The Baroness’ Choices of New Books Publishing This Week
2025, Week 23’s New Books
My choices for this week include Romance, Young Adult Romantic Fantasies, Romantic Comedy, Young Adult Romance, Paranormal Romance, Thriller, Young Adult Romantic Comedy, Middle Grade Fantasy Adventure, and Cozy Culinary Mystery.
It’s summertime—or at least that is what the weatherman is saying. Do you have kids who are out on summer break? Reading is an excellent plan for the summer, and the library offers numerous programs to complement its extensive collection of books. You know, in case the little ones need something to do.
I have quite a few romances on this list, as well as a book for middle graders. I hope that there is a book here for everyone. Jen and I both have a book on our TBRs from this list.
Here are my choices for New Books Publishing Week 23 of 2025!
Family and Other Calamities by Leslie Gray Streeter
Publication Date: June 1, 2025
Genre: Romance
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A successful journalist returns to her hometown just as her biggest mistake becomes headline news in this vibrant, funny, and heartfelt novel about facing the past, and its secrets, head-on.
Entertainment journalist Dawn Roberts has a lot to work through: a widow’s grief, betrayals of family and friends, and scandals that almost tanked her reputation. Not that Dawn dwells on the past. Well, hardly. When she returns to Baltimore with her husband’s ashes, she can’t avoid it. In fact, she’s diving into decades of backstabbing and treachery for her first trip home in years.
She’s looking at you, Joe Perkins. Her former mentor, whose explosive exposé about big-city corruption is being turned into a slanderous movie, is also back in town. The villain of the piece? Dawn. The good news is that this could all be a chance to reset―heal family wounds, admit to her own mistakes, and maybe even reconnect with the one who got away. Oh, and get even with Joe any way she can.
With the surprising help of an up-and-coming journalist and a legendary R & B diva, Dawn will finally set the record straight. Returning home might just be the biggest story in Dawn’s life, a fresh start―and happy ending―she never expected.
A Forgery of Fate by Elizabeth Lim
Publication Date: June 3, 2025
Genre: Young Adult Romantic Fantasy
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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.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Six Crimson Cranes!
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. . . .
Battle of the Bookstores by Ali Brady
Publication Date: June 3, 2025
Genre: Romantic Comedy
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A LibraryReads Pick
Rivalry and romance spark when two bookstore managers who are opposites in every way find themselves competing for the same promotion.
Despite managing bookstores on the same Boston street, Josie Klein and Ryan Lawson have never interacted much—Josie’s store focuses on serious literature, and Ryan’s sells romance only. But when the new owner of both stores decides to combine them, the two are thrust into direct competition. Only one manager will be left standing, decided by who turns the most profit over the summer.
Efficient and detail-oriented Josie instantly clashes with easygoing and disorganized Ryan. Their competing events and contrasting styles lead to more than just frustration—the sparks between them might just set the whole store on fire. Their only solace during this chaos is the friendship they’ve each struck up with an anonymous friend in an online book forum. Little do they know they’re actually chatting with each other.
As their rivalry heats up in real life, their online relationship grows, and when the walls between their stores come tumbling down, Josie and Ryan realize not all’s fair in love and war. And maybe, if they’re lucky, happily ever afters aren’t just for the books.
Heir of Storms by Lauryn Hamilton Murray
Storm Weaver #1
Publication Date: June 3, 2025
Genre: Young Adult Romantic Fantasy
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Red Queen meets Shadow and Bone in this explosive start to a YA romantasy trilogy about dangerous magic, forbidden love, and a cut-throat competition for the throne in an empire where crowns are not inherited — they’re won.
The very day Blaze came into the world, she almost drowned it. 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.
I’ll Pretend You’re Mine by Tashie Bhuiyan
Publication Date: June 3, 2025
Genre: Young Adult Romance
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Summer Ali has been making a name for herself in the music industry for years, slowly but surely climbing the charts—but the world doesn’t know her stage parents are the ones who molded her entire public persona. Finally eighteen, Summer breaks free of their control and focuses on creating her own path.
Upon running into writer’s block, Summer grows eager to take any opportunity to shake things up—even if it means agreeing to a PR stunt with child-actor-turned-playboy, Jules Moradi, famous for his tabloid escapades.
At first, Jules keeps his distance, maintaining professional boundaries. But as time passes, his walls come down, and Summer uncovers who he is beyond his reputation, and it’s someone more like her than she ever realized. As the lines blur between fake and real, Summer begins questioning who she is and what she wants—and if her dreams are worth sacrificing her heart.
It Takes a Psychic by Jayne Castle
Harmony #18
Publication Date: June 3, 2025
Genre: Paranormal Romance
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Two unlikely allies search for the secrets of their pasts while on the run within the Alien world of Harmony in the thrilling new novel by New York Times bestselling author Jayne Castle.
Leona Griffin is at the height of her career as a para-archeologist thanks to a recent Underworld discovery. Her high profile attracts the attention of an organization of elite, secretive collectors. They want her to authenticate the artifacts that aspiring members submit as evidence to join their group. The ceremony takes place at a glittering reception where Leona is shocked to discover that one of the relics is a powerful Old-World object known as Pandora’s Box. But she’s not the only one interested in that artifact.
Oliver Rancourt, a man with a unique talent—they say you never see him coming—is also there. Leona knows she must not underestimate him. Attempting to make a discreet exit, she stumbles over the body of a waiter wearing the emblem of a dangerous cult. Before she can alert authorities, a police raid sends the reception into chaos. To avoid being arrested, Leona slips away with Oliver—a risky decision that gets her fired.
