Basically, this is me making a list of books I REALLY SERIOUSLY NEED TO GET TO before the end of the year!
Genres: Adult, Horror, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Nonbinary MC, major sapphic character
Published on: 1st January 2025
Goodreads
The Fisherman can't fathom why anyone would want to be human. Small wonder. They've been ripped from their underwater home under Europa's ice, and stripped of their skin--the nebulous outer layer that enables them to shapeshift for survival. Imprisoned on a ship that's hunting for a mad undersea god, they must help the crew find it if they want to retrieve their skin and return home. Dame Isobel, an insane young heiress, owns the ship, desperate to find the god in the hopes that it will heal her lobotomized girlfriend. The Fisherman is stuck in a female human form. They're pulled into a toxic, codependent sexual relationship with Dame Isobel-- in a world where homosexuality is punishable by death. In the midst of this insanity, it's quite clear to the Fisherman: Humanity is confusing, inefficient, and messy.
When Isobel reveals that she will never let the Fisherman go, even if they find the mad god, the Fisherman knows:
It's time to get violent.
This was out back in JANUARY, and I still haven’t managed to get to it! Fail. But it sounds freaking marvellous, and I keep hearing fantastic things about this author’s work, hence why it’s made this list!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
Published on: 4th March 2025
Goodreads
From the bestselling author M. R. Carey comes an utterly unique and enchantingly dark epic fantasy fable like no other.
This is the tale of Once Was Willem, who - eleven hundred and some years after the death of Christ, in the kingdom that had but recently begun to call itself England - rose from the dead to defeat a great evil facing the humble village of Cosham.
Pennick for all its beauty was ever a place with a dark reputation. The forests of the Chase were said to be home to nixies and boggarts, and there was a common belief, passed down through many generations, that the castle housed an unquiet ghost of terrible and malign power. These rumours I can attest were all true; indeed they fell short of the truth by a long way . . .
I started reading this, was massively enjoying it…and then for some ADHD reason, I wandered off and got distracted. (Happens ALL THE TIME.) But there’s still time for me to get back to it, finish it, and be utterly wowed by it!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Indigineous-coded MC, queer Indigineous MC, queer amputee MC, /M/
Published on: 29th July 2025
Goodreads
After years of separation, Havinger Lilley has finally reunited with his lover, Janan. He now hopes to heal from the experience that changed his life being bonded to the soul of a king dragon and to the man Raka who died to save it. But this bond is consuming him, making his thoughts and feelings not his own.
Compelled by this to return to the frozen north that was once Raka’s home, Lilley and his companions Janan and Meka make the arduous journey toward a confrontation with the power-hungry Kattakans that could result in another devastating war.
In this final chapter of The Crowns of Ishia series, the survival of the Ba’Suon people, their dragons, and the land itself rests on the decisions of Lilley, Janan and Meka.
The thing is that I am EXTREMELY ANXIOUS about how this trilogy is going to end…so I haven’t been able to bring myself to pick up the final book. RIDICULOUS, I KNOW. But if I can bring myself to read it, then yes, I’m expecting it to be amazing!
My review of book one
My review of book two
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Gay Desi MC, M/M, Korean MC
Published on: 5th August 2025
Goodreads
The dazzling and cinematic sequel to space opera Ocean’s Godori takes Ocean and her crew deep into the cloisters of the Moon and the conflicts of the heart.
“As ever, Elaine U. Cho takes us on a twisting journey that further expands on her haunting themes around grief, memory, and sacrifice, bringing us breathlessly to the end of a story we’ll never forget.” –Lena Waithe, Rishi Rajani, and Naomi Funabashi, Hillman Grad Books
Teo Anand, former ne’er-do-well second son of the Anand Tech empire and current solar fugitive, has just crash-landed on the Moon after escaping the latest attempt on his life. But if anyone can help exonerate him, it’s his best friend, bold Korean space pilot Ocean Yoon.Falsely accused of murdering his family, Teo is running out of both time and options. But loyalties are uncertain in their group of steadfast comrades and tentative new allies, and it’s difficult to know who to trust in the tangled web that awaits them in Artemis, a city on the Moon rich in Korean history and haunted by ghosts from Teo’s and Ocean’s pasts. Further complicating matters are Haven—the pensive medic whose beliefs challenge Ocean’s—and the dashing Phoenix—a space raider who’s come blazing into Teo’s life in more ways than one.
