I usually set goals for myself in the first week of the new year. This year I set my reading goal for 130 books. 140 stressed me out in 2024- and even though I’ll probably read more, the less stress about meeting a goal the better. 2025 seems like it will be stressful enough.
I usually also pick a couple of author’s backlists and already published series that I intend to read in the new year. This year I want to read the Lady Sherlock series by Sherry Thomas, Danielle L Jensen’s Bridge Kingdom series, and Olivia Atwater’s Regency Faerie Tales series. I’m thinking of reading Alice Coldbreath’s backlist, which is an author I discovered in the latter part of 2024 and really enjoyed.
My anticipated reads, listed below, are in no particular order. (Click on the image for more information)
Contemporary Romance:
Of course, there are more on my list- Whatever Jessica Joyce releases next (let’s hope there is a 2025 book coming), and the next Libby Hubscher, Heart Marks the Spot, which is about a treasure hunter and a novelist. Even though the Dark Olympus series by Katee Robert is up and down for me, I’m eagerly awaiting the next installment- I can’t help myself.
Historical Romance/Historical Mystery:
I’m also eagerly awaiting the next KJ Charles, All of Us Murderers, which is releasing in October. I can’t find a release date for the next Vanessa Riley historical mystery in the Lady Worthing Mysteries series, but I’ll add it to my TBR as soon as I do. Julie Anne Long’s Palace of the Rogue series is one of my favorites and I’m always excited for a new release. She had two releases in the series in 2024, I’m hoping for the same in 2025. Fingers crossed that Mastermind by Sarah MacLean releases this year. I’m simply dying for the Duchess’s story.
Fantasy/Science Fiction/PNR/Fantasy Romance:
I will confess to having already read Broken Souls and Bones by LJ Andrews, which I LOVED, and Archange’s Ascension, by Nalini Singh which is the conclusion to the Bluebell & Sparkle relationship ARC which I also LOVED. Adding them in my most anticipated to you remind all of you to make sure they are on your lists.
There are so many Fantasy/PNR books I want to read this year. The next Patricia Briggs release is an Alpha & Omega and comes out in November. T. Kingfisher has a reimaging of Snow White, Hemlock & Silver, releasing in August. Anytime Zoey Draven has a new release I’ll push everything else aside. Here’s a couple more I’m interested in:
The Bane Witch by Ava Morgyn, Zomromcom by Olivia Dade, Only Rogue Actions by Jennifer Estep, The Last Wizard’s Ball by Charlaine Harris, The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, A Steep and Savage Path by JJA Harwood, and The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam by Megan Bannen.
What are you looking forward to this year?
Thanks for this list! I am always looking for good books. I wish T. Kingfisher would do another book in the Saints of Steel series – I have loved every one of them.
I believe that Tor picked up that series and is rereleasing them in hardcover. (Swordheart is releasing 2/25/25) I’m not sure if they are publishing the rest of the series, or if she’ll continue to self-publish, with Tor distributing the physical copies. Most of the releases in this series are only announced like a month before they are published so I’ll join you in hoping there are more to come in 2025!
What a fun list, Angela. I’ve taken note of a number of titles I’d also like to read.
Happy 2025 reading to us!
When I compiled the list of books I’m most looking forward to in 2025, I was amazed at how many of them were second-chance m/m hockey romances—it must be a trend. My most anticipated releases of 2025 are:
Ari Baran’s GOALTENDER INTERFERENCE (January 7): a second-chance romance between two older MCs (one a retired hockey player, the other a hockey team captain).
Sarina Bowen’s THE LAST GUY ON EARTH (March 4): another second-chance romance between hockey players who had a secret relationship 15 years before and now find themselves playing on the same team.
Rachel Reid’s THE SHOTS YOU TAKE (March 4): yet another second-chance hockey romance, this time between a retired player and a hockey superstar who were friends-with-benefits a decade ago. I loved Reid’s HEATED RIVALRY/THE LONG GAME and enjoyed most of the other books in her Game Changers series, but I was “meh” about her follow-up, TIME TO SHINE, so I’ve been a little concerned about this new one. However, those who’ve read the ARC are reporting really good things about THE SHOTS YOU TAKE, including that it’s just as good as HEATED RIVALRY—which would make it truly epic in my world!
Nicky James’s READING BETWEEN THE LINES (March 6) is the next book in her Shadowy Solutions romantic-suspense series in which two men (one a physically- and emotionally-scared taciturn private investigator and the other a bubbly and outgoing police records clerk) try to negotiate the minefield of their relationship while working together to solve possible crimes. In this latest installment, the guys look into the circumstances of the supposed accidental death of a teenager. I’m liking the Shadowy Solutions books even more than I liked James’s earlier Valor & Doyle series—and that’s saying a lot.
KD Casey’s BREAKOUT YEAR has no release date yet, but she mentioned it in the afterword to her recent paranormal UNWRITTEN RUNES. I consider Casey the go-to when it comes to m/m baseball romance, and I’m so excited to see a new book from her.
I love Kati Wilde—and, as a long-time fan, I know and accept that her release dates are often suggestions as opposed to actualities. ONLY ONE BED was scheduled for release in December and is now showing as January 15 (fingers crossed). Here’s hoping it arrives some time in 2025, along with some of her other upcoming books: THE BEAST, THE ISLAND, and THE NIGHT (all part of a new romantasy series called Daughters of the Hunt), along with BORROWED BRIDE, which appears to be part of her long-running Dead Lands series. Any new book from Kati is a cause of rejoicing, so I will happily take whichever of her books she decides to release next.
Wait- Kati Wilde has a new romantasy series coming out? How did I not know this?
Also, since she is also Milla Vane, I would appreciate it if she would please release the final book in the A Gathering of Dragons series.
How did I not know this? I thought Milla Vane and Meljean Brook were the same person. I know Kati Wilde publishes under another name too, but did not know it was Milla Vane. I learn something new every day.
Meljean Brook is Milla Vane is Kati Wilde. Lol