There are a lot of really exciting books coming out in 2025. We’ve already shared our most anticipated reads from earlier this year, and we had to give another shoutout to the hot new books coming this spring and summer. From romance to thrillers, to fantasy, to literary fiction, to nonfiction, there’s a little something for everyone. You can preorder your favourites from your local bookstore, or pick them up in store, and peruse the aisles for even more treasures.

Whether you’re going to be reading these on a streetcar on your way to work, sitting on a blanket in the grass at your local park, or curled up on a Muskoka chair near a body of water, these are the new books you won’t want to miss this summer. 

NOTE: Publishing dates may change.

APRIL/MAY

Julie Chan Is Dead by Liann Zhang

Liann Zhang’s Julie Chan Is Dead is a propulsive and thrilling debut about a young woman who steps into her deceased twin’s influencer life, only to uncover dark secrets beneath the social media façade. Julie Chan is a supermarket cashier who was separated from her identical twin at a young age. The twins were polar opposites, and rarely spoke to each other, except for one viral video that Chloe initiated (Finding My Long-Lost Twin And Buying Her A House #EMOTIONAL). When Julie finds Chloe’s dead body, under mysterious circumstances, she seizes the chance to adopt Chloe’s glamorous life — from the designer clothes and multi-step skincare routines, to her millions of followers, and her influencer #GirlGang. Still haunted by Chloe’s death, Julie soon discovers that Chloe’s picture-perfect life is anything but, and it’s harder to fit into her privileged influencer circle than she would have ever expected.

One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune

Canadian queen of romance Carley Fortune is back with One Golden Summer, a delightful new escape to the lake. Alice’s grandmother has always said that good things happen at the lake, and it’s true. Alice just needed one summer at a cottage with Nan when she was seventeen, and it changed her life. It’s where Alice took the photo of three smiling teens in a yellow speedboat. Now, Alice lives behind the lens — she’s a photographer, and has always felt more comfortable on the sidelines… but lately, she’s been itching for a change. And when Nan breaks her hip, Alice decides another summer in that magical place is just what they need. However, as soon as they settle in, their peace is disrupted by the roar of a familiar yellow boat, and the man driving it. 

The Names by Florence Knapp

Florence Knapp’s The Names is a gut-wrenching story of one family, told through several “What ifs”. In the wake of a catastrophic storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, in order to register her son’s birth. Her husband, Gordon, is a respected local doctor, but a terrifying and controlling presence at home. He wants her to name the infant after him, but when the registrar asks what she wants to call the child, Cora hesitates. Spanning over thirty-five years, we’re taken through three alternate versions of Cora’s and her young son’s lives, shaped by her choice of names. This is a messy and painful story about domestic abuse, family, autonomy, and healing.

The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien

Madeleine Thien’s The Book of Records explores the migratory nature of humans and faith’s place in our world. Lina and her father arrive at an enclave called The Sea, with only a few possessions, including three volumes from The Great Voyagers encyclopedia series. The Sea is a staging-post between migrations, a shape-shifting and mysterious building made of time. Here, Lina befriends an excommunicated seventeenth-century scholar, a philosopher fleeing Nazi persecution, an unrecognized poet, and more. This is a powerful book that asks fundamental questions about good and evil.

The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong

I’m a simple girl… if Ocean Vuong writes something, I need to read it. The Emperor of Gladness is a beautiful and lyrical novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the things we tell ourselves in order to survive. On a late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai is standing on the edge of a bridge in the pouring rain, ready to jump… that is, until he hears a shout across the river coming from Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia who convinces him not to jump. Bereft and with no other options, he becomes her caretaker, and over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develop a life-altering bond. Lyrical, stunning, and brilliant, this is a profound novel, full of Vuong’s breathtaking prose.

The Summers Between Us by Noreen Nanja

Noreen Nanja’s debut romance novel follows two childhood sweethearts, Wes and Lia. Lia thought she’d buried her dreams long ago, but when she’s forced to return to her family’s summer cottage on Pike Bay, her carefully put-together life begins unravelling. She’s the perfect immigrant daughter, with an excellent job and a boyfriend who lives up to her mother’s expectations, but underneath it all she’s got a secret that could destroy her family. Back at the bay, she stumbles into Wesley Forest, the boy who once knew her better than anyone else, until family pressures and heartbreak broke the two lovers up. Now, Wes is back in her life, and with him, old feelings start to resurface. Now, Lia must decide if she can heal from the past, and if a second chance with Wes might be worth risking everything for. 

You Started It by Jackie Khalilieh

Jackie Khalilieh’s sophomore young adult novel, You Started It, is a charming and heartfelt contemporary romantic comedy about two teens who decide to pretend they’re dating, and end up contending with a lot more than they bargained for. Seventeen-year-old Jamie had big plans for her senior year — she had made a list of places to check out before graduating with her boyfriend of three years, Ben Cameron. But when Ben arrives home from his summer away and says he wants to break up, all of her plans are derailed. When Jamie discovers him with a new girl the very next day, she’s determined to get him back, and show him what he’s missing out on. Even if that means fake-dating the younger, curly-haired TikTok dancer Axel. They don’t have anything in common, aside from their shared Arab heritage, but their forced time together brings them closer in unexpected ways. Maybe they have more in common than they first thought?

