December 2025 list by K. Pearson |
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Break Wide the Sea
by Sara Holland
A young woman cursed with a fatal heartbreak-induced sickness must race against time to find a cure and protect her family legacy from the ancient finfolk that would destroy it, the fiancé that would kill her for it, and the boy who would love her if she forsook it. In the treacherous waters surrounding Kirkrell, sailors hunting magic whales live in fear of the finfolk--bloodthirsty sea fae who sink ships and curse bloodlines.
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The Cuffing Game
by Lyla Lee
A deliciously fun YA K-drama remix of Pride and Prejudice--if Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett were a college-run reality TV dating show. It is a truth universally acknowledged that when there is a hot person, there is also someone with a crush on them. Mia Yoon has a plan for everything. Get a full ride to her dream film school in Los Angeles, behind her mom's back, and escape her middle-of-nowhere hometown--check. Produce her own dating show starring other people and their crushes--check. But everything goes off the rails when she has to enlist the help of her own secret crush, Noah Jang, a boy she'd rather hate.
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Cursed Princess Club Novel 1: A Most Unusual Princess
by Michelle Knudsen
Explore the world of the Cursed Princess Club. The beloved world of the Cursed Princesses makes the leap from comics to fiction in this new series of novel adaptations based on the hit graphic novels. Gwendolyn is living the fairy-tale life. She's a princess. She lives in a castle with her father the king and her loving siblings. Everything is perfect. Or it was. One day, Gwen overhears a visiting prince commenting on her appearance in the harshest of terms and her world is upended. She's always known she didn't look like your typical princess, but her family thinks she's beautiful. No one has ever been so mean.
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Eternal Ruin
by Tigest Girma
Kidan Adane has finally embraced her darkness. She's killed without remorse, lied, and broken Uxlay University's most sacred law by inviting elusive rogue vampires, the Nefrasi, into Uxlay. Trapped with a violently unstable vampire, and reeling from her sister's return, Kidan wields her anger like a weapon. She vows to master her house and protect the sacred artifact hidden inside, even if it means forging an alliance with the depraved leader of the Nefrasi, Samson Sagad--and betraying Susenyos.
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The Hidden Girl
by Louise Bassett
Within the pages of a stolen diary, Melati discovers a coded cry for help--the diary belongs to Devi, an Indonesian teenager who is being held by traffickers. Mel races across the island of Java and against the clock to work out Devi's identity and where she's being held. Before long, the pieces fall into place, and Mel must put her own life on the line to save a girl she's never met.
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How We Play the Game
by Alexis Nedd
Competitive gaming and fake dating combine to create a razor-sharp romance perfect for fans of Twelfth Knight and SLAY. Zora Lyon plays to dominate. And as a no-nonsense, strategic prodigy of Wizzard Game's viral battle royale, she has all the skills she needs. So when Wizzard offers their top players a chance to participate in a summer academy designed to crown a national champion, Zora knows she has what it takes to be the last player standing. But Wizzard isn't just looking for winners-they're looking to create viral gaming superstars.
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I'll Find You Where the Timeline Ends
by Kylie Lee Baker
A teen descendant of a Japanese dragon god must find out the truth of what happened to her missing sister while trying not to fall for a handsome rogue agent in acclaimed author Kylie Lee Baker's magical new YA romance, I'll Find You Where the Timeline Ends.
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Little Pieces of Light
by Emma Scott
After rekindling their childhood connection, teens Emery and Xander bond over their family struggles and agree to a marriage of convenience to aid Emery's emancipation.
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Lord of Blade and Bone
by Erica Ivy Rodgers
Montaigne to use his powers, Lady Charlotte Sand and her rebellion also seek to use Luc to secure peace, but betrayal and dark forces threaten to unravel their fight for freedom.
