walk through the Lake District. He hopes for relaxation and maybe connection with Mike, the handsome colleague he met on his first tour—but instead finds a murder.

Gilbert, Victoria. Schooled in Murder. (A Campus Sleuth Mystery, Bk. 1). Crooked Lane. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781639109234. 272p. $29.99. MYSTERY

Retired librarian Gilbert (author of the “Blue Ridge Library Mystery,” “Booklover’s B&B Mystery,” and “Hunter and Clewe” books) begins a new series featuring author and writing teacher Jen Dalton. When a colleague is found dead and a student goes missing, it is up to Jen and a cohort of friends to solve the case.

Moke, Jenny Elder. She Doesn’t Have a Clue. Minotaur. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781250354969. pbk. 336p. $17. MYSTERY

Award-winning children’s author Moke makes her adult debut with this mystery/romance, set at a destination wedding on an island off the coast of Seattle. Bestselling mystery author Kate Valentine is in attendance, along with her romantic regret, her editor, and, it seems, a murderer. As the weather threatens to keep everybody in place, Kate must investigate.

Patterson, James & Brian Sitts. Holmes Is Missing. (Holmes, Margaret & Poe, bk. 2). Little, Brown. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780316569972. 400p. $30. MYSTERY

The second in bestselling Patterson and frequent collaborator Sitts’s “Holmes, Margaret & Poe” series (starring Auguste Poe, Margaret Marple, and Brendan Holmes) sees the three detectives involved in an abduction case: not only have six children gone missing but so has Holmes and a number of A-listers. It will be up to Poe and Marple to put together the clues.

Wade, Kevin. Johnny Careless. Celadon. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781250355102. 240p. $27.99. MYSTERY

Edgar-nominated screenwriter Wade (Blue Bloods) debuts with a procedural about Police Chief Jeep Mullane, who is running a small precinct on Long Island’s North Shore after earning his detective shield in the NYPD. When the body of his childhood friend washes up, Jeep is caught in a game of privilege and power and a web of lies. With a 100K-copy first printing.

Yardley, Ellen. Eleanor and the Cold War. (An Eleanor Roosevelt Mystery, bk. 1). Kensington. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781496750075. 288p. $27. MYSTERY

Yardley, a pseudonym for a New York Times bestselling author, launches a new series with Eleanor Roosevelt as sleuth, along with her trusty private secretary, 25-year-old Kay Thompson. Together the two investigate the murder of a Swedish woman in Washington’s Union Station. The Soviets might be involved, and Eleanor, Kay, and a handsome detective are determined to find out why.

Forthcoming Series Titles

Crais, Robert. The Big Empty. (Elvis Cole and Joe Pike, bk. 20). Putnam. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780525535768. 400p. $30. MYSTERY

Delany, Vicki. The Incident of the Book in the Nighttime. (A Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery, bk. 10). Crooked Lane. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781639109265. 288p. $29.99. MYSTERY

Mosley, Walter. Been Wrong So Long It Feels Like Right. (King Oliver, bk. 3). Mulholland. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780316573269. 336p. $29. MYSTERY

Ryan, Annelise. Beast of the North Woods. (A Monster Hunter Mystery, bk. 3). Berkley. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593816059. 336p. $28. MYSTERY

Stabenow, Dana. Abduction of a Slave. (Eye of Isis, bk. 4). Head of Zeus. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781035910069. 384p. $28.99. MYSTERY

Thrillers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Burke, Alafair. The Note. Knopf. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593537084. 304p. $29. THRILLER

In bestselling Burke’s (Find Me) latest, three women, friends since childhood, reunite for the first time in years to enjoy a few days of fun in the Hamptons. When a drunken prank goes horribly wrong and the police get involved, their friendship will be tested.

Collins, Megan. Cross My Heart. Atria. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781668048078. 320p. $28.99. THRILLER

Collins (Thicker Than Water) offers another psychological thriller. Heart-transplant recipient Rosie is convinced that she is meant to be with the husband of her organ donor. But as she falls for him and learns more about his marriage, she starts to wonder if he might have had something to do with his wife’s death—and if she could be next.

