December 2025 list by Donalee Jacobs |
|
|
|
An Academic Affair
by Jodi McAlister
Sadie Shaw and Jonah Fisher have been academic rivals since they first crossed paths as undergraduates in the literature department thirteen years ago. Now that a highly coveted teaching opportunity has come up, their rivalry hits epic proportions. When Sadie notices that the job offers partner hire, however, she hatches a plot to get them both the job. All they must do is get legally married. It's a simple win-win solution but when sparks begin to fly, it becomes clear that despite their education, these two may not have thought this whole thing through.
|
|
|
|
As Many Souls as Stars
by Natasha Siegel
For fans of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, 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.
|
|
|
|
Best Offer Wins
by Marisa Kashino
Eighteen months and 11 lost bidding wars into house-hunting in the Washington, DC suburbs, Margo Miyake gets a tip about the perfect house, in the perfect neighborhood, slated to come up for sale in one month. Desperate to escape the cramped apartment she shares with her husband Ian -- and in turn, get their marriage back on track -- Margo becomes obsessed with buying the house. As Margo infiltrates the homeowners' lives, her tactics grow increasingly unhinged--but just when she thinks she's won them over, she hits a snag in her plan. Undeterred, Margo will prove again and again that there's no boundary she won't cross to seize the dream life she's been chasing.
|
|
|
|
Canticle
by Janet Rich Edwards
A masterful debut novel following a spirited young woman's explorations of faith, agency, and love in thirteenth-century Bruges. Aleys is sixteen years old and unusual: stubborn, bright, and prone to religious visions. When her father promises her in marriage, she runs away from home, finding shelter among the beguines, a community of religious women who refuse to answer to the Church. But forces both mystical and political are at work. Illegal translations of scripture, the women's independence, and a sudden rash of miracles draw the attention of an ambitious bishop--and bring Aleys and those around her into danger, a danger that will push Aleys to a new understanding of love and sacrifice.
|
|
|
|
Dawn of the Firebird
by Sarah Mughal Rana
With her heavenly magic of nur, Khamilla is a weapon even enemies would wield--especially those in the magical, scholarly city of Za'skar. Hiding her identity, Khamilla joins the enemy's army school, risking it all to topple her adversaries, avenge her clan and reclaim their throne. To survive, she studies under mystic monks and battles in a series of contests to outmaneuver her fellow soldiers. She must win at all costs, but the more she excels, the more she is faced with history that contradicts her father's teachings. With a war brewing among the kingdoms and a new twisted magic overtaking the land, Khamilla is torn between two impossible choices: vengeance or salvation.
|
|
|
|
The Day I Lost You
by Ruth Mancini
All Lauren wants is a new life in Spain. Everyone deserves a new start, and Lauren needs to put her past behind her. Hope has everything including the baby she always longed for, Sam. But Sam has gone missing. So when the police tell her that a woman has been found in Spain with a child matching Sam's description, Hope thinks her nightmare might be coming to an end. But Lauren is insisting Sam is her baby. She even has his passport and birth certificate to prove it. So what really happened to Baby Sam? One child. Two mothers. And a past that won't let them go.
|
|
|
|
Dead Ringer
by Chris Hauty
Bestselling author Chris Hauty, returns with a riveting stand-alone novel that explores what might have really happened at the JFK assassination. Set in present-day, a disgraced former Secret Service office and a Jesuit professor join forces to delve into the mysteries surrounding the events of November 22, 1963. Fixated on deciphering the conspiracies behind the history-changing assassination, they are oblivious to the fact that the cabal is still active--and may face an end as bloody as the carnage in Dealey Plaza. Will they be able to uncover the truth in time? Or will they become two more footnotes in history?
|
|
|
|
A Grim Reaper's Guide to Cheating Death
by Maxie Dara
Nora Bird works for S.C.Y.T.H.E., which enables her to learn all the myriad ways you can kick the bucket, which is comforting...until one day, a file crosses her desk with her twin brothers' name. Nora steals the file and races to her brother's house. She begs him to trust her that his death is imminent, and they hit the road (with his parrot, Jessica, who has plenty to say) in an attempt to evade death and S.C.Y.T.H.E., whose mission of collecting souls is disrupted by Charlie's existence. Every time Nora saves him, a new cause of death appears in his file. Someone is determined to take Charlie out, and Nora will have to use everything she's ever learned about death to discover the culprit.
