Welcome to 2025. No matter how you feel about the dawn of the new year, we might as well make the best of it. I don’t know about you, but I plan to kick things off with a good book. After digging through an impressive list of young adult science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels being traditionally published in January and February, I pulled together my top 25.
Magic with a Twist
The Scorpion Queen by Mina Fears
1359, Timbuktu, Mali Empire. Amie Aqit has just been abandoned by her trader father for a crime she didn’t commit. Her punishment is to work as a servant in the palace of Emperor Suleyman and his beloved daughter Princess Mariama Keita. Mariama, tired of her father forcing her suitors to undertake impossible challenges and be boiled alive when they fail, seeks Amie’s help. A magical map might be the key to both their escapes, but a fledgling romance between them complicates matters. (Flatiron Books; January 28, 2025)
A Burning in the Bones by Scott Reintgen (Waxways #3)
Ren and Theo are finally in charge of House Brood, but their plan to make things better across Kathor faces obstacles. Specifically, other Houses who aren’t as keen on the teens dismantling power structures and redistributing wealth. More pressing is the mysterious plague wreaking havoc on locals. Nevelyn Tin’Vori, who teamed up with Ren and Theo in the previous book, is now busy searching for the cause and cure of a disease spreading across the land and threatening the very existence of magic itself. (Margaret K. McElderry Books; February 4, 2025)
Lucha of the Forgotten Spring by Tehlor Kay Mejia (Lucha of the Night Forest #2)
To save her sister, Lucha entered the Night Forest to take on a god pushing a forgetting drug called olvida. Now that she’s back in Robado—her sister and the girl she has feelings for left behind with the acolytes hiding in the forest—Lucha is determined to get rid of olvida once and for all. But a new fight has broken out in the streets. The Syndicate is calling for freedom from the kings, but only so they can control olvida themselves. (Make Me a World; February 18, 2025)
Science Fictional
The Last Bookstore on Earth by Lily Braun-Arnold
Liz lost her whole family to a global climate disaster known as the Storm. A year later, she’s making do by running a bookshop in New Jersey and playing post office for passersby. With another Storm headed her way, she realizes she isn’t prepared to survive a second apocalypse. Lucky for her, Maeve shows up. She has the skills to make the shop safe for riding out the Storm and also happens to be pretty cute to boot. Is cozy apocalyptic fiction a thing? (Delacorte Press; January 7, 2025)
All Better Now by Neal Shusterman
The king of YA dystopia is back, this time with a book about a plague and corporate greed. Crown Royale, an airborne disease that leaves people feeling extremely happy, spreads across the globe, much to the chagrin of the companies that rely on discontented consumers trying to fill the voids in their lives with stuff they don’t need. Mariel is immune to Crown Royale, which makes her an odd match to Rón, a teen who recovered from the virus but is a super-spreader who will forever be contagious. Morgan gets her hands on a potential cure, but needs Mariel to complete it. It’s Shusterman, so you know it’s going to be full of twists and turns. (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers; February 4, 2025)
Why on Earth: An Alien Invasion Anthology edited by Rosiee Thor & Vania Stoyanova
I have been begging for more diverse alien stories in YA for years now, and in 2025 we have finally been blessed. This anthology starts off with the premise of Iona, a Trevval alien, and her crew crashlanding on Earth while searching for her missing brother, Axariam. Each author focuses on a different ripple effect from that accidental invasion. A fun, hopeful anthology about identity… and aliens. (Page Street YA; February 4, 2025)
Thrills & Chills
The Afterdark by E. Latimer
The cover copy describes this as “queer horror at a boarding school with a Lovecraftian twist” and, y’all, I’m so here for this. After her twin sister drowns, Evie is sent to Northcroft, a boarding school in the middle of nowhere. At night, the shutters draw closed and the school transforms from a prison to a fortress; instead of keeping the girls in, it’s keeping the monsters lurking in the woods out. With the arrival of Holland Morgan, a child actor who Evie has a crush on, the dark natures of both girls push them to seek out what should remain hidden. (Tundra Books; January 7, 2025)
Honeysuckle and Bone by Trisha Tobias
After her best friend Joy dies, Carina becomes an outcast at school. Searching for a change of scenery, she takes the au pair position Joy had been offered and flies to her mother’s homeland of Jamaica for the summer. The strict Hall family live in a sprawling estate, Blackbead House, that Carina thinks she can thrive in. That is, until terrible things start haunting her. Is there a ghost in the house or did she bring something with her from New York City? (Zando Young Readers; January 14, 2025)
