Top 30 Bestseller Books.
New Books 2025

“Some books are so familiar that reading them is like being home again.”

Welcome to Cozy Book Cafe 🖤 Discover the best new books 2025 for your Book Clubs.

Bestseller books are those that reach impressive sales figures, usually based on data from retailers, publishers, or industry analyses. They can cover a wide range of genres, such as fiction, non-fiction, self-help, and children's books, and are commonly highlighted on lists from sources like The New York Times, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble. These popular titles often showcase current trends, appealing themes, or well-known authors, attracting a lot of reader interest and media buzz.

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★ BOOK CLUB TOP PICK ★

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The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.

Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has—a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.

Filled with knowledge that only comes from a life fully lived, The Correspondent is a gem of a novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connection with people we might never meet in person. It is about the hubris of youth and the wisdom of old age, and the mistakes and acts of kindness that occur during a lifetime. Sybil Van Antwerp’s life of letters might be “a very small thing,” but she also might be one of the most memorable characters you will ever read.

Tags - Contemporary Books, Literary Fiction, Book Club, Family, Grief, Friendship, New Books 2025.

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First Command by Michael Simon

Fresh out of the Academy, Ensign Cole Jackson’s first posting to Freedom couldn’t have come at a worse time. All over the Alliance, planets and colonies are suddenly under attack by the vicious Coven Empire.

Freedom and her sister ship, Hood, are ambushed by alien warships, leaving Hood drifting dead in the void.

Cole is ordered to salvage parts from the powerless Hood, but when he arrives on the unpowered hulk, Freedom is called away, marooning him and a group of malcontent techs in deep space.

With the timer on survival ticking down, Cole must find the confidence to take control, whip his tiny crew into shape, bring Hood back to life––repairing communications, propulsion and even weapons.

He's got one chance to transform the derelict ship into a combat-ready vessel. One he can take into battle and alterthe course of the war.

Tags - New Science Fiction Books, Military Science Fiction, Space Opera, Sci-fi, New Books 2025.

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Burned Bridges by John Gilstrap

She thought she and her loved ones would be safe here. The lovely farm nestled in the heart of West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle looks like the perfect refuge from the backstabbing maelstrom of DC politics. But this seemingly peaceful new home is anything but safe for former FBI director Rivers and her children.

Troubles begin when Irene’s 12-year-old nephew finds a dead body in a cave on the property. Grim evidence points to a long-ago murder and cover-up. Powerful forces will do anything—including kill again—to protect their interests. Soon Irene’s family is the target of the kinds of threats and intimidation she’s seen before from major crime syndicates . . . but this time, the enemy determined to tear them down is homegrown.

Then comes the attack she most fears. With everything she cares about at risk and an impossible deadline looming, Irene knows she won’t get any help from the local police force. And she’s burned too many bridges in Washington to get help from the FBI. This time, Irene Rivers is on her own.

Tags - Popular Thriller Books, Mystery, Suspense, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Adult, New Books 2025.

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The Boomerang by Robert Bailey

The president of the United States has terminal cancer. Chief of Staff Eli James, his faithful consigliere and best friend, is one of the few who know. But just as the president’s condition mysteriously improves, Eli’s hit with another blow: his daughter has cancer too.

Hell-bent on helping her, Eli turns to Big Pharma’s top lobbyist for advice, but their encounter yields more questions than answers. As he races along a twisted trail to the truth, he stumbles upon a devastating cover-up worth billions of dollars—and millions of lives.

Armed with this deadly secret, Eli goes rogue, fleeing with his family out west. To keep them safe, he forms an uneasy alliance with land baron Nester “the Beast” Sanchez, known for his ruthless power tactics. An epic showdown brews, and it’s the state versus one desperate citizen, willing to risk everything to save his daughter. Can Eli broker a truce with his once allies? Or will there be war in the desert?

Tags - Popular Thriller Books, Mystery Thriller, Suspense, Historical Fiction, Crime, Action, Contemporary, New Books 2025.

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The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson

Let us fly now to the empire of Orrun, where after twenty-four years of peace, the reign of Bersun the Brusque has come to an end.

In the dizzying heat of midsummer, seven exceptional warriors, thinkers, strategists compete to replace him.

When one of them is murdered, it falls to Neema Kraa, the emperor’s brilliant, idiosyncratic High Scholar, to find the killer and fight for the throne.

Neema believes she is alone. But we are here to help; all she has to do is let us in.

If she succeeds, we will win an empire. If she fails, death awaits her.

But we won’t let that happen.