Look Ma, No Hands by Gabrielle Drolet

Gabrielle Drolet’s Look Ma, No Hands is an earnest and vulnerable memoir about a young woman coming to terms with her disability that reads like a conversation with an old friend. Smart, emotional, and laugh-out-loud funny, I read this book in one sitting. Gabrielle’s writing style is engaging and witty, but also full of deep care and tenderness. Her essays range in topics, largely centring around Gabrielle’s own life and disability. From sex and dating as a queer woman with a disability; to navigating breakups, cross-province moves, and living solo; to fascinating (and infuriating) encounters with eccentric medical professionals…you’ll tear through this book, feeling for Gabrielle, and feeling with her. Charming, fresh,  and delightful, while not skating over the hard stuff, this memoir was compulsively readable.

JUNE

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Taylor Jenkins Reid is back with another rich historical fiction story full of complex interpersonal relationships, beautiful and sweeping romance, and high stakes. Set against the backdrop of the 1980s US Shuttle program, our story follows Joan Goodwin, who has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. When she is selected from a pool of thousands of applicants, Joan starts to train for NASA’s selective and exclusive Space Shuttle program, for her own opportunity to be one of the first women in space. She trains alongside a memorable and loveable group of candidates, who quickly claw themselves into her (and our) hearts. As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a love that she never imagined…one that burns brighter than the stars above. Then, in December 1984, on a space mission, everything changes in an instant. Fast-paced and thrilling, while also being emotional and brilliant, this is an unforgettable story.

The Dry Season by Melissa Febos

Melissa Febos’ The Dry Season is a thoughtful and fascinating memoir where, after a catastrophic relationship, Melissa Febos decides to take a break. For three months, she will abstain from dating, relationships, and sex. Her friends were amused… Did she really think three months was a long time? But to Febos, it was. Ever since she was a teenager, she’d been in one relationship after another. Finally, she would carve out some time to focus on herself and examine the patterns that led her here. By abstaining from all forms of romantic entanglement, and no longer defined by her romantic pursuits, Febos decides to extend her celibacy, not knowing that it would become the most fulfilling and sensual year of her life. Blending memoir with cultural criticism, this is a story that’s as much about celibacy as it is about desire, fulfillment, and identity.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab

V.E. Schwab’s Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is a new, genre-defying story about immortality and hunger. Set over 500 years, this is a story about three sapphic vampires. It’s a story about hunger, love, and rage. In 1532, a beautiful young girl grows up wild and wily, dreaming of escape. When an alluring stranger offers an alternate path to being a pawn for the men around her, she makes a desperate choice. In 1827, a young woman lives an idyllic but cloistered life on her family’s estate, until a forbidden intimate moment sees her shipped off to London. Her seemingly impossible wishes seem within reach when a beautiful widow extends her an invitation, but the price of freedom is higher than she could have imagined. In 2019, a young woman moves halfway across the world, leaving her old life behind for a fresh start in college. But after a one-night stand leaves her questioning everything, she throws herself into a hunt for answers… and revenge. 

A Treachery of Swans by A.B. Poranek

A.B. Poranek’s A Treachery of Swans is a lush and enthralling sapphic retelling of Swan Lake. Magic has long been outlawed in Auréal, and Odile has always known that she’d be the one to restore it. Raised by a sorcerer, she’s spent years preparing for the heist of a lifetime — impersonating a princess to infiltrate the palace, and stealing the king’s enchanted crown in order to restore magic to the kingdom. However, when the King is murdered unexpectedly, she’s forced to recruit the help of a real princess, Marie D’Odette, in order to weave through a web of lies. However, soon, Odette must decide between her mission and the girl she’s now falling for.

The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley

From Leila Mottley, the bestselling author of Nightcrawling, comes an astonishing and brilliant new work of literary fiction about the lives and joys of a fierce group of teen mothers in a small town in Florida. Adela is sixteen when she discovers she’s pregnant, and her parents soon banish her from her comfortable Indiana life to her grandmother’s home in small-town Florida. When she arrives, she finds unexpected community with a group of outcast young moms who are raising their kids and finding their way together, while simultaneously navigating girlhood and motherhood. Full of heart and hope, this story is fierce and loving, offering a new perspective on young womanhood.

