December 2025 list by Nanette Alderman |
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And Then There Was You
by Sophie Cousens
At thirty-one, Chloe Fairway isn't where she wants to be in life. So, when she's invited to her college's ten-year reunion, the last thing she needs is to face the people who once voted her most likely to succeed. She definitely doesn't want to see her former best friend Sean Adler. She turns to a mysterious dating service to improve her life appearance. Enter Rob, her handsome, successful, and charming match, who quickly makes Chloe feel like she's finally finding her way.
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As Many Souls as Stars
by Natasha Siegel
An inventive and romantic speculative novel about two women-a witch and an immortal demon-who make a Faustian bargain and are drawn into a cat-and-mouse chase across multiple lifetimes.
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Brigands & Breadknives
by Travis Baldree
Fern has weathered the stillness and storms of a bookseller's life for decades, but now, in the face of crippling ennui, transplants herself to the city of Thune to hang out her shingle beside a long-absent friend's coffee shop. What could be a better pairing? Surely a charming renovation montage will cure what ails her! If only things were so simple.
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Catching Lady Theo
by Ella Quinn
Leo, Duke of Chandos, can't quite believe it. After many mistresses, and much mischief and merriment, he's fallen head-over-heels for his best friend's sister, Lady Theo Vivers. Now that she's come out, Leo is ready to give up his wild bachelorhood for wedded bliss. Yet despite his attentions, Theo regards him at best as a friend, --at worst, as a brother.
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The Color of Hope
by Danielle Steel
Following the unexpected death of her beloved husband, art gallery owner Samantha Thompson finds herself adrift in their Malibu beach house. Her three adult children are concerned for her well-being and encourage her to take a trip abroad, leading Samantha to discover the charming medieval village of Arcangues and its historic chateau. The chateau is the ancestral home of Xavier de Bonport, who is trapped in a loveless marriage and trying to dig himself out financially after a business failed due to the pandemic. He needs rental income as urgently as Samantha needs a refuge.
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Evil Bones
by Kathy Reichs
Small creatures--a rat, a rabbit, a squirrel--have been turning up throughout Charlotte, North Carolina, mutilated and displayed in a bizarre manner. But one day, as Tempe is relaxing at home alongside her aimless, moody great-niece Ruthie, she's diverted by a disturbing call. The perp is upping the ante.
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Executive Power
by Brian Andrews
Even in a family of strong individualists like the Ryans, Kyle has stood out as a lone wolf. For years he's gone his own way, joining the DIA rather than the CIA, and disagreeing with his father's politics. Now he's missing in an African country on the brink of a coup. His last message to his handlers: We're on the wrong side of history. His father, the President of the United States, is about to discover which is more important to him: the interests of his country or the life of his son.
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From Cradle to Grave
by Rhys Bowen
Georgie may be figuring out what it means to be a new mother but she does know one thing for sure: she absolutely despises the strict nanny who was foisted upon her by her meddlesome sister-in-law. In search of a new nanny, Georgie travels to London to see her old friend ZouZou only to find her about to depart for a funeral, after the unexpected death of a young man in her social circle. It quickly becomes clear there's more than one mysterious death around town.
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The Hidden City
by Charles Finch
It's 1879, and Lenox is convalescing from the violent events of his last investigation. But a desperate letter from an old servant forces him to pick up the trail of a cold case: the murder of an apothecary seven years before, whose only clue is an odd emblem carved into the doorway of the building where the man was killed. When Lenox finds a similar mark at the site of another murder, he begins to piece together a hidden pattern which leads him into the corridors of Parliament, the slums of East London, and ultimately the very heart of the British upper class.
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I, Medusa
by Ayana Gray
Meddy has spent her whole life as a footnote in someone else's story. Out of place next to her beautiful, immortal sisters and her parents--both gods, albeit minor ones--she dreams of leaving her family's island for a life of adventure. So when she catches the eye of the goddess Athena, who invites her to train as an esteemed priestess in her temple, Meddy leaps at the chance to see the world beyond her home.