Tags - Fantasy books, Adult, Fiction, High Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Dark Academia, Mystery Thriller, Magic, New books 2025.

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My Friends by Fredrik Backman

Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise, and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.

Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. These lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream, a reason to love.

Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be placed into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. She embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn how the painting came to be and to decide what to do with it. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more nervous she becomes about what she’ll find. Louisa is proof that happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this stunning testament to the transformative, timeless power of friendship and art.

Tags - Contemporary Books, Literary Fiction, Book Club, Summer, Friendship, Coming Of Age, New Books 2025.

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The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey

After a very different outcome to WWII than the one history recorded, 1979 England is a country ruled by a government whose aims have sinister underpinnings and alliances.

In the Hampshire countryside, 13-year-old triplets Vincent, Lawrence and William are the last remaining residents at the Captain Scott Home for Boys, where every day they must take medicine to protect themselves from a mysterious illness to which many of their friends have succumbed. The lucky ones who recover are allowed to move to Margate, a seaside resort of mythical proportions.

In nearby Exeter, 13-year-old Nancy lives a secluded life with her parents, who dote on her but never let her leave the house.

As the triplets’ lives begin to intersect with Nancy’s, bringing to light a horrifying truth about their origins and their likely fate, the children must unite to escape – and survive.

Tags - Dystopian Books, Dystopia, Science Fiction, Mystery, New Books 2025.

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The Women on Platform Two by Laura Anthony

In 1970s Dublin, all forms of contraception are strictly forbidden, but an intrepid group of women will risk everything to change that in this sweeping, timely novel inspired by a remarkable and little-known true story.

Dublin, 1969: Maura has just married Dr. Christy Davenport and they look forward to growing their family. But as her husband’s vicious temper emerges, Maura worries that her home might never be safe for a child. Meanwhile, her close friend Bernie, a mother of three, learns the devastating news that if she conceives again, her health complications could prove fatal.

Dublin, 2023: A close call makes Saoirse realize that she may never want to be a mother. Little does she know that only a few decades ago, a group of women made this option possible for her. And she’s about to meet one of them…

The Women on Platform Two is a haunting, powerful story of feminine resistance and resilience that reminds us all of where we started—and how far we still have to go.

Tags - Historical Fiction Books, Book Club, Ireland, Social Justice, Friendship, New Books 2025.

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The River Is Waiting by Wally Lamb

Corby Ledbetter is struggling. New fatherhood, the loss of his job, and a growing secret addiction have thrown his marriage to his beloved Emily into a tailspin.

And that’s before he causes the tragedy that tears the family apart. Sentenced to prison, Corby struggles to survive life on the inside, where he bears witness to frightful acts of brutality but also experiences small acts of kindness and elemental kinship with a prison librarian who sees his light and some of his fellow offenders, including a tender-hearted cellmate and a troubled teen desperate for a role model.

Buoyed by them and by his mother’s enduring faith in him, Corby begins to transcend the boundaries of his confinement, sustained by his hope that mercy and reconciliation might still be possible.

Can his crimes ever be forgiven by those he loves?

Tags - Contemporary Books, Literary Fiction, Book Club, Mystery, Family, New Books 2025.

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We Are All Guilty Here by Karin Slaughter

Welcome to North Falls—a small town where everyone knows everyone.

Or so they think.

Until the night of the fireworks. When two teenage girls vanish, and the town ignites.

For Officer Emmy Clifton, it’s personal. She turned away when her best friend's daughter needed help—and now she must bring her home.

But as Emmy combs through the puzzle the girls left behind, she realizes she never really knew them. Nobody did.

Every teenage girl has secrets. But who would kill for them? And what else is the town hiding?

Tags - Crime Thriller Books, Detective Books, Suspense, New Books 2025.

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Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.

Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easygoing even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.

As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, it all changes in an instant.

Tags - Historical Fiction, Romance, LGBT, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, New Books 2025.

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The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau by Kristin Harmel

Colette Marceau has been stealing jewels for nearly as long as she can remember, following the centuries-old code of honor instilled in her by her mother, Annabel: take only from the cruel and unkind, and give to those in need. Never was their family tradition more important than seven decades earlier, during the Second World War, when Annabel and Colette worked side by side in Paris to fund the French Resistance.

But one night in 1942, it all went wrong. Annabel was arrested by the Germans, and Colette’s four-year-old sister, Liliane, disappeared in the chaos of the raid, along with an exquisite diamond bracelet sewn into the hem of her nightgown for safekeeping. Soon after, Annabel was executed, and Liliane’s body was found floating in the Seine—but the bracelet was nowhere to be found.

