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Already, 2025 is shaping up to be (another) great year for young adult books. With multiple highly anticipated debuts on the horizon, new releases from beloved authors, and the next books in several highly anticipated series coming out this year, 2025 will be a busy reading year for YA lit enthusiasts!
Below, I’ve rounded up just a sampling of the treasures that await YA readers this year, including a speculative fiction story set in an alternative, fantastical London, a thrilling historical fiction novel based on a true story, and a comedic novel about social media fame gone wrong. And while this list focuses on books that are by newer authors or are the first in a series, there’s a plethora of releases from tried and true young adult authors to look forward to as well, including Neal Shusterman’s new speculative thriller: All Better Now, Oathbound, the third book in Tracy Deonn’s Legendborn series, and the newest installment in the world of The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. No matter what you’re looking to read this year, these titles will set you up for a wonderful year in books.
A Language of Dragons by S.F. Williamson (January 2)
In an alternate 1920s London, Vivian Featherswallow is working hard to stay away from the protests—and dragons—that fill the streets, concentrating instead on studying hard so she can make a better life for her sister. But in her work with dragon languages, she inadvertently releases knowledge that spins the country into civil war. Soon, Viv’s parents and sisters have gone missing, and she has taken a job as a codebreaker at the mysterious Bletchley Park in an effort to unlock the secrets of the dragon language and bring her family home.
The Queen’s Spade by Sarah Raughley (January 14)
This gripping, historical fiction novel is based on a true story. Sarah Bonetta Forbes (Sally), a princess of the Egbado Clan is taken from her home and brought to London, where she is made goddaughter to Queen Victoria. Determined to get revenge on those who kidnapped her, Sally must play the high stakes game of courtly politics in order to get closer to the heart of the throne.
The Meadowbrook Murders by Jessica Goodman (February 4)
Fans of creepy boarding schools, sinister secrets, and terrifying murder mysteries should look forward to picking up this YA mystery. Set at the prestigious Middlebrook Academy, the book opens with the brutal murder of student Sarah and her boyfriend in a dorm. Immediately suspicion falls on Amy, Sarah’s roommate and the only person around at the time of the killings. As Amy and school newspaper editor Liz begin to dig into Sarah’s past, they uncover shocking secrets that reveal a killer might still be lurking on campus.
I Am the Cage by Allison Sweet Grant (February 18)
Fans of emotionally resonant, realistic fiction will be drawn into Allison Sweet Grant’s young adult debut. Nineteen-year-old Elisabeth is alone and isolated in her cabin in Fish Creek, Wisconsin, which is exactly what she wants after a traumatic childhood. When a fierce snowstorm blows in and further cuts off Fish Creek, Elisabeth has to accept help from the town’s young sheriff, Noah, forcing her to begin to confront her past.
They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran (March 4)
Trang Thanh Tran has once again crafted an atmospheric, gothic horror novel, this time set in a town being consumed by an algae bloom. Since a hurricane hit the town of Mercy, Louisiana, Noon and her mother have been clawing a life from the wreckage and trying to ignore the increasing disappearances and monsters that surround them. However, with another storm approaching, Noon and the harbor master’s daughter are sent out to capture the monster haunting Mercy.
Two Truths and a Lionel by Brian Wasson (April 15)
Lionel Honeycutt III might be the grandson of a famous action star, but he feels more like an extra in his own life, quietly blending in to the background of his high school. That is, until the day a series of comedic mishaps lead to a fire at a pet store, resulting in security footage that shows Lionel saving other customers from the flames, or at least that’s what everyone tells him when he wakes up with no memory of the incident. Suddenly, Lionel is thrust into the spotlight and everyone is calling him a hero and wanting to hear his story. Will he avoid discovering what happened that day to keep his newfound popularity? Or will the truth be the thing that sets him free?
If We Survive This by Racquel Marie (June 17)
Flora Braddock Paz has never considered herself the tough, survivor type. But, six months into an outbreak that turns humans into zombielike “rabids,” she and her brother Cain are fighting to survive in the wasteland of their LA suburb. With their mother dead and their father missing, Flora and Cain decide to travel north to their family’s secluded cabin in hopes of finding a safe place to shelter, and to potentially track down their father.