Echlin, Helena. Clever Little Thing. Viking: Pamela Dorman. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593656075. 352p. $29. THRILLER

Bought in a major preempt and expected to be a lead title, this “mom-noir” thriller from Echlin (coauthor, with Malena Watrous, of Sparked) features Charlotte and her young daughter Stella, whose personality has changed dramatically after the death of her babysitter, Blanka. Charlotte, pregnant with her second child, begins to worry that Blanka has possessed Stella, though Charlotte’s husband thinks it’s all in her head.

Feeney, Alice. Beautiful Ugly. Flatiron. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781250337788. 320p. $28.99. THRILLER

Grady Green’s wife has inexplicably gone missing. Still overcome with grief a year after her disappearance, Grady takes a trip to a small Scottish island, where he spots a woman who looks just like his wife. Bestselling Feeney’s (Good Bad Girl) latest receives a 150K-copy first printing.

Finder, Joseph. The Oligarch’s Daughter. Harper. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780063396012. 400p. $30. THRILLER

Bestselling Finder (House on Fire) crafts a modern spy thriller. Rising Wall Street star Paul Brightman fell in love with a woman named Tatyana, not realizing that her father was a Russian oligarch whom U.S. intelligence was interested in. Now Paul is on the run in the New Hampshire wilderness, trying to evade Russian operatives and unravel a government conspiracy.

Garcia, Jessie. The Business Trip. St. Martin’s. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781250364418. 352p. $29. THRILLER

Sports journalist Garcia makes her fiction debut. Stephanie, traveling on a business trip, and Jasmine, fleeing an abusive relationship, don’t know each other but are on the same flight to California. A few days later, they both text friends the same message about the same man—and then they vanish. With a 150K-copy first printing.

Grumley, Michael C. Cold Storage. (Revival, bk. 2). Forge. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781250898753. 320p. $28.99. THRILLER

Army vet John Reiff is back in Grumley’s second “Revival” techno-thriller, following Deep Freeze, in which Reiff was revived after being frozen in a river for 20 years. Now he’s on the run from a shadowy organization that’s desperate to get him back and contain the secrets that he’s uncovered. With a 100K-copy first printing.

Kerr, Jakob. Dead Money. Bantam. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593726709. 416p. $30. THRILLER

This debut from tech industry insider Kerr finds Mackenzie Clyde, a Silicon Valley lawyer and fixer, investigating the murder of a tech startup CEO. Mackenzie’s boss, a powerful venture capitalist, was the chief investor in the startup and stands to lose a fortune. He turns to Mackenzie to solve the problem, but there are even bigger secrets and larger stakes involved.

Konen, Leah. The Last Room on the Left. Putnam. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593715895. 352p. $30. THRILLER

In Konen’s (Keep Your Friends Close) latest, Kerry’s husband has left her, and the deadline for her book is looming. Hoping to finish the book and start fresh, she accepts a caretaker position for a roadside motel in the Catskills, only to find herself trapped there in a blizzard, with a dead body outside the window—and possibly a killer.

Larsen, Melissa. The Lost House. Minotaur. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781250332875. 352p. $28. THRILLER

Forty years ago, Agnes’s grandfather was a suspect in the murder of his wife and daughter and fled to California with his son. After his death, Agnes hopes to find some answers and agrees to meet a true-crime podcaster in the remote town of Bifröst, Iceland, where the murders occurred. Larsen’s (Shutter) latest receives a 75K-copy first printing.

Mackay, Asia. A Serial Killer’s Guide to Marriage. Bantam. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593875582. 352p. $30. THRILLER

UK-based Mackay (The Nursery) makes her U.S. debut with a tale of two former serial killers who trade vigilante justice for life in the suburbs after having a baby together. Hazel misses their previous life, while Fox loves being a father. Then Hazel kills someone without telling Fox, and the police come knocking, jeopardizing the family’s new life.

McMahon, John. Head Cases. Minotaur. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781250348296. 352p. $28. THRILLER

McMahon (A Good Kill) launches a new series featuring five brilliant agents who make up the Patterns and Recognition unit of the FBI and solve cold cases. When presumed-dead serial killers from previous cases turn up recently murdered, the team must decipher a new killer’s riddles to stop him. With a 100K-copy first printing.

Penney, Stef. The Long Water. Quercus. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781529425673. 336p. $29. THRILLER

Award-winning and bestselling Penney (The Beasts of Paris) returns with a story set in the Norwegian Arctic. A teenage boy has gone missing from a once-prosperous mining town. As the police search for him, they open an old mine in the mountains and discover decades-old human remains. Everyone in the small, isolated town will be affected as they seek answers.

