Anticipated December Releases
Ten New Books For
December 2025
Snake-Eater
by T. Kingfisher
With only a few dollars to her name and her beloved dog Copper by her side, Selena flees her past in the city to claim her late aunt’s house in the desert town of Quartz Creek. The scorpions and spiders are better than what she left behind.
Because in Quartz Creek, there’s a strange beauty to everything, from the landscape to new friends, and more blue sky than Selena’s ever seen. But something lurks beneath the surface. Like the desert gods and spirits lingering outside Selena’s house at night, keeping watch. Mostly benevolent, says her neighbor Grandma Billy. That doesn’t ease the prickly sense that one of them watches too closely and wants something from Selena she can’t begin to imagine. And when Selena’s search for answers leads her to journal entries that her aunt left behind, she discovers a sinister truth about her new home: It’s the haunting grounds of an ancient god known simply as “Snake-Eater,” who her late aunt made a promise to that remains unfulfilled.
Snake-Eater has taken a liking to Selena, an obsession of sorts that turns sinister. And now that Selena is the new owner of his home, he’s hell-bent on collecting everything he’s owed.
Fallen Gods
by Rachel Van Dyken
They said the Gods were myth. That the Giants were only stories told around dying fires. They lied.
The Gods aren’t dead—they’re only sleeping, locked in mortal bodies, scattered across the world, waiting for the right spark to wake them. And my father is the most ruthless of them all.
He raised me to obey. To bleed. To be his blade when the time came. Now he’s sending me to Endir University, a place filled with ancient bloodlines and deadly secrets, to steal back Mjolnir, the hammer of legend. If I fail, everyone I love dies.
But Aric Erikson wasn’t part of the plan. He’s the enemy’s heir. Distant. Dangerous. And…the one person I can’t afford to fall for. He’s closed himself off completely behind a wall of ice, but the more I’m ordered to unravel him, the harder it becomes to remember where the lies end and I begin.
There's only a mission I never chose—and a man I was never meant to love—standing between me and a war that will decide the fate of the world.
But if I’m the spark, maybe he’s the fuse. And the Gods? They’re about to wake up angry.
The Happiness Collector
by Crystal King
After losing her book deal and her academic position, historian Aida Reale needs a new career, and fast. After all, she and her fiancé, Graham, have a wedding to pay for. So when a friend recommends her for an extremely high—paying position at a company called MODA, it feels like the perfect stroke of luck. And with a move to Italy and a breathtaking palazzo included, how could she say no?
Aside from a snooty assistant, a daunting NDA and some very stringent rules about the use of personal technology, working for MODA is a dream come true—at least at first. But the more research Aida conducts for this elusive company, the more things feel off. Not only does her relationship with Graham suffer, but it seems like every site she visits either vanishes or is struck by tragedy soon after she’s been there.
It’s only after a mysterious woman approaches Aida and Luciano, her devastatingly handsome and equally concerned MODA colleague, that they learn the truth—they are just mortal pawns in a game between gods. Now Aida must find answers to the question she's been avoiding: What's really happening to all the happiness she's been collecting…and can she stop the gods’ plans before it’s too late?
Dawn of the Firebird
by Sarah Mughal Rana
Khamilla Zahr—zad’s life has been built on a foundation of violence and vengeance. Every home she’s known has been destroyed by war. As the daughter of an emperor’s clan, she spent her childhood training to maintain his throne. But when her clansmen are assassinated by another rival empire, plans change. With her heavenly magic of nur, Khamilla is a weapon even enemies would wield—especially those in the magical, scholarly city of Za’skar. Hiding her identity, Khamilla joins the enemy’s army school full of jinn, magic and martial arts, risking it all to topple her adversaries, avenge her clan and reclaim their throne.
To survive, she studies under cutthroat mystic monks and battles in a series of contests to outmaneuver her fellow soldiers. She must win at all costs, even if it means embracing the darkness lurking inside her. But the more she excels, the more she is faced with history that contradicts her father’s teachings. With a war brewing among the kingdoms and a new twisted magic overtaking the land, Khamilla is torn between two impossible choices: vengeance or salvation.
A Grim Reaper's Guide to Cheating Death
by Maxie Dara
Nora Bird works for S.C.Y.T.H.E., which might seem odd for someone as terrified of death as she is. But ever since her parents died in an accident when she was six, she's been obsessed with avoiding risk, and what better place to learn how to cheat death than the company that employs the nation's grim reapers?
The work enables Nora to learn all about the myriad ways you can kick the bucket, which is comforting...until one day, a file crosses her desk with a name she recognizes. Her twin brother’s.
