So apparently this has become a book blog lately, and I don’t have an issue with that whatsoever. Let’s keep going with it!
As I’ve said recently, I’ve got back into reading ARCs on Netgalley again, and am working through the backlog that accumulated after Emmy was born. I’m not doing too badly, but my self-imposed ban on requesting more until I reach the notorious 80% has gone a little bit down the drain. I am, however, trying to keep on top of the most recent requests that I get accepted on and sharing reviews on these on Goodreads and Netgalley before their publish date where possible.
Fortunately, the good thing about this is that I’m discovering some excellent books right around their publish dates! And I have a few that I want to shout about.
So here are 5 books that I REALLY think you should read in 2025. They’re mostly romantasy, and some of these are severely underrated, or at least under-read, in my opinion! So give these new books and authors a chance:
* Thank you to Netgalley, the publishers and the authors for advance copies of these books.
On Wings of Blood by Briar Boleyn*
I am kind of obsessed with this one. It’s up there with the best in my opinion!
This is dark academia, toted as a Harry Potter and Fourth Wing crossover. I actually hadn’t yet read Fourth Wing when I picked up this one, but having now finished the series so far, I can see where the similarities lie – similar vibes definitely, but the storyline isn’t a copy in any way. I also picked up on some When The Moon Hatched vibes too, although with a slightly milder fantasy element – it’s a bit more of a familiar world, despite being filled with vampires! Oh, and there are dragons too, and fluffy dog/fox/owl like creatures called Fluffins. So not all that familiar, I guess!
On Wings of Blood was my first dive into dragon fantasy, and what an introduction it was! I’m not sure what I was expecting when I went into the book because, like I said, I’ve never read dragon fiction before but I know it’s a hugely popular subgenre so there must be a reason. To be fair, it’s not heavy on the dragons (yet) as Medra, our main character who has been “dropped” into this world is supposedly a dragon rider, but there are no dragons left. I’m sure we can all see where that is going, but the story is about so much more!
There’s an excellent enemies to lovers relationship in this one. Blake, the other half of this partnership, is an excellent character who makes a good match in how well he’s written to Medra. Someone described him as having Draco Malfoy energy – and I totally agree! There’s also a found family element with a lovely friendship between Medra, Florence and Naveem.
This is one of my top new fantasy reads – it’s a brand new release and I’m hoping it gets the attention it deserves in 2025! It’s also on Kindle Unlimited, so easy to get hold of if you’re on there!
A Language of Dragons by S. F. Williamson*
So apparently I also read dragon fantasy – this was also before I read Fourth Wing! This one has also had parallels drawn with Fourth Wing but also The Hunger Games.
It’s touted as having dark acadaemia, a slow burn enemies to lovers romance, and well, dragons at Bletchley Park in the 1920s – and to be honest, that sums it up excellently!
The political backdrop of this book is a little heavier than my usual, despite it being YA. But I love how the turmoil of the wider world is reflected back on a smaller scale through the main character Viv, who is an (accidentally) criminal linguist tasked with codebreaking to help the Prime Minister win the war. A pretty big task for a young person
I LOVE the fact that this book centres around languages, particularly ones that, even in the world of the book, are very much unknown – this is kind of my world as a Latin and Ancient Greek graduate!
The romance isn’t particularly heavy compared to others I’ve recently read, but is enough for a YA novel.
The character development is excellent, you can really feel and understand the changing to a different world view, struggling to accept it. There’s also quite a lot about morality hidden in there – it’s a book with several depths!
As far as I know, this is a standalone novel and made an excellent read. Another that I’d love to see get more attention in 2025.
Modern Divination by Isa Agajanian*
This book was a joy to read. It had a lot of the tropes I’m growing to love – enemies to lovers, magic (green magic!), an academic setting, cosy vibes and more. On top of that, the writing was excellent – different to others I’ve read lately which made it stand out in a very good way.