Seventy years later, Colette—who has “redistributed” $30 million in jewels over the decades to fund many worthy organizations—has done her best to put her tragic past behind her, but her life begins to unravel when the long-missing bracelet suddenly turns up in a museum exhibit in Boston. If Colette can discover where it has been all this time—and who owns it now—she may finally learn the truth about what happened to her sister. But she isn’t the only one for whom the bracelet holds answers, and when someone from her childhood lays claim to the diamonds, she’s forced to confront the ghosts of her past as never before. Against all odds, there may still be a chance to bring a murderer to justice—but first, Colette will have to summon the courage to open her own battered heart.

Tags - Historical Fiction Books, Book Club, World War II, Mystery, New Books 2025.

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The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett

At sixty-three years old, million-dollar lottery winner PJ Halliday would be the luckiest man in Pondville, Massachusetts, if it weren’t for the tragedies of his life: the sudden death of his eldest daughter and the way his marriage fell apart after that. Since then, PJ spends both his money and his time at the bar, and he probably doesn’t have much time left—he’s had three heart attacks already.

But when PJ reads the obituary of his old romantic rival, he realizes his high school sweetheart, Michelle Cobb, is finally single again. Filled with a new enthusiasm for life, PJ decides he’s going to drive across the country to the Tender Hearts Retirement Community in Arizona to win Michelle back.

Before PJ can hit the road, tragedy strikes Pondville, leaving PJ the sudden guardian of his estranged brother’s grandchildren. Anyone else would be deterred from the planned trip, but PJ figures the orphaned kids might benefit from getting out of town. PJ also thinks he can ask Sophie, his adult daughter who’s adrift in her twenties, to come along to babysit. And there’s one more surprise addition to the roster: Pancakes, a former nursing home therapy cat with a knack of predicting death, who recently turned up outside PJ’s home.

This could be the second chance PJ has long hoped for—a fresh shot at love and parenting—but does he have the strength to do both those things again? It’s very possible his heart can’t take it.

Tags - Contemporary Books, Literary Fiction, Book Club, Romance, Humor, Family, Road Trip, Summer, New Books 2025.

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The Imperfect Murder by James Patterson

Wife. Writer. Murderer?

When Denise Morrow is discovered standing over the body of her husband, a bloody knife between them, Detective Declan Shaw thinks it’s an open-and-shut case.

But Denise is no ordinary murder suspect. She’s a famous true crime author, who knows how killers operate. And how they get away with it.

Then, Declan discovers the subject of Denise’s next book – the violent murder of a girl called Maggie Marshall. A case that Declan worked on. A case that has haunted him for years.

Denise knows much more about Declan than she’s letting on, and she might just be the slipperiest suspect he has ever encountered . . .

Tags - Crime Thriller Books, Detective Books, Suspense, New Books 2025.

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Where the Rivers Merge by Mary Alice Monroe

1908: The Lowcountry of South Carolina is at the cusp of change. Mayfield, the grand estate held for generations by the Rivers family, is the treasured home of young Eliza. A free spirit, she refuses to be confined by societal norms and spends her days exploring the vast property, observing wildlife, and riding horses. But the Great War, coastal storms, and family turmoil bring unexpected challenges to Eliza, putting her on a collision course with the patriarchal traditions of a bygone era.

1988: At 88, Eliza is the scion of the Rivers/DeLancey family. She’s fought a lifetime to save her beloved Mayfield and is too independent and committed to quietly retire and leave the fate of the estate to her greedy son. She must make decisions that will assure the future of the land and her family—or watch them both be split apart.

Set against the evocative landscape of the twentieth-century Lowcountry, Where the Rivers Merge is a dramatic and sweeping multigenerational family story of unyielding love, lessons learned, profound sacrifices, and the indomitable spirit of a woman determined to persevere in the face of change in order to protect her family legacy and the land she loves.

Tags - Historical Fiction Books, Book Club, Family New Books 2025.

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Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

“The farmer is dead. He is dead, and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.”

Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives.

For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.

As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.

Tags - Historical Fiction Books, Book Club, Romance, Mystery, New Books 2025.

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Her First Mistake by Kendra Elliot

Thirteen years ago, Assemblyman Derrick Bell was murdered in his home by an intruder. His wife, Noelle Marshall, was left for dead. The crime was unsolved, but it wasn’t forgotten.

