Must-Have Monday is a feature highlighting which of the coming week’s new releases I’m excited for. It is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all books being published that week; only those I’m interested in out of those I’m aware of! The focus is diverse SFF, but other genres sneak in occasionally too.
TEN books this week!
(Books are listed in order of pub date, then Adult SFF, Adult Other, YA SFF, YA Other, MG SFF.)
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Nonbinary MCs
Published on: 25th March 2025
Goodreads
Living in a post-climate disaster world protected by a layer of artificial cloud, Mallory knows every shade of darkness, their world lit sparingly by bioluminescence. But when Rein stumbles across their path—radioactive light bleeding from their teeth, their skin twisted and burned—Mallory’s worldview implodes, and the true cost of their survival becomes all too clear.
A haunting cli-fi novella ideal for fans of Tiffany Morris and Stephanie Feldman, EVERY DARK CLOUD combines a dystopian setting and class-conscious narrative with a glimmer of hope for our shared humanity.
Praise for Every Dark Cloud:
"Part enchanting dreamworld, part blistering nightmare, Every Dark Cloud warns us of humanity's worst impulses, and reminds us of its best."
-- Stephanie Feldman, author of Saturnalia
"Marisca Pichette's Every Dark Cloud is a spare, unflinching, yet wonderfully compassionate window into a future that feels all too possible — but even in the darkness of late-stage capitalism taken to its (un)natural extreme, Pichette never loses sight of human connection, both to each other and to the natural world. It's a quick, fully realized read with its fingers planted firmly in the soil, delightfully queer sensibilities, and characters I would gladly follow far beyond these pages."
— Jaq Evans, author of What Grows in the Dark
"Part dystopia, part horror, Pichette has created an inventive and emotionally evocative world where profound and unsettling truths are held in light and darkness. Every Dark Cloud is a gripping, genre-defying novella shot-through with beauty and sporror."
—Tiffany Morris, author of Green Fuse Burning
"Lyrical, graceful, and dark -- Marisca Pichette’s Every Dark Cloud is a marvel of climate fiction. Pichette pulls off an absolute coup by creating an immersive world that delights even as it terrifies, down to the sentence-level. But don’t be fooled. This eerie world is not some far-off, hypothetical dream land of elsewhere. Pichette’s novella dares us to stare directly at our future, in the tradition of the very best speculative by interrogating a possible future, we can most clearly see our present."
— Caren Sumption, author of Three Songs for Roxy and So Quick Bright Things Come to Confusion
I’ve been looking forward to this one since I first heard about it! Bioluminescence, queerness, and a hopeful look at the end of the world? Yes please!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MC, M/M
Published on: 25th March 2025
Goodreads
In this mesmerizing, wonderfully moving queer cozy fantasy, an immortal ghost hunter must confront his tragic past in order to embrace his found family.
Find an angry spirit. Send it on its way before it causes trouble. Leave before anyone learns his name.
After over two hundred years, Peter Shaughnessy is ready to die and end this cycle. But thanks to a youthful encounter with one o’ them folk in his native Ireland, he can’t. Instead, he’s cursed to wander eternally far from home, with the ability to see ghosts and talk to plants.
Immortality means Peter has lost everyone he’s ever loved. And so he centers his life on the dead—until his wandering brings him to Harrington, Ohio. As he searches for a vengeful spirit, Peter’s drawn into the townsfolk’s lives, homes and troubles. For the first time in over a century, he wants something other than death.
But the people of Harrington will die someday. And he won’t.
As Harrington buckles under the weight of the supernatural, the ghost hunt pits Peter’s well-being against that of his new friends and the man he’s falling for. If he stays, he risks heartbreak. If he leaves, he risks their lives.
I didn’t adore this author’s debut, but I did think it was clear they were going to be genuinely great with a little more experience/practice (or a better editor). So I’m really hopeful that this is going to rock!
You can read an excerpt here!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Representation: Malaysian Chinese-inspired cast and setting
Published on: 25th March 2025
Goodreads
The Witcher meets Squid Game in this Malaysian Chinese-inspired epic fantasy novel where a debt-ridden slumdog joins an illegal monster-fighting arena for some fast coin, but quickly learns the most dangerous beasts are outside the ring, by debut author Roanne Lau
Lythlet and her only friend Desil are shackled to a life of debt and poverty that she fears they will never escape. Desperate for money, they sign up as arena combatants who fight sun-cursed beasts in the seedy underworld of the city.