|
|
|
|
Haven't Killed in Years
by Amy K. Green
Marin Haggerty, daughter of a world-renowned serial killer, spent her childhood training to follow in her father's footsteps. After his arrest, she's put in witness protection and happy to take on the identity of harmless office worker Gwen Tanner. But when someone starts sending body parts to her house, the message is clear: I know who you are. To keep her identity secret, Gwen has to take on the role of hunting down the killer herself. Along the way she'll learn she is capable of deep, human connections, but is finally opening herself up going to help her catch the killer, or will it put her and others in even more danger?
|
|
|
|
Hearts in Circulation
by Sarah Monzon
Little Creek's bookmobile is more of a death trap on wheels than a vehicle of literary delights. Haley Holt sees it as a way to serve her community and be worthy of the liver transplant that saved her life as a child. However, she questions everything when the bookmobile breaks down and a rockslide traps her in the small hollow of Turkey Grove. Reclusive mechanic Levi Redding lives in tiny Turkey Grove to get away from people. He can handle getting the bookmobile running again, but when forced proximity leads to a misunderstanding, a note of apology begins an epistolary friendship, proving that sometimes the happiest of endings aren't contained within the bindings of a book.
|
|
|
|
The Heir Apparent
by Rebecca Armitage
It's New Year's Day in Tasmania and the life Lexi Villiers has carefully built is working out nicely: she's in the second year of her medical residency, she lives on a beautiful farm with her two best friends Finn and Jack--and she's about to finally become more-than-friendly with Jack--when a helicopter abruptly lands. Out steps her grandmother's right-hand-man, with the tragic news that her father and older brother have been killed in a skiing accident. Lexi's grandmother happens to be the Queen of England, and in addition to the shock and grief, Lexi must now accept the reality that she is suddenly next in line for the throne--a role she has publicly disavowed.
|
|
|
|
I, Medusa
by Ayana Gray
Meddy has spent her life out of place next to her beautiful, immortal sisters and her parents--both gods-- she dreams of leaving her family's island for a life of adventure. When the goddess Athena invites her to train as a priestess in her temple, Meddy leaps at the chance to leave her home. She flourishes in her role as Athena's favored acolyte, getting her first tastes of purpose and power. But when she is noticed by Poseidon, Meddy's life is irrevocably altered. When her locs are transformed into snakes as punishment for a crime she did not commit, Medusa must embrace a new identity--as a vigilante--and with it, the chance to write her own story as mortal, martyr, and myth.
|
|
|
|
Innocence Road
by Laura Griffin
Leanne Everhart knows women have something to fear in her hometown, especially so if they're not rich, white locals. Returning to town after her father's death, she sees the ugliest sides of an area that draws people for its severe, untamed natural landscape. While her department faces mounting backlash over a wrongful conviction in the long-ago murder case of a popular local teenager, Leanne is called to a fresh crime scene at the edge of the desert. A nameless woman was found murdered, with no clues as to her identity. As Leanne digs into the evidence, she grows convinced this latest murder case is linked with the local teenager's murder.
|
|
|
|
A Love Story from the End of the World: Stories
by Juhea Kim
From the acclaimed author of Beasts of a Little Land and City of Night Birds, a globetrotting story collection about humans in precarious balance with the natural world. Spanning multiple locales and epochs, and rendered in fine detail and vivid color, this transportive collection shows what it means to live as human inhabitants on our one miraculous planet. Lyrical, at times hilarious, and always heartfelt, each of these ten stories is a reflection of individual choice in the face of man-made apocalypse.
|
|
|
|
The Merge
by Grace Walker
Faced with the reality of losing her mother forever, Amelia signs them up to take part in an experimental merging process for Alzheimer's patients, in which Laurie's ailing mind will be transferred into Amelia's healthy body and their consciousness will be blended as one. Soon Amelia and Laurie join the group of other merge participants: teenage Lucas and his terminally ill brother Noah; Ben and his pregnant fiancé Annie; and Jay and his addict daughter Lara. As they prepare to move to The Village, a luxurious rehabilitation center for those who have merged, they quickly begin to question whether everything is really as it seems.