Today the FBI is tackling a fresh perspective on the case and looking to Noelle, now a detective for the Deschutes County sheriff’s office, for new clues. It is reopening everything Noelle thought was behind her. Memories of her escape from a traumatic childhood. A marriage that wasn’t the perfect love story she’d been promised. And a husband whose charm and privilege hid a dark side. But Noelle has been hiding something too: a secret about the night Derrick died that she has never told anyone.

As past and present and leads and misleads collide, one thing is frighteningly clear. Derrick’s murder wasn’t just unsolved. It’s unfinished. And only the truth—no matter the risk—can save the next victim.

Tags - Popular Thriller Books, Romantic Suspense, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Contemporary, New Books 2025.

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The Devils by Joe Abercrombie

Holy work sometimes requires unholy deeds.

Brother Diaz has been summoned to the Sacred City, where he is certain a commendation and grand holy assignment awaits him.

But his new flock is made up of unrepentant murderers, practitioners of ghastly magic, and outright monsters.

The mission he is tasked with will require bloody measures from them all in order to achieve its righteous ends.

Elves lurk at our borders and hunger for our flesh, while greedy princes care for nothing but their own ambitions and comfort.

With a hellish journey before him, it's a good thing Brother Diaz has the devils on his side.

Tags - Fantasy books, Horror, Fiction, Adult, Dark Fantasy, Historical Fiction, High Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, New books 2025.

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Dead of Night by Lisa Gray

A crime writer. A cold case. Will she survive to tell the story?

Since the sudden and tragic death of her partner, bestselling crime author Serena Winters hasn’t written a word. With deadlines looming, she packs up her grief and escapes from New York City to a secluded clifftop house in small-town California, hoping the change of scenery will cure her writer’s block.

But as news of her arrival spreads, Serena finds herself facing strange accusations that she’s here to cash in on the house’s history. When she uncovers the chilling story of a young family who mysteriously vanished from the very same house thirty years earlier, she can’t help asking more questions…

Someone in the local community doesn’t want the past dug up, though. Someone willing to push Serena to the limits of her sanity to keep the truth buried. Caught in a spiraling campaign of intimidation, and harboring a dark secret of her own, Serena soon finds herself in the kind of danger she usually only writes about…

Tags - Mystery Thriller Books, Suspense, New Books 2025.

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Every Precious and Fragile Thing by Barbara Davis

For social worker Mallory Ward, working with at-risk youth is a calling. But when one of her clients is tragically killed, she finds herself at a crossroads. Despite long-held resentments toward her distant mother, Mallory retreats to her childhood home on the Rhode Island coast to contemplate her future.

Instead, she’s confronted by her past, not only in the renewed tensions with her mother but in the unexpected appearance of a familiar face―and the wrenching losses that drove her away a decade ago.

Helen Ward’s home is filled with precious keepsakes from her patients, a testament to decades spent caring for the terminally ill. Her work has always come first, though, leaving little time to connect with her daughter. Over the years, the rift between them has become a chasm, so when Mallory appears unannounced, Helen sees it as an opportunity to repair their broken relationship.

But hidden among Helen’s mementos are the keys to her past…and a terrible secret that threatens to destroy the fragile new trust between them forever.

Tags - Contemporary Books, Mystery, Suspense, New Books 2025.

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The Mademoiselle Alliance by Natasha Lester

Morocco, 1928. Marie-Madeleine Méric is not the kind of woman who stays quietly at her husband’s side. Polyglot, pianist, and pilot, she is a woman of many skills, with unconventional interests—like driving in car rallies—that earn her a daredevil reputation.

But dabbling in intelligence work to assist her military officer husband and the French government helps her recognize who she is at heart: an adventurer.

Paris, 1936. As Europe teeters on the brink of war, Marie-Madeleine is living in France, her marriage now in shambles, when a chance encounter with an enigmatic spy turns her life upside down.

He recruits her to help build a resistance network, and she conceals her identity—and gender—as she navigates a perilous double life.

Eventually, she steps into the role of leader of what is now known as Alliance, despite the naysayers who doubt in a woman’s ability to do so. Capture and death are only a heartbeat away for both Marie-Madeleine and the agents under her care.

At the helm of Alliance, she achieves seemingly impossible feats of espionage that help turn the tide of the war. But the most impossible, and dangerous, feat of them all? Falling in love.

Tags - Historical Fiction Books, Book Club, World War II, Espionage, Romance, New Books 2025.

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A Girl Within a Girl Within a Girl by Nanda Reddy

A girl takes on a series of identities to survive, shrouding herself in layers of secrets, until years later when she is forced to reckon with her past.

