2025 has been an amazing year for book releases, and the final Tuesday in September saw booksellers dealing with a perfect storm of huge releases (including new releases from Trent Dalton, Richard Osman, Philippa Gregory, Benjamin Stevenson and Craig Silvey) all arriving and needing to be unpacked for eager readers in one day.
To all those bookshop employees who have ruined their cuticles scrabbling around in those boxes, we salute you. We also hope this will also serve as a friendly reminder to all you bookworms out there that this is the busiest time in bookselling and publishing, with all the biggest releases vying to be the book shaped parcels under your Christmas tree.
If you don’t know what to ask Santa for, however, The AU Books Team has your back. We’ve got quirky, cosy fantasy; horror books to help you keep spooky season going that little bit longer; historical fiction (both the normal kind and with magic); love; mystery; and those big concept books that give big brain energy vibes. Something for everyone, really.
Let’s get into it!
October
Heap Earth Upon It by Chloe Michelle Howarth
Verve Books | Pub Date: 29 October 2025 | Order HERE
Simon: Heap Earth Upon It follows the story of the orphaned O’Leary siblings as they embark upon a fresh start in the rural Irish village of Ballycrea. Their arrival is met with suspicion from most of the locals, with the exception of their well-respected neighbours, Bill and Betty Nevan. Though for one of the siblings, this new friendship develops into something much more dynamic and dangerous.
It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Irish writers and their work; and Heaps Earth Upon It sounds entirely my kind of thing, with its exploration of rural life in mid-century Ireland and the claustrophobia of small village life. Through in the promise of a gothic undertones, tangled complicated relationships and you’re onto a winner (though probably a heart wrenching one).
Bog Queen by Anna North
Orion Books | Pub Date: 14 October 2025 | Order HERE
Emily: In 2018, a young forensic scientist, homesick and adrift in the North of England, is heading to a coroner’s office to identify a body. But this body, found in a moss-layered bog, is not like any Agnes has ever seen: its bones prove it was buried more than two thousand years ago, yet it is almost completely preserved.
The body draws the attention of numerous groups with competing interests: archaeologists desperate to study the bog, those who want to profit from the land’s resources, a group of neo-pagans who demand the body be returned to its resting place. And underfoot, all along, there’s the land itself: a teeming colony of moss, with its own dark stories to tell.
As Agnes becomes tangled in controversies stirred by her own discovery, she must face the deep history of what she has unearthed. Equally alive to post-Brexit England and Europe at the dawn of the Roman era, Bog Queen connects across time two young women learning to harness their strange strengths in a rich, raw landscape more mysterious than either can imagine.
Eternal Ruin by Tigest Girma
Lothian Children’s Books | Pub Date: 28 October 2025 | Order HERE
Jodie: Like all ruinous things, he came from the abyss. Kidan Adane has finally embraced her darkness. She’s killed without remorse, broken Uxlay University’s most sacred law by inviting elusive rogue vampires, the Nefrasi, into their campus, and made a truce with the one vampire she swore she’d never trust – Susenyos Sagad.
Trapped with a violently unstable vampire and reeling from her sister’s return, Kidan wields her anger like a weapon. She vows to master her house and protect the sacred artefact hidden within, even if it means forging an alliance with the depraved leader of the Nefrasi, Samson Sagad – and betraying Susenyos in the process.
When Kidan stumbles across a dangerous new philosophical text, it seems to hold the answers she seeks and promises the very thing she has lost: control. As the dark pages consume her, Kidan realises no soul at Uxlay is trustworthy – least of all Susenyos. For Kidan and Susenyos, the lines of loathing and attraction may blur, but the quest for power rules them both. And neither is willing to surrender.
As devastating secrets resurface from the past, Kidan and her sister, June, must finally confront each other and take their rightful places in the looming war.
The Tangled Web by Tea Cooper
Harlequin Books | Pub Date: 28 October 2025 | Order HERE
Emily: The sudden death of a beloved brother leads a young woman on a quest to find a missing boy and into a tangled web of mystery, blood and fear.
When Viola’ Oswald’s beloved brother Sebastian dies of a hereditary blood disease, Viola suspects her stepfather, prestigious surgeon Elias Sinclair, has used Sebastian’s illness to enhance his reputation. But Viola has no proof until she discovers a letter within the pages of Sebastian’s favourite book – Lamb’s Tales of Shakespeare. A letter that sends a determined Viola, on a journey to the country town of Maitland to find a homeless boy who suffered at her stepfather’s hands and can provide the proof she needs.