JULY

Rose in Chains by Julie Soto

As someone who has a pact with her best friend to close my incognito mode browser with all my fanfiction tabs, let me tell you how excited I am about Julie Soto’s Rose in Chains. Originally published as a “Dramione” fanfiction called The Auction, and adapted into an original work, Rose in Chains is a dark fantasy romance set after dark forces win the war, and the hero who was supposed to save them is dead. Captured as her castle is overrun by enemy forces, Briony Rosewood knows that the world as she’s known it has changed forever. The dark forces of Bomard have won, and her people, the Eversuns, face servitude, imprisonment, or death. Stripped of her magic and her freedom, Briony and the other survivors are quickly auctioned off, and after a fierce bidding war, Briony is sold to Toven, a high-ranking Bomardsun from a family known for their cruel Magics, and her long-time, ill-fated infatuation. Briony must learn how to fit into this cruel new world, and soon discovers that help, and hope, might come from the unlikeliest of places.

Wayward Girls by Susan Wiggs

The bestselling author of The Lost and Found Bookshop, Susan Wiggs, is back with Wayward Girls, another immersive new work of historical fiction, set in the Vietnam era, in Buffalo, New York. The story follows six girls who are condemned to work at The Good Shepherd, a dark and secretive institution run by nuns. Confined and forced to labour simply for being gay, or pregnant, or just unruly, this is a story about the enduring strength of young women who find the courage to seek freedom, justice, and redemption.

Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson

I read my first Holly Jackson book last year…then I quickly made my way through everything else she had ever written. And let me tell you, I am foaming at the mouth for her upcoming book, her first adult fiction thriller, Not Quite Dead Yet. Jet Mason is the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Woodstock, Vermont, until Halloween night, when she is violently attacked by an unseen intruder. She suffers a catastrophic head injury, and the doctor is certain that within a week, the injury will trigger a fatal aneurysm. Jet had never before thought of herself as having enemies, but now she sees EVERYONE in a new light. She has, at most, seven days, but she is nothing if not determined to solve her own murder.

A Mastery of Monsters by Liselle Sambury

Liselle Sambury is one of the most brilliant young adult fiction writers around, and I’m really excited for A Mastery of Monsters, the first in her brand-new dark academia fantasy series. When August’s brother disappears before his sophomore semester, everyone thinks that the stresses of college have gotten to him.  But after she is attacked by a ten-foot-tall creature with fur and claws, August realizes her brother may be in bigger danger than she thought. Unfortunately for her, the only person with a connection to this mysterious creature is the bookish Virgil Hawthorne. He knows about this monster because he is one, and if he doesn’t find a partner to help control the monster side of him, he’ll be imprisoned. Virgil proposes a deal: if August joins his secret society and participates in the dangerous trials to become his partner, he’ll help her find her brother. As August is plunged into a deadly competition, she must reckon with the fact that monsters are real, and if she wants to find her brother, she’s going to have to learn to master them.

AUGUST

Smartphone Nation by Dr. Kaitlyn Regehr

Dr. Kaitlyn Regehr’s Smartphone Nation is essential reading for parents, and for any of us who worry about how compulsively we check our phones. This book aims to transform the way you (and your kids) understand your devices and their impacts. In this practical book, Dr. Regehr, one of the UK’s leading experts on digital literacy, shows you how you can keep the advantages of the internet while also identifying its hidden dangers. This book serves as a guide, with practical tips, clear takeaways, and tested strategies, to help you take back control of your digital life.

A Truce That Is Not Peace by Miriam Toews

Miriam Toews’ A Truce That Is Not Peace is an astonishing work of memoir from one of our most acclaimed and renowned writers. “Why do you write?” Toews is asked at a literary event in Mexico, and the question is surprisingly difficult to answer. She soon discovers that there are layers and layers of guilt, grief, and futility that she’s been carrying, all related to her sister’s suicide. She realizes that she’s been keeping up a decades-long internal correspondence to fill the silence. This is the first time she’s written her own story in nonfiction. Told with Toews’ signature blend of humour, joy, and humanity, this is a dazzling new work of art that will have you savouring every word.

Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

If R.F. Kuang has a million fans, I am one of them. If she has one fan, it’s me. If she has zero fans, I am dead… So it should come as no surprise that one of my most anticipated books of the summer is her next book, Katabasis —a story about two graduate students who must set aside their rivalries and journey to hell to save their professor’s soul. Alice Law has always wanted to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick, and she has sacrificed EVERYTHING to make her dream come true. All in order to work with Professor Jacob Grimes, the greatest magician in the world…until he dies in a magical accident, that could possibly be her fault. Now Grimes is in hell, and she’s going after him, because a recommendation from him could change her future. Even death isn’t going to stop her from chasing her dreams. Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has unfortunately come to the same conclusion.

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Ameema Saeed (@ameemabackwards) is a storyteller, a Capricorn, an avid bookworm, and a curator of very specific playlists and customized book recommendations. She’s a book reviewer, a Sensitivity Reader, a book buyer at Indigo Books & Music, and the Books Editor for She Does the City, where she writes and curates bookish content, and book recommendations. She enjoys bad puns, good food, dancing, and talking about feelings. She writes about books, big feelings, unruly bodies, and her lived experiences, and hopes to write your next favourite book one day. When she’s not reading books, she likes to talk about books (especially diverse books, and books by diverse authors) on her bookstagram: @ReadWithMeemz