Top Ten Tuesday: My Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the Second Half of 2025

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl with a new topic every week for book bloggers to chat about. This week’s topic is my most anticipated books releasing in the second half of 2025 (in no particular order).

I honestly can’t quite believe we’re halfway through the year already… It seems only yesterday I shared my post on new releases I was excited for in the first half of the year!

This is one of my favourite topics to chat about with other bloggers, but also one of the most dangerous because I end up adding waaaay too many books to my wishlist lol. I don’t really tend to anticipate many books, but I do like to share upcoming releases that have caught my eye. It’s always hard to narrow it down to just 10 books, but here we go!

1. The Rose Field by Philip Pullman

I know I said I’d go in no particular order, but this is actually my single most anticipated book of the year. I may have screamed a little when it was announced… This is one of very few series I’m actually up-to-date with and I’m so happy we’ll finally get the conclusion after literal years of waiting!

The long-awaited and highly anticipated conclusion to Philip Pullman’s bestselling The Book of Dust sequence…

‘Lyra: what will you do when you find this place in the desert, the opening to the world of the roses?’

‘Defend it,’ Lyra said. ‘Die defending it.’

When readers left Lyra in The Secret Commonwealth she was alone, in the ruins of a deserted city. Pantalaimon had run from her – part of himself – in search of her imagination, which he believed she had lost. Lyra travelled across the world from her Oxford home in search of her dæmon. And Malcolm, loyal Malcolm, too journeyed far from home, towards the Silk Roads in search of Lyra…

In The Rose Field, their quests converge in the most dangerous, breathtaking and world-changing ways. They must take help from spies and thieves, gryphons and witches, old friends and new, learning all the while the depth and surprising truths of the alethiometer. All around them, the world is aflame – made terrifying by fear, power and greed.

As they move East, towards the red building that will reunite them and give them answers – on Dust, on the special roses, on imagination – so too does the Magisterium, at war against all that Lyra holds dear.

Marking thirty years since the world was first introduced to Pullman’s remarkable heroine Lyra Belacqua in Northern Lights, The Rose Field is the culmination of the cultural phenomenon of The Book of Dust and His Dark Materials.

2. The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow

This just sounds so good, and I’ve enjoyed other books by this author (even though I still need to read The Ten Thousand Doors of January!).

From Alix E. Harrow, the New York Times bestselling author of Starling House, comes a moving and genre-defying quest about the knight whose legend built a nation, and the cowardly historian sent back through time to make sure she plays her part–even if it breaks his heart.

Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion’s greatest the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children’s books and recruiting posters—but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten.

Centuries later, Owen Mallory—failed soldier, struggling scholar—falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives—and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs.

But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una’s legend—if they want to tell a different story–they’ll have to rewrite history itself.

3. Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher

New T. Kingfisher and a fairytale retelling? Yes, please!

From New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes Hemlock & Silver, a dark reimagining of “Snow White” steeped in poison, intrigue, and treason of the most magical kind.

Healer Anja regularly drinks poison. Not to die, but to save— seeking cures for those everyone else has given up on.

But a summons from the King interrupts her quiet, herb-obsessed life. His daughter, Snow, is dying, and he hopes Anja’s unorthodox methods can save her.

Aided by a taciturn guard, a narcissistic cat, and a passion for the scientific method, Anja rushes to treat Snow, but nothing seems to work. That is, until she finds a secret world, hidden inside a magic mirror. This dark realm may hold the key to what is making Snow sick.

Or it might be the thing that kills them all.

4. Fallen City by Adrienne Young

Another author whose books I’ve really enjoyed so far. I actually found out about this fairly recently, but I’m intrigued by the blurb.

In the great walled city of Isara, political turmoil ignites a rebellion one hundred years in the making. But when a legionnaire falls in love with a Magistrate’s daughter, their love will threaten the fate of the city and the will of the gods.

Luca Matius has one purpose—to carry on the family name, maintaining its presence in the Forum once his powerful and cruel uncle dies. But his noviceship with the city’s Philosopher places him in the middle of a catastrophe that will alter the destiny of his people.