Now forced to work together, Leona and Oliver pursue an investigation that leads them to the town of Lost Creek where the locals are obsessed with a chilling legend involving a long-dead cult leader and illicit paranormal experiments. But Leona knows the real danger may be the irresistible attraction between herself and Oliver.
Lie in the Tide by Holly Danvers
Little White Lies #1
Publication Date: June 3, 2025
Genre: Domestic Thriller
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Theirs is a reunion . . . to die for! Four friends are meeting at a beautiful Cape Cod beach house for a long overdue reunion. But before the trip is over, one of them will wind up dead . . . Perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty and Lucy Foley.
It’s been twenty years since Mori, Avery, Remi and Calista last saw each other. As they reconnect on Cape Cod to celebrate Calista’s fortieth birthday, each one hides a painful and devastating secret.
Former introvert Mori is now a bestselling erotica author. She’s more successful than she ever dreamed, and yet shamefully on the cusp of divorce number three.
Remi’s a yoga instructor, blissfully married to her high school sweetheart. On this trip, she’s concealing her pregnancy – and the baby’s paternity.
Quiet Avery is a farm wife living in Iowa. Her life doesn’t have the scandals of her friends’. But she does have a house full of kids she fears she’ll never see again . . .
And Calista, the quintessential suburban mom and high school English teacher, is harboring the biggest secret of all.
These four women are about to learn that one little white lie could kill more than just their friendship . . .
Lie in the Tide is an edge-of-your-seat suspense thriller that digs deep into those little white lies that have the potential to turn deadly.
Never Thought I’d End Up Here by Ann Liang
Publication Date: June 3, 2025
Genre: Young Adult Romantic Comedy
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From the author of the instant New York Times bestseller I Hope This Doesn’t Find You comes another hilarious and romantic romcom, this time following a former model determined to get revenge on the boy who ruined her life.
Leah Zhang has just ruined her cousin’s wedding. She didn’t mean to wish the bride a depressing marriage and poor health, but she’s forgotten most of her Mandarin. Her parents stage an intervention: Leah will be sent on a 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 cynical, sarcastic Cyrus Sui, who’s somehow only gotten more annoyingly handsome since the day he told a lie that ruined her life.
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.
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.
The Beautiful Maddening by Shea Ernshaw
Publication Date: June 3, 2025
Genre: Young Adult Romantic Fantasy
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From #1 New York Times bestselling author Shea Ernshaw comes a haunting romantic contemporary fantasy about a teen navigating her family’s love curse that blooms with their enchanted tulips every year.
Seventeen year-old Lark Goode wants only one thing: to escape her small town of Cutwater and the history of her family name. It’s a history that began during the Dutch tulip mania of 1636, when Lark’s ancestor stole the last remaining tulip bulbs and fled to America. But when the tulips bloomed on American soil, madness sprouted from their snowy white petals.
The madness was love.
Now, generations later, the Goodes remain cursed—the unnatural flowers outside their home causing locals to fall helplessly in love with anyone carrying Goode blood in their veins. While her brother embraces the strange power, Lark wants nothing more than to be free from it.
But when she meets a boy who seems unaffected by the family curse, Lark finds herself falling headlong into a feeling she’s spent her whole life trying to avoid. Yet, all curses and magic come with a price, and the town of Cutwater soon sinks into a dangerous sickness tied to Lark and the ill-fated tulips.
To save the town, Lark will need to sacrifice everything—even true love—to break the spell. Because in the Goode family, love has a way of destroying everything.
The Forest in the Sky by Pari Thomson
Greenwild #3
Publication Date: June 3, 2025
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy Adventure
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The Secret Garden meets A Wrinkle in Time in the spellbinding final book of the New York Times-bestselling Greenwild trilogy.
This is Daisy Thistledown’s greatest battle yet.
With the support of the Iffenwilders and their mighty water magic, Daisy and her new friend Max are finally setting off to rescue the Botanists―including Daisy’s mother―imprisoned in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. But when an unexpected attack sends the rescue mission spinning off course, Daisy finds herself confronting danger alone. With Max shipwrecked on a distant shore, her only hope is to find Amazeria: a wild and wondrous pocket of the Greenwild, hidden in the heart of the ancient forest. But time is running out―and with every passing day, the terrible Reaper King is drawing closer.
In the shadows of the great rainforest, it’s impossible to know who to trust. Daisy and her friends must draw on every ounce of courage they have to fight for Daisy’s Ma, for the Greenwild, and for everything they hold most dear.
Hops and Homicide by Wendy Meadows
Cherry’s Cozy Capers #4
Publication Date: June 5, 2025
Genre: Cozy Culinary Mystery
Murder’s on tap—and so is trouble.
After a messy past and a tragic fire, Cherry Brewster is ready to rebuild—her brewery, her peace of mind, and maybe even her future. But just as her small-town taproom starts pouring promise again, a rival’s death at a glamorous beer launch threatens to derail it all. Worse? Cherry’s the one who tried to save him… and now she’s the prime suspect.
Between shady distribution deals, an ex-lover turned felon with unfinished business, and a hidden identity she thought was buried for good, Cherry must tread carefully. In a town where hops aren’t the only thing fermenting, secrets are bubbling to the surface—and someone wants Cherry out of the picture for good.
Can Cherry clear her name, protect those she loves, and stop the killer before the next body drops?
Perfect for fans of smart, layered heroines, slow-burn suspense, and small-town mysteries with bite—and a splash of craft beer.
Well, that’s it for the New Books Releasing Week 23 of 2025
Drop a comment if you like one of the books above or if you have one to recommend.
Thank you for stopping by,
Happy Reading!
Baroness’ Book Trove is an Amazon affiliate, meaning that if you click the link and purchase something, this blog gets a tiny percentage back. Mainly, this helps with the cost of the website and a few giveaways.
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