June 2025 Book Releases:
Your Ultimate Guide For The First Week’s Must-Reads
2nd June – 8th June: The first week of June features some exciting new stories as part of the 2025 book releases.
This Week’s June 2025 Book Releases
Discover my top 12 picks from the first week’s exciting new book releases! In this line-up, I’ll share the captivating synopses and discuss which books will resonate with each reader. Kicking off the fantasy romance genre, we have a breathtaking romantic tale inspired by Beauty and the Beast about a girl who paints the future and a cursed dragon lord; second, a debut YA fantasy adventure about dangerous magic, forbidden love, and cut-throat competition for the throne, and last but not least, a who-dun-it-type mystery set aboard a river cruise for the dead that explores Korean mythology.
For readers who prefer their fiction more grounded in reality, we have three new additions to the historical fiction genre: an epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s Space Shuttle program, an revelatory debut novel about the devastating consequences of one woman’s affair, and an exhilarating novel about family, identity, and the power we have to shape our destinies.
For the romantic at heart and fans of spicy romance books, three new additions will catch your interest: a fake marriage leads to a romance with her best friend’s brother, a hilarious and romantic rom-com that follows a former model determined to exact revenge on the boy who ruined her life, and lastly, a story about two women, a family secret, and a lost manuscript that changes everything.
Last but not least, three new additions for the thriller and mystery lovers wrap up this week’s 2025 book releases: a debut novel about a dedicated journalist who unearths a generations-old family secret—and a connection to a string of missing girls, second, the return of an archaeologist and FBI Agent in the fifth instalment of the Nora Kelly series, and lastly, the story of two expat women whose lives become entangled after the shocking death of a highly influential businessman with deep knowledge of lab-created diamonds.
Genre – Fantasy Romance Books
Title: A Forgery of Fate
Author: Elizabeth Lim
Publisher: Knopf Books
Publication Date: 3rd of June, 2025
Pages: 483
From the New York Times bestselling author of Six Crimson Cranes comes a breathtaking romantic fantasy inspired by Beauty and the Beast about a girl who paints the future and a cursed dragon lord, bound by love and deception in a plot to bring down the gods. It is an ideal read for fans of dragons, captivating world-building, Eastern mythology, heart-pounding action, and epic love stories.
The book’s synopsis;
Truyan Saigas didn’t choose to become a con artist, but after her father is lost at sea, it’s up to her to support her mother and two younger sisters. A gifted art forger, Tru has the unique ability to paint the future, but even such magic is not enough to put her family back together again, or stave off the gangsters demanding payment in blood for her mother’s gambling debts.
Left with few options, Tru agrees to a marriage contract with a mysterious dragon lord. He offers a fresh start for her mother and sisters and elusive answers about her father’s disappearance, but in exchange, she must join him in his desolate undersea palace. And she must assist him in a plot to infiltrate the tyrannical Dragon King’s inner circle, painting a future so treasonous, it could upend both the mortal and immortal realms. . . .
Title: Heir of Storms
Series: Storm Weaver (1)
Author: Lauryn Hamilton Murray
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Publication Date: 3rd of June, 2025
Pages: 416
In her debut, author Murray releases the first book in her YA romantic fantasy trilogy, where Red Queen meets Shadow and Bone. As one of the most anticipated YA books of 2025, it is a fantasy adventure about dangerous magic, forbidden love, and a cut-throat competition for the throne in an empire where crowns are not inherited but won. It is an ideal read for fans of a treacherous political landscape, secrets, sabotage, and the threat of war.
The book’s synopsis;
The very day Blaze came into the world, she almost drowned. A Rain Singer born into one of the most powerful fire-wielding families in the empire, Blaze’s birth summoned a devastating storm that left thousands dead. She’s been hidden away ever since with a dark secret: the same torrential power that branded her an outcast disappeared that fateful day. And she’s not sure she wants it back.
When an unexpected invitation arrives for Blaze and her twin brother, Flint, to compete as future rulers of the empire, she’s suddenly thrust into the limelight again — and into battle. Threats abound at the Golden Palace, where intrigue and romance await with not one but two handsome suitors: the enchanting Crown Prince and a dangerously alluring newcomer at court.
As Blaze explores her untapped power, she discovers the throne may be within her grasp. But in order to take it, she’ll have to leave behind the stories that others have told about her, and find the courage to write her own.
