Most Anticipated Reads 2025

There is nothing more exciting than building up a great big pile of anticipated books for the year.

Over the years, I’ve built up a ranking system in Amazon for all the books I’m keen to read and a little note of why (you can have a look here).

With 756 books on my list, there’s no way I’ll ever get through them all — so I’ve built a ranking system of current priorities.

From this, I thought I’d share my Most Anticipated Reads (and New Releases) for 2025, organized by release date (according to Goodreads!).

Unfinished Business by Shankari Chandran (Female, UK/Australia)

Released December 2024, 320 pages

I’m getting ahead of myself with this pick. I still haven’t gotten around to reading her acclaimed 2022 book Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens, so I’m taking a gamble that her latest — touted as a “Sri Lankan thriller” — will be a winner.

Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor (Female, Nigeria/USA)

Released January 2025, 448 pages

This is a strange combination of genres that I admit won’t be for everyone. Not only is it another release from Nigeria, but it also combines sci-fi featuring “Rusted Robots” with a take on the publishing industry. Having already enjoyed Okorafor’s Binti series, I’m keen to see where this one takes the reader:

“Life has thrown Zelu some curveballs over the years, but when she’s suddenly dropped from her university job and her latest novel is rejected — all in the middle of her sister’s wedding — her life is upended.”

It’s described as a “science fiction drama about androids and AI after the extinction of humanity.”

Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Female, Nigeria)

Released March 2025, 416 pages

Over the years, many of you may have noticed my love of Nigerian fiction. Adichie’s Americanah was actually the book that took me down this rabbit hole, so I was over the moon to see she is releasing her first novel since that acclaimed release. I almost don’t care what it’s about, but when the blurb tells me it’s about “a Nigerian travel writer living in America. Alone in the midst of the pandemic, she recalls her past lovers and grapples with her choices and regrets,” I’m there.

Hang on St. Christopher (The Sean Duffy Series Book 8) by Adrian McKinty (Male, Ireland)

Released March 2025, 310 pages

Aside from Cormoran Strike, Sean Duffy might be my favorite detective. Set in Northern Ireland in the 1980s (during The Troubles), Duffy is a Catholic detective in the predominantly Protestant Royal Ulster Constabulary. A lover of good music (from The Cure to Chopin) and a dabbler in weed, he’s extremely likable, and the mysteries he’s involved in are engrossing.

In what looks like the final installment of this series — we’re in 1992 now — the Troubles continue, and while Duffy is almost at retirement:

“A murder case falls into his lap while his protégé is on holiday in Spain — a carjacking gone wrong and the death of a solitary, middle-aged painter. But something’s not right, and as Duffy probes, he discovers the painter was an IRA assassin. So, the question becomes: Who hit the hitman, and why?”

CAN’T WAIT.

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (Female, Australia)

Released March 2025, 325 pages

After reading her Once There Were Wolves thriller, I knew I’d be back for McConaghy’s newest literary adventure. This time we’ve got a family. On a tiny island not far from Antarctica.

“A mysterious woman washed ashore. A rising storm on the horizon.”

I’m locking myself on the couch with 500 cups of tea for this one.

Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori (Female, Japan)

Released April 2025, 240 pages
(Original release December 2015)

Japan is the (travel) flavor of the moment, and with our own trip planned for later this year, this one ticked many boxes. Murata’s other delights — Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings — both hit the literary mark, so I’m anticipating her latest translation (remembering that this was originally written way back in 2015) will also be a winner. It’s described as a “highly imaginative story set in a version of Japan where sex between married couples has vanished and all children are born by artificial insemination.”

Flesh by David Szalay (Male, Canada)

Released April 2025, 368 pages

This is very much the outlier on my list. I’ve not read anything by Szalay, and while he’s an acclaimed writer, there’s no major bestseller that drew me to him. Instead, I think it was the number of best reads for 2025 lists that he appeared on, as well as the intrigue of the narrative:

“Teenaged István lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. Shy and new in town, he is a stranger to the social rituals practiced by his classmates and soon becomes isolated… What follows is a rocky trajectory that sees István emigrate from Hungary to London, where he moves from job to job before finding steady work as a driver for London’s billionaire class.”

Maybe I’m hoping for some re-telling of a rags-to-riches story (or a modern fairytale). Let’s see.

My Name is Emilia Del Valle by Isabel Allende (Female, Chile)

Released May 2025, 304 pages

There’s a theme in this list: no matter what the author writes, I’ll read it — and Allende is no exception. Since finally getting around to reading The House of the Spirits, I’ve inhaled everything she’s written. For her latest offering, we’re taken to San Francisco in 1866, where:

“An Irish nun, left pregnant and abandoned following a torrid relationship with a Chilean aristocrat, gives birth to a daughter named Emilia Del Valle. Raised by a loving stepfather, Emilia grows into an independent thinker and a self-sufficient young woman. To pursue her passion for writing, she is willing to defy societal norms.”

A journey of self-discovery in South America? Yes, please.

The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong (Male, Vietnam/USA)

Released May 2025, 416 pages

Many readers fell in love with Vuong’s poetic narrative in his mesmerizing debut On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. Six years later, he’s back with what will be one of the most anticipated follow-ups of the year. It’s described as being about “chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive.”

More specifically, it seems to follow 19-year-old Hai and his relationship with an elderly widow over the course of a year. I may need some tissues.

Air by John Boyne (Male, Ireland)

Released May 2025, 176 pages

The fourth and final book in Boyne’s Elements series. I expect that, like the previous books, there will be a loose connection between characters — all of whom are mildly to chronically broken, disturbed, and just a bit wrong. In this one, we meet Aaron, who is looking to:

“Connect with his 14-year-old son as they travel halfway across the world to meet a woman who isn’t expecting them. This trip could bind them closer together — or tear them further apart.”

Boyne has always floored me with his books, which are tragedies wrapped in beautiful prose. This Elements series has been Boyne “lite” — and just as compelling.

Men In Love by Irvine Welsh (Male, UK)

Released July 2025, 544 pages

Holy hell, there’s a SEQUEL? This will either be fantastic or a disaster…