Match-master Dothilos is initially enamored of Desil’s brawling reputation, but after seeing Lythlet lead the pair to triumph with her quick cunning, he takes her under his wing, scorning Desil. Ambition takes root in Lythlet’s heart as a life of fame and wealth unfolds in her imagination.
But Lythlet isn’t the only one out for coin and glory, and she soon finds herself playing an entirely different game—a game of politics and deception. As the cost of her ambition grows, she will have to decide if sacrificing her honor, and only friendship, is worth the chance to shape her own fortune.
A whirlwind of blood-pounding battles as characters grapple with their choices in the face of wealth and financial security, The Serpent Called Mercy's heart is the underlying, steadfast friendship between its protagonists.
Apparently the worldbuilding in this is pretty limited – to just the city it’s set in – but that might be all right if everything else is great, and the reviews I’ve seen seem to suggest that’s the case!
Genres: Adult, Sci Fi
Published on: 25th March 2025
Goodreads
An anthology of speculative short fiction imagining the possibilities of our food-insecure future.
Our lives, our culture, our community all start with and revolve around food and eating. Sharing meals with family and friends has been a hallmark of human society from our earliest beginnings. But we are entering an era of unprecedented change. Climate, technology, the global spread of crop diseases, droughts, and the loss of pollinators threaten to change not only how much food we eat, but what we eat and how we eat it.
Devouring Tomorrow explores this strange new menu through the eyes and palates of some of Canada’s most exciting authors. See a world with no bees left to pollinate our crops. Encounter lab-grown meat so advanced that it becomes sentient. Visit a land where diseases wipe out a common fruit and the society of a nation changes around its loss. This is not the world of the distant future ― this is tomorrow.
Featuring stories from:
Sifton Tracey Anipare • Carleigh Baker • Gary Barwin • Chris Benjamin • Eddy Boudel Tan • Catherine Bush • Jowita Bydlowska • Lisa de Nikolits • Dina Del Bucchia • Terri Favro • Elan Mastai • Mark Sampson • Ji Hong Sayo • Jacqueline Valencia • Anuja Varghese • A.G.A. Wilmot
I love foodie fiction, and the future of food? Yes! I absolutely want to see sci fi takes on food! So curious to see what all the authors came up with!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Published on: 25th March 2025
Goodreads
Angela Slatter's The Night Stair is a gothic fantasy tale of vampires, vengeance, and treachery set in the award-winning author's Sourdough universe.
Two of Adlisa's sisters have been selected to serve, adopting the role of dutiful daughter to the dark Lady who rules the manor. Two of Adlisa's sisters were eaten, devoured when the Lady's fixations soured and they were deemed expendable.
Now it's Adlisa's turn to serve, selected from seven candidates to step into the opulent luxury of her new life. Her survival depends on maintaining a fragile illusion, standing in for the child Her Ladyship lost centuries before.
Yet Adlisa is no helpless daughter, here to serve and earn coin for her family until her untimely death. She plays her own games with the Lord and Lady of the house, and she is not as helpless as she seems.
This chapbook presents a stand-alone story set in the world of A.G. Slatter's The Crimson Road, alongside an author's note and an updated chronology of the Sourdough universe.
New Angela Slatter!!! This is a chapbook (so I think a short story/novella?) that I believe provides some backstory/context for her most recent novel, The Crimson Road (which I haven’t finished yet, but: vampires!!!) The Sourdough universe is one that continuously delights me and wrings my heart out, so I’ll be pouncing on this!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Representation: Bisexual love interest
Published on: 25th March 2025
Goodreads
In this darkly romantic reimagining of the Minotaur myth, a sorceress and a demon are entwined in sensual battle to escape a deadly maze and reclaim their freedom.
Sadaré wakes in a labyrinth, remembering nothing except that she is a powerful sorceress. Her only ally (or is he an enemy?) is an immortal being named Daesra—beautiful, dangerous, and demonic—who bound his soul for power and revenge.Though they mistrust one another, they have no choice but to work together if they are to reach the center and defeat the monster who prevents their escape. But the longer they wander, the more dangerous and strangely alive the maze becomes.
