PEOPLE's Most-Anticipated Books of 2025, from New Emily Henry and Taylor Jenkins Reid to a 'Hunger Games' Prequel

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12/27/2024 02:45 PM

Here are the most exciting books we're most looking forward to sharing in 2025

Penguin Random House; Harper; Red Tower Books
Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry; Zeal by Morgan Jerkins; Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros

As you start to compile your reading list for the new year ahead, get in line to check out books from your local library or start to fill your digital shopping cart. We've got recommendations for the most exciting books coming out in just about every genre.

We can't wait to get our hands on hot new releases from Rebecca Yarros, Suzanne Collins, Taylor Jenkins Reid and Emily Henry, who all have books coming out this year. Those will hit shelves alongside debuts from authors who are poised to become new favorites in 2025, in genres like thriller, romantasy, historical fiction and much more.

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Preordering books helps tip off bestseller lists, award juries and fellow bookworms that an author's book is worth a read, so if you're excited about one on this list, do your future self and your favorite writers both a favor and get your order in. Happy reading!

'Homeseeking' by Karissa Chen (January)

G.P. Putnam's Sons
'Homeseeking' by Karissa Chen

This sweeping, ambitious novel about the meaning of home and the power of memory follows a pair of separated lovers, Haiwen and Suchi, through six decades of Chinese history as war, famine and chance bring them to Hong Kong, Taiwan, New York, California and many places — and circumstances — along the way.

'Good Dirt' by Charmaine Wilkerson (January)

Ballantine Books
'Good Dirt' by Charmaine Wilkerson

It all starts when 10-year-old Ebby Freeman hears a gunshot and sees her brother, Baz, lying on the floor surrounded by the shattered remains of a centuries-old family heirloom. In this multigenerational epic from the author of Black Cake, we see how that artifact might hold the key to Ebby's future, and her family's legacy.

'The Three Lives of Cate Kay' by Kate Fagan (January)

Atria Books
'The Three Lives of Cate Kay' by Kate Fagan

Have you ever wanted to run away, assume a new identity and live a completely different life? In this sparkling novel, Cate Kay is just that: the nom de plume of a bestselling author who doesn't really exist, after a tragedy in her youth sent her on the run under a succession of different identities. But when a shocking revelation comes to light, it may be time for Cate to assume yet another identity: Her real one.

'Harlem Rhapsody' by Victoria Christopher Murray (February)

Berkley
'Harlem Rhapsody' by Victoria Christopher Murray

If you like to learn something while lost in a gripping narrative, don't miss this historical fiction about the woman who kicked off the Harlem Renaissance. Jessie Redmon Fauset was the first Black woman to helm the Black literary powerhouseThe Crisis, and was also founder W. E. B. Du Bois' lover. She's responsible for launching names like Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen and others, even as her success (and theirs) comes at a cost.

'Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People' by Imani Perry (January)

'Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People' by Imani Perry

Black in Blues ties the experiences of Black Americans to the color in an incisive, accessible narrative. Think blues music, indigo dye and the term "blue Black" to describe dark-skinned people. You'll never look at the color the same way.

'Onyx Storm' by Rebecca Yarros (January)

Red Tower Books
'Onyx Storm' by Rebecca Yarros

The hotly anticipated conclusion to the Empyrean Series hits shelves this January. "There will be politics, new adventures, old enemies and, of course, dragons," author Rebecca Yarros teased when she first announced the book. "The book is out for pre-order now and I can't wait to share more details with you later."

'People of Means' by Nancy Johnson (February)

'People of Means' by Nancy Johnson

This beautifully crafted, dual-timeline story follows a mother and daughter each seeking justice and following their dreams during pivotal moments of social reckoning — 1960s Nashville and 1992 Chicago. Even amidst deep struggles comes equally deep determination to achieve their versions of the American dream in this propulsive novel of indomitable women.

'Isola' by Allegra Goodman (February)

The Dial Press
'Isola' by Allegra Goodman

In this lushly painted, surprisingly feminist historical fiction, a former heiress named Marguerite falls from grace after her volatile guardian squanders her inheritance and drags her with him on an expedition to New France. When she and his servant find themselves attracted to each other, they're exiled to an isolated island. It's a perfect read for cozying up by a roaring fire — and feeling thankful you're not the sixteenth-century heroine the story is based on.