Once there, Viola finds help from an independent local seamstress and a clever lawyers’ clerk, as well as a ragtag bunch of urchins. As the dark story unfolds it becomes clear that the missing boy’s fate is intertwined with her own and that terrible cruelties are being committed by her stepfather in the name of medical advancement.Viola fears for her mother, the child she is about to birth and all the homeless boys caught up in a terrifying web of deceit and death. Will she find the evidence to bring her stepfather to justice in time to save them?
Hazelthorn by C.G. Drews
Hodder Children’s Books | Pub Date: 28 October 2025 | Order HERE
Jodie: Knives Out meets Belladonna in this gorgeously gothic queer YA horror and dark romance about an inherited estate, murderous relatives, and a garden with a taste for blood, from the New York Times bestselling author of Don’t Let the Forest In and The Boy Who Steals Houses.
Evander has lived like a ghost in the forgotten corners of the Hazelthorn estate ever since he was taken in by his reclusive billionaire guardian. He can never leave, he can never go in the gardens and he can never be alone with Laurie, the boy who tried to kill him seven years ago.
But when his guardian is murdered and Evander inherits Hazelthorn, Laurie may be the only one who can help him find the killer.As dark secrets unravel, moss bleeds though the walls, poisonous mushrooms flourish beneath the floorboards, and Evander must discover what he’s really inherited before Hazelthorn’s garden demands to be fed.
The Transformations by Andrew Pippos
Picador Australia |Pub Date: 28 October 2025 | Order HERE
Simon: Andrew Pippos’ debut novel Lucky’s was one of my favourite books of 2020; so his second The Transformations is high on my most anticipated list. This time he’s switching the fading lino of a franchise restaurant to the faded type and ink of a print newspaper newsroom. The novel promises to be, not only a portrait of a vanishing world, but also a good ol’ love story for the ages. He’s a world-weary subeditor, she’s an unorthodox and self-assured reporter. It has all the trappings of a romantic comedy; but Pippos takes this in a different direction.
The Transformations is a story about love, but it’s also all about stories – the ones we tell ourselves, the ones we tell others, and the ones we used to read off the newspaper page. One of Lucky’s great strengths was its stellar supporting cast of characters; and I can’t wait to meet George, Cassandra, and whoever else comes along for the journey.
November
Bread of Angels by Patti Smith
Bloomsbury | Pub Date: 4 November 2025 | Order HERE
Simon: The publication of a new Patti Smith memoir has become a bit of an event on the literary calendar. The one that started it all, Just Kids, won the National Book Award in the US. Bread of Angels is billed as the most intimate of Smith’s memoirs, and sees Smith takes readers back to her childhood and her teenage years, to the period of time when art, music, and romance begin to take hold in her life and imagination. It’s the time when Rimbaud and Dylan start to emerge as creative heroes and it’s the time when she starts writing poetry and then lyrics. It also explores her relationship and life with husband Fred Sonic Smith; and how she rebuilt her life and re-found her creativity.
Bread of Angels offers a rare insight into the life and creative mind of one of American music’s most iconic artists; one who just also happens to be equally adept at prose and the visual arts. I’ve had this one pre-ordered for months (and slightly concerned I’ve managed to pre-order it more than once) – so it’s safe to say I’m keen for this one to land on my doorstep as soon as possible.
If Wishes Were Retail by Auston Habershaw
Tachyon Publications | Pub date: 1 November 2025 | Order HERE
Jess: A pop-up at the local mall meets Aladdin in this cosy, chaotic, and deeply funny debut novel where an enterprising young woman and a clueless genie just try to make a living.
Alex Delmore needs a miracle. She wants out of her dead-end suburban town, but her parents are broke and NYU seems like a distant dream. Good thing there’s a genie in town – and he’s hiring at the Wellspring Mall.
It’d help if the Jinn-formerly-of-the-Ring-of-Khorad knew even one thing about 21st-century America. It’d help if he weren’t at least as stubborn as Alex. It’d really help if her brother didn’t sell her out to her conspiracy theory-loving, gnome-hating dad.
When Alex and the genie set up their wishing kiosk, they face seemingly-endless setbacks. The mall is failing and management will not stop interfering on behalf of their big-box tenants. But when the wishing biz might start working, the biggest problem of all remains: People are really terrible at wishing.
Swallow by Alexandria Burnham
WestWords | Pub Date: 1 November 2025 | Order HERE
Emily: The true story of William Swallow – Australian convict and the last man put on trial for piracy in an English court.