As sorceress and demon develop a tenuous truce and the labyrinth gives Sadaré glimpses of their shared history, she finds herself drawn to Daesra in ways that make her question everything. Uncovering the secrets of her past may be the only way to survive and heal their entwined fates—but as the two learn more about the betrayals that brought them to the labyrinth, Sadaré begins to fear that the monster at the center of the maze could be Daesra...or herself,
I think this is the author’s Adult debut? I’ve read some of their YA and enjoyed it – I very much recommend Beyond the Black Door (written under the name AM Strickland)! I suspect this’ll be very different – BtBD had an ace MC, whereas the protagonist of Exquisite Ruin is a sexual masochist! – but hopefully still great!
You can read an except here!
Genres: Fantasy, YA
Representation: West African-coded cast and setting
Published on: 25th March 2025
Goodreads
An elite female fighter and her found family of sisters battle gods and monsters for their existence in this captivating West African–inspired young adult fantasy sequel to Daughters of Oduma, perfect for fans of The Gilded Ones and Legendborn.
Eat. Dance. Fight for your life.
The girls in the Mud Fam are used to fighting hard—it’s the only way to win in their elite, all-female sport of Bowing. Thanks to her legendary performance at the last tournament, Dirt has helped their ranks swell with a bevy of new recruits. She has finally achieved her lifelong dream of restoring glory to the Mud Fam, and she’s more than ready to win the upcoming tournament. But everything changes when a man washes up on shore.
There are no adults on the Isle, not since the long-ago days when the gods walked the earth. Yet here is a mysterious man who calls himself Mister Odo and claims to come from the land of the gods. He declares a tournament to find the best Bower. Though wary of the secretive Mister Odo, Dirt is prepared to battle as a proud, fat Bower should—that is, until the competitors are attacked by monsters. The only thing that can save the girls is the gods-given magic that Dirt can channel…and even that might not be enough.
Never ever EVER going to get over seeing a plus-sized brown girl ON A TRAD-PUBBED BOOK COVER. Heart-eyes forever!
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists, YA
Representation: Bisexual Filipino-American MC
Published on: 25th March 2025
Goodreads
From author Elisa A. Bonnin comes Lovely Dark and Deep, a YA dark academia novel exploring magic, loneliness, and the power of found family.
Hidden off the coast of Washington, veiled in mist, there is an island that does not appear on any map. And on that island is Ellery West.
Ellery West has always been home for Faith. After an international move and a childhood spent adjusting to a new culture and a new language, the acclaimed school for magic feels like the only place she can be herself. That is, until Faith and another student walk into the forest, and only Faith walks out.
Marked with the red stripe across her uniform that designates all students deemed too dangerous to attend regular classes, Faith becomes a social pariah, an exile of Ellery West. But all she has to do is keep her head down for one more year to graduate, and she gets to keep her magic. Because when students fail out of Ellery West, they have their magic taken away. Forever. And Faith can't let that happen.
Except terrifying things are still happening to students, and the dark magic that was unleashed in the forest still seems to be at work. To stop it, Faith and the other Red Stripes will have to work together, risking expulsion from the magical world altogether.
So excited to finally dive into this! I really like how Bonnin’s set up the ‘branches’ of magic, and the more I think about it, the more sinister and terrible separating the students (as described in the blurb) sounds. (Got my fingers crossed we’re FINALLY going to see someone critique the fuck out of the really ick British-style magic school set-up that’s so popular…)
You can read an excerpt at the publisher page! (Where it says ‘read an excerpt’ below the book cover!)
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Published on: 26th March 2025
Goodreads
“Helge, my angel, my downfall….
You’ve promised me the world I so dearly wish for…
You claim I am your past lover incarnate—I can only hope you speak true.”
In a countryside still ravaged by magical war, Eris—a closeted trans man—names himself in secret after a fairytale Prince, only to summon the Prince’s fallen angel lover in return.
The angel, Helge, is convinced he has just found his star-crossed lover in Eris, reincarnated.
Regardless of the truth, Eris takes Helge as his lover, to get away from the repression of his mundane life. The two soon find themselves in a kindred symbiotic relationship. As their deepest desires merge then blend, they turn into a single wish of escaping from this world that would never accept them—to carve a place for themselves, to find meaning in the meaningless, and love at the end of a rising dawn.
From award nominated and best-selling author Beau Van Dalen, Goldnight of Starfall is a dark fantastical erotic tale, featuring a trans man protagonist, weaved with dark fabulism, themes of existentialism and hope hidden within despair.
Angels and queerness??? REINCARNATION (maybe)??? (Honestly