Aurelia Schwartz has spent her life balancing her human façade with the secret of her fading green magic, until a dangerous witch with a taste for stolen power threatens to unravel everything. Forced into hiding, with a found family element, and an infuriatingly arrogant classmate, she learns their survival depends on breaking every magical rule she’s ever followed. As the stakes rise, Aurelia must decide how far she’s willing to go to protect herself and the people she’s beginning to trust.
I admit there was a section in the middle where there was a bit of a lack of action that lost a teeny bit of interest for me, but it was an excellent character building section. Honestly I think that might be me-problem though because the fantasy books I’ve read lately have pushed a lot more plot forward, so it wasn’t the usual formula I was expecting!
There’s a lot of dialogue, not only in the mid-section of the book where characters and the plot are being built, but throughout, and it’s very well done. These are realistic, fully-fleshed out characters that I haven’t stopped thinking about after finishing the book. They even invaded my dreams the night I finished, which was a little unnerving considering some of the subject matter!
I also really loved the representation in this book of bisexual and non binary characters. It’s not a world I’ve delved much into in the books I read, so I’m so glad to have discovered it. This one introduces the topics in a way that doesn’t at all make them token characters or as a huge plot point, I loved that.
I highly recommend this one and can’t wait to read more from the author – I think they have big things coming!
Cursed in Love by Emily Colin*
This was a lovely, charming cosy book to read on a chilly February weekend. I love that it’s being launched around Valentine’s, but I also think it would make the perfect read in autumn too.
Rune is something of an outsider in the little town of Sapphire Springs, mainly thanks to her gift of premonition which no one understands or even believes in, but she’s used to living that life. She’s thrown onto a project at work with Donovan Frost, described by another character as “spreadsheet sex guy” – who at first lives up to his ice cold name. I’m sure you can see where this is going!
While it’s not the spiciest of romances, it has a dash of enemies-to-lovers and a sprinkle of insta-love, as well as paranormal elements that start small then build beautifully, weaving magic into the real world, until a big bang of a reveal at the end. It’s not so much a romantasy, in that it’s set in the real world, but paranormal romance I believe.
This was my Onyx Storm “hangover” read, and it was the perfect palate cleanser after that! I’d tried to continue with the next Throne of Glass installment, but my brain just wasn’t having it – this cute, engaging book was just what I needed. I’d sit it alongside other popular novels like Payback’s A Witch, Hex Appeal and The Spellshop. Definitely recommend it!
This one is also on Kindle Unlimited!
The Beasts We Bury by D. L. Taylor*
This was a great read. The characters were well-built, you really felt their emotions, their relationships and their pain, as was the world. I absolutely loved elements of this, such as the glass trees – it was very vivid. The magic system was something new.
I feel like a lot of reviews of this will be skewed due to the subject matter – it’s not really a spoiler as it happens immediately and a lot of people will want to be warned, but the main character is forced to kill animals to increase her power. This is absolutely not something she wants to do (as in, that makes up basically the entire driving force behind the plot), but it could make for some difficult reading.
In a realm ruled by bloodshed, heir to the throne Mancella Cliff wields a deadly power – she can summon animals, but only after killing them with her bare hands. Desperate to escape the violence of her father’s reign, she crosses paths with Silver, a thief who plans to manipulate her for the heist of a lifetime. But as deception turns to something more, both must decide whether love is worth betraying their deepest ambitions.
I’m not going to lie – I’ve read several “grown up” fantasies lately, so the fact that this was YA was a lot more obvious to me than it would have been a year or so ago. The storyline was “softer”, despite the heavy subject matter, and despite there being quite a bit of politics going on, they weren’t so complicated. Honestly, I kind of loved that as I needed a break from the heavy politics of more adult fantasies. I firmly believe there’s a still place for new YA fantasies, and this is a standout one for me recently.
I’ll be watching for the next in the series as I want to know what happens to the world and characters.
It’s tricky to rate this out of 5 – it wasn’t a favourite, but it deserves good reviews – I’d go 4.5 rounded down to 4, only because I need to make sure to save my 5 stars for absolute favourites! But I’d recommend giving this author a read as it was an enjoyable adventure.
