June 2025 Book Releases:
Your Ultimate Guide For The Third Week’s Must-Reads
16th June – 22nd June: The third 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 third 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 genre, we have a fast-paced, slow-burn romance with plenty of tension and the perfect balance of darkness and betrayal. Secondly, we have a heartwarming satire novel based on the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale, “The Twelve Huntsmen,” resulting in a hilarious and action-packed adventure.
For readers who prefer their fiction grounded in reality, we have two new additions: An emotionally authentic debut novel about a tight-knit family who moves from Brooklyn to Maine, and their lives are upended by an event that will alter their new community forever. Secondly, we have a stunning novel and speculative tale of healing, self-discovery, forgiveness, and found friendship.
As for the historical fiction genre, we have a heartwarming new novel about Dorothy’s Aunt Emily from The Wizard of Oz, a historical retelling of Emily Gale’s life before she moved to Kansas. Secondly, an electrifying new novel set during the WWII era tells the story of two jewel thieves, a priceless bracelet that disappears in 1940s Paris, and a quest for answers in a decades-old murder.
For the romantic at heart and fans of spicy romance books, three new additions will catch your interest: A steamy enemies-to-friends-to-lovers romance between a college student and the grandson of a royal princess. Secondly, a sparkling, magical book about a hitmaking songwriter and a bitter musician who share a startling and inexplicable connection, and lastly, a perfect summer read about enemies to partners in crime romance between a waitress and an assistant manager.
Last but not least, three new additions for the thriller and mystery lovers wrap up this week’s 2025 book releases: the return of amateur sleuths who find themselves caught up in the whirlwind of the 19th-century London Season. Secondly, a spellbinding novel of literary and psychological suspense about the shocking disappearance of a charismatic teacher at an elite boarding school, and lastly, a twisted psychological thriller about a woman who is tormented by nightmarish visions of her future that start to come true.
Genre – Fantasy Romance Books
Title: The Robin on the Oak Throne
Series: The Oak and Holly Cycle (2)
Author: K.A. Linde
Publisher: Entangled: Red Tower Books
Publication Date: 17th of June, 2025
Pages: 400
From New York Times, USA Today, and Sunday Times bestselling author of The Wren in the Holly Library returns with her second instalment of The Oak and Holly Cycle series. It is an ideal read for fans of dark and gritty worlds, lovable characters, and found family tropes.
The book’s synopsis;
Can you trust the dark when you know that it lies?
Kierse McKenna just shattered the Monster Treaty. Again.
It wasn’t entirely her fault. The job was supposed to be simple: steal a goblin-made bracelet off the Queen of the Nymphs in her own palace. Trade the bracelet for a way to uncover the truth about her past. Except everything goes sideways.
And then he shows up to save her.
Graves—the warlock who ensnared her, betrayed her, and left her to fend for herself. He’s a villain. A monster draped in charm and shadows. And gods help her, he always knows exactly what she wants.
But Graves never does anything for free. He has a job for his favourite little thief. One that will pit her against the most powerful monsters in existence, including his mortal enemy, the Oak King.
An ancient artefact has been located, and only together can they hope to steal it. She just has to let him in.
But once she lets a monster in, he’s impossible to forget… and even harder to resist.
Title: This Princess Kills Monsters: The Misadventures of a Fairy-Tale Stepsister
Author: Ry Herman
Publisher: Dial Press Trade Paperback
Publication Date: 17th of June, 2025
Pages: 416
An affectionate satire novel of the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale The Twelve Huntsmen from the author of the Love Bites series. A princess with a mostly useless magical talent takes on horrible monsters, a dozen identical masked heroes, and a talking lion in a quest to save a kingdom. It is the perfect read for fans of fairytale retellings, hilarious and action-packed adventures, and heartwarming and likeable characters.
The book’s synopsis;
Someone wants to murder Princess Melilot. This is sadly normal.
Melilot is sick of being ordered to go on dangerous quests by her domineering stepmother. Especially since she always winds up needing to be rescued by her more magically talented stepsisters. And now, she’s been commanded to marry a king she’s never met.
