5 Anticipated Reads Coming in 2025

Where we discuss what we're most excited about in the coming new year

Jan 07, 2025

Happy New Year, readers! As I am gearing up to begin 2025 with fresh perspectives, new goals, and happy beginnings, I can’t help but think about the latest releases coming this year. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to our 2024 in Books episode on The Novel Tea, I mentioned that 2025 was going to be my year of re-reading comfort books… but I may have spoken too soon because I will be reading some of these books mentioned in this newsletter as soon as I get my hands on them!

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Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

Release Date: August, 28th, 2025

R.F. Kuang is back to fantasy and working in the mode that she, as an accomplished scholar, absolutely dominates: dark academia. And this time, it’s a dark academia love story. Between two scholars who have to go to hell to save their adviser’s soul. We do not deserve her.1

Shruti and I loved Yellowface and cannot wait to be enveloped in the unique magic of R.F Kuang.

Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Release Date: March 4th, 2025

In Dream Count, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explores the lives of four women—Chiamaka, Zikora, Omelogor, and Kadiatou—navigating love, identity, and regret in a world shaped by cultural norms and personal choices. Set during the COVID-19 pandemic, the novel seamlessly weaves themes of isolation, resilience, and interconnectedness. It is a deeply introspective and beautifully rendered work of contemporary fiction.2

After discussing Half of A Yellow Sun earlier on The Novel Tea Podcast (listen here), I have been itching to read more of Adichie’s work. This summary has me hooked onto the perfect opportunity to explore more of her writing.

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

Release Date: March 4th, 2025

Sara has just landed at LAX, returning home from a conference abroad, when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside and inform her that she will soon commit a crime. Using data from her dreams, the RAA’s algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk of harming the person she loves most: her husband. For his safety, she must be kept under observation for twenty-one days.
The agents transfer Sara to a retention center, where she is held with other dreamers, all of them women trying to prove their innocence from different crimes. With every deviation from the strict and ever-shifting rules of the facility, their stay is extended. Months pass and Sara seems no closer to release. Then one day, a new resident arrives, disrupting the order of the facility and leading Sara on a collision course with the very companies that have deprived her of her freedom.3

In Season 4 of The Novel Tea, Shruti and I covered The Other Americans by Laila Lalami (listen here). I loved Lalami’s writing so much I immediately picked up Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits which I dived deeper into in a newsletter. The context of The Dream Hotel seems so different than her other books, I am so intrigued to see what it has in store.

Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits

Shruti & Neha

October 15, 2024

Read full story

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by Victoria E. Schwab

Release Date: June 10th, 2025

Santo Domingo de la Calzada, 1532.
London, 1837.
Boston, 2019.
Three young women, their bodies planted in the same soil, their stories tangling like roots.
One grows high, and one grows deep, and one grows wild.4

I was a huge fan of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue when it first came out, and the summary of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil gives me a similar atmosphere I am bound to enjoy.

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

Release Date: September 23rd, 2025

no cover art has been expressed

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is the sweeping tale of two young people, abroad in the United States and at home in India, navigating the many forces that shape their lives: country, class, race, history, and the complicated bonds that link one generation to the next. A love story, a family saga, and a rich novel of ideas, it is the most ambitious and accomplished work yet by one of our greatest novelists.5

Shruti and I discussed The Inheritance of Loss in Season 4 of The Novel Tea (listen here), and were taken away by Desai’s storytelling abilities. During the episode, we wondered why this Booker Prize award winner hadn’t written more books since its release in 2006. Almost 20 years later, she has announced her new book, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, and we are hoping the long wait will be worth it!

-Neha

Season 5 is Coming!

Although The Novel Tea podcast is currently on hiatus, we are working hard to get Season 5 ready for you in the meantime. Our theme is a wild card, and we are so excited to share it with you soon! We are dropping hints and Easter Eggs on what our theme is on our Instagram page, so check it out here!