Every December, I have great fun compiling a list of the best books I read that year, and just who you might enjoy buying them for on your holiday gift list. For that reason, I limit myself to books that are released and available for purchase. But one of the perks of my job is that I read a huge number of not-yet-released books for cover quotes, and I hate leaving the ones that haven’t released yet off my yearly Best Books list simply because people won’t be able to buy them in stores in December.
So January seems like an excellent time for another kind of list: ten stellar books I read and cover-quoted last year (and ok, one I cover quoted at the veeeeeeery beginning of this year) which I can whole-heartedly recommend now that they’re coming out. This list will take you all the way through July–and believe me, you’ll want to pre-order everything here!
- HARLEM RHAPSODY by Victoria Christopher Murray. The Harlem Renaissance springs vibrantly to life here, shining a brilliant and long-overdue light on powerhouse civil rights activist and literary sensation Jessie Redmon Fauset. Taking Harlem by storm as the new literary editor of W.E.B. Dubois’s fabled Negro magazine The Crisis, Jessie dreams of writing the great American novel even as she nurtures Black talent like Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Zora Neale Hurston—but all of Jessie’s dreams are thrown into jeopardy by her tumultuous relationship with Dubois himself. This is one of the best books of the year for sure. Releases February 4, 2025 (US).
- LET US MARCH ON by Shara Moon. My lovely agency sister bursts onto the historical fiction scene with the tale of Lizzie McDuffie, who finds herself a position as White House maid through four Roosevelt presidential terms when her husband becomes FDR’s personal valet. From the Depression to Pearl Harbor, grappling with marital difficulties and racial strife, Lizzie fearlessly advises the President as his self-appointed Secretary On Colored People’s Affairs, forever asking herself “Am I doing enough? Can I do more?” A quietly compelling portrait of a woman in the shadows, at last stepping into the light. A story that will linger long in the memory. Releases February 4, 2025 (US).
- THE SAINT LAURENT MUSE by C.W. Gortner. Gortner jumps from the glitter and excess of royal courts to the glitter and excess of the fashion world in his latest historical romp, and he does it with true haut couture flair. Aristocratic It Girl Loulou de la Falaise arrives in 1970s Paris newly divorced and looking for fun—what she finds, in the fashion world’s soulful wunderkind Yves Saint Laurent, is a job and a friend. Yves finds endless inspiration in Loulou’s bohemian style and the two take Paris by storm, laboring in the YSL atelier by day and dancing the nights away in an endless flood of Warhol parties and gay nightclubs packed by high society doyennes and rock-and-roll royalty alike. C.W. Gortner worked in fashion and it shows: he knows the haute couture world inside and out, from the haughty models to the harassed seamstresses, the glamour of the runway to the cramped sewing rooms littered with fabric scraps, the long hours and the lines of coke and the thrill of creation…but it’s the unconventional yet rock-solid bond between Yves and Loulou that lies at the core of his latest story, and even as that bond is threatened by a dangerous forbidden love affair, it never ceases to sustain and inspire. This book is splashy sequin-drenched seventies excess wrapped around a beating heart full of friendship and inspiration, and I loved every page. Releases March 18, 2025 (US).
- THE MADEMOISELLE ALLIANCE by Natasha Lester. A passionate, fiery tribute to a historical woman so extraordinary she almost defies belief. Marie-Madeleine is a young Parisienne with style and verve to burn, equally happy cuddling her young children, driving race-cars, or learning to fly planes—but she’ll need more than verve when her beloved France is invaded by the Nazis. Recruited to help build a resistance network known as Alliance, she lives on the run and comes to command thousands who revere her, even as she grieves the necessity of sending her children away to safety and mourns every time she loses one of her spies to the Gestapo. Natasha Lester writes with razor-sharp research and evident admiration for a woman whose name deserves to be blazed across the pages of history. Releases April 8, 2025 (US).