'Three Days in June' by Anne Tyler (February)

Knopf
'Three Days in June' by Anne Tyler

Gail's daughter is getting married, she's lost her job and she isn't even invited to the pre-wedding spa day the mother of the groom has planned. Then Gail's ex Max shows up unannounced, her daughter reveals a secret that may jeopardize the wedding and churns up Gail and Max's own history. It's an all-too-real family story as only Tyler can tell it.

'Jane and Dan at the End of the World' by Colleen Oakley (March)

'Jane and Dan at the End of the World' by Colleen Oakley

Jane and Dan's 19-year marriage has lost its sparkle, Jane's writing career isn't doing much better and she's pretty sure Dan is cheating on her. When they find themselves in the center of a hostage situation during date night, and everything the criminals say and do are ripped right from the pages of her failed book, they're the only people who can stop it. This sharply original romp is entirely too much fun.

'The Dream Hotel' by Laila Lalami (March)

Pantheon Books
'The Dream Hotel' by Laila Lalami

In Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award and Booker finalist Lalami's newest, the Risk Assessment Administration uses data collected from people's dreams to determine whether they're at risk of committing crimes. That's how Sara, a museum archivist, finds herself at a detention center where every minor infraction extends the period women must stay there. As months pass, Sara becomes more and more desperate for freedom in this luminous, unsettling look at technology and surveillance.

'The Antidote' by Karen Russell (March)

Knopf
'The Antidote' by Karen Russell

After a storm ravages the fictional Dust Bowl town of Uz, Neb., five characters find themselves entangled. There's the "Prairie Witch," whose body is a vault for the residents' memories; a Polish wheat farmer struggling under the weight of hoarded blessings; his orphan niece who's a basketball star and witch's apprentice; a voluble scarecrow; and a New Deal photographer with a time-traveling camera. It's at once a surreal portrait like only Russell can paint and an urgent warning against the encroaching climate crisis.

'Stag Dance' by Torrey Peters (March)

'Stag Dance' by Torrey Peters

In this inventive, boundary-pushing follow-up to Detransition, Baby, one novella and three stories take on gender, transness and lives on the margins in all of their gorgeously complicated glory.

"The book is my evolving attempt to explore the emotional, lived questions at the murky edges of gender that can't be captured by identity categories; the places where we are just people yearning, crashing, loving and messing up," the author said when she first announced the book.

'Sunrise on the Reaping' by Suzanne Collins (March)

Scholastic
'Sunrise on the Reaping' by Suzanne Collins

Attention, Hunger Games fans: there's a new addition to the beloved saga on the way. This one's all about beloved character Haymitch Abernathy and his journey through the games. The book will revisit the world of Panem 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the 50th Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell. And if you love the book, we've got even more good news: Sunshine on the Reaping will also become a movie, set to come out in November 2026.

'Stop Me If You've Heard This One; by Kristen Arnett (March)

Riverhead Books
'Stop Me If You've Heard This One' by Kristen Arnett

If you're afraid of clowns, consider this your trigger warning: Arnett's latest is all about a professional clown and the messy, often struggling person behind the makeup. Readers will be rooting for Cherry, who works part time at an aquarium as she pursues her dream of clowning while juggling her judgmental mother, her often disastrous love life and the madcap misfits who make up her social life. With as much heart, humor and gritty realness as can fit between two covers, the latest from the author of Mostly Dead Things is a delight.

'Flirting Lessons' by Jasmine Guillory (April)

Berkley
'Flirting Lessons' by Jasmine Guillory

The first sizzling sapphic romance from bestseller Guillory follows the uptight Avery who's exploring her attraction to women for the first time. Taylor, Napa Valley's resident heartbreaker, offers to give Avery flirting lessons. You'll just have to pick it up to find out how well they work.

'Great Big Beautiful Life' by Emily Henry (April)

Penguin Random House
'Great Big Beautiful Life' by Emily Henry

The queen of rom-coms needs no introduction, and her newest already has readers smashing the preorder button. This one's all about eternal optimist Alice Scott who's still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning human thundercloud. They're on Little Crescent Island vying for the chance to write the biography of the elusive octogenarian and former tabloid darling Margaret Ives. Of course, much like the book they're auditioning to write, grumpy Hayden and sunny Alice's story could go any number of ways in this delicious romp that's made for your spring break beach bag.

