The Baroness’ Choices of New Books Publishing This Week
2025, Week 39’s New Books
My choices for this week include Cozy Animal Mystery, Romantic Comedy, Cozy Crafts and Hobbies Mystery, Cozy Paranormal Mysteries, Paranormal Romantic Comedy, Contemporary Romance, PI Mystery, Historical Mystery, Holiday Romance, and Cozy Mystery.
How’s it going being back at school? Do you watch football? Do you have a favorite professional team or college team? Maybe a local team? Or are you more into Nascar? My Aunt Anna and I have a Nascar bet each year on our drivers. The driver with the highest points wins a gift from the other state. We have been doing it for a while.
I am featuring another great list of books this week. We should have reviews for three of these books. Here’s hoping we complete them on time.
Here are my choices for New Books Publishing Week 39 of 2025!
A Perilous Plot by Lorna Barrett
Booktown Mystery #19
Publication Date: September 23, 2025
Genre: Cozy Animal Mystery
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Family reunions are killer—literally—in the newest mystery in Lorna Barrett’s New York Times bestselling Booktown series.
Everything was going great for Tricia Miles, right up until her estranged mother, Sheila, arrives on her front step with an urn she says contains the remains of Tricia’s father.
Shocked and saddened, Tricia and her sister, Angelica, attempt to get to the bottom of what happened. But their efforts for clarity are dashed when Shelia disappears the very next day, leaving without a word.
Naturally, the sisters are upset—especially after they take the remains to the local funeral parlor and discover that not only is the urn filled with kitty litter, but hidden inside is a valuable (and stolen) Rolex watch. Digging deeper, the sisters find their parents are in dire financial trouble and seem to be lurking around Booktown.
Tricia and Angelica can’t help but wonder how many more secrets their mother was keeping…and whether that includes murder.
Caught in a Loop by Tomi Tabb
Skaters of Sequoia Valley #3
Publication Date: September 23, 2025
Genre: Romantic Comedy
I’m Ava Brown, and I’ve never been great at taking risks—especially when it comes to love. After years of harboring a crush on my best friend Dylan, I finally work up the nerve to tell him how I feel. Only, it does not go well.
With my ego bruised and my heart officially wrecked, I throw myself into running my vet clinic. Dating? Absolutely not. I’ve got more important things to worry about, like how to bring in new clients.
But then a late-night emergency involving a muddy cat introduces me to Fernando, a guy who has a sexy Spanish accent and is alarmingly good-looking. Helping him out starts as a one-time favor, but somehow, we keep crossing paths.
When I take my first vacation in years to Spain to clear my head, guess who turns up again? You guessed it—Fernando. What was supposed to be just a fun road trip quickly turns in to me suggesting a fake relationship in order to get his matchmaking aunts off his back.
I told myself I wouldn’t fall for one of my friends again, but my heart has other ideas. I’ve always played it safe, but falling for Fernando might be the biggest—and best—risk I’ve ever taken. Is it still a risk if it feels exactly right?
Essentials of Death by Kim Davis
Aromatherapy Apothecary Mystery #2
Publication Date: September 23, 2025
Genre: Cozy Crafts and Hobbies Mystery
After a scandalous arrest in San Francisco, Carissa Carmichael has moved back to her small Southern California hometown to start over as she opens her Aromatherapy Apothecary shop and reflexology services. A tourist destination, Oak Creek Valley, seems the perfect place to put the past behind her, but it seems no one will let her forget, especially her high school nemesis, Lacie. When Carissa finds her frenemy murdered after having a public altercation at the town’s playwright conference and festival, she becomes the primary suspect. It doesn’t help that the tarot cards she drew earlier in the day foretold the nature of the murder weapon. Despite her father’s position as Oak Creek Valley’s chief of police, the detective assigned to the case assumes she’s guilty.
When tarot death cards begin turning up to taunt her, Carissa not only has to prove her innocence to keep her freedom, she has to make sure death doesn’t come calling for her or those she loves. With the suspects acting as slippery as the essential oils she distills, it’s up to Carissa to apply pressure and sniff out the truth before it’s too late.
Includes essential oil and reflexology tips.
