Welcome to 2025, for better or for worse! We never know what we’re going to get with a new year, but one things is always guaranteed: there are sure to be great books in the year ahead! We’ll be posting our regular monthly picks here, but look forward to our list of top picks for the entire year of 2025 coming in a few weeks!
Serena’s Picks
Book: “A Sea of Unspoken Things” by Adrienne Young
Publication Date: Jan. 7, 2025
Why I’m Interested: Adrienne Young is one of those awesome writers who not only produces incredible books, but also manages to pump that out practically on a yearly basis! Between her and Silvia Morena-Garcia, I’m always guaranteed a few great reads a year! This one sounds like another entry into her recent foray into contemporary romantic fantasy stories. Again, we follow a young woman with a mysterious past as she returns to a home town she fled from years before. Of course, there’s a second chance romance in there as well!
Book: “Water Moon” by Samantha Sotto Yambao
Publication Date: Jan. 14, 2025
Why I’m Interested: While I’m not a big fan girl of Studio Ghibli, I was also intrigued by the description of a highly whimsical contemporary fantasy story that follows the owner of a pawn shop that deals in regrets. The cover itself is also pretty great! Plus, it promises a nice romance at its heart, so there’s a lot of potential here! Can’t wait to check it out soon!
Book: “A Crown So Silver” by Lyra Selene
Publication Date: Jan. 21, 2025
Why I’m Interested: I really enjoyed “A Feather So Black” when I read it last year. Not only was it a unique version of “Swan Lake,” but it managed to tack in a love triangle that I didn’t end up hating. It didn’t end on a cliffhanger per se, but there was definitely a lot left to be handled in the sequels. As the middle book in a trilogy, this one faces an uphill battle, but I’m excited to see how this one manages it! Mostly, I hope that the main couple doesn’t fall into the trap of pointless drama in the pursuit of “tension.” We shall see!
Kate’s Picks
Book: “Wake Up and Open Your Eyes” by Clay McLeod Chapman
Publication Date: January 7, 2025
Why I’m Interested: Clay McLeod Chapman is one of my favorite horror authors writing today, and I am always excited and apprehensive to pick up one of his novels because I know that he doesn’t hold back. Enter “Wake Up and Open Your Eyes”, his newest horror novel where he satirizes far Right wing media and the way that it seems like it brainwashes its consumers, and poisons the rest of American society. In this case, Right Wing cable news viewers (as well as other Right Wing media consumers) turn into violent possessed automatons who attack anyone who doesn’t think like them. A bit on the nose for 2025, but that’s the point. Buckle up. It’s gonna be rough.
Book: “Witchcraft for Wayward Girls” by Grady Hendrix
Publication Date: January 14, 2025
Why I’m Interested: I also really enjoy Grady Hendrix and the quirky horror stories that he comes up with, usually with a bit of a tongue in cheek flair. But this time around he’s not only taking on witchcraft, but also the tragedies and injustices of young unwed mother homes and the traumas that came with such circumstances for many, many teenage girls in the years before Roe v Wade. As someone who is deeply disturbed by the way we’re movie backwards on reproductive rights in America AND who loves witchcraft stories, this is a book that has been on my radar for AWHILE. I’m sure it will be heartwrenching as well as quirky. Which it absolutely should be.
Book: “Mask of the Deer Woman” by Laurie L. Dove
Publication Date: January 21, 2025
Why I’m Interested: Procedurals continue to be a guilty pleasure of mine, and I’m always thrilled to see procedurals written from more diverse perspectives. Berkley was kind enough to send me access to “Mask of the Deer Woman” by Laurie L. Dove, which is not only a police procedural dealing with missing women themes, it is also starring an Indigenous female former cop now working on a reservation who want to look into the disappearances of multiple Indigenous women. Throw in some mythology involving Deer Woman and I am even more excited. I hope that this is a start to a new series I can follow!
What books are you looking forward to this month? Let us know in the comments!
The Library Ladies 