Sakhlecha, Trisha. The Inheritance. Viking: Pamela Dorman. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593832561. 352p. $29. THRILLER

The Agarwal family have gathered on a private luxury island off the coast of Scotland, where patriarch Raj plans to announce the succession plan for his multimillion-dollar Delhi-based company. The family members all have secrets, and when someone is murdered, any one of them could be the killer. Sakhlecha (Can You See Me Now?) makes her U.S. debut.

Forthcoming Series Titles

Byrne, James. Chain Reaction. (Dez Limerick, bk. 3). Minotaur. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781250319784. 400p. $29. THRILLER

Freeman, Brian. Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Vendetta. (Jason Bourne, bk. 20). Putnam. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593716489. 384p. $30. THRILLER

Grippando, James. Grave Danger. (Jack Swyteck, bk. 19). Harper. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780063358034. 320p. $30. THRILLER

Patterson, James & Andrew Bourelle. The Texas Murders. (Texas Ranger, bk. 3). Little, Brown. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781538711019. 416p. $32. THRILLER

Taylor, Brad. Into the Gray Zone. (Pike Logan, bk. 19). Morrow. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780063222083. 464p. $30. THRILLER

Turow, Scott. Presumed Guilty. (Presumed Innocent, bk. 3). Grand Central. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781538706367. 464p. $30. THRILLER

Historical Fiction

 

Casati, Costanza. Babylonia. Sourcebooks Landmark. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781464228216. 448p. $27.99. HISTORICAL FICTION

The author of the Indie Next and LibraryReads pick Clytemnestra returns with another retelling set in the world of ancient Assyria. Following the love triangle/power struggle story of Semiramis, Casati explores how a woman without power rose to become the only the queen ever to rule her nation. Expect painted edges and more in a specially designed package.

Davis, Fiona. The Stolen Queen. Dutton. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593474273. 352p. $29. HISTORICAL FICTION

Davis, bestselling author of The Lions of Fifth Avenue, a GMA book club pick, sets her newest in NYC and Egypt. In 1936, Charlotte worked on a dig in the Valley of the Kings. In 1978, she is an associate curator at the Met. Also at the Met is 18-year-old Annie, working with Diana Vreeland on the famous Costume Institute gala. When an artifact goes missing from the museum, Charlotte and Annie join forces to find it.

Rosen, Renée. Let’s Call Her Barbie. Berkley. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593335680. pbk. 432p. $19. HISTORICAL FICTION

Bestseller Rosen (Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl) turns her attention to the “it” girl of the last several seasons, an 11.5-inch-high doll named Barbie. Featuring an ensemble cast led by Ruth Handler, the novel explores the creation of the doll and the fates of those who made her.

Thomas, Julia Bryan. The Kennedy Girl. Sourcebooks Landmark. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781464236938. 432p. $32.99. HISTORICAL FICTION

The author of The Radcliffe Ladies’ Reading Club sets her newest in 1960s New York and Paris at the buzzy heart of fashion culture. When Mia is mysteriously offered a job in Paris as a model for the House of Rousseau, she becomes enmeshed in an espionage plot that pulls her into a world of politics and danger.

Walsh, Jenni L. Ace, Marvel, Spy: A Novel of Alice Marble. Harper Muse. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781400246748. pbk. 400p. $18.99. HISTORICAL FICTION

Bestseller Walsh (Becoming Bonnie) turns the adventures of the real-life figure Alice Marble into an historical novel. Marble is both a tennis champion and an editor of Wonder Woman comics. When her husband is killed in Germany during WWII, she agrees to become a spy, using tennis as the vehicle for her spycraft.

Romantasy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cast, PC. Boudicca. Morrow. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780063294974. 480p. $30. ROMANTASY

The bestselling author of the “Sisters of Salem” and “Tales of a New World” series mines both romantasy and the trend of retellings in this historical reimagination of Boudicca, the famous Celtic warrior queen of Iron Age Britain. Boudicca is determined to exile the Roman invaders from Britain and, with the aid of a druid seer and 250,000 warriors, sets forth to face down an empire.