|
|
|
|
My Fair Frauds
by Lee Kelly
The Grand Duchess Marie Charlotte Antonie of Würrtemberg has taken Gilded Age high society by storm. Little does the upper crust know that the "deposed duchess" is a con woman named Alice, a woman out for revenge. Alice's long investment con clicks into place when she meets magician's assistant Cora, who proves the perfect debutante to lure in Alice's final target. Alice and Cora launch into the social season of 1884, scheming their way through grand balls, private dinners, and opera nights, ensnaring Alice's targets one by one. But as they hurtle toward their ultimate swindle pressures close in from all sides. This sting is sure to be the event of the season. Or else ruin Alice and Cora both.
|
|
|
|
Needle Lake
by Justine Champine
Ida was born with a hole in her heart. Forbidden from most physical activities, she prefers spending time alone and imagining the world outside Mineral, Washington. One afternoon, in walks her cousin Elna. Elna doesn't treat Ida like she's fragile and she isn't scared off by Ida's quirks and fixations. Ida is enraptured. When a man dies in the woods near Mineral, the cousins suddenly share a secret beyond the scope of anything Ida has dealt with before. Fear begins to mix with the reverence Ida feels toward her cousin. Brimming with lush prose and careful observation, Needle Lake is an arresting portrait of girlhood and the overwhelming, sometimes dangerous intensity of adolescence.
|
|
|
|
Next Time Will Be Our Turn
by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Seeing herself in her teenage granddaughter's struggles with identity and acceptance, Magnolia Chen tells Izzy her own story, of how she was sent by her Indo-Chinese parents from Jakarta to Los Angeles for her education and fell in love with someone forbidden to her by both culture and gender norms. Ellery, an American college student, became Magnolia's best friend and the love of her life. Stretching across decades and continents, Magnolia's star-crossed love story reveals how life can take unexpected turns but ultimately lead you to exactly who you're meant to be.
|
|
|
|
Secret Nights and Northern Lights
by Megan Oliver
Mona Miller lives her life by platitudes: she's just fine, thanks; all good; not a problem! Everyone at the travel magazine where she works knows her as a team player, but, feeling snubbed after being passed over for a promotion, Mona jumps at an assignment to Iceland. But the freelance photographer paired with her is none other than Benjamin Carter. Ben, her childhood best friend and first everything, who ghosted her fourteen years ago and left her brokenhearted. The more time they spend together, the more the ice around her heart melts. And as those old feelings spark back to life, Mona must decide if she's willing to go on the biggest adventure of all.
|
|
|
|
Ship of Spells
by H. Leighton Dickson
When Ensign Bluemage Honor Renn is rescued from the wreckage of her first naval post, she expects death or disgrace. Instead, she wakes aboard the Touchstone, a mythic vessel whispered of in dockside ballads and royal war rooms alike. With a crew of misfits, a mysterious, elven captain, and a mission tied to the Dreadwall, the crumbling barrier that has kept the Overland and Nethersea from open war for a hundred years. But the tragedy that sank her last ship didn't just take lives--it left something behind. Now Renn carries a secret everyone wants.
|
|
|
|
The Silver Hills Boarding House
by Linda Lael Miller
Lizbet Fontaine will do anything to keep her family together, even journey to the West on a jitney with her little brother and sister. But her stepfather summoned an associate promising trouble, and Lizbet knows she needs to save them all. Gabe Whitfield is no saint, but he'll help this family find their way to Miss Ornetta's boarding house. Anything more is out of the question. But that one chance meeting changes Gabe forever. Lizbet's fierce strength makes him feel the faintest whisper of hope. And Lizbet can't deny being drawn to the honest, gentle man whose kindness moves her. Can she trust her heart to a man who can't let go of the past?
|
|
|
|
Slow Gods
by Claire North
My name is Mawukana na-Vdnaze, and I am a very poor copy of myself. In telling my story, there are certain things I should perhaps lie about. I should make myself a hero. Pretend I was not used by strangers and gods, did not leave people behind. Here is one truth: out there in deep space, in the pilot's chair, I died. And then, I was reborn. I became something not quite human, something that could speak to the infinite dark. And I vowed to become the scourge of the world that wronged me. This is the story of the supernova event that burned planets and felled civilizations. This is also the story of the many lives I've lived since I died for the first time. Are you listening?