On an ordinary day in an upscale Atlanta suburb, Maya is making breakfast for her two sons, when her husband drops a red-and-blue striped envelope on the counter and asks a devastating question: Who is Sunny?

Maya is sent reeling back to her childhood in Guyana―a time when Sunny was her only name.

Unbeknownst to her husband, Maya is not who she claims to be. The letter, from her long-lost sister Roshi, now threatens to expose her true identity and shatter the seemingly perfect existence Maya worked so hard to build.

As she frantically weighs the impact of the truth on her future, Maya relives the details of her childhood journey to America from Guyana–and the traumatic events that forced her to leave her past behind. Through the eyes of Maya’s innocent and scared younger self, we discover the power of hope, empathy, and the possibility of beginning again.

Tags - Contemporary Books, Literary Fiction, Book Club, Historical Fiction, Coming Of Age, Summer, New Books 2025.

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Guilty Until Innocent by Robert Whitlow

Life in prison is often a nightmare, but Joe Moore believes he is just where God intends him to be. Twenty-five years ago, while high on meth, he makes one terrible mistake after another, culminating in the brutal murder of a young, influential couple. Today, Joe is a radically different person, thriving in his role as a ministry leader and role model to his fellow inmates.

After being fired from two previous law firms, young lawyer Ryan Clark and his wife, Paige, have settled into a small North Carolina town. Hired by a distant relative, Ryan is committed to connecting with the right clients and handling the mundane tasks while his cousin Tom takes on the high-profile cases.

But when critical health issues land Tom in the hospital, Ryan is forced to take the helm at the law firm--just in time for the town's biggest case in history to be reopened. Joe Moore's niece has been doing some digging and, convinced that her incarcerated uncle is innocent, insists that Ryan relaunch the investigation immediately.

After Ryan meets with Joe, both men receive threats that put their own lives--as well as the lives of those around them--in danger. It appears that together they've pulled back a dark curtain that hides a deeper evil than anyone in town suspects exists. Now they must determine if continuing with the case is worth the risk--and if the cost of proving one man's innocence is too great when the lives of so many others would be placed in mortal danger.

Tags - Legal Thriller Books, Lawyer, Courtroom, Crime, Suspense, New Books 2025.

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Before Dorothy by Hazel Gaynor

Chicago, 1924: Emily and her new husband, Henry, yearn to leave the bustle of Chicago for the promise of their own American dream among the harsh beauty of the prairie. But leaving the city means leaving Emily’s beloved sister, Annie, who was once closer to her than anyone in the world.

Kansas, 1932: Emily and Henry have established their new home among the warmth of the farming community in Kansas. Aligned to the fickle fortunes of nature, their lives hold a precarious and hopeful purpose, until tragedy strikes and their orphaned niece, Dorothy, lands on their doorstep.

The wide-eyed child isn’t the only thing to disrupt Emily’s world. Drought and devastating dust storms threaten to destroy everything, and her much-loved home becomes a place of uncertainty and danger. When the past catches up with the present and old secrets are exposed, Emily fears she will lose the most cherished thing of all: Dorothy.

Bursting with courage and heart, Before Dorothy tells the story of the woman who raised a beloved heroine, and ponders the question: what is the true meaning of home?

Tags - Historical Fiction Books, Book Club, Family, Magic, Retellings, New Books 2025.

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The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff

Ryan and Lillian Bright are deeply in love, recently married, and now parents to a baby girl, Georgette. But Lillian has a son she hasn’t told Ryan about, and Ryan has an alcohol addiction he hasn’t told Lillian about, so Georgette comes of age watching their marriage rise and fall.

When a shocking blow scatters their fragile trio, Georgette tries to distance herself from reminders of her parents. Years later, Lillian’s son comes searching for his birth family, so Georgette must return to her roots, unearth her family’s history, and decide whether she can open up to love for them—or herself—while there’s still time.

Told from three intimate points of view, The Bright Years is a tender, true-to-life novel that explores the impact of each generation in a family torn apart by tragedy but, over time, restored by the power of grace and love.

Tags - Contemporary Books, Literary Fiction, Book Club, Historical Fiction, Family, New Books 2025.

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Hidden Nature by Nora Roberts

Natural Resources police officer, Sloan Cooper, and her partner had just taken down three men preying on hikers in the Western Maryland mountains. Driving back, she pulled in at a convenience store―and walked right into a robbery in progress. One gunshot from a jittery thief was about to change her world.