Corland, Mai. Four Ruined Realms (Standard Edition). (The Broken Blades, bk. 2). Entangled: Red Tower. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781649377517. NAp. $29.99. ROMANTASY

The publisher isn’t releasing much information about the sequel to Corland’s bestselling epic romantasy Five Broken Blades, other than to expect more lies, more treachery, and a 250K-copy first printing.

Yambao, Samantha Sotto. Water Moon. Del Rey. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593724996. 384p. $28.99. ROMANTASY

Yambao (Before Ever After) writes a cozy romance fantasy that is doing well in auction sales internationally. Hana has just taken over her father’s magical shop where clients can pawn their regrets. One day, she wakes up to discover the shop ransacked and her father missing. She soon meets a charming stranger who offers to help, launching her on an adventure that includes rides on paper cranes.

New Series Titles

Blair, Melissa. An Honored Vow. (The Halfling Saga, bk. 4). Union Square & Co. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781454954941. pbk. 480p. $18.99. ROMANTASY

Yarros, Rebecca. Onyx Storm (Standard Edition). (The Empyrean, bk. 3). Entangled: Red Tower. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781649377159. NAp. $29.99. ROMANTASY

Horror

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Barker, Susan. Old Soul. Putnam. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593718292. 352p. $29. HORROR

Chapman, Clay McLeod. Wake Up and Open Your Eyes. Quirk. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781683693956. 320p. $24.99. HORROR

LaRocca, Eric. At Dark, I Become Loathsome. Big Bald Head. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9798212179027. 350p. $25.99. HORROR

Mahoney, Dennis. Our Winter Monster. Hell’s Hundred. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781641296335. 304p. $26.95. HORROR

Romance

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buchanan, Amy. Let’s Call a Truce. St. Martin’s Griffin. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781250341563. pbk. 336p. $18. CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

James, Jessica. For One Night Only. Berkley. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593817711. pbk. 368p. $19. LGBTQIA+ ROMANCE

McBreen, Heather. Wedding Dashers. Berkley. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593817629. pbk. 400p. $19. CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

Segura, Jo. Temple of Swoon. Berkley. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593547489. pbk. 368p. $19. CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

Tai, Tara. Single Player. Alcove. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781639109937. pbk. 320p. $18.99. LGBTQIA+ ROMANCE

Theriault, Emma. A Lady Would Know Better. Entangled: Amara. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781649377449. pbk. 352p. $17.99. HISTORICAL ROMANCE

Vasti, Alexandra. Earl Crush. St. Martin’s Griffin. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781250910967. pbk. 352p. $18. HISTORICAL ROMANCE

Winters, Julian. I Think They Love You. St. Martin’s Griffin. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781250326249. pbk. 336p. $18. LGBTQIA+ ROMANCE

Forthcoming Series Titles

Balogh, Mary. Remember When: Clarissa’s Story. (Ravenswood, bk. 4). Berkley. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593638415. 368p. $29. HISTORICAL ROMANCE

Feehan, Christine. Dark Hope. (Dark, bk. 38). Berkley. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593819609. 420p. $29. PARANORMAL ROMANCE

Krentz, Jayne Ann. Shattering Dawn. (Lost Night Files, bk. 3). Berkley. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593639917. 336p. $29. ROMANTIC SUSPENSE

Liese, Chloe. Once Smitten, Twice Shy. (Wilmot Sisters, bk. 3). Berkley. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593441541. pbk. 400p. $19. CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

Science Fiction & Fantasy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Caffall, Eiren. All the Water in the World. St. Martin’s. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781250353528. 304p. $29. SCIENCE FICTION

Codega, Linda H. Motheater. Erewhon. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781645661795. 416p. $28. FANTASY

Crocker, Ed. Lightfall. (The Everlands Trilogy, bk. 1). St. Martin’s. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781250287731. 384p. $30. FANTASY

Ogundiran, Tobi. At the Fount of Creation. (Guardians of the Gods, bk. 2). Tor.com. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781250908032. 224p. $21.99. FANTASY

Forthcoming Series Titles

Lostetter, Marina. The Teeth of Dawn. (The Five Penalties, bk. 3). Tor. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781250757500. 496p. $32.99. FANTASY

McGuire, Seanan. Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear. (Wayward Children, bk. 10). Tor.com. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781250848338. 160p. $22.99. FANTASY