Murder at Blackwood Inn by Penny Warner
Haunted Dead and Breakfast Mystery #1
Publication Date: September 23, 2025
Genre: Cozy Paranormal Mystery
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A haunted house and the occult are the least of Carissa Blackwood’s problems when her eccentric aunts are accused of murder in this cozy series debut by multiple award–winning author Penny Warner.
Ghostwriter Carissa Blackwood is having the worst year of her life. After leaving her cheating husband, she finally takes up the offer to help her two eccentric aunts manage the Blackwood Bed ’n’ Breakfast Inn in Pelican Point, California–a house they only recently inherited from their deceased father, Bram Blackwood. The old man dabbled in the occult, and his daughters haven’t fallen far from the family tree. Aunt Runa is into crystals and plans to hold séances at the reportedly “haunted” house. Aunt Hazel has an herbary and offers herbal cures for everything from headaches to paranormal visions. But it’s Hazel’s poison garden that really concerns Carissa.
When one of the townspeople dies from a poison that could have only come from Aunt Hazel’s garden, the town is quick to point fingers. It doesn’t help that one of Aunt Runa’s charms is found at the scene of the crime. With a little help from Noah, the mysterious and handsome handyman; Aiden, the charming newspaperman—and the ghost of Carissa’s grandfather—it’s up to Carissa to clear her aunts and find the real killer before someone else is checked out for good at the B&B.
Psychic In Suburbia by KC Freeman
Magical Midlife Misadventures of a Medium Mom #1
Publication Date: September 23, 2025
Genre: Cozy Paranormal Mystery
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There’s nothing magical about midlife for Abby McBride, unless dealing with pesky ghosts counts.
Between hot flashes and brain fog and the dead paying a call at all hours, she’s had her share of spirited mayhem, while trying to hold up a perfect image among her cul-de-sac crowd. Not easy! But, after decades of suppressing her psychic gift, it all comes crashing down at the annual Halloween bash and her quiet suburban life goes up in spectral smoke.
The ghosts of 125 Magnolia Lane have demands and are not opposed to dragging the living into their hellish afterlife if that’s what it takes. Can Abby finally embrace the powers she’s long denied in order to save her family and friends from eternal destruction? But at what cost to her reputation, her sanity, marriage and possibly even her freedom?
When Ghost Whisperer meets Bad Moms, haunted hijinks are inevitable among dysfunctional friendships and an intrepid heroine who’s so done playing nice. That’s right! DONE! Get set for a thrill ride that will leave readers with a tale of laugh out loud, heart-tugging midlife magic and mayhem.
Road Trip with a Vampire by Jenna Levine
My Vampires #3
Publication Date: September 23, 2025
Genre: Paranormal Romantic Comedy
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A vampire who can’t remember his past and a witch with secrets of her own hit the road in this zany, cross-country romantic comedy from beloved author Jenna Levine.
Reformed bad witch Grizelda “Zelda” Watson had hoped to never see another vampire again when she slipped away to sunny California for a fresh start. She’d grown tired of them and their nonsense ages ago. But when a vampire with amnesia unexpectedly shows up on her doorstep with a letter from her old friend Reggie, and asks for her help, she can’t say no. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Peter Elliott is tall and gorgeous, looks great in yoga shorts, and has the kind of dark hair and surly expression Zelda’s been a sucker for for hundreds of years.
Peter isn’t completely harmless—he is fanged, after all—but he’s harmless enough, and soon becomes the only person in Zelda’s new life who knows the truth about what she is. If she can help him decipher the cryptic notes in his journal, the only clues to his lost memories, she might as well try before sending him on his way.
But when an alarming message from Peter’s past coincides with a clear sign that Zelda can’t keep running from her own, they embark on a cross-country road trip for answers—only to find what they’re looking for in each other.
The Heartbreak Hotel by Ellen O’Clover
Publication Date: September 23, 2025
Genre: Contemporary Romance
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A bed-and-breakfast for the brokenhearted might hold the key to another chance at love in this achingly hopeful debut romance.
Louisa Walsh emerged from a tumultuous childhood with a degree in counseling, a wealthy boyfriend, and her sunny outlook on life mostly intact. But that optimism is tested when she’s dumped and left unable to afford rent on their gorgeous house in the mountains of Colorado. Even with her life in disarray, Lou knows losing the one stable place she’s ever called home is not an option.
