Summer is here and we’ve started to make a dent in our reading goal for the year, so you know what that means… we’ve arrived at the halfway point of 2025! We’ve already had SO many amazing reads come out this year, read on for a look at a few of our team’s faves!
The Powerless series is a fan favorite (and for good reason!) so I had VERY high hopes for the finale of this action-packed romantasy trilogy. Well, let me tell you... Lauren DELIVERED. If you love enemies-to-lovers, angst, yearning, and banter for days combined with a sprinkling of brotherhood, a strong female lead, and a fun system of magical powers, you NEED to add this series to your TBR already. And THAT ENDING?! Goodbye. I'll never, ever recover.
Recommended by Amy
“Highly anticipated” is an understatement when it comes to the third book in the Legendborn Cycle series and the follow-up to the gasp-worthy cliffhanger ending of Bloodmarked. If you haven’t read Oathbound, you need to catch up now, because the plot twists just keep coming in this now multi-POV (!!!) story. Bree Matthews has left her friends behind and is in the “care” (used very loosely) of the Shadow King in order to learn more about her power. We get to check in on (almost) every fan-favorite character, as Bree and her friends all face their own demons, with devastating consequences. The stakes have never been this high, and by the time you get to the end, the Bloodmarked cliffhanger will feel like light work.
Recommended by Bezi
One of my top reads of 2025 must be All Better Now by Neal Shusterman. Set in a world much like ours, this novel takes you through what would happen if a pandemic didn’t just get you sick but people who recover are in fact all “enlightened” and “happier than ever”—whatever that truly means. However, nothing is what it seems when it comes to Neal Shusterman. With 1 in every 25 people dying to Crown Royale, All Better Now’s very contagious “happiness” disease brings a lot of questions about morals and figuring out what is right for the greater good of humanity. Following multiple point of views of compelling characters, this book is a thriller that you won’t want to put down.
Recommended by Remi
I’ve already professed my love for this sapphic fantasy re-imagining of the iconic Swan Lake ballet… and no, I WON’T stop doing so! Because I still haven’t forgotten how I got to the book’s penultimate chapter and it made my heart drop out of my chest. Without spoiling anything, all I’ll say is thank the Mothers (that phrase will make sense if you’ve read the book) that there was an epilogue. So please, step into the unforgettable swoons and darkly captivating magic within these pages, and then come find me so we can squee about how good it is.
Recommended by James
Deja is a bohemian farm girl and cosmetic chemist who’s the first in her family to go to college. Raja is the budding tattoo and mehndi artist whose Nepali parents are expecting to study engineering and settle down in an arranged marriage. For better or for worse, sparks fly the second that Deja steps into Raja’s tattoo shop and the feelings only grow from there.
As love blossoms between them, Deja and Raja will have to decide if it’s enough to survive their families’ expectations.
Recommended by Karina
If you love queer romance, murder mysteries (bonus points for supernatural murder mysteries), every iconic paranormal high school show from the 2010s, or all the above, F.T. Lukens’s latest romantic fantasy is the book for you.
As a completely normal human, Cam is determined to fly under the radar at a high school full of kids with paranormal powers, including his witch best friend and his longtime werewolf crush. Except, Cam may not be so human after all. After he has an unexpected psychic vision about a murder that hasn’t happened yet, only two things are certain: someone he goes to school with is a future murderer, and his entire life is about to change.
Recommended by Amelia
Here are just a few things I love: magic schools, secret societies, unique world-building, going undercover, and - of course - a love triangle. The Art of Exile by Andrea Max has all of this and MORE. It's a fast-paced page-turner, featuring a heroine who is desperate to prove herself to her family by infiltrating a secret school for the descendants of Renaissance masters. But when she goes undercover to steal their long-lost knowledge, things get complicated…she falls in love with the school, and I can't blame her! It's everything I want, too! Will she stay loyal to her family? Or will she betray them to save the school that FEELS like family? You'll have to keep turning the pages to find out.
Recommended by Shannon
To say I’ve read nothing like Till Death would be a complete understatement, but when I saw this was a gay vampire romantic horror, I knew I simply had to pick it up! Howard, a high schooler with an old soul meets George, who is quite literally an old soul trapped in the body of a teenager. While this book is definitely a fun time, it is also layered with queer history and activism as George and Howard both recount their experiences as gay men in different timelines. I can promise that this book will surprise you in ways you could never expect and you are definitely not ready for how this book ends.
Recommended by Julia Ashley