Maris Casoeria was raised amidst the strategic maneuvers of the Citadel’s inner workings, and she knows what her future holds—a lifetime of service to a corrupt city. But her years of serving as a novice to the last Priestess who possesses the stolen magic of the Old War has made her envision a different kind of future for the city. When she meets Luca, a fated chain of events is set into motion that will divinely entangle their lives.

As a secret comes to light and throws the city into chaos, Luca and Maris hatch a plot to create a calculated alliance that could tip the scales of power. But when an execution forces Luca to become the symbol of rebellion, he and Maris are thrown onto opposite sides of a holy war. As their fates diverge, they learn they are at the center of a story the gods are writing. And even if they can find their way back to each other, there may be nothing left.

5. The Man Who Died Seven Times by Yasuhiko Nishizawa

This time loop murder mystery definitely caught my eye as it sounds fairly different, though the premise somewhat reminds me of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (which I really enjoyed).

Hisataro, a young member of the wealthy Fuchigami family, has a mysterious ability. Every now and then, against his will, he falls into a time-loop in which he is obliged to re-live the same day nine times. Little does he know how useful this ability will be, until one day, his grandfather mysteriously dies…

As he returns to the day of the murder time and again, Hisataro begins to unravel its secrets. With a sizeable inheritance up for grabs, motives abound, and everyone is a suspect. Can Hisataro solve the mystery of his grandfather’s death, and prevent it, before his time-loop ends?

6. The Princess Knight by Cait Jacobs

Okay, this just sounds so cute and fun and gives me Legally Blonde vibes for some reason, so I shall be needing it for sure.

A princess desperate to win back the prince who broke her heart follows him to his kingdom’s prestigious military academy—and in doing so, falls in love, saves the realm, and continues to look fabulous in this delightful debut fantasy.

Domhnall and Clía are an ideal match—or so everyone says. They are prince and princess of neighbouring kingdoms. An alliance the gods will smile on. Until Domhnall ruins everything by refusing to propose.

Heartbroken but determined, Clía makes the perfect plan: Follow Domhnall to Caisleán Cósta, the military academy he’s attending. Show she can protect her kingdom. Secure the betrothal. Sure, the castle has a brutal reputation. But how hard can dueling really be?

Warrior Ronan promised himself he’d never lose his focus. He fought and sacrificed for his place at Caisleán Cósta, and he has no time for blonde princesses who waltz intro arenas like they’re attending a ball. Even if she and her otter-like pet are…well, cute.

He doesn’t want to be intrigued by Clía. But her hunger to prove herself is something he understands. He tells himself there’s no harm training her. Even if his heart does race around her. Even if Domhnall is his best friend.

But as they say, love is a battlefield—and unfortunately for them all, a very real war is looming on the horizon. It’s a fight that will threaten all their kingdoms…and test all their hearts. 

7. The Midnight Shift by Cheon Seon-Ran

Very different vibes here, but I’m really intrigued by this one as well.

A bestseller in Korea, a biting, fast-paced vampire murder mystery exploring queer love and the consequences of loneliness.

When four isolated elderly people commit suicide back-to-back at the same hospital by jumping out of the sixth-floor window, Su-Yeon doesn’t understand why she’s the only one at her precinct that seems to care. Dismissing the case as a series of unfortunate events due to the patients’ loneliness, the police force doesn’t engage. But Su-Yeon doesn’t have the privilege of looking her dearest friend, Grandma Eun-Shim, lives on the sixth floor, and Su-Yeon is terrified that something will happen to her next.

As Su-Yeon begins her investigation alone, she runs into a mysterious woman named Wanda at the crime scene. Wanda, hot on the trail of her ex-lover, Lily, gives Su-Yeon the answer to her a vampire did it. Su-Yeon is skeptical at first, but then a fifth victim jumps from the window and her investigation reveals the body was completely drained of blood. Desperate to discover the cause of the deaths, Su-Yeon considers Wanda’s explanation—that something supernatural is involved.

8. A Resistance of Witches by Morgan Ryan

Every list needs at least one witchy book. Even better if it’s a historical fantasy book! I don’t read that many, but I tend to really enjoy them when I do, so this is definitely going on the want-to-read list.