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A Matter of Murder
by Tirzah Price
A Bingley family curse looms over Lizzie's sister and Darcy's best friend--but are the dark forces at work supernatural or human? Lizzie Bennet's beloved sister Jane has just married Darcy's best friend, Bingley, and the Bennet family and Darcy are paying the newlyweds a visit at Bingley's family home, Netherfield Park. It doesn't take long for their country retreat to turn into an investigation, though, when a long-dead body is discovered stuffed up the parlor chimney. The locals are convinced that Netherfield is cursed, but Lizzie and Darcy know better than to believe in such nonsense and are determined to uncover the truth about what happened to the mysterious man in the chimney.
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Never Seen the Stars
by Kate Korsh
Hattie Murphy thinks the universe hates her. She has a secret: she has the same genetic eye disease as her father and is slowly going blind, just like he did. Nobody knows. Not her friends. Not her family. As if that weren't hard enough, Hattie's good friend Mason drowns unexpectedly, leaving their friend group shattered. After Mason's death, Hattie isn't ready to let go. There are too many things left unsaid between them. But while it's hard for her to find her seat in the dim light of the church at Mason's funeral, Hattie finds that she can see something no one else can: Mason's ghost.
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Reawakening
by Orson Scott Card
Seventeen-year-old Laz, a clone born with the power to jump between parallel worlds, must use his powers to stop an interdimensional war.
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Red as Royal Blood
by Elizabeth Hart
The Inheritance Games gets the royal treatment in this paperback original thriller that combines courtly intrigue, succession drama, and romance. Ruby has never found a puzzle she couldn't solve. Even though she's destined to spend the rest of her life as a servant to the royal family, her mind itches for a true challenge. But no puzzle could prepare her for the king's decision to name Ruby as the next heir to the throne just before his death. Thrown into the viper's nest of court, Ruby is forced to contend with a kingdom in crisis, the dead king's angry wife, and the three entitled and annoyingly handsome princes.
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The Same Backward as Forward
by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
A tragic love story unfolds, told in two parts, between a charismatic heir with no memories and the woman nursing him back to health who has every reason to hate him.
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Seven Deadly Thorns
by Amber Hamilton
The Cruel Prince meets Powerless in this dark academia romantasy that will tattoo itself onto your heart In the cursed Kingdom of Aragoa, the punishment for magic is death. Even the students at Vandenberghe Academy aren't spared. When Viola Sinclair's deadly shadow magic is discovered, the queen gives her assassin a new assignment and a new cursed tattoo: seven-thorned rose on his arm for the seven days he has to hunt Viola down and kill her. If he doesn't, he will be the one to die.
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Shiny Happy People
by Clay McLeod Chapman
Sixteen-year-old Kyra teams up with new boy Logan to uncover the truth behind a mysterious drug with disturbing side effects that is plaguing their town.
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Starchaser
by R. M. Gray
Seventeen-year-old pirate Aster Oberon faces a stunning new reality, gifted with a with magical ability that she's struggling to master. Worse, both she and Will--the Nightweaver who has captured her heart--have been cursed. In mere weeks, they will become ferocious Underlings, creatures forced to serve the evil Morana. The only way to break the curse is by procuring Morana's blood. To track down the cure, Aster teams up with both Will and Titus, the infuriatingly handsome prince of the Eerie who secretly aims to overthrow his royal family's tyrannical reign. The trio's journey takes them to Castle Grim, where danger is around every corner, and no one is who they seem.
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Under a Fire-Red Sky
by Geraldine McCaughrean
With World War II on their doorstep, four teens evade evacuation and remain in London, attempting to aid the Fire Service and keep each other safe during the Blitz.
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Wheel of Wrath
by A. A. Vora
When the barriers separating the upper and lower realms are destroyed, four teens must choose sides in the war that ensues and learn how the very makeup of the universe may be the key to ending the conflict.
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The Wildest Dreams Bookshop
by Gracie Page
Sometimes real life is better than fiction ...Seventeen-year-old Anna's summer is not off to a good start. She's pretty sure she's flunked her exams, and her boyfriend, Max, has unceremoniously dumped her. So when her aunt invites her to come work and live at her seaside bookshop, Anna takes her up on the offer--what other choice does she have? At least there she can hide out, maybe get her mess of a life back on track without the distractions of everyone she knows. But there are plenty of other kinds of distractions in this sleepy little town.
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