Each and every month, a whole new batch of books get released into the world. It’s awesome, but it can be overwhelming too. We’ve combed through the new releases to make a short and sweet list of the titles we are most excited about so you don’t have to! Try one of these fresh new titles, coming out in August 2025.
Fiction:
The Fourth Daughter by Lyn Liao Butler
Release Date: August 1
Chef Liv Kuo’s star is on the rise…until a traumatic incident leaves her emotionally unable to venture outside her Manhattan apartment. But an unexpected reason to break free comes from Ah-Ma, Liv’s beloved grandmother in Taiwan. Ah-Ma needs Liv’s help in finding her fourth daughter, taken from her when the girl was an infant. After all these years, it seems impossible. It’s also a mystery: Ah-Ma’s fourth daughter is an aunt Liv never even knew existed.
After landing in Taiwan, Liv hears the heartbreaking story of her grandmother’s plight in a country once under martial law, of choices made for her, and of the hopeful search for a lost girl that has endured for more than sixty years. Like the enriching food and traditions that bind Liv and Ah-Ma, their journey for answers brings them together.
And it’s a quest that turns up both a precious old cookbook and a tale of fatal betrayal that shakes everything Liv believed about her family—revelations that could also give her the courage to face the trauma she left behind.
The Women of Arlington Hall by Jane Healey
Release Date: August 1
1947: Adventurous Radcliffe graduate Catherine “Cat” Killeen cancels her wedding and upends a future that no longer suits her. At the behest of her professor and hungry for a challenge, Cat arrives in Virginia to work on a confidential military project. A student in cryptoanalysis, Cat is already ahead of the game—to assist in rooting out Soviet spies who have infiltrated the US.
Joining the “government girls” of Arlington Hall, Cat gains the respect of her superiors and the friendship of her peers. Then, on a night out in DC, Cat runs into Jonathan Dardis, her arrogant and privileged Harvard rival and newly minted agent for the FBI. What Cat and Jonathan share is a competitive drive and an attraction that’s becoming just as spirited. They’re also united in the same critical goal for America. Together, they’re diving deep into the shadows of espionage.
The stakes of the codebreaking operation grow ever higher, and Cat’s relationship with Jonathan opens her heart. Amid dangerous intrigue and grave secrecy, Cat is ready for every risk. No matter how personal the stakes get.
The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
Release Date: August 5
In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother’s endless grievances, Ellie dreams for a friend to alleviate her isolation.
Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind girl with a brave and irrepressible spirit. Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa’s warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions of becoming “lion women.”
But their happiness is disrupted when Ellie and her mother are afforded the opportunity to return to their previous bourgeois life. Now a popular student at the best girls’ high school in Iran, Ellie’s memories of Homa begin to fade. Years later, however, her sudden reappearance in Ellie’s privileged world alters the course of both of their lives.
Together, the two young women come of age and pursue their own goals for meaningful futures. But as the political turmoil in Iran builds to a breaking point, one earth-shattering betrayal will have enormous consequences.
Mystery/Thriller:
Kiss Her Goodbye by Lisa Gardner
Release Date: August 12
A young mother haunted by war, determined to make a fresh start. But sometimes, the sins of the past aren’t so easy to escape.
Recent Afghan refugee Sabera Ahmadi was last seen exiting her place of work three weeks ago. The local police have yet to open a case, while her older, domineering husband seems unconcerned. Sabera’s closest friend, however, is convinced Sabera would never willingly leave her three‑year old daughter. At her insistence, missing persons expert Frankie Elkin agrees to take up the search through the broiling streets of Tucson. Just in time for a video of the young mother to surface—showing her walking away from the scene of a brutal double murder.
Frankie quickly realizes there’s much more to the Ahmadi family than meets the eye. The father Isaad is a brilliant mathematician, Sabera a gifted linguist, and their little girl Zahra—she has an uncanny ability to remember anything she sees. Which given everything that has happened during the girl’s short life, may be a terrible curse. When Isaad also disappears under mysterious circumstances and an attempt is made on Zahra’s life, Frankie realizes she must quickly crack the code of this family’s horrific past.
Someone is coming for the Ahmadis. And violence is clearly an option. When everything is on the line, how far would you go to protect the ones you love?
Frankie is about to find out.
We Are All Guilty Here by Karin Slaughter
Release Date: August 12
Welcome to North Falls—a small town where everyone knows everyone. Or so they think.