All the while, Corvus, the real culprit behind the slaying of the Anands, is sowing a path of destruction that threatens to swallow the solar whole. The crew will wrestle with clashing ideals, flying bullets, and undeniable feelings as they race toward a stunning final stand.
Teo’s Durumi brings Cho’s space opera duology to an exhilarating close, one that contends with questions of identity and acceptance; grief and redemption; and loyalty and sacrifice.
I discovered the first book in this duology, Ocean’s Gidori, last year, and I still consider it to be a perfect book. PERFECT. But that has set a high bar for book two, which has made me a bit too anxious to start it properly. WELP.
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Nonbinary MC
Published on: 28th August 2025
Goodreads
A wondrous, elemental novel from 'a writer of show-stopping genius' (Guardian).
Helm is a ferocious, mischievous wind - a subject of folklore and wonder - who has blasted the sublime landscape of the Eden Valley since the very dawn of time.
This is Helm's life story, formed from the chronicles of those the wind the Neolithic tribe who tried to placate it, the Dark Age wizard priest who wanted to banish it, the Victorian steam engineer who attempted to capture it - and the farmer's daughter who fell in love. But now Dr Selima Sutar, surrounded by measuring instruments, alone in her observation hut, fears the end is nigh.
Vital and audacious, Helm is the elemental tale of a unique life force - and of a between nature and people, neither of whom can weather life without the other.
As with so many here: I started it, was loving it, and then my attention was caught by some other shiny. But I think it has a really excellent shot at the Best Of list, if I can make myself sit down and read it!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Gay MC, major nonbinary character, major Filipino-American character, major trans character
Published on: 2nd October 2025
Goodreads
Brian, Nik and Darby - three friends practiced in ennui, binge-drinking, hooking up with strangers and fighting supernatural crime (when Brian's not committing it as a werewolf once a month) - have been sent by Abe Van Helsing (yes, one of those Van Helsings) to try to track down a colleague who has gone missing in London. As they putz around the city, following any leads that might help them find their British counterpart, they uncover a clairvoyancy smuggling ring, located right in the heart of the financial district. Who's kidnapping all the fortune tellers in Soho and why? And is it coincidence, fate or something more sinister altogether that Maeve, a timid trans woman taking time out of her job to track down her birth mother, turns up on the gang's doorstep...and has the uncanny ability to know just what's going to happen next?
The first book was a five-star read for me – I think it might even have made my best of year list when it came out – so I have very high hopes for this sequel!
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Bisexual Filipino-American MC
Published on: 14th October 2025
Goodreads
A corporate hacker. An elusive billionaire. A society trying to survive the American Nightmare.
New York City, 2075. Filipino American Nick Carraway has just moved to the heart of the fractured New Americas, where he’s struck by the city’s contradictions—shining corporate towers casting bleak shadows over the slums of a crumbling middle class.
When Nick meets alluring, new-money Jay Gatsby, he falls for Gatsby’s frank charm and confident aura. But in a city where the wealthy flaunt tech-enhanced bodies to cheat death, surfaces aren’t all they seem—and as a corporate-sanctioned cyberspace hacker, Nick knows that no secret can stay buried forever. He’s the reason they don’t. And his latest assignment? Investigate Gatsby himself.
As Nick becomes entangled in the dark affairs of the elite—and the devastating fallout of their actions on the city’s most vulnerable—he must reckon with the limits of compassion and accountability across class and status. What takes Love or truth? Heart or soul?
A brilliant reimagining of Fitzgerald’s classic tale of glamour, desire, and desperation, Local Heavens examines the guardrails of morality . . . and the price of desire.
I have started reading this, and I’m not massively impressed so far, but enough readers I trust have loved this that I’m very open to the idea that it may yet prove to be a new fave!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Published on: 28th October 2025
Goodreads
From Alix E. Harrow, the New York Times bestselling author of Starling House, comes a moving and genre-defying quest about the lady-knight whose legend built a nation, and the cowardly historian sent back through time to make sure she plays her part–even if it breaks his heart.
Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion’s greatest hero: the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children’s books and recruiting posters―but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten.