|
|
|
|
Thirst Trap
by Gráinne O'Hare
Harley, Róise, and Maggie have been friends since primary school. Now each woman is navigating her own tangle of entry-level jobs, messy entanglements, and late nights, but they always find their way back to each other, and to the ramshackle house they share. Amidst the chaos, the three are grieving their fourth housemate, their last big fight hanging heavily over their heads. But as they approach thirty, their home begins to crumble around them and the fault lines in their group become harder to ignore. In the wreckage, they must decide if their friendship will survive into a new decade--or if growing up sometimes means letting go.
|
|
|
|
Town & Country
by Brian Schaefer
The rural town of Griffin is a popular destination for weekenders and the city's second homeowners, but now a congressional race is highlighting tensions between life-long residents and new arrivals. The campaign pits local pub owner and town supervisor Chip Riley against the wealthy young carpetbagger Paul Banks, challenging the social and political loyalties of their families and friends with lasting repercussions. Spanning six months from Memorial Day to Election Day, Town & Country paints a kaleidoscopic portrait of a community in flux, asking essential and timeless questions: What makes a home, and what do we owe our neighbors?
|
|
|
|
We Will Rise Again
by Book Author
Editors Karen Lord, Annalee Newitz, and Malka Older champion realistic, progressive social change using the speculative stories of writers across the world. Exploring topics ranging from disability justice, environmental activism, community care and collective worldbuilding, these pieces from writers such as NK Jemisin, Charlie Jane Anders, Alejandro Heredia, Sam J. Miller, Nisi Shawl, and Sabrina Vourvoulias center solidarity, empathy, hope, joy, and creativity. Each story is grounded within a sociopolitical framework using essays and interviews from movement leaders, charting the future history of protest, revolutions, and resistance with the same zeal for accuracy that speculative writers normally bring to science and technology.
|
|
|
|
When the Fireflies Dance
by Aisha Hassan
On the outskirts of Lahore, Pakistan, a large yellow moon hung low in the sky when the men came with dogs and guns and cricket bats. In front of his family's small hut on the edge of a looming brick kiln, Lalloo's brother was murdered. Unable to escape the memory of that horrible night, Lalloo's parents and sisters remain trapped, the kiln chimney churning black smoke into the sky as the family slave, brick by brick, to pay off their debts. To rescue them, Lalloo must free himself from his past and carve out his own destiny.
|
|
|
|
Whispers at Painswick Court
by Julie Klassen
Surgeon's daughter Anne Loveday serves as sickroom nurse to a lady at a Cotswolds manor. While navigating the other residents--including potential suitors--a series of mishaps befalls her patient, and Anne realizes there may be a murderer in their midst. With her reputation and heart on the line, can she discover who's guilty before it's too late?
|
|
|
|
Wild Instinct
by T. Jefferson Parker
The hunt for the truth is the deadliest game. Lew Gale, a former Marine sniper, now an Orange County California Sheriff's detective, is assigned to track and shoot a mountain lion that has killed a man in Caspers Park, located in the rugged country east of Laguna Beach, California. The victim is Bennet Tarlow, a rich developer in upscale coastal Orange County. The investigation takes a chilling turn when Lew and his new partner, Daniela Mendez, discover that Bennet was dead long before the lion got to him. And while Bennet might have been the first to die, he certainly will not be the last.
|
|
|
|
Winter Stories
by Ingvild Rishøi
Scandinavian author Ingvild Rishøi returns with this award-winning collection that paints three vivid portraits of the lives of those existing on the fringes of society. A young mother tries to steal a pair of underwear in front of the watchful eyes of her young daughter. An ex-con struggles to reintegrate into society and become a better father to his son. Three siblings seek refuge in a remote cabin in a desperate bid to keep their family from being torn apart. In these powerful and emotional tales, Rishøi delves into the complexities of family, poverty, and forgiveness, exploring the human desire for a better life, the longing for change, and the difficult choices we make to protect those we love.
|
|
|
|
You'll Never Know
by Caleb Stephens
Grant Wilson has never been happier. He has a wife he loves, a home in the country, and a brand-new baby on the way. But all of that shatters when two masked men abduct his wife, Avery, in broad daylight. The instructions Grant receives are bizarre: If he wants Avery back, he must solve a series of riddles that arrive one after another--and the clock is ticking. With every piece of the puzzle more outrageous and complex than the last, Grant knows he's playing a dangerous game. But he's determined to do whatever it takes to save Avery's life ... even if it kills him.
|
|
|
|
|