Her plan: ask her reclusive landlord, Henry Rhodes, to let her stay for free in exchange for renting out the house’s many rooms as a bed-and-breakfast. She’s shocked when he agrees to her terms, and even more surprised to discover Henry is a handsome thirtysomething veterinarian with silver at his temples and sadness in his eyes. One who does not take it well when Lou starts marketing her B and B as a retreat for the recently heartbroken.
But as the Comeback Inn opens its doors to its weary, hopeful guests, Lou and Henry find themselves dancing around both their undeniable connection and the closely held secrets that threaten to topple this fragile new start. A chance at love, here, could be too close to home…or it could be exactly where their hearts finally heal.
The Sisterhood by Tasha Alexander
Lady Emily Mysteries #19
Publication Date: September 23, 2025
Genre: Historical Mystery
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Lady Emily investigates the murder of a glamorous debutante in the next irresistible mystery of Tasha Alexander’s New York Times bestselling series.
London, 1907: When the Season’s most accomplished and elegant debutante, Victoria Goldsborough, collapses and dies at her engagement ball, the great and good of London Society prepare to mourn the tragic loss of an upstanding young woman. But all is not what it seems, and after a toxic beverage is revealed to be the cause of death, the king himself instructs Lady Emily and her husband Colin Hargreaves to unearth the truth.
Who would want to harm one of the most popular women of the year? Is it her fiancé with whom she had an unusually brief courtship; a rival for his affections bitter at being cast aside; her best friend who is almost certainly hiding a secret from Colin and Emily; a disappointed suitor with a hidden gambling habit; or a notorious jewel thief who has taken a priceless tiara from the Goldsborough home? When a second debutante succumbs to poison, the race is on to find a ruthless killer.
Emily and Colin’s investigation leads to a centuries old tomb in the center of London with a mysterious link to another death dating back to Roman times and the violent reign of Boudica, ancient Britain’s fearsome warrior queen. As the stakes rise and the clock ticks down, Emily must find the killer before they strike again.
You Make It Feel like Christmas by Sophie Sullivan
Publication Date: September 23, 2025
Genre: Holiday Romance
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All bets are off when a single-minded photographer and a professional hockey player are forced to spend a week together on his sister’s Christmas tree farm, perfect for fans of Jenny Holiday and Maggie Knox.
Maisie Smart doesn’t look back. Not on the choice she made to be a photographer, and not on the one-night stand she had six months ago. But sleeping with a professional hockey player who bolted the morning after is a whole new level of embarrassing. Now she’s about to spend the week at Tickle Tree Farms with her family this Christmas―and then the universe throws a Grinch in her festive plans.
Nick King is a mess. After a significant injury benches him, he has more time to dwell on his anxieties and the one-night stand he can’t get out of his head. With the holidays around the corner, he figures visiting his sister and nephew at their Christmas tree farm will be a good way to sort himself out. That’s impossible when he learns Maisie is there, still beautiful and justifiably angry about the way he left. But Christmas is the time for second chances, and the forced proximity may help Nick and Maisie unwrap feelings neither of them can walk away from twice.
Crime Quiz by TJ Stanley
Publication Date: September 26, 2025
Genre: Cozy Mystery
A social-lite, a social worker and a vicar meet in a bar…
Molly should be on her honeymoon, but her husband disappeared.
Thomas should be preaching, but the bishop had other ideas.
Lynette should be in Aspen, but her doctor refused to let her fly.
Instead, they’re sailing on a five-day round trip between Sydney and Hobart.
At 5.00am on the fourth day of the cruise, Captain Jonas Strong announces that five passengers have died overnight.
Were this a cruise with the usual guest profile, such news may have caused a temporary flutter of nerves before being forgotten. But the Oceanic Wanderer was hosting a Crime Writers’ Conference with hundreds of amateur sleuths who were now wondering, if there was more to the announcement than they were being told.
Was there a murderer among them?
CRIME QUIZ delivers a cosy-mystery caper in a cruisy setting.
Well, that’s it for the New Books Releasing Week 39 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 make a purchase, this blog receives a small percentage of the sale. Primarily, this helps offset the website’s costs and a few giveaways.
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