‘Prime Minister Churchill, the Witches of Britain are at your service . . .’

1940, and war rages across Europe. The future looks bleak. But now, emerging from the shadows, the Royal Academy of Witches offers its help. And so it is tasked with finding an ancient artefact that, were it to fall into Nazi hands, would help Hitler fulfil his twisted Aryan dream . . .

Stubborn, plain-spoken and from an unimpressive family, Lydia Polk never expected to be chosen to work under Isadora Goode, the Grand Mistress of the Royal Academy of Witches.

Now, three years into her apprenticeship, and with Hitler’s armies rampaging across Europe, the Witches of Britain have joined the war effort – but not without some resistance from within, the British government having originally forced the witches into hiding.

As Lydia’s power grows, she too joins the cause, tracking down magical relics in order to keep them out of Nazi hands. But a Nazi witch infiltrates the Academy with heart-breaking consequences and suddenly Lydia’s mission becomes even more urgent . . . Somewhere out there, hidden amidst the chaos of war, is the Grimorium Bellum – an ancient book that Hitler craves, a book so steeped in dark magic that it has the power to wipe out civilisations – an artefact that Lydia must find and secure at all costs.

Dropped into the heart of Occupied France, Lydia finds allies in Rebecca Gagne, a French resistance fighter with a secret, and Henry Boudreaux, a Haitian-American art historian who seems to possess a little magic of his own. But tracking down this book is only half the battle – for the Grimorium Bellum seems to have a dark agenda all of its own . . .

9. The Maiden and Her Monster by Maddie Martinez

This is pitched as “perfect for fans of Katherine Arden, Ava Reid, Hannah Whitten, and Naomi Novik” and that’s exactly how to sell it to me.

The forest eats the girls who wander out after dark.

As the healer’s daughter, Malka has seen how the curse of the woods has plagued her village, but when the Ozmini Church comes to collect their tithes, they don’t listen to the warnings about a monster lurking in the trees. After a clergy girl wanders too close to the forest and Malka’s mother is accused of her murder, Malka strikes a bargain with a zealot Ozmini priest. If she brings him the monster, he will spare her mother from execution.

When she ventures into the blood-soaked woods, Malka finds a monster, though not the one she expects: an inscrutable, disgraced golem who agrees to implicate herself, but only after Malka helps her free the imprisoned rabbi who created her.

But a deal easily made is not easily kept. And as their bargain begins to unravel a much more sinister threat, protecting her people may force Malka to endanger the one person she left home to save—and face her growing feelings for the very creature she was taught to fear.

10. Sinners by Elizabeth Fremantle

That gorgeous cover definitely caught my attention, but I’m also very intrigued by this being based on a true historical figure I know very little about.

Rome, 1599. 

A young noblewoman accused of murder, awaits execution. Imprisoned in the Corte Savella, she has captured the hearts and sympathy of all Rome…

This is the true and tragic tale of Beatrice Cenci.

History has sold her short. She is no doe-eyed victim of her father’s brutality, nor the cunning murderer who plotted her father’s demise. No, this Beatrice – a woman pregnant by her lover, incarcerated in a remote castle by her father, and brim-full of white-hot rage – is both innocent and guilty, saint and sinner.

And she will stand tall in the face of the violence of men, no matter the cost.

Bonus: Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

Sneaking in a bonus non-fiction book that I’ll be interested in reading for research/work reasons and which sounds fascinating.

A new collection of literary criticism and brilliant insights from one of the giants of contemporary thinking

Who owns language? In Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas, Ngugi wa Thiong’o presents a series of essays that build on his vast wealth of work on language and its constructive role in national culture, history, and identity. Intricate, nuanced and accessible, it reaffirms the revolutionary power of African languages to fight back against both the psychic and material impacts of colonialism, past and present.

With immense relevance to our present moment, Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas is a brilliant distillation of the enduring themes of Ngugi’s work and a vital addition to the library of one of the world’s greatest and most provocative writers.

That’s it from me! Are any of these also on your radar? What new releases are you looking for in the second half of the year? Let’s chat in the comments!