It’s 1829 and Swallow has been sent to Van Diemen’s Land – for the second time. He is sentenced to die in the hell-hole known as Sarah Island. But, he has other ideas!
On the journey from Hobart to his final prison, he rallies his fellow convicts and leads them to mutiny. Bruised by the betrayal of John, a fellow convict, friend, and lover, William plans to sail back home to England. Back to his wife Susannah and their young children.
At Cafe 64 by Shaeden Berry
Echo Books | Pub Date: 4 November 2025 | Order HERE
Emily: What does it mean to be a victim? Without any warning, Justin Kowalski drives his vehicle across a line of traffic and through the front wall of Cafe 64, killing himself and three other people – and taking the reasons for this shocking act to the grave. Unable to locate any evidence of criminal behaviour or mental illness in Justin’s past, and with no one left to prosecute, the police have no choice but to label it ‘an isolated incident’.
Almost two years later, three women walk into a meeting being held by the ‘Victims of the Cafe 64 Tragedy’ support group. A fiancée left behind. Maddie, consumed with an all-encompassing rage, on a desperate hunt for the truth. A sister hiding in the shadows. Emily, wracked by guilt, being eaten from the inside out by the secrets she keeps. A bystander who refuses to look back. Flo, with her mask of optimism firmly in place, who insists to anyone who will listen that she is fine.
When these three come together, the fallout will rock the foundations of their shaky, precarious lives, forcing them to confront the truths, lies and questions that surround that deadly day at Cafe 64. Can any horrific event truly exist in isolation? How do we cope when the nature of our loss is not so cut and dried? In the aftermath of a tragic event, how do we define a victim – who do we allow to grieve, what are we allowed to grieve, and where do we place blame?
There is no Anti Memetics Division by qntm
Del Rey | Pub date: 18 November 2025 | Order HERE
Jess: Mind-bending science fiction about antimemes: ideas that attack memory, identity, and the fabric of reality itself. An antimeme is an entity with self-censoring properties. Some are benign; but others, less so…
These entities can feed on your most cherished memories, the things that make you you – and you’ll never even know anything changed. And they aren’t just feeding on us. They’re invading. But how do you contain something you can’t record or remember? How do you fight against an enemy with effortless, perfect camouflage, when you can never even know that you’re at war?
Welcome to the Antimemetics Division… No, this is not your first day!
A Resistance of Witches by Morgan Ryan
Random House Publishing | Pub Date: 11 November 2025 | Order HERE
Emily: 1940, and war rages across Europe. The future looks bleak. But now, emerging from the shadows, the Royal Academy of Witches offers its help. And so it is tasked with finding an ancient artefact that, were it to fall into Nazi hands, would help Hitler fulfil his twisted Aryan dream . . .
Stubborn, plain-spoken and from an unimpressive family, Lydia Polk never expected to be chosen to work under Isadora Goode, the Grand Mistress of the Royal Academy of Witches.
Now, three years into her apprenticeship, and with Hitler’s armies rampaging across Europe, the Witches of Britain have joined the war effort – but not without some resistance from within, the British government having originally forced the witches into hiding.
As Lydia’s power grows, she too joins the cause, tracking down magical relics in order to keep them out of Nazi hands. But a Nazi witch infiltrates the Academy with heart-breaking consequences and suddenly Lydia’s mission becomes even more urgent . . . Somewhere out there, hidden amidst the chaos of war, is the Grimorium Bellum – an ancient book that Hitler craves, a book so steeped in dark magic that it has the power to wipe out civilisations – an artefact that Lydia must find and secure at all costs.
Dropped into the heart of Occupied France, Lydia finds allies in Rebecca Gagne, a French resistance fighter with a secret, and Henry Boudreaux, a Haitian-American art historian who seems to possess a little magic of his own. But tracking down this book is only half the battle – for the Grimorium Bellum seems to have a dark agenda all of its own . . .
Snake-Eater by T. Kingfisher
Titan Books | Pub Date: 11 November 2025 | Order HERE
Jodie: When Selena travels to the remote desert town of Quartz Creek in search of her estranged Aunt Amelia, she is desperate and short of options. Fleeing an unhappy marriage, she has exactly twenty-seven dollars to her name, and her only friend in the world is her dog, Copper.
On arrival, Selena learns Amelia is dead. But the inhabitants of Quartz Creek are only too happy to have a new resident. Out of money and ideas, Selena sees no harm staying in her aunt’s lovely house for a few weeks, tending to her garden and enjoying the strange, desolate beauty of the desert. The people are odd, but friendly, and eager to help Selena settle into her new home.