When hideous spider-wolves attack her on the journey to meet her husband-to-be, she is once again rescued—but this time, by twelve eerily similar-looking masked huntsmen. Soon, she has to contend with near-constant attempts on her life, a talking lion that sets bewildering gender tests, and a king who can’t recognise his true love when she puts on a pair of trousers. And all the while, she has to fight her growing attraction to not only one of the huntsmen, but also her fiancé’s extremely attractive sister.
If Melilot can’t unravel the mysteries and rescue herself from peril, kingdoms will fall. Worse, she could end up married to someone she doesn’t love.
Genre – Fiction Books
Title: Hazel Says No
Author: Jessica Berger Gross
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
Publication Date: 17th of June, 2025
Pages: 352
Emotionally deft, authentic, and compulsively readable, this is a debut novel not to be missed. When a tight-knit family moves from Brooklyn to Maine, their lives are upended by an event that will alter their new community forever. It is an ideal read for fans of Now Is Not the Time to Panic, Pineapple Street, and Schitt’s Creek, who also appreciate multiple points of view, the essence of small-town life, and well-developed characters.
The book’s synopsis;
Hazel Blum, please report to the principal’s office. Hazel Blum.
When Hazel Blum’s father gets a tenured job at a prestigious college, she and her family relocate from the hustle and bustle of Brooklyn to a middle-of-nowhere college town in Maine. With her mother, Claire, a clothing designer, and her father, Gus, an American Studies professor, Hazel and her eleven-year-old brother, Wolf, spend the summer at the town pool, where they acclimate to their new lives and connect with the town’s sprawling community. That is, until a dramatic fallout on the very first day of her senior year tips the fickle balance of idyllic Riverburg and impacts everyone in her family.
Title: The Poppy Fields
Author: Nikki Erlick
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: 17th of June, 2025
Pages: 324
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Measure comes a stunning speculative story of healing, self-discovery, forgiveness, and found friendship. The Poppy Fields is a journey that is at once profoundly universal and uniquely personal, posing the question: How do we heal in the wake of great loss? And how far are we willing to go to be healed? It is the perfect read for fans of science fiction and stories of hope and human resilience.
The book’s synopsis;
What if there were a cure for the broken-hearted?
Welcome to the Poppy Fields, where there’s hope for even the most battered hearts to heal.
Here, in a remote stretch of the California desert, lies an experimental and controversial treatment centre that allows those suffering from the heartache of loss to sleep through their pain…and keep on sleeping. After patients awaken from this prolonged state of slumber, they will finally be healed. But only if they’re willing to accept the potential shadowy side effects.
On a journey to this mystical destination are four very different strangers and one little dog: Ava, a book illustrator; Ray, a fireman; Sasha, an occupational therapist; Sky, a free spirit; and a friendly pup named PJ. As they attempt to make their way from the Midwest all the way to the Poppy Fields—where they hope to find Ellis, the brilliant and enigmatic founder—each of their past secrets and mysterious motivations threatens to derail their voyage.
Genre – Historical Fiction Books
Title: Before Dorothy
Author: Hazel Gaynor
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: 17th of June, 2025
Pages: 368
From New York Times bestselling author of Christmas With The Queen comes a heartwarming new novel. Long before Dorothy visits Oz, her aunt, Emily Gale, sets off on her own grand adventure, leaving gritty Chicago behind for Kansas and a life that will utterly change her. It is an ideal read for fans of The Wizard of Oz, stories of the Great Depression, and tales of resilience, determination, and vulnerability.
The book’s synopsis;
Chicago, 1924: Emily Gale and her new husband, Henry, yearn to leave the bustle of Chicago behind for the promise of their own American dream. But leaving the city means leaving Emily’s beloved sister, Annie, who was once closer to her than anyone in the world.
Kansas, 1932: Emily and Henry have made a life in the warmth of the community of Liberal, Kansas, and among the harsh beauty of the prairie. Their lives hold a precarious and hopeful purpose until tragedy strikes and their orphaned niece, Dorothy, lands on their doorstep.