The twins haven’t spoken in six months, but Charlie is all Nora has left. Completely against her cautious nature, Nora steals the file and flees, racing to her brother’s house. She begs him to trust her that his death is imminent, and they hit the road (with his parrot, Jessica, who has plenty to say) in an attempt to evade both death and S.C.Y.T.H.E., whose sole mission of collecting souls has been disrupted by Charlie’s continued existence.
Alas, every time Nora saves him, a new cause of death appears in his file. Someone is determined to take Charlie out, and Nora will have to use everything she's ever learned about death to discover the culprit.
Traitor of the Drowned Empire
by Frankie Diane Mallis
After the devastating events of the arena, Lyriana Batavia is trying to live in a world where her soulmate, Rhyan Hart, has become a soulless akadim. The Empire has named Lyr a forsworn traitor, and every soldier in Lumeria has been ordered to hunt her down. With her friends and family scattered across the Empire, Lyr is more alone than she's ever been, with the exception of one shocking ally; Auriel, Rhyan's former incarnation, who has mysteriously appeared. And he is determined to help Lyr, whether she likes it or not.
The new Emperor Avery Kormac is hungrier than ever to impose his power over Lumeria, especially after the escape of his precious chayatim, including the powerful Julianna Batavia. His cruel and unrelenting agenda vows to locate every single vorakh through mandatory testing for all citizens. Lord Tristan Grey is named the leader of this new initiative, and finds himself hunting his own kind while keeping his newfound powers hidden. Meanwhile, Morgana and Aemon, the reincarnation of Moriel, are amassing the force of their akadim army to hunt a secret weapon. And the key to their plans of destruction may very well be Rhyan in his demonic form.
Lyr must decode the mystery of why Auriel has returned in order for them both to survive. But the closer they get, the more danger they face as a secret that's been locked away for centuries is revealed. A secret that will alter the fate of the Empire forever.
Tailored Realities
by Brandon Sanderson
Spanning the genres of fantasy and science fiction, Tailored Realities includes ten works of short fiction from the ingenious mind of one of the genre’s most beloved bestselling authors.
From futuristic detective thrillers to inventive space opera, superhero action, high-tech fantasy, and beyond, these gripping standalone reads have never before been gathered into one volume, with many available here in print for the first time.
Everyone in the Group Chat Dies
by L.M. Chilton
Kirby Cornell needs a break from everything:
- Her crumbling apartment in the sleepy town of Crowhurst (famous for its bucolic countryside and a second-rate serial killer from the ’90s).
- Her dead-end job.
- Her sleazy landlord
- Her messy roommates.
- And, most of all, the terrible thing they all did.
Luckily, that hasn’t caught up with her just yet. Until a new message on their old group chat pops up: Everyone in the group chat dies.
It’s the first text her ex-roommate Esme has sent for ages, but that’s not the really weird thing.
The really weird thing is, Esme died twelve months ago…
We Who Will Die
by Stacia Stark
Life in the perilous Thorn district is a constant battle for Arvelle and her younger brothers. And the vampire standing on her doorstep is about to turn their world upside down.
Faced with an unthinkable choice, Arvelle makes a magically binding vow to do the impossible: kill the emperor, an ancient vampire created by the god Umbros. But first, she must enter the Sundering—an arena where only the fastest, strongest, and deadliest survive long enough to be selected for the emperor’s elite guard.
She quickly draws the ire of the Primus, the powerful figure charged with protecting the emperor. But the vampire under the armor is the last person Arvelle expects to encounter in the emperor’s court.
With her brothers’ lives in the balance, Arvelle has no choice but to ally with the man who once shattered her heart… and with the emperor’s sadistic son, Rorrik—two vampires whose motives are impossible to pin down. Rorrik holds the key to understanding the powers Arvelle is developing—abilities that would put a price on her head if discovered by the emperor.
To survive the arena and complete her mission, Arvelle must get to the bottom of a conspiracy that will change everything she thought she knew about herself—and the two vampires who are deeply entwined with her destiny…
An Arcane Inheritance
by Kamilah Cole
Warren University has stood amongst the ivy elite for centuries, built on the bones—and forbidden magic—of its most prized BIPOC students…hiding the rot of a secret society that will do anything to keep their own powers burning bright. No matter who they must sacrifice along the way.
Ellory Morgan is determined to prove that she belongs at Warren University, an ivy league school whose history is deeply linked to occult rumors and dark secrets. But as she settles into her Freshman year, something about the ornate buildings and shadowy paths feels strangely…familiar. And, with every passing day, that sense of déjà vu grows increasingly sinister.
Despite all logic, despite all reason, despite all the rules of reality, Ellory knows one thing to be true: she has been here before. And if she can't convince brooding legacy student Hudson Graves to help her remember a past that seems determined to slip through her fingers as if by some insidious magic…this time, she may lose herself for good.
Comments
Post a Comment