Dive into 2025 with stories that'll make your bookshelf a happy place. Whether you're into thrillers, romance, social commentary, or a wild blend of everything, these unique voices are not to be missed. I've picked out ten of the best for you to look out for in the coming year.
So Thrilled for You – Holly Bourne (Hodder & Stoughton, January 2025)
In her first novel for adults, How Do You Like Me Now? Holly Bourne's snarky-but-sweet heroine Tori Bailey throws a baby shower. Expecting a low-key afternoon of fun, gin and Colin the Caterpillar cake, she ends up with her cream carpets being trashed by toddlers while her old friends make passive-aggressive remarks about her life choices.
Here, Bourne takes four women: Charlotte, who in her smallness, primness and difficulty conceiving resembles her SATC namesake; Nicki, the woman whose baby shower it is and whose identity is in flux; Steffi, a child-free publishing supremo who can't get a man to commit; and Lauren, frumpy mum of a one-year-old who's slowly losing herself after a traumatic labour and too many sleepless nights. Throw in some memories of university ‘cheese nights’ and lots of miscommunication between the girls, a peony wall and a vulva pinata on the hottest day of the year, and sparks are sure to fly!
How to Sleep at Night - Elizabeth Harris (HarperCollins, January 2025)
Ethan and Gabe are a happily married gay couple with a young daughter, living in the American suburbs. Then Ethan announces he wants to run for Congress. As a Republican.
In the meantime, Ethan's sister Kate finds herself reconnecting with a woman from her past, who has the power to seriously disrupt her life, if her brother's bid for power doesn't do it first. A great meditation on marriage, how far you'll go for the things you love and how far your loved ones are prepared to go with you.
The Wardrobe Department – Elaine Garvey (Canongate, February 2025)
In London, Mairead toils and mends in a theatre, running between cobblers and Soho shops for props and backup seamed stockings, catering for the glamorous actors, producers and backstage queens and kings on a production of Uncle Vanya, never quite satisfied or in the right place. When her grandmother dies and home calls her, she has to return to Ireland and reckon with the past. A story of trials, slow liberations and little victories, this doesn’t read like a first novel at all and has a sure-footedness that bodes well for the future.
Three Days in June – Anne Tyler (Vintage, February 2025)
This short novel opens with deputy headmistress Gail being told that her job is now earmarked for someone else because of her lack of ‘people skills.’ As if that wasn’t enough, she’s prepping for her daughter’s wedding, having her perfectly controlled home invaded by her sweet but maddening ex-husband, his dietary requirements (vegan, but not really) and a random cat, which makes itself at home. When a secret comes to light about their daughter’s fiancé, the no-longer-married Mom and Dad must decide how, and if, to address it before it’s too late…
The Re-Write – Lizzie Damilola Blackburn (Penguin, February 2025)
Another original and entrancing book from Lizzie Damilola Blackburn. It’s pretty clear from the jump Temi's revenge book about her ex Wale is going to be the one that potentially lands her a big deal and in hot water – but, as with her first book, Yinka, Where is Your Huzband? this novel provides some genuine insights. While Blackburn's first novel dealt with Christian life in London and issues like colourism, this one focuses on people who use care services, plus-size representation (taking a no-nonsense, non-sensationalised approach) and Black masculinity. Beautifully written, enjoyable and continues the first book's trajectory of creating characters that feel like real people.
Favourite Daughter - Morgan Dick (Penguin, May 2025)
Arlo was devoted to her father, despite his many imperfections, and cared for him in his last days - so why has he left everything in his will to another young woman? This book's main strength is its unflinching look at addiction, which is handled flawlessly; the supporting characters and some of the ways that the two main characters behave are less fully fleshed out. A story about love, what we inherit - in every possible way - and how the only lives we can save are our own, though we can reach out to others along the way.
Consider Yourself Kissed – Jessica Stanley (Penguin, May 2025)
No love story takes place in a vacuum. Consider Yourself Kissed explores this in a way that few books do and succeeds. Australian Coralie meets Adam in the relatively normal (politically, anyway) days of 2013 and they fall in love. Adam's sweet daughter from a previous marriage feels like an additional blessing, though Coralie is very keenly aware that Zora isn't hers. As her family grows, Coralie is forced to reckon on a daily basis with her 'failures' as a parent, daughter, mother and writer while Adam's star continues to rise. An absorbing depiction of grown-up love and life in London.
The Book Game - Frances Wise (4th Estate and William Collins, June 2025)
At the behest of pompous academic Lawrence, several hand-picked misfits gather at his (well, his wife's) idyllic countryside home for five days, to work on their writing, but all is not as it seems. Writer and critic Ash has dirt on Lawrence, outsider Josh is there to pitch his terrible Chaucer-inspired script, Lucy is haunted by bad memories and Miles, the gay popular historian who found fame late-ish in life after abandoning his academic persona and finding a husband, just wants to get plastered. Lawrence's wife, Claudia, is bewitched by an artistic late arrival, who happens to be a woman. Will everyone get out unscathed?
The Favourite - Fran Litlewood (Penguin, June 2025)
Patrick and Vivienne seem to be the perfect parents, but now in their seventies, they are worried about certain memories coming to light, and while they love bringing up slightly naughty memories from their girls' childhoods, there are some things they don't talk about - like the burns their oldest daughter received in the first moments of a camping holiday, or that they separated for a few months due to the guilt and only got back together after a drunken roll on the 1970s yellow carpet led to youngest daughter Eva.
Eva, the 'band-aid baby,' becomes the unwilling focus of her sisters' resentment when her father jumps to save her from an accident they all thankfully escape in the present day., but doesn't help older sisters Alex and Nancy, who are both struggling in their own ways and find this apparent betrayal from their Dad to be too much to add to their middle-aged cognitive loads. Alex is struggling with a new baby at forty-five and Nancy has an envelope from the hospital she can't bring herself to open. Eva, the success story despite being the baby who had a baby in her twenties, is concerned that she may have married the wrong guy, particularly when his creepy son shows up on this doomed family 'holiday'.
Food Person - Adam Roberts (Random House UK, July 2025).
Introverted cook Isabella loses her job after messing up a cooking video, and stumbles into a ghostwriting job for mercurial actress Molly Babcock. While falling in love with sous-chef Gabe and trying to re-interest the wild actress in the recipes that Molly's mother lovingly curated before her death. Isabella also has to rewrite the script of her relationship with her own mother, whose hoarding and compulsive cooking is out of control. Well-paced with some terrific set-pieces, this is one of those 'would be a great Netflix series,' books that nonetheless stands up on its own. Ideal for foodies, this take on female friendship in the age of TikTok and Instagram is sure to leave many feeling deliciously satisfied.
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