The wide-eyed child isn’t the only thing to disrupt Emily’s world. Drought and devastating dust storms threaten to destroy everything, and their much-loved home becomes a place of uncertainty and danger. When the past catches up with the present and old secrets are exposed, Emily fears she will lose the most cherished thing of Dorothy.
Title: The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau
Author: Kristin Harmel
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication Date: 17th of June, 2025
Pages: 384
The New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Lost Names returns with an electrifying new novel about two jewel thieves, a priceless bracelet that disappears in 1940s Paris, and a quest for answers in a decades-old murder. It is an ideal read for fans of WWII settings, multiple timelines, and thought-provoking tales about family, loss, grief, love, and survival.
The book’s synopsis;
Colette Marceau has been stealing jewels for nearly as long as she can remember, following the centuries-old code of honour instilled in her by her mother: take only from the cruel and unkind, and give to those in need. Never was family tradition more important than it was seven decades earlier, during the Second World War, when Annabel and Colette worked side by side in Paris to fund the French Resistance.
But one night in 1942, it all went wrong. Annabel was arrested by the Germans, and Colette’s four-year-old sister, Liliane, disappeared in the chaos of the raid, along with an exquisite diamond bracelet sewn into the hem of her nightgown for safekeeping. Soon after, Annabel was executed, and Liliane’s body was found floating in the Seine—but the bracelet was nowhere to be found.
Seventy years later, Colette, who has “redistributed” $30 million in jewels over the decades to fund many worthy organisations, has done her best to put her tragic past behind her, but her life begins to unravel when the long-missing bracelet suddenly turns up in a museum exhibit in Boston. If Colette can discover where it has been all this time—and who owns it now—she may finally learn the truth about what happened to her sister.
But she isn’t the only one for whom the bracelet holds answers, and when someone from her childhood lays claim to the diamonds, she’s forced to confront the ghosts of her past as never before. Against all odds, there may still be a chance to bring a murderer to justice—but first, Colette will have to summon the courage to open her own battered heart.
Genre – Romance Books
Title: A Royal Mile
Series: Return to Dublin Street (2)
Author: Samantha Young
Publisher: Samantha Young
Publication Date: 19th of June, 2025
Pages: 440
New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Return to Dublin Street series returns with her second instalment about a steamy enemies-to-friends-to-lovers romance between a senior-year college student and the grandson of a royal princess. It is an ideal read for fans of slow-burn romances, wonderful characters, and bittersweet, emotional stories.
The book’s synopsis;
It’s hard to stay in the friend zone when the attraction is this hot…
Going into my senior year of university at war with a member of the British royal family wasn’t in my carefully laid plans. Sebastian Thorne might be the grandson of a princess, but it’ll take more than a royal pardon to get me to forgive him for pretending to be someone he’s not.
But Sebastian is determined to be my friend. Even if it means signing up for a psych experiment just to get me to talk to him. Who knew a sincere apology and him saying my name in that posh English accent would make me weak in the knees?
This year was supposed to be about my dissertation and graduate school. Only Sebastian has thrown my ordered world off kilter. He makes me bolder, more confident. A braver version of me.
Yet every lingering glance and stolen touch has me realising one thing…
I’m falling for my best friend.
There’s just one problem. Sebastian has demons, ones that make him determined to keep me in the friend zone no matter the cost.
And even when temptation sends his walls tumbling down, the beauty we’ve found might not survive against the will of powerful outside forces…
Title: Sounds Like Love
Author: Ashley Poston
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: 17th of June, 2025
Pages: 384
From the New York Times bestseller author of The Seven Year Slip comes the next sparkling, magical book about a hitmaking songwriter and a bitter musician who share a startling and inexplicable connection that they’ll do anything to shake. It is the perfect read for fans of magical realism, strong female leads, and a focus on the topic of music.
The book’s synopsis;
Joni Lark is living the dream. She’s one of the most coveted songwriters in LA…and she can’t seem to write. There’s an emptiness inside her, and nothing seems to fill it.