These Vengeful Wishes by Vanessa Montalban
With her step-father’s arrest for fraud, Ceci and her mother flee to her mother’s hometown of Santa Aguas. There she learns about the local legend of La Cegua, a vengeful female spirit with the face of a horse skull. Somehow this force is connected to the abandoned house she’s living in and her mother’s secret past. But Ceci has more immediate problems. The wishes she cast into the strange well she found when walking through a mysterious door in the middle of the woods are coming true in the worst possible way. (Zando Young Readers; February 4, 2025)
Love Is in the Air
Brewed with Love by Shelly Page
Looking for a fantasy romance with a splash of cozy mystery? Sage dreams of taking over her grandmother’s apothecary shop one day, but stiff competition from nearby businesses put her future at risk. Ximena, Sage’s ex-friend and first crush, takes a part time job helping out at the shop, reigniting that spark of love for Sage. First, however, she has to deal with the ripple effects of someone breaking into the shop and stealing her potions. (Joy Revolution; January 14, 2025)
On the Wings of La Noche by Vanessa L. Torres
When people look at Noche Villanueva, they think she’s a normal girl who loves science and can’t get over the loss of her girlfriend, Dante. But at night, Noche transforms into a Luchuza, an owl spirit who guides the dead to their transition. Instead, Noche visits Dante’s spirit, unwilling to let her move on and unable to stop her from drifting into nothingness. Back in science class, she meets a new enigmatic kid, Jax, and feels herself unexpectedly falling for him. To move forward, she must let go of the past. Easier said than done (Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers; January 28, 2025)
Sail Away, Sail Away, Sail Away
Capitana by Cassandra James (Capitana #1)
The second Ximena on this list is a student at La Academia training to become an imperial Luzan pirate hunter. She wants to be a Cazador even though her parents were notorious pirates who were executed by the state. When another infamous pirate, Gasparilla, returns to terrorizing the high seas, Ximena sets out to hunt. Her competition? The second Dante on this list, an attractive young man who also happens to be the son of a high-ranking Luzan official. (Quill Tree Books; February 4, 2025)
The Devourer by Alison Ames
“Dante” sure is a popular name this season! This time around we get Adra Dantes, the daughter of a failed pirate captain seeking revenge. Cameron, her half-brother, stole their father’s treasure map, and Adra wants it back. Trouble is, magic has gone wild. Sea monsters are bubbling up to the surface, and entire ships’ crews are dying under mysterious and horrific circumstances. To get her revenge (and save her crew), Adra makes a deal with one of those sea monsters, but fulfilling that bargain may cost her what’s left of her humanity (Page Street YA; January 7, 2025)
Here Be Dragons
Breath of the Dragon by Fonda Lee & Shannon Lee (Breathmarked #1)
Eager to win the Guardian’s Tournament, Jun hopes to use his victory to not just protect the Scroll of Earth but to get his and his father’s banishments overturned. Despite risking great punishment if discovered, Jun practices martial arts every day. But without a breathmark—dragon scales and special powers—not even physical prowess is enough. On top of that, General Cobu has rigged the contest. He plans to have his chosen warrior win and then use him to launch a coup. Jun needs to win a place as a Guardian to save his family and his country. (Wednesday Books; January 7, 2025)
This Ends in Embers by Kamilah Cole (The Divine Traitors #2)
The Vincent sisters are now on opposite sides of a war. Faron sided with the god Iya to save her sister from her dragon-bond, but ended up helping him regain enough power to make a claim at San Irie. Elara, now the Empyrean of San Irie, must save both her homeland and her sister while also stopping a god hellbent on destroying everything. (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; February 4, 2025)
Reign of the Talon by Sophie Kim (Talons #3)
With the help of Imugi venom, Shin Lina returned to the land of the living after falling for the handsome yet wicked Dokkaebi Emperor Haneul Rui. Now, however, she’s a prisoner in her own mind as an entity known as the Prophecy puppets her body. It’s a fitting punishment, really, since it was Lina who let the Prophecy loose on the Three Kingdoms. Rui responds by rallying an army. Lina, Rui, and the Prophecy circle each other, waiting to see who breaks first. (Entangled: Teen; February 11, 2025)
Fairytales and Retellings
Liar’s Kingdom by Christine Calella