Title: The God and the Gwisin
Series: Fate’s Thread
Author: Sophie Kim
Publisher: Del Rey
Publication Date: 3rd of June, 2025
Pages: 416
Number One Sunday Times bestselling author returns with the second and final instalment in the Fate’s Thread series. With elements of a who-dun-it-type mystery set aboard a river cruise for the dead, it is an ideal read for fans of reincarnation, K-pop idols, second-chance romance and Korean mythology.
The book’s synopsis;
Seokga the No-Longer-Fallen is looking for his love. Since he lost Hani and was reinstated as a god, nothing has felt right – and he’s been desperately searching for her reincarnated form ever since.
But when the red thread of fate leads Seokga to a cruise down the river of the dead, the woman he finds isn’t Hani . . . she’s Yoo Kisa, and she has no memory of him whatsoever – with seemingly no interest in regaining it either.
But when the Heavenly Emperor of Okhwang is murdered, Seokga and Kisa must solve the crime before the cruise ends. And as the mystery draws them closer, they will have to decide what they truly mean to each other.
There’s something bigger at play aboard the ship, something that holds the key to their fated connection – and the very fate of the world.
Genre – Historical Fiction Books
Title: Atmosphere
Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: 3rd of June, 2025
Pages: 352
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six comes an epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s Space Shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits. It is an ideal read for fans of complex protagonists, fast-paced narrative, the 80s era, and the vastness of space.
The book’s synopsis;
Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s Space Shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.
Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easy-going even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warm-hearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.
As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.
Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant.
Title: A Family Matter
Author: Claire Lynch
Publisher: Scribner
Publication Date: 3rd of June, 2025
Pages: 240
An exquisite and revelatory debut novel about the devastating consequences of one woman’s affair. A Family Matter is a heartbreaking and hopeful exploration of love and loss, intimacy and injustice, custody and care, and whether it is possible to heal from the wounds of the past in today’s changed world. It is an ideal read for fans of multiple timelines, thought-provoking narratives, and LGBT themes.
The book’s synopsis;
1982. Dawn is a young mother, still adjusting to life with her husband, when Hazel lights up her world like a torch in the dark. Theirs is the kind of connection that’s impossible to resist, and suddenly life is more complicated, and more joyful, than Dawn ever expected. But she has responsibilities and commitments. She has a daughter.
2022. Heron has just received news from his doctor that turns everything upside down. He’s an older man, stuck in the habits of a quiet existence. Telling Maggie, his only child—the person around whom his life has revolved—seems impossible. Heron can’t tell her about his diagnosis, just as he can’t reveal all the other secrets he’s been keeping from her for so many years.
Title: What Kind of Paradise
Author: Janelle Brown
Publisher: Random House
Publication Date: 3rd of June, 2025
Pages: 368
From the New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Things and Watch Me Disappear comes an exhilarating novel about family, identity, and the power we have to shape our destinies as a teenage girl breaks free from her father’s world of isolation. It is an ideal read for fans of narratives that explore themes of isolation, moral dilemmas, and self-determination.
The book’s synopsis;
The first thing you have to understand is that my father was my entire world.
Growing up in an isolated cabin in Montana in the mid-1990s, Jane knows only the world that she and her father live the woodstove that heats their home, the vegetable garden where they try to eke out a subsistence existence, the books of nineteenth-century philosophy that her father gives her to read in lieu of going to school. Her father is elusive about their pasts, giving Jane little beyond the facts that they once lived in the Bay Area and that her mother died in a car accident, the crash propelling him to move Jane off the grid to raise her in a Thoreau-like utopia.
As Jane becomes a teenager she starts pushing against the boundaries of her restricted world. She begs to accompany her father on his occasional trips away from the cabin. But when Jane realizes that her devotion to her father has made her an accomplice to a horrific crime, she flees Montana to the only place she knows to look for answers about her mysterious past, and her mother’s San Francisco. It is a city in the midst of a seismic change, where her quest to understand herself will force her to reckon with both the possibilities and the perils of the fledgling Internet, and where she will come to question everything she values.
Genre – Romance Books
Title: Till Summer Do Us Part
Author: Meghan Quinn
Publisher: Bloom Books
Publication Date: 3rd of June, 2025
Pages:432
From a New York Times bestselling author comes a brand new, sizzling summer read that will have you laughing, swooning and sweating. It is an ideal read for fans of fake marriage, best friend’s brother romance, and forced proximity tropes.
The book’s synopsis;
I got what I wanted. I became buddy-buddy with my boss in an instant. But the cost will be hefty . . . finding a husband by tomorrow.
Scottie Price just started a new job, and it’s a real sausage fest. She’s the only woman on a team filled with Brads and Chads. Expecting a bachelor pad atmosphere, she is quickly corrected when she finds out everyone is happily married.