When she returns to her hometown of Vienna Shores, North Carolina, she hopes that the sand, the surf, and the concerts at The Revelry, her family’s music venue, will spark her inspiration. But when she gets there, nothing is how she left it. Her best friend is avoiding her, her mother’s memories are fading fast, and The Revelry is closing.
How can she think about writing her next song when everything is changing without her?
Until she hears it. A melody in her head, lyric-less and half-formed, and an alluring and addictive voice to go with it—belonging, apparently, to a wry musician with hangups of his own.
Surely, he’s a figment of her overworked imagination.
But then the very real man attached to the voice shows up in Vienna Shores. He’s aggravating and gruff on the outside—nothing like the sweet, funny voice in Joni’s head—and he has a plan:
They’ll finish the song haunting them both, break their connection, and hope they don’t risk their hearts in the process.
Because that song stuck in their heads? Maybe it’s there for a reason.
Title: The End of Summer
Author: K.J. Micciche
Publisher: Cabaret Books LLC
Publication Date: 17th of June, 2025
Pages: 382
From the author of The Guest Book comes her latest novel, and a perfect summer read about an enemies to partners in crime romance that gives very Magic Mike vibes! It is an ideal read for fans of thought-provoking, powerful, and emotional tales, laugh-out-loud moments, and wholesome characters.
The book’s synopsis;
Gretchen Andrews is a homegrown Cape Cod lifer. She’s just a regular girl studying to be a teacher, making ends meet by working as a waitress at the Diamond Excelsior Resort.
At least, that was the case before Memorial Day weekend.
Brady Hawthorne is the Assistant Manager at the Diamond Excelsior’s main restaurant. That is, until Gretchen comes along and takes down his summer plans in one fell swoop. Lesson learned: Never ask a girl who can’t walk in heels to be your lead server in private dining…unless you want to lose your job when she inevitably dumps a tray of hot seafood in a celebrity’s lap.
Now, in the height of tourist season, Gretchen and Brady find themselves wageless with mounting bills and few options for traditional employment. As the job search becomes dire, Gretchen seizes an opportunity working at the Cape’s premier, underground bachelorette-party destination, a place where she never expects to find the boss who fired her wearing next to nothing while dollars rain down around him, Niagara-style.
When the owner skips town and leaves Gretchen to manage the (probably illegal) operation for the unforeseeable future, she enlists help from the only person she knows who understands that desperate times call for desperate measures. Gretchen and Brady begrudgingly bump and grind their way from enemies to partners-in-crime in a matter of weeks. Gretchen puts it all on the line – her family, her new love interest, and her professional future – by two-stepping into a spotlight that was never meant for her.
Genre – Thriller and Mystery Books
Title: The Rushworth Family Plot
Series: Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney (4)
Author: Claudia Gray
Publisher: Vintage
Publication Date: 17th of June, 2025
Pages: 336
The arrival of the fourth book in the Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney Mystery series, and the return of the amateur sleuths who find themselves caught up in the whirlwind of the London Season, and in a murderous scheme involving the family of Edmund and Fanny Bertram. It is an ideal read for fans of Jane Austen’s novel, Mansfield Park, 19th-century murder mysteries, and slow-burn romance sub-plots.
The book’s synopsis;
Jonathan Darcy and Juliet Tilney understand each other perfectly; it’s a pity their families do not. A series of misunderstandings, misplaced pride, and—indeed—prejudice, has led their parents to deem the pair unsuited to wed. Now, with the Season approaching, Juliet’s grandfather, General Tilney, has sent her to London with a new wardrobe and orders to prove herself worthy of someone better than the snobby Darcys.
Meanwhile, Jonathan has been forced to accept an invitation to stay in town with old friends Edmund and Fanny Bertram at the house of Edmund’s brother, Sir Thomas. Oblivious to and undesiring of female attention outside of Juliet’s, Jonathan is at risk of being ensnared by Caroline Bingley’s previously rebuffed plans to make herself—or her daughter—mistress of Pemberley.
But when Mr. Rushworth, the former husband of Edmund’s sister Maria, is discovered dead in his home, Jonathan and Juliet find themselves with problems far weightier than the marriage market. In one of the greatest scandals of its day, Maria abandoned her new husband in favour of the notorious rake Henry Crawford, and when he wouldn’t marry her, she was forced to flee to the continent in disgrace.