Ellain would do anything to get away from her stepfamily, who treat her like a servant. Anything including letting the charming Prince Bayard (who happens to have prosopagnosia, or difficulty in remembering faces) think she was the mystery girl he danced with at the ball. After a hasty marriage, Ell is thrust directly into court politics. King Alaric is on the brink of war with Fairyland, the princess has vanished, and Bayard’s best friend Maxim knows she’s a fraud. A reimagining of Cinderella. (Page Street YA; January 14, 2025)
A Touch of Blood by Sajni Patel (Venom #2)
Eshani, the older sister of Manisha, the protagonist in the first book, trades her life to save her people. The shades drag her into the Nightmare Realm to find the Gatekeeper, but she finds instead the cruel Shadow King. He plans to use Eshani to gain immortality. Where the first book, A Drop of Venom, was inspired by Circe of Greek Mythology, A Touch of Blood draws inspiration from the Persephone myth. (Rick Riordan Presents; February 25, 2025)
The Wildest Things by Andrea Hannah
I didn’t know I needed a sapphic dark fantasy take on Snow White until now. After twenty years of a cursed sleep, Snow White wakes to her kingdom of Roanfrost in an apocalyptic state. Her family is dead, diseases are spreading like a plague, and mutant animals wander the blighted landscape. The only way to save the kingdom is to kill Queen Iliana, the daughter of the Evil Queen who cursed her years before, a feat that becomes even more challenging when romance sparks between them. (Wednesday Books; February 25, 2025)
A Darker Shade of Magic
Lies on the Serpent’s Tongue by Kate Pearsall
2025 continues last year’s mini trend of Appalachian creepiness with this dark fantasy. Rowan has the uncanny ability to smell lies while her little sister Lindan can taste feelings. Unable to cope with how often people lie, Rowan hides out in a Forest Service Fire Outlook Station outside Caball Hollow. Her isolation is shattered with the sudden arrival of a half-dead Hadrian, triggering a series of strange occurrences in town. Although technically a standalone, this book is set after the events of Bittersweet in the Hollow. (G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers; January 7, 2025)
The Otherwhere Post by Emily J. Taylor
Maeve’s father was accused of terrible crimes, and all she wants to do now is clear his name. After getting a letter attesting to his innocence, Maeve takes a fake name and gets an apprenticeship with the Otherwhere Post Officially she’ll learn to use scriptomancy to send letters to other worlds, but secretly she plans to dig through their books to find out who sent the letter. She’ll have to stay two steps ahead of her nosy mentor who thinks she’s up to no good. (G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers; February 25, 2025)
Genre-benders
The Assassin’s Guide to Babysitting by Natalie C. Parker
Tru is a bastion Talent. Talents are everywhere in her little community of killers and manhunters but bastions—who are more or less indestructible—are feared, so she keeps her abilities a secret. When not getting jobs on BountyApp, Tru pretends to be a normal seventeen-year-old. While babysitting one night, a hit is put out on the baby, and Tru decides to break the rules and protect it. Who is after the baby and now Tru may have something to do with who murdered her own parents. (Candlewick Press; January 7, 2025)
This Is the Year by Gloria Muñoz
Part prose, part verse, all gorgeous. Julieta Villareal is facing an uncertain future. Her twin sister Ofelia was killed in a car accident a few months prior and climate change is slowly destroying her home. When the Cometa Initiative offers her the chance to go to space, Juli is so desperate to get out of Florida that she’s willing to overlook that they’re only sending immigrants up there to establish the colonies. As she grapples with the dystopia and her grief, Juli narrates her story to Ofe. (Holiday House; January 7, 2025)
I Am Not Jessica Chen by Ann Liang
Jessica Chen is everything Jenna Chen is not. Until suddenly she is. Where Jenna feels like a disappointment to her immigrant parents, Jessica gets into Harvard. A wish on a star ends up dropping Jenna into Jessica’s body. Then she learns that her cousin isn’t as perfect as she seems. The longer Jenna pretends to be Jessica, the more the real Jenna seems to be fading from people’s memories. (HarperCollins; January 28, 2025)
Needy Little Things by Channelle Desamours
Sariyah has the ability to sense a person’s needs, from the mundane to the powerful. She tries to manage, but sometimes the migraines this ability triggers are too much. After two friends of hers go missing, first Tessa then Deja, Sariyah is frustrated by the lack of attention from the news and the cops. Sariyah and her friends set out to find Deja on their own, and that means using her powers in dangerous ways. (Wednesday Books; February 4, 2025)