Stross, Charles. A Conventional Boy. (Laundry Files, bk. 13). Tor.com. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781250357847. 240p. $28.99. FANTASY

Tan, Sue Lynn. Immortal. (Celestial Kingdom, bk. 4). Harper Voyager. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780063267619. 464p. $30. FANTASY

Nonfiction

Biography & Memoir

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brunton, Pam. Between Two Waters: Heritage, Landscape and the Modern Cook. Canongate. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781805301776. 304p. $27. MEMOIR

Brunton, the chef behind Inver restaurant and a recipient of a Green Michelin Star, offers a critique of the food industry while also writing about her restaurant, culinary heritage, sustenance, and sustainability in this mix of memoir and manifesto.

Case, Neko. The Harder I Fight the More I Love You: A Memoir. Grand Central. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781538710500. 288p. $30. MEMOIR

Two-time Grammy nominee Case, a founding member of the New Pornographers, writes a memoir about her childhood, poverty, and her career in the music industry. Reflecting her focus on hard-hitting lyrics, the book is being blurbed by Rachel Yoder, Susan Orlean, and Maggie Smith.

Corren, Andy. Dirtbag Queen. Grand Central. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781538742228. 288p. $30. MEMOIR

Playwright and performer Corren, who became famous for the obituary he wrote about his mother, Renay Mandel Corren, expands his family biography with this memoir. It encompasses his entire family this time, along with their history, stories, and relationships.

Eden, Caroline. Cold Kitchen: A Year of Culinary Journeys. Bloomsbury. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781526658982. 256p. $27.99. MEMOIR

Award-winning Eden, author of the travel-focused culinary works Red Sands, Black Sea, and Samarkand, settles into her home kitchen to share recipes from her many journeys, stories about her adventures, and reflections about her home kitchen and what she has learned through her explorations.

Hawkins, Lee. I Am Nobody’s Slave: How Uncovering My Family’s History Set Me Free. Amistad. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780062823168. 320p. $28.99. MEMOIR

Hawkins, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and former Wall Street Journal writer, considers his family history and how systemic racism, enslavement, and racial violence have affected each generation, using his legacy to remark upon the history of the nation. With a 75K-copy first printing.

Lanier, Tamara. From These Roots: My Fight with Harvard To Reclaim My Legacy. Crown. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593727720. 288p. $30. MEMOIR

Lanier, the plaintiff in a lawsuit against Harvard, details her family history and fight to win reparations from the university over their possession of daguerreotypes of her direct ancestors, Renty Taylor and his daughter Delia, two enslaved people who were forced to sit for the photographs by a Harvard professor who used those images to further the cause of white supremacy.

Lewkowicz, Josef. The Survivor: How I Survived Six Concentration Camps and Became a Nazi Hunter. Harper Horizon. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781400249527. 288p. $29.99. MEMOIR

Lewkowicz, a survivor of six concentration camps during the Holocaust, later became a Nazi hunter who captured SS commander Amon Goeth (a key figure in Schindler’s List). Here Lewkowicz details how he survived the Nazi takeover of Europe and relentlessly sought justice after World War II.

Moseley Braun, Carol. Trailblazer: Perseverance in Life and Politics. Hanover Square. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781335523839. 320p. $32.99. MEMOIR

Ambassador Moseley Braun offers a memoir about her childhood, family, and coming of age, but also of her groundbreaking political career, which began in the 1970s. She marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., ran for president, and was the first Black woman senator in the United States Congress.

Moses, Omo. The White Peril: A Family Memoir. Beacon. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780807004821. 280p. $29.95. MEMOIR

Moses, founder and CEO of MathTalk and son of civil rights organizer Robert P. Moses, writes about three generations of his family—his own, his great-grandfather’s, and his father’s—using his father’s writings and his great-grandfather’s sermons to explicate the Black experience and call for racial justice.

Reichert, Bonny. How To Share an Egg: A True Story of Hunger, Love, and Plenty. Ballantine. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593599167. 304p. $30. MEMOIR

Winner of the Dave Greber Book Award for social justice writing, Reichert pens a culinary memoir about her childhood, early adulthood, and midlife as she reflects on her father’s survival of the Holocaust, her family’s foodways, and all that she has come to know about food, history, and inheritance.