Now Maria is back, accompanied by a daughter she claims Mr. Rushworth fathered after their divorce—and who he wrote into his will just before his death. To spare Edmund and Fanny further social shame, Jonathan and Juliet must unmask a killer before the drama surrounding the Rushworth family fortune claims another victim.
Title: Fox
Author: Joyce Carol Oates
Publisher: Hogarth
Publication Date: 17th of June, 2025
Pages: 672
From one of America’s greatest living writers comes a spellbinding novel of literary and psychological suspense about the dark secrets that surface after the shocking disappearance of a charismatic, mercurial teacher at an elite boarding school. It is a hypnotic, eerie, and provoking tale of crime and complicity, revenge and restitution. The perfect read for fans of stories that explore the darkest corners of the human psyche and interweave multiple points of view.
The book’s synopsis;
Who is Francis Fox? A charming English teacher new to the idyllic Langhorne Academy, Fox beguiles many of his students, their parents, and his colleagues at the elite boarding school, while leaving others wondering where he came from and why his biography is so enigmatic. When two brothers discover Fox’s car half-submerged in a pond in a local nature preserve and parts of an unidentified body strewn about the nearby woods, the entire community, including Detective Horace Zwender and his deputy, begins to ask disturbing questions about Francis Fox and who he might really be.
Title: Don’t Open Your Eyes
Author: Liv Constantine
Publisher: Bantam
Publication Date: 17th of June, 2025
Pages: 352
From the New York Times bestselling author of the Reese’s Book Club Pick ‘The Last Mrs Parrish’ comes a twisted psychological thriller about a woman who is tormented by nightmarish visions of her future that start to come true. It is an ideal read for fans of slow-paced narratives, shocking revelations, multiple points of view and timelines, and action-packed finales.
The book’s synopsis;
Annabelle has everything she’s ever wanted. A devoted husband, two wonderful daughters, and a career she loves. She couldn’t be happier. So why is she suddenly plagued by disturbing dreams of a future where she hates her husband and her daughters’ lives are at risk? At first, she chalks the dreams up to an overactive imagination. But when details from her dreams, details she couldn’t possibly have predicted, begin to materialize, she realizes these aren’t just dreams but rather premonitions of a terrifying future. They all point to a singular choice, an unknown moment that holds Annabelle’s life in the balance.
Then Annabelle has a dream that her daughter, Scarlett, is in immediate danger. Someone wants Scarlett dead and Annabelle has no idea who or why. Suddenly, every choice she makes is fraught with peril, with no inkling of which move could bring this terrifying vision to life. As her present life starts to collide with the future in her dreams, she wrestles with how much control she really has over her destiny and whether or not she can change what is meant to be.
Conclusion
The third week of June features twelve exciting new book releases that explore dark and gritty worlds, fairytale retellings, hilarious and action-packed adventures, found family tropes, and heartwarming and likeable characters for the fantasy romance genres.
For the fiction and historical fiction genres, we have multiple points of view, the essence of small-town life, well-developed characters, stories of hope and human resilience, historical retellings of characters from The Wizard of Oz, stories of the Great Depression, the WWII era, tales of resilience, determination, and vulnerability, and themes of family, loss, grief, love, and survival.
For the romance genre, we have enemies-to-friends-to-lovers and slow-burn romances, magical realism, strong female leads, a love of music, thought-provoking and emotional tales, laugh-out-loud moments, and wholesome characters.
Lastly, we have the thriller and mystery genre, which includes 19th-century murder mysteries, slow-burn romance subplots, stories that explore the darkest corners of the human psyche, provocative tales of crime and complicity, slow-paced narratives, shocking revelations, multiple points of view and timelines, and action-packed finales.
Stay tuned, as I will post my following article next week about the latest 2025 book releases for the final week of June’s monthly line-up. Additionally, if you’re interested in more book-related articles, check out my book section page for reviews, recommendations, details and discussions.