In an effort to impress her boss, Scottie mentions her non-existent husband in a company meeting. But eagle-eyed Chad points out her lack of wedding ring. Panicked, Scottie creates a story about her unhappy marriage. Unfortunately for Scottie, her boss has a solution – a one-on-one session with the best marriage counsellor in the Northeast, who happens to be her boss’s husband.
With no way out of her lie, Scottie agrees to see him. Frantic, she calls in help from her best friend who sets her up with his brother, an improv-obsessed millionaire.
Enter Wilder Wells. More than happy to take on the job, he teaches Scottie the main rule of always say yes. But the rule backfires during the session when Wilder signs them up for an eight-day summer marriage camp with all of Scottie’s co-workers where she’ll have to share a cabin with her way-too-handsome fake husband.
Title: Never Thought I’d End Up Here
Author: Ann Liang
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: 3rd of June, 2025
Pages: 320
From the author of the instant New York Times bestseller I Hope This Doesn’t Find You comes her latest novel, Never Thought I’d End Up Here, a hilarious and romantic rom-com that follows a former model determined to exact revenge on the boy who ruined her life. It is an ideal read for fans of childhood enemies-to-lovers stories, forced proximity, and the Chinese setting.
The book’s synopsis;
Leah Zhang has spent her whole life in LA – it’s all she’s ever known. But after accidentally wishing her cousin ill health and a very depressing marriage at her wedding, her parents stage an intervention. She has forgotten most of her Mandarin, has no regard for etiquette, and struggles to hold a conversation with her own grandparents for longer than a minute. Their solution? Send her on an intensive two-week travel program across China’s most beautiful cities. To them, it’s the perfect opportunity for Leah to get back to her roots. To Leah, it’s simply a much-needed escape.
But before Leah can even begin to enjoy the luxurious hotels, stunning scenery, and mouth-watering cuisine, she finds that also on the trip is her former classmate and least favourite person, cynical, sarcastic Cyrus, who’s somehow only gotten more annoyingly handsome since they last saw each other.
While Leah might be tempted to shove him off the peak of the Yellow Mountain when nobody’s looking, she can’t get rid of him just yet. After all, she might never get another chance to get revenge on the boy who ruined her life.
Yet the deeper they wander into China’s provinces, the deeper Leah finds herself falling in love – with the boy she once thought she despised, the home she never thought she’d call her own, and the parts of herself she thought were already lost.
Title:The Lost Book of First Loves
Author: RaeAnne Thayne
Publisher: Canary Street Press
Publication Date: 3rd of June, 2025
Pages: 352
From New York Times bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne comes a brand-new story about two women, a family secret, chronic illnesses, and a lost manuscript that changes everything. It is an ideal read for fans of second-chance romances, found family, and multiple perspectives.
The book’s synopsis;
Raised by her literary icon father Carson Wells, Allison Wells always felt loved, even though her mother died when she was a teen. But when she takes a DNA test on a whim and discovers she has a sister that she’s never heard about before, it’s clear there are things her father never told her before he died. Determined to meet Juniper—her half sister—and unravel the truth of what happened all those years ago, Ali finds herself taking a job as Juniper’s intern. She’ll eventually figure out a way to tell Juniper the truth of their relationship. But she never could have imagined what would happen next…
Juniper Connolly has always been incredibly healthy…until she wakes up in the hospital after experiencing cardiac arrest, with her new—and recently fired—intern to thank for saving her life. It’s clear June needs to de-stress her life a little, so when Ali offers her the use of her family’s cabin in a small Wyoming town, June has no reason not to go. But when she arrives in the small town, her life will never be the same.
Under the wide-open spaces of the Wyoming summer sun, Ali and June will untangle the secrets and lies their lives were built on to discover who they really are and what family really means. But even more than that, they’ll build a real relationship with one another and finally become sisters.
Genre – Thriller and Mystery Books
Title: We Don’t Talk About Carol
Author: Kristen L. Berry
Publisher: Bantam
Publication Date: 3rd of June, 2025
Pages: 336
In this gripping debut novel, a dedicated journalist unearths a generations-old family secret—and a connection to a string of missing girls that hits way too close to home. We Don’t Talk About Carol is a gripping and deeply emotional story from author Kristen L. Berry, who is one of the 2025 writers to watch. It is an ideal read for fans of dysfunctional families, atmospheric tension, and the exploration of buried trauma.