But Quartz Creek’s inhabitants share their town with others, old gods and spirits whose claim to the land long predates their human neighbours. Selena finds herself pursued by disturbing apparitions, visitations that come in the night and seem to want something from her. Aunt Amelia owed a debt. Now her god has come to collect.
Home to the Heart Country by Libby Iriks
HarperCollins | Pub Date: 25 November 2025 | Order HERE
Emily: Beth dreams of putting down roots and finding a place to belong, and with a steady job in Townsville, she’s on her way to achieving that dream. But when the cute little cottage she’s rented for the past four years is put on the market, the stability she’s always craved is threatened.
News of a life-changing inheritance takes her across the country to a small town in Western Australia, where she discovers that the rundown old house her aunt left her might just be her saving grace. With plans to sell it so she can buy her beloved cottage, she hires Noah, a farmer-slash-wannabe-renovator, to help fix it up. But thanks to her self-preserving tendencies, she’s otherwise determined to keep her distance from everyone in town.
Despite her best efforts, Beth starts to form meaningful connections, and in Noah, she discovers a man who sees beyond her awkward shyness to the woman she is on the inside. Then, just as she finally feels at home in Karlup, she uncovers a shocking family truth that unravels her sense of identify and forces her to re-evaluate her biggest dreams and deepest desires.
Better than the Real Thing by Brooke Crawford
HarperCollins | Pub Date: 25 November 2025 | Order HERE
Emily: Melbourne teacher Netta Phillips is staring down the barrel of her fortieth birthday with her relationship in the bin, months of negative pregnancy tests and a mortgage she can’t afford. Things really aren’t going to plan.
When she finds the childhood diary of celebrity musician Morrison ‘Mo’ Maplestone, he offers to pay her to personally return it to him in London. Fiercely private, Mo’s desperate to keep its darks contents hidden from the tabloids. With his career already on life support and his secret charity in jeopardy things are messy enough, but it’s worse than that – the diary’s secrets would shatter his beloved younger brother’s world.
For Netta, the money would solve everything. She could keep her apartment and try assisted conception treatments; after all, the clock’s ticking. But Netta can’t return to the UK. Not for anything.
Then necessity bites. Netta reluctantly accepts Mo’s offer and things quickly become more complicated for them both. There’s paparazzi to contend with, a fake date that feels all-too-real and a Christmas Day confession that changes everything.
Amongst the chaos, Netta and Mo find connection, and discover that facing up to the past might be the only way to find the real thing with each other. Or maybe something even better than the real thing…
December
Best Offer Wins by Marisha Kashino
Penguin | Pub Date: 2 December 2025 | Order HERE
Simon: Best Offer Wins promises to do for the housing market what Yellowface did for publishing. From Marisa Kashino, Best Offer Wins is a darkly funny domestic thriller set in the cutthroat world of real estate; it follows Margo who’s deep into an eighteen month stint of house-hunting hell. She’s questioning her life choices, wondering how it’s all got so out of control, but then the perfect house comes onto the market; and we’re all left wondering how far do you go to bag your ideal home?
Looking at some of the early praise, readers can expect plenty of twists; a healthy dose of darkly satirical humour and plenty of second hand cringe to get you turning those pages. It also looks to be a deftly plotted and captivating thriller. Perfect for that post Christmas lull (or to escape from the pre Christmas madness).
Making History by K.J. Parker
Tor Books | Pub Date: 16 December 2025 | Order HERE
Jess: In K. J. Parker‘s new whip-smart dark fantasy, a group of scholars must do the impossible for a ruthless king. The cost of refusal, of course, is death.
Seeking war with his neighbor, the tyrannical ruler of Aelia convenes several of his kingdom’s professors for a chat. First Citizen Gyges only just invaded Aelia a few years back and, naturally, his public image can’t take the hit of another unjustified assault.
His totally sane solution? Simple, really. These scholars must construct a fake ancient city from scratch to verify Gyges’s apocryphal claims. Now these academics must put their heads together to make history. Because if they don’t, they’ll lose their heads altogether.
Got a book on your wish list that you didn’t see here? Maybe we don’t know about it.
Remember, the best gift you can give your favourite author is sharing how much you love their books, so don’t forget to tell your friends and family, recommend it to your book club, ask your local library to add it to the collection, post about it on social media, or even just get spotted reading it out in public. It all helps!
Thanks to Simon Clark, Jess Gately and Jodie Sloan for their contributions to this article.