Centuries later, Owen Mallory―failed soldier, struggling scholar―falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives―and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs.
But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una’s legend―if they want to tell a different story--they’ll have to rewrite history itself.
Just released and obviously I dove in immediately! It’s Alix E. Harrow; she has yet to release a novel that didn’t blow me away, and I am NOT expecting Everlasting to break her streak!
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Queer MC, major nonbinary characters
Published on: 18th November 2025
Goodreads
From one of the most original and dazzling voices in speculative fiction comes an intergalactic tale of conspiracy, war and the fall of empires.
My name is Mawukana na-Vdnaze, and I am a very poor copy of myself.
In telling my story, there are certain things I should perhaps lie about. I should make myself a hero. Pretend I was not used by strangers and gods, did not leave people behind.
Here is one out there in deep-space, in the pilot's chair, I died. And then, I was reborn. I became something not quite human, something that could speak to the infinite dark. And I vowed to become the scourge of the world that wronged me.
This is the story of the supernova event that burned planets and felled civilizations. This is also the story of the many lives I've lived since I died for the first time.
Are you listening?
Discover this thrilling and breathtakingly imaginative space opera from the multi-award-winning Claire North, perfect for fans of Ann Leckie, Adrian Tchaikovsky and Arkady Martine.
Reading this now and utterly hypnotised by it. SPELLBOUND. North has gone ALL OUT in imagining what the very far-future might look like, with wildly different cultures across very different planets. Philosophy, fashion, transport, humour, gender, ethics, the purpose of government, body language, units of measurement…they’ve all been considered and they vary wildly from culture to culture. SUPERB WORLDBUILDING. And that’s without getting into how much I love the main character and his, um, let’s call it a condition. I’ll be genuinely shocked if this doesn’t end up being one of my Best Of 2025!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: M/M
Published on: 27th November 2025
Goodreads
Madeline Miller meets Angela Carter in this spellbinding queer retelling of the 12th-century tale of Bisclavret the werewolf—unmissable for fans of Uprooted by Naomi Novik, Swordcrossed by Freya Marske, and The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden.
A noble knight hiding the beast inside. A lonely king isolated by his courtiers. Between them an impossible gulf surmountable only by the twists and turns of relentless destiny in this spellbinding retelling of Marie de France’s classic 12th-century tale of romance and adventure.
The wolf-sickness strikes always without warning, stealing Bisclavret’s body and confusing his mind. Since boyhood he hasn’t dared leave his isolated holdings—not to beg the return of his father’s lost estate, not to seek brotherhood among the court, not even to win the knighthood he yearns for. But when a new king ascends, Bisclavret must deliver his kiss of fealty or answer for the failure.
Half an exile himself, the young king is intrigued by this uneasy, rough-hewn nobleman. Bisclavret seems a perfect knight: bold, strong, and merciful. But he keeps his secrets close, and the king’s longings are not for counsel alone. As his fascination grows, the barriers between them multiply, until the king battles desperation and grief. Then Bisclavret vanishes beyond reach, just as the greatest threats to the kingdom converge. Only duty to his people stands between the king and ruin—duty, and the steady loyalty of the strangest wolf . . .
Just as with Slow Gods: I’m reading a review copy of this at the moment, and I’m enchanted. Not only is Longman’s prose freaking gorgeous, I’m also massively impressed with their use of tense and PoV. One PoV is written entirely in second-person, and it WORKS. So again, I’ll be EXTREMELY SURPRISED if this doesn’t get a spot on my Best of Year list!
Surely 10’s enough, right?
What do YOU still want to read before next year?
I swear I am going to finish Bloodmarked. I’ve been reading this book in bits and pieces for at least a month now, and it’s good, I just keep traveling and/or playing Hades II. After that, The Mercy Makers. And theoretically I should be reading more of the unread books in my house…
Mercy Makers is actually mandatory reading so I’m going to have to insist you get to it asap!
I outright bought it this summer on the strength of your review! It had also been falling victim to travel + Hades II, but I restarted it last night (after finishing Bloodmarked). So good <3
You bought it because of my review?! MEEP! I’m delighted and honoured! And I really REALLY hope you continue to love it! (Even if you don’t, you should come back and tell me what you thought of it!)