my most anticipated autumn/winter 2025 book releases
put me in a jumper and give me these books & a hot chocolate immediately
I didn’t do a post on my most anticipated book releases for the whole year but great news! The last few months of 2025 have so many books I want to yell about. Autumn/winter readers, to me!
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Katabasis - RF Kuang* (out now)
Yes, this is already out, but I had to inlcude it anyway because at this point, all I need to hear is “new RF Kuang” and I’m going to read it. Babel ruined me, and The Poppy War series took over my life for a while there, and I’m ready for RF Kuang’s next. I’ve been purposefully avoiding a lot of detail about this, but I do know it’s about two academics who have to go into literal hell to get their advisor back and like, sold, done, let me at it. Excited to have the pain from my brief foray into academia dug up and thrown in my face again!!!
A Stocking Full of Spies - Robin Stevens* (sept 11)
If you’re not reading Robin Stevens’ middle-grade historical mysteries by now, I don’t know what to say other than go away, start with Murder Most Unladylike*, and come back when you’ve read that whole series and caught up with this one. These books are fun, QUEER, and the mysteries are so satisfying, and the core friendships at the heart of both series are lovely.
A Stocking Full of Spies is the third in the Ministry of Unladylike Activity series, and while the series as a whole is a follow-up to the previous one, you can definitely start with the first book in this one if you want.
This is another auto-buy for me so again I don’t know much about the specific plot except that our intrepid heroes are investigating a case in Bletchley Park, and Robin Stevens spent months breaking her heart about codebreaker research on Instagram. And this one is Christmassy! A special present for me!
The Summer War - Naomi Novik* (sept 16)
Yet another book I am vague on the details about but after A Deadly Education, just play the Gilmore Girls theme tune, because where Naomi Novik goes I will follow. The Summer War is a fantasy novella about a girl who accidentally places a curse on her brother and spends her life trying to undo it, and then I assume there are fae involved and I am here to clutch the book to my chest and break my heart about Naomi Novik’s writing until the end of time. (How?? How does she DO THAT??)
What Stalks the Deep - T Kingfisher* (sept 30)
The third in T. Kingfisher’s horror/fantasy Sworn Soldier series, What Stalks the Deep continues the story of Alex Easton, an ex-soldier, and the supernatural things they keep running into since retirement. The first book in the series was a House of Usher retelling involving horrible mushrooms, the second was about a night hag, and this one is about a haunted coal mine. Sorry, Alex Easton, but I love when you get into Situations.
Also, the Sworn Soldier series does some super cool stuff with gender - primarily that once someone becomes a sworn soldier, their gender is then sworn soldier rather than anything it was before - and watching T Kingfisher explore this is half the fun, alongside the, uh, supernatural horror of it all.
All of Us Murderers - KJ Charles* (oct 7)
Say it with me: what KJ writes, I will read. I started reading romance after my best friend recommended me Think of England back in 2017 and since then I’ve read everything KJC has released and somehow get to call her a friend into the bargain. So, I’m biased, but I was biased to begin with because if you want queer historical romance, no one’s doing it like KJ Charles.
All of Us Murderers is a gothic mystery set in a creepy Big House - think those books with women in nightdresses running away with candlesticks on the cover but QUEER - so this feels like another book that someone shook my brain around like a snowglobe and then decided to write. I’ve preordered a physical and an ebook copy. Give! it! to! me!
Cinder House - Freya Marske* (oct 7)
Speaking of gothic haunted houses! One thing about me is I fucking love a House Book, and this Cinderella retelling is Freya Marske’s House Book, where our titular Cinder is both a ghost and somehow the house? I think? Either way, I’ve loved Freya’s thoughts on House Books since Be The Serpent and I can’t wait to pick this novella up. (Also, it’s queer!)
The Witching Hour - multiple authors* (oct 16)
This is the third in an unconnected series of ghostly short story collections, and it will be the third one I’ve bought solely and 100% to read whatever Natasha Pulley has written for it. All I ask of the other short stories is that they ACTUALLY BE ABOUT GHOSTS. (The first collection promised me “ghostly tales” and like two of them actually involved a ghost and I have borne that grudge for years.)
The Isle in the Silver Sea - Tasha Suri* (oct 21)
Sapphic medieval reincarnation romantic fantasy, anyone? (I’m anyone). This is one of three books coming out in Knight Book Autumn, with the first being The Second Death of Locke and the third being the next book on this list, and I’m here for all of them. I want fealty. I want yearning. For this one in particular, I want deconstructions of English colonialism. While ordinarily I’m not a big reader of books set in modern day, even fantasies, Tasha Suri said sapphic medieval reincarnation romance and I said, take my money.
Also I’m rewatching Merlin, for my sins, so I’m EXTRA primed for emotions about knights.
The Everlasting - Alix E Harrow* (oct 28)
Knight! Book! Autumn! I love Alix E. Harrow’s writing, and this knight book also follows a lady knight and this time her (boy) historian, and judging by The Six Deaths of the Saint and The Ten Thousand Doors of Jupiter by this author, I’m signing myself up for heartbreak but I don’t even care.
Snake Eater - T Kingfisher* (dec 1)
And another T Kingfisher, because she is prolific. Snake Eater is a horror novella about a woman who moves to a small desert town only to find “ancient gods, malevolent supernatural forces, and eccentric neighbours” in true T. Kingfisher style. I’ve enjoyed all the T Kingfisher books I’ve read but her horror novella The Hollow Places is my absolute favourite, so I’m excited to dive into this one too.
*jazz hands* and there we are! My most anticipated releases for the rest of the year! Are any of these on your TBR? Is there anything you’re excited about that I’m missing from thist list? Let me know!
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