Until the night of the fireworks. When two teenage girls vanish, and the town ignites.
For Officer Emmy Clifton, it’s personal. She turned away when her best friend’s daughter needed help—and now she must bring her home.
But as Emmy combs through the puzzle the girls left behind, she realizes she never really knew them. Nobody did.
Every teenage girl has secrets. But who would kill for them? And what else is the town hiding?
The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective by Jo Nichols
Release Date: August 19
Mrs. B, the landlady of The Marigold Cottages is a stubborn idealist who only rents to people she cares about: Sophie, an anxious young playwright with a dark past; Hamilton, an agoraphobe who likes to overshare; Ocean, a queer sculptor raising two kids alone; the perfectionist Lily-Ann; and Nicholas, a finance bro who’s hiding secrets.
The tenants live contentedly in their doll-house bungalows in Santa Barbara, just minutes from the beach, until their peace is shattered when Anthony, a quiet, hulking, but potentially violent ex-con moves in. Three weeks later, a dead body is discovered on the streets of the peaceful neighborhood. Anthony is arrested, and the tenants heave sighs of relief. Until Mrs. B, convinced that he’s innocent, marches down to the police station and confesses to the crime herself. The tenants band together and form “The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective” to save their beloved landlady. As clues are unearthed and secrets are revealed, the community of misfits only grows more tight-knit…until a second body is found.
Fantasy/Sci-Fi:
Accomplice to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
Release Date: August 5
REWARD OFFERED: Apprentice to The Villain wanted for treason (light), magical property damage (alleged), and one incident involving a weaponized scone (accurate). Frequently seen with a grumpy frog (crowned, judgmental). Answers to “Evie” or “Stop that.”
Evie Sage didn’t mean to become the right-hand woman to the kingdom’s most terrifying villain. One minute, she was applying for an entry-level position that promised “light paperwork and occasional beheadings,” and the next, she was knee-deep in magical mayhem, murder plots, and an entirely inappropriate crush on her brooding, sharp-jawed, walking disaster of a boss.
Now, with a magical prophecy unraveling, assassins showing up in the break room, and a suspicious amount of frogs wearing crowns, Evie has to figure out how to survive her job without setting the kingdom on fire—or her dignity, which is hanging by a very sarcastic thread.
Being evil-adjacent was never part of the five-year plan. But then again…neither was falling for The Villain.
The Sea Witch by Eva Leigh
Release Date: August 26
Condemned as a witch, sentenced to die, Alys Tanner uses her innate magical power to flee Puritanical New England. Stealing a ship, Alys becomes captain of The Sea Witch, leading its all-female, sorcery-wielding pirate crew. But the colonial British navy is in hot pursuit. The navy fights for a choke hold on the Caribbean and will destroy anything they cannot control, especially witches.
When Ben Priestley, a headstrong naval navigator, is inadvertently captured by the lady pirates, dangerous truths are revealed. A quest that could turn the tides against the navy’s might ignites a reluctant partnership between the by-the-books prisoner and the fierce witch pirate captain. While they brave backstabbing pirates, perilous tropical islands and monster-filled seas, Alys and Ben’s mistrust grows into unexpected desire as they battle an enemy that will stop at nothing to rule the waves.
Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
Release Date: August 26
Two graduate students must set aside their rivalry and journey to Hell to save their professor’s soul, perhaps at the cost of their own.
Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality—her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world—that is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault.
Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands, and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams. Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the same conclusion.
Romance:
A Beginner’s Guide to Forever by Kendall Ryan
Release Date: August 5
Alessia Moore, a thirty-seven-year-old powerhouse at the helm of a nonprofit in Nairobi, is tirelessly working to build a school for girls. Professionally, she’s thriving, attracting investors to support her mission. But her love life is nonexistent, and she’s starting to wonder if the one even exists for her.
When she meets Hart Winthrop, the twenty-five-year-old son of a billionaire investor poised to support her foundation, she’s unprepared for the pull she feels. Hart is confident, intelligent, and charming. But there are issues—he’s too young for her, and getting involved with him could jeopardize everything she’s worked for.
As fate takes them across the globe—from glamorous cities to hidden corners of the world—what begins as a forbidden fling grows into something neither of them expected, leaving Alessia to wonder…Should she break her own rules for a chance at something real?
Heart Strings by Ivy Fairbanks
Release Date: August 12
She doesn’t do second chances. But he’s not done writing their song.