'Zeal' by Morgan Jerkins (April)

Harper
'Zeal' by Morgan Jerkins

In 1865 Mississippi, newly discharged freedman Harrison resigns himself to never finding Tirzah, after a woman working at the Freedmen's Bureau sets her sights on him — even after he placed an advertisement in the paper looking for his long-lost Tirzah. In 2019 Harlem, Oliver hands his fiancé Ardelia a crumbling love letter that might unearth some of their families' secrets.

Following the twin threads of Tirzah, Harrison and their descendants over 150 years, this gorgeous novel from the author of Caul Baby plumbs the power of enduring love and the way consequences reverberate through time.

'Sleep' by Honor Jones (May)

'Sleep' by Honor Jones

When a newly divorced young mother brings her daughters back to the house where she grew up, she has to reconcile the secrets of her own childhood with the person she's become, and is still becoming. A resonant novel on the cycles of family, mothers and daughters and how intertwined our lives can be.

'The Emperor of Gladness' by Ocean Vuong (May)

Penguin Press
'The Emperor of Gladness' by Ocean Vuong

Saved from jumping off a bridge by Grazina, an elderly widow in the grips of dementia, Hai, 19, becomes her caretaker. As a year unspools, the unlikely pair grow close, bonding over empathy, spiritual reckoning and heartbreak. Vuong's moving, lyrical writing nods at his poetic roots.

'Run for the Hills' by Kevin Wilson (May)

Madeline Hill and her mom have been going it alone on their Tennessee farm ever since Mad's dad left them 20 years ago. They're doing just fine — until Reuben Hills shows up and informs Mad he was left by their dad 30 years ago, and he's hired a detective to track him down, as well as a string of other half siblings.

"Like all of my books, it's about family, how we open our hearts to accept new people into our lives, even as we reconcile with the people who left us," Wilson told PEOPLE when revealing the book. "It's also about many of my favorite things — organic chicken farming, college basketball, indie filmmaking and California art communes."

'Atmosphere' by Taylor Jenkins Reid (June)

Penguin Random House
'Atmosphere' by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This epic novel that follows a romance between two astronauts working on the 1980s space shuttle program explores the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits. Joan Goodwin is an astronomer and astronaut who works at NASA's Houston Mission Control Center and must think quickly on her feet when the spacecraft carrying her love interest incurs danger.

"I wanted so badly to tell a story that was life or death, where the stakes were so immediate — and we understood that it might not always go the way that we want it to go," Jenkins Reid told Vogue. "There's something beautiful to be found in this heightened moment."

'Flashlight' by Susan Choi (June)

'Flashlight' by Susan Choi

Louisa is just 10 years old when she and her father, Serk, are last seen together taking a walk on the beach. Later, a barely alive Louisa is found washed ashore, with Serk nowhere to be found. Flashlight looks back at what really happened that night as it introduces us to Serk, a Korean man who grew up in Japan; Anne, Louisa's American mother who is estranged from her family and Tobias, Anne's illegitimate son who reappears in the family's orbit.

"During my childhood my family lived in Japan for a little under a year, and my memories of that time have always been very eerie and dreamlike and hard to connect with the rest of my life," Choi told PEOPLE when announcing the book. "The story in Flashlight comes out of that feeling. It's about a family — not my family, but maybe my alternate-universe family, who are far less lucky than my family was."

'The Bewitching' by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (July)

Del Rey
'The Bewitching' by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

From the celebrated author of Mexican Gothic comes another spine-tingler that follows three generations of women beset by danger. Nana Alba's stories always fascinated her great-granddaughter Minerva, a graduate student researching the life of obscure horror writer Beatrice Tremblay. Soon, she discovers the author once attended her own university and had a beautiful, mysterious roommate — who later vanished. The more Minerva learns, the more she suspects there's a link between the missing girl, Nana Alba's own unsettling encounters and Minerva herself. Do yourself a favor: Read this one with the lights on.

'Katabasis' by R.F. Kuang (August)

Katabasis is a noun in Ancient Greek that means "The story of a hero's descent to the underworld." The stunning new dark academia from the author behind Yellowface and Babel is about two graduate students who must set aside their rivalry and journey to Hell to save their professor's soul — which may even cost their own. You don't need to know the story of Dante's Inferno to fall in love with a journey that might even take you back to your own school days.