The book’s synopsis;
In the wake of her grandmother’s passing, Sydney Singleton discovers a hidden photograph of a little girl who bears a striking resemblance to Sydney, more so than her own sister or mother. She soon discovers the mystery girl in the photograph is her aunt, Carol, who was one of six local North Carolina Black girls to go missing in the 1960s. For the last several decades, no one has spoken about Carol or what really happened to her. With her grandmother gone and Sydney looking to start a family of her own, she is determined to unravel the truth behind her long-lost aunt and the sinister silence surrounding her.
Unfortunately, this is familiar territory for Sydney. Several years prior, working the crime beat as a journalist on the case of another missing girl, her obsession eventually led to a psychotic break. And now, in the suffocating grip of fertility treatments and a marriage that’s beginning to crumble, Sydney’s relentless pursuit might just lead her down the same path of destruction. As she delves deeper into Carol’s fate, her own troubled past resurfaces, clawing its way to the surface with a vengeance. The web of secrets and lies entangling her family leaves Sydney questioning everything—her fixation on the missing girls, her future as a mom, and everyone she’s come to trust.
Title: Badlands
Series: Nora Kelly (5)
Author: Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: 3rd of June, 2025
Pages: 368
From the duo authors comes the fifth instalment of the Nora Kelly series and the return of archaeologist Nora Kelley Swanson and FBI Agent Corrie Swanson, who team up to solve a mystery surrounding a woman found clutching some artefacts of interest who died of exposure in the New Mexico Badlands. It is an ideal read for fans of American Indian Folklore, forensic science, and cults.
The book’s synopsis;
In the New Mexico badlands, the skeleton of a woman is found, and the case is assigned to FBI Agent Corrie Swanson. The victim walked into the desert, shedding clothes as she went, and then died in agony of heatstroke and thirst. Two rare artifacts are found clutched in her bony hands—lightning stones used by the ancient Chaco people to summon the gods.
Is it suicide or… sacrifice?
Agent Swanson brings in archaeologist Nora Kelly to investigate. When a second body is found—exactly like the other—the two realise the case runs deeper than they imagined. As Corrie and Nora pursue their investigation into remote canyons, haunted ruins, and long-lost rituals, they find themselves confronting a dark power that, disturbed from its long slumber, threatens to exact an unspeakable price.
Title: The Expat Affair
Author: Kimberly Belle
Publisher: Park Row
Publication Date: 3rd of June, 2025
Pages: 320
USA Today and internationally bestselling author of Dear Wife returns with her latest novel that follows two expat women whose lives become entangled after the shocking death of a highly influential businessman with deep knowledge of lab-created diamonds and the secrets of their trade. It is an ideal read for fans of action-packed narratives, highly dysfunctional families, and interest in the diamond industry.
The book’s synopsis;
Following a nasty divorce, Rayna Dumont came to Amsterdam for a fresh start. She’s never been the type for a one-night stand, but this move is all about adventure, and Xander is handsome and successful and more than willing to go along for the ride. Until the morning after, when Rayna finds him dead on the shower floor and millions of dollars’ worth of diamonds missing from his safe.
From her lavish home in the heart of the city, Willow Prins is captivated by the news. Her husband is Xander’s former boss and heir to a diamond house, and the scandal strains their already-rocky marriage. As the house comes under scrutiny, Willow wonders if her life is about to implode—and how much of the blame she can place on Rayna. Soon, Willow and Rayna are dragged into the dark and dangerous underbelly of the diamond market, where they’ll have to uncover the truth to survive. Who killed Xander? Where are the missing diamonds? And who can you trust in a strange and unfamiliar city thousands of miles from home?
Conclusion
The first week of June features twelve exciting new book releases that explore captivating world-building, treacherous political landscapes, secrets, sabotage, heart-pounding action, reincarnation, second-chance romances and Korean and Eastern mythology for the fantasy romance genre.
For the historical fiction genre, we have complex protagonists, thought-provoking and fast-paced narratives, the 80s era, LGBT tropes, and the exploration of themes such as isolation, moral dilemmas, and self-determination. For the romance genre, we have fake marriages, forced proximity and found family tropes, childhood enemies-to-lovers and second-chance romances, multiple perspectives, and settings in China.
Lastly, the thriller and mystery genre includes dysfunctional families, American Indian folklore, cults, action-packed narratives, atmospheric tension, and the exploration of buried trauma, secrets, and forensic science.
Stay tuned, as I will post my following article next week about the latest 2025 book releases for the second week of June’s monthly line-up. Additionally, if you are interested in more book-related articles, check out my book section page for reviews, recommendations, details and discussions.