Cielo “Lo” Valdez doesn’t believe in second chances. Surviving cancer taught her life is too short to spend time on someone who wronged you. But Aidan O’Toole is determined to show her life is best spent together.
When the tough-as-nails Texan moved to Galway for medical school, she wasn’t looking for love. Aidan, a gorgeous, tattooed, mandolin-playing lawyer, slipped past her defenses. They each fell hard and fast. But when Aidan was given the opportunity of a lifetime—to move to London and record an album—he took it, breaking Lo’s heart. Yet more than two years and a successful album later, every song he writes is still about her, the one he let get away. And every time Lo hears his voice on the radio singing about love, it’s an arrow straight to her soul.
Now they’re on a collision course as maid of honor and best man at a weekend-long Irish castle wedding. Are some mistakes worth forgiving? Can Aidan convince Lo their song wasn’t meant to end?
Here for a Good Time by Pyae Moe Thet War
Release Date: August 26
A trip they’ll never forget…
Poe Myat Sabei has the publishing career that any writer would kill for: her first novel sold at auction, became an international number one bestseller, and is being turned into a Netflix film. But now on deadline for her second book, Poe is facing a catastrophic case of writer’s block. The solution? Book a two-week getaway to an exclusive island resort for her and her best friend Zwe where she’ll undoubtedly be inspired to write her next bestseller.
But the vacation of their dreams disintegrates in a flash when the resort is taken over by a group of masked women who are very armed and very angry. As they try to leave the island before the group can track them down, Poe and Zwe suddenly find themselves facing the kinds of conflicts that only come up when, well, you’re trapped in a life or death situation on a remote island with your (hot) best friend.
Young Adult:
Atomic Hearts By Megan Cummins
Release Date: August 5
Sixteen and living in a small Michigan town, Gertie is harboring a secret heavy enough to fracture her closest friendship. She and Cindy have been bonded since birth by the fact their fathers are addicts, but their unsteady home lives are a little easier when they’re together, sprawled on trampoline vinyl with pilfered vodka and dreams of moving to New York.
Everything was changing so fast. I didn’t know what was real.
After an accident involving a bonfire and an aerosol can sends Gertie to the hospital, she finds herself with nowhere to go but to Sioux Falls to live with her newly clean father. She sees it as a chance to escape the hometown drama she’s caused, but it finds her all the same: parties without curfews, boys without boundaries, a compromising photo, tragedy back home . . . and her father, once again teetering on the edge of oblivion. Terrified of the consequences of being honest with Cindy, her sole refuge is the fantasy novel she’s writing, a portal to another world and the story of a young girl roaming a strange land, trusting her wits to survive.
I had to become a different person before I’d even figured out who I was in the first place.
Years later, when ghosts of the past surface, Gertie decides to write again about that explosive summer from the stabler shores of adulthood. Powered by the fierce imagination of her youth, Gertie finally allows herself the grace to tell a version of her story that she always hoped would be true.
A Theory of Dreaming by Ava Reid
Series Name: A Study in Drowning, #2
Release Date: August 13
All stories come to an end.
Effy learned that when she defeated the Fairy King. Even though she may never know exactly what happened at Hiraeth, she is free of her nightmares and is able to pen a thesis with Preston on the beloved national fairy tale Angharad. She has finally earned a spot at the literature college, making her the first woman in history to enroll.
But some dreams are dangerous, especially when they come true. The entire university—and soon the entire nation—is waiting for her to fail. With the Fairy King defeated and Myrddin’s legacy exposed, Effy can no longer escape into fantasy. Who is she without her stories?
With Effy under threat, Preston is surprised to discover a rage simmering inside him, ringing in his ears like bells. He begins to dream of a palace under the sea, a world where he is king—visions that start to follow him even in waking.
As the war between Llyr and Argant explodes, Effy and Preston find themselves caught in the crossfire: Effy losing her dreams and Preston losing himself in his.
Are dreams ever truly just dreams?
A Spell to Wake the Dead by Nicole Lesperance
Release Date: August 26
Two teen girls must uncover the dark, occult secrets lurking in their Cape Cod town to solve a series of murders—and save themselves from the same fate—in this twisty, witchy thriller.
When Mazzy and her best friend Nora sneak down to the beach one moonlit night to cast a spell, they don’t expect to find a dead body. But as the tide rolls in, it carries the remains of a woman who is missing her hands and teeth.