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A Long Winter
by Colm Toibin
A young man named Miquel returns to his family in the Catalan Pyrenees upon completing his military service. His younger brother, Jordi, will be departing for his service a week after Miquel's arrival. He will be gone for two years. Miquel notices their mother's increasingly erratic behavior and understands that she is drinking. As she becomes increasingly unstable, her husband resorts to drastic measures.
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The Marriage Method
by Mimi Matthews
Well removed from London's more curious eyes, the Benevolent Academy for the Betterment of Young Ladies strives toward one clandestine goal: to distract, disrupt, and discredit men in power who would seek to harm the advancement of women-by appropriate means, of course. When intrepid newspaper editor Miles Quincy starts to question the school's intentions, the Academy appoints Penelope Nell Trewlove, one of their brightest graduates, to put this nuisance to rest. An easy enough mission, she supposes. Or it would be, if Miles weren't so fascinating.
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Newlyweds Can Be Knocked Off
by Amanda Flower
After two decades as a widow, Millie Fisher, Amish matchmaker, quilter, goat tender, and sleuth is now a 60-something newlywed! But when she adds snowbird to her list amid the chill of an Ohio winter, murder finds a way to follow.
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Palaver
by Bryan Washington
The story of a mother and a son, estranged for ten years, reconnecting in the son's chosen city of Tokyo in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
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Pluto
by Ben Bova
Major Larry Randall has been called to Pluto to retrieve Dr. Aaron Mikelson. Mikelson, no longer human after a horrific accident, is now melded to an AI. His enhanced senses have detected an alien artifact on Pluto's surface, and he's not leaving without it. Transferred to the research vessel studying Pluto, Randall and the other scientists are stumped as to the artifact's purpose and origin.
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Quantum Tempest
by Mike Maden
There's a tempest brewing in Central America. A government crackdown on cartels leaves most of the drug lords locked up in an impregnable prison. In response, Amador Fierro, a brilliant, tech-savvy crime boss forges the seven largest cartels into an allegiance called La Liga. If they are to defeat the U.S. led offensive, they will need a powerful weapon. Thus is born
Project Q.
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Queen Esther
by John Irving
Esther Nacht is Jewish and an orphan. Dr. Larch knows it won't be easy to find a Jewish family to adopt Esther; in fact, he won't find any family who'll adopt her. When Esther is fourteen, soon to be a ward of the state, Dr. Larch meets the Winslows. The Winslows aren't Jewish, but they despise anti-Semitism. Esther's gratitude for the Winslows is unending; even as she retraces her roots back to Vienna, she never stops loving and protecting the Winslows.
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Strangers in the Car
by C. M. Ewan
Abi and Ben are driving home down foggy country roads, arguing about having had to cut short their weekend away when they take a wrong turn. Abi is behind the wheel, but her eyes leave the road for a moment as she says something to Ben - just as he gasps. A man is in the road, waving a torch.
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The Seventh Champion
by Sylvia Mercedes
A dragon princess joins forces with a scarred prince to escape a competition for her hand in marriage, unaware he is hiding dark secrets of his own.
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Through Each Tomorrow
by Gabrielle Meyer
In 1883, time-crosser Charles Hollingsworth enters elite circles entwined with intrigue, unsure which path he will choose on his twenty-fifth birthday. In 1563, Lady Cecily Pembrooke serves Queen Elizabeth while her stepbrother Charles seeks to save the ailing monarch.
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Trigger Happy
by William W. Johnstone
Once again reluctantly partnered with Crow scout Moses Red Buffalo, Nathan has been assigned to assist the U.S. cavalry in escorting a large band of Blackfoot Indians across Montana and into Canada. Refusing to leave, Chief Thunder Elk threatens to wage war if his tribe is not left alone. Wealthy rancher Bennett McGreevey wants the land the Blackfoot call home, and he's powerful enough to ensure the army does his bidding. But Nathan Stark is not a soldier.
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