Tanenhaus, Sam. Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America. Random. Mar. 2025. ISBN 9780375502347. 912p. $40. BIOGRAPHY

Before his death in 2008, William F. Buckley Jr. selected Tanenhaus to write his biography. (Tanenhaus was the editor of the New York Times Book Review and the bestselling author of a 1997 biography of Soviet spy Whittaker Chambers.) With access to Buckley’s papers and inner circle, Tanenhaus details both the life of the man and the conservative movement he led.

Zusak, Markus. Three Wild Dogs (and the Truth): A Memoir. Harper. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780063426078. 288p. $30. MEMOIR

Margaret A. Edwards Award winner Zusak, the bestselling author of The Book Thief, The Messenger, and Bridge of Clay, turns to memoir; the publisher is keeping a tight lid on any additional details.

History

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adams, Michelle. The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North. Farrar. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780374250423. 528p. $35. HISTORY

Adams, the Henry M. Butzel Professor of Law at the University of Michigan, writes about the social and legal struggle to integrate the schools of Detroit’s suburbs and the 1974 Supreme Court decision in the Milliken v. Bradley case, which stopped school desegregation in the North.

Carwardine, Richard. Righteous Strife: How Warring Religious Nationalists Forged Lincoln’s Union. Knopf. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781400044573. 640p. $35. HISTORY

Award-winning Carwardine (Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power) considers the role religion played in the American Civil War, focusing in particular on Lincoln’s own religion as well as the role of religious nationalists in the North.

Clark, Nicola. The Waiting Game: The Untold Story of the Women Who Served the Tudor Queens. Pegasus. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781639368099. 400p. $32. HISTORY

Clark (early modern history, Univ. of Chichester) writes about the ladies-in-waiting of the royal Tudor court. Included in the book are María de Salinas, who served Catherine of Aragon; Jane Parker, who played a role in the executions of two queens; and Anne Basset, who survived the reigns of four of Henry VIII’s consorts.

Daut, Marlene L. The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe. Knopf. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9780593316160. 704p. $40. HISTORY

Daut (French and African diaspora studies, Yale Univ.) pens a monumental biography of Henry Christophe, the only king of Haiti. Born in 1767, Christophe was both globally famous and influential and changed the fates of nations in complex ways.

Harney, Gareth. A History of Ancient Rome in Twelve Coins. Atria. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781668014134. 320p. $29.99. HISTORY

Harney, a Roman historian and coin collector, offers a history of Rome through 12 of its coin, showing how a small cluster of tiny huts on a hill led to one of the largest empires the world has ever seen.

Kerbaj, Richard. The Secret History of the Five Eyes: The Untold Story of the International Spy Network. Union Square & Co. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781454952510. 448p. $29.99. HISTORY

Kerbaj, an award-winning journalist who was the security correspondent for the Sunday Times, considers the Five Eyes—the spy network of the U.S., the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand that was created in 1956. His investigative book is based on newly declassified archives and interviews with intelligence officials and political figures.

Levy, Buddy. Realm of Ice and Sky: Triumph, Tragedy, and History’s Greatest Arctic Rescue. St. Martin’s. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781250289186. 384p. $32. HISTORY

National Outdoor Book Award winner Levy writes about the aviation pioneers and adventurers who tried to tackle the North Pole. Included are Walter Wellman, Dr. Frederick Cook, Robert Peary, Roald Amundsen, and Umberto Nobile, whose exploration led to one of the world’s greatest rescue missions. With a 75K-copy first printing.

Meltzer, Brad & Josh Mensch. The JFK Conspiracy: The Secret Plot To Kill Kennedy—and Why It Failed. Flatiron. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781250790576. 400p. $32.99. HISTORY

The bestselling authors of The Lincoln Conspiracy return with an exploration of the first assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy. It occurred in Palm Beach, FL, on the eve of the inauguration in 1960 and was plotted and planned by a retired post office worker. With a 300K-copy first printing.

Walsh, Michael. A Rage To Conquer: Twelve Battles That Changed the Course of Western History. St. Martin’s. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781250281364. 400p. $32. HISTORY

Award-winning Walsh follows Last Stands with a book about 12 commanders and the history-changing battles they fought. Included in his count are Achilles, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Constantine, Napoleon, Pershing, Nimitz, and Patton.