The girls know they should leave the investigation to the police, but they can’t shake the weird, supernatural connection they feel with the dead woman. Using spellwork and divination, they set out to find answers of their own. But after they uncover a rash of local disappearances stretching back years—and both girls start having occult visions and hearing ghostly, whispering voices—Mazzy worries that she and Nora are in danger.
Then, Nora finds a second body. And a whispering voice is telling her where to find more. With everything spiraling, Mazzy needs to figure out who to trust and how to sever this supernatural connection—or she and Nora might be the next bodies to wash up on the beach.
Non-fiction:
Are You Mad At Me? By Meg Josephson
Release Date: August 5
Are you…
– Constantly worried about what people think of you, if they like you, if they’re mad at you?
– Anxious, a perfectionist, or an overachiever?
– Always overextending yourself (and then resentful)?
– Someone who avoids conflict at all costs?
– Fearful of getting into trouble or being seen as “bad”?
– Silencing your needs for the comfort and happiness of everyone else?
– Prone to overexplain or over apologize?
– Eternally obsessing over why someone texted with a period instead of an exclamation point?
Psychotherapist Meg Josephson is here to show you that people-pleasing is not a personality trait. It’s a common survival mechanism known as “fawning”: an instinct often learned in childhood to become more appealing to a perceived threat in order to feel safe. Yet many people are stuck in this way of being for their whole lives. Are You Mad at Me? weaves Josephson’s own moving story with that of fascinating client stories and thought-provoking exercises to show you how to:
– Identify all the roles you might play—from peacekeeper to performer to caretaker to lone wolf to perfectionist to chameleon—that keep you far from yourself.
– Stop fearing your thoughts and emotions, even if they’re unpleasant.
– Rethink conflict and boundaries as an opening for deeper connection.
– Practice “leaning back” in relationships.
– Recognize when people-pleasing is actually necessary (with your chaotic boss) and when it’s not (with your close friends) and stop self-loathing when you slip into old patterns.
– Shift away from the familiar chaos, anxiety, and resentment you’re used to as you move closer to yourself and a life that no longer depletes you—but brings you joy.
Semi-Well-Adjusted Despite Literally Everything by Alyson Stoner
Release Date: August 12
Actor-dancer Alyson Stoner’s revelatory and incisive memoir—from family violence and betrayal, to eating disorders and religious trauma—may begin in Hollywood, but its chilling relatability will resonate with anyone navigating identity, privacy, purpose, and mental health in a digital age.
Raised on soundstages and studio lots from the time they were six, shuffling between auditions for Disney Channel, Cheaper by the Dozen, or a Missy Elliott music video, Alyson experienced their defining moments of childhood inside the bizarre fishbowl of Hollywood. From being eight with an 80-hour work week, differentiating fan inquiries from kidnapping plots, and TV execs telling them they’re “not anorexic enough” to stop working and get help, they struggled to find stability and sanity in a chaotic world.
In Semi-Well-Adjusted Despite Literally Everything, Alyson shares their powerful story for the first time, detailing a turbulent home life with addict parents, harrowing accounts from rehab, the messy process of discovering their sexuality in church, rebuilding a life after an early professional peak, and charting a path of self-discovery and advocacy. With striking introspection, Alyson connects the dots across the entertainment industry ecosystem, child development, and media culture, exposing the “toddler to trainwreck pipeline” of child stars and sparking timely conversations about success and society’s enchantment with fame.
Surrounded by Idiots by Thomas Erikson
Release Date: August 26
A fully revised and expanded edition of the runaway bestseller, Surrounded by Idiots—now with
Text • Charts • Examples • Snark!
Master the four basic behavior types and change the way you communicate!
Do you ever think you’re the only one making any sense? Or tried to reason with your partner with disastrous results? Do long, rambling answers drive you crazy?
You are not alone. After a disastrous meeting with a highly successful entrepreneur, who was genuinely convinced he was ‘surrounded by idiots,’ communication expert and bestselling author Thomas Erikson dedicated himself to understanding how people function and why we often struggle to connect with certain personality types.
Erikson’s simple yet ground-breaking techniques will help you understand yourself better, hone communication and social skills, handle conflict with confidence, improve dynamics with your boss and team, and get the best out of the people you deal with and manage.
At a moment in time when understanding one another is more important than ever, Thomas Erikson revisits his most popular title, offering an updated and expanded edition that will make you a master of communication.