- SIX DAYS IN BOMBAY by Alka Joshi. A sparkling travelogue and a poignant journey of self-discovery all in one. Half-English, half-Indian nurse Sona finds herself captivated by a new patient under her care: Mira Novak, bohemian and renowned artist newly recovering from a miscarriage. As the two women bond over the mixed heritage which has made Sona an outsider in her mother’s Bombay, Mira urges her to expand her small, safe world—a choice that soon becomes a necessity when Mira’s unexpected death casts suspicion on Sona. Hurtled into a journey from Bombay to Prague to Florence to Paris, Sona comes to question everything she knows about her heritage…and herself. Alka Joshi is simply the best. Releases April 15, 2025 (US).
- STRANGERS IN TIME by David Baldacci. Oliver Twistmeets the Blitz when powerhouse author David Baldacci turns his pen from thrillers to historical fiction. Two brave and capable teenagers find themselves thrown together in the rubble and chaos of WWI-era London: fifteen-year-old Molly, sent away from her Mayfair home to escape the German bombings and returned to find both her parents inexplicably missing; and fourteen-year-old Charlie, an East End orphan barely surviving as a petty thief. Charlie and Molly find shelter with mysterious bookshop owner Mr. Oliver, but he has secrets of his own that will come home to roost with deadly consequences. Baldacci beautifully explores the dark side lurking under the London Blitz’s romanticized image. Releases April 15, 2025 (US).
- RULES FOR RUIN by Mimi Matthews. No one writes Victoriana like Mimi Matthews, who introduces us here to an outwardly respectable academy for young ladies which trains its pupils in a secret agenda: disrupt and discredit the powerful men of London who seek to keep women in their place. The academy’s star pupil Effie Flyte embarks on a bold plan to discredit a ruthless politician, but locks horns with underworld kingpin Gabriel Royce who needs her target safe in Parliament and not discredited in the newspapers. Sparks fly between Effie and Gabriel in a thoroughly enchanting romance that promises the start of a new series—I can’t wait for the next installment from the Crinoline Academy. Releases May 20, 2025 (US).
- CONFESSIONS OF A GRAMMAR QUEEN by Eliza Knight. LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY meets Mad Men, plus an adorable dog! Whip-smart Bernadette Swift has brains, style, and ambition to burn, determined to work her way up from first female copyeditor in her office to first female CEO of a publishing house. On her side she’s got an army of friends in her feminist book club, a handsome senior editor paying court, and a devoted Great Dane named Frank—but with a spiteful boss and an army of snickering co-workers determined to see a woman fail at any cost, will Bernadette ever be able to crack that glass ceiling? Just a delight from start to finish. Releases June 10, 2025 (US).
- THE MASTER JEWELER by Weina dai Randel. A glittering historical fable as dazzling and dangerous as the enchanted diamond at its heart. On the remote snowy border between China and Russia, fifteen-year-old Anyu collides with a master jeweler and the priceless Fabergé egg in his care, setting into motion a chain of events that will propel her to untold heights and unimaginable dangers. Anyu remakes herself in Shanghai as a jeweler in her own right, but her success is shadowed by three men—a loving mentor, a shadowy gangster, a jealous rival—and three enemies—a shadowy secret society, a mad princess with twisted dreams of power, and the rising threat of war. Watching the clever Anyu negotiate her way through bomb-torn streets and gold-dusted workshops alike with nothing more than the skill in her fingers and a mysterious lucky diamond around her neck is a true delight—THE MASTER JEWELER is, pardon the pun, a real gem. Releases June 24, 2025 (US).
- A RESISTANCE OF WITCHES by Morgan Ryan. This historical fantasy debut is World War II meets A Discovery of Witches. Talented young sorceress Lydia Polk is star pupil at the Royal Academy of Witches, and foremost fighter on the magical front lines when the witches of Britain offer their services to help defeat Germany. A surprise betrayal sends Lydia on a dangerous quest into occupied France in search of a dark grimoire of unspeakable power, pursued at every step by Hitler’s personal coven—but the greatest danger lies within as Lydia must battle her own temptation to make the grimoire her own. A witchy war-time delight. Releases July 15, 2025 (US).
Happy New Year and happy reading!