After being shocked back to life on the operating table, she has a long recovery ahead, so she moves back to her parents’ peaceful house in Heron’s Rest. As for the boyfriend who dumped her via text while she was in the hospital, good riddance.

She may be down, but she’s not out. So when a woman vanishes, leaving her car behind in a supermarket parking lot, Sloan searches online for similar cases. She finds them, spread across three states. Men and women, old and young―the missing seem to have nothing in common. And the abductions keep happening.

Luckily, the new man in her life shares her passion for solving this mystery. But it will take every ounce of endurance to get to the dark heart of this bizarre case―and she's willing to risk her life again if that's what it takes to stop the horror.

Tags - Mystery Thriller Books, Romantic Suspense, New Books 2025.

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The Other Side of Now by Paige Harbison

With a leading role on a hit TV show and a relationship with Hollywood’s latest heartthrob, Meg Bryan appears to have everything she ever wanted. But underneath, her happiness is as fake as her stage name, Lana Lord. Following a tiny nervous breakdown at her thirtieth birthday party, she books an impromptu trip to Ireland. Specifically, to the village where she and her best friend Aimee always dreamt of moving.

When Meg arrives, the people in town don’t just recognize her, they seem to know her. She quickly―reluctantly―realizes she has somehow slipped into an alternate reality. One where she did move to Ireland as a teenager, one where she never got famous, and―most shocking of all―one where Aimee is alive and well.

She just wants nothing to do with Meg.

Despite her bewilderment, Meg is clear-eyed about one thing: this is a once-in-two-lifetimes chance to reconnect with her friend and repair what she broke . . . or else risk losing Aimee all over again.

Tags - Time Travel Books, Fantasy, Romance, Magical Realism, Science Fiction, New Books 2025.

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Written on the Dark by Guy Gavriel Kay

Thierry Villar is a well-known—even notorious— tavern poet, familiar with the rogues and shadows of that world, but not at all with courts and power.

He is an unlikely person, despite his quickness, to be caught up in the deadly contests of ambitious royals, assassins, and invading armies.

But he is indeed drawn into all these things on a savagely cold night in his beloved city of Orane.

And so Thierry must use all the intelligence and charm he can muster as political struggles merge with a decades-long war to bring his country to the brink of destruction.

As he does, he meets his poetic equal in an aristocratic woman and is drawn to more than one unsettling person with a connection to the world beyond this one.

He also crosses paths with an extraordinary young woman driven by voices within to try to heal the ailing king—and help his forces in war.

A wide and varied set of people from all walks of life take their places in the rich tapestry of this story.

Tags - Fantasy books, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical Fantasy, Alternate History, Adult, Science Fiction Fantasy, New books 2025.

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Don't Tell Me How to Die by Marshall Karp

I had it all: a fantastic husband, two great kids, an exciting career. And then, at the age of forty-three, I found out I would be dead before my next birthday.

My mother also died young. I was seventeen, and she warned me that women would flock to my suddenly single father like stray cats to an overturned milk truck. They did. And one absolutely evil woman practically destroyed his life, mine, and my sister’s.

I am not letting that happen to my family.

I have three months, and I plan to spend every waking minute searching for the perfect woman to take my place as Alex’s wife, and mother to Kevin and Katie.

You’re probably thinking, She’ll never do it. Did I mention that in high school I was voted “Most Likely to Kill Someone to Get What She Wants”?

Tags - Psychological Thriller Books, Mystery, Thriller, Crime, New Books 2025.

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Nightshade by Michael Connelly

Introducing Detective Stilwell: a cop relentlessly following his mission in the seemingly idyllic setting of Catalina Island.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective Stilwell has been “exiled” to a low-key post policing rustic Catalina Island, after department politics drove him off a homicide desk on the mainland. But while following up the usual drunk-and-disorderlies and petty thefts that come with his new territory, Detective Stilwell gets a report of a body found weighed down at the bottom of the harbor—a Jane Doe identifiable at first only by a streak of purple dye in her hair. At the same time, a report of poaching on a protected reserve turns into a case fraught with violence and danger as Stilwell digs into the shady past of an island bigwig.

Crossing all lines of protocol and jurisdiction, Stilwell doggedly works both cases. Though hampered by an old beef with an ex-colleague determined to thwart him at every turn, he is convinced he is the only one who can bring justice to the woman known as “Nightshade.” Soon, his investigation uncovers closely guarded secrets and a dark heart to the serene island that was meant to be his escape from the evils of the big city.

Tags - Crime Thriller Books, Detective Books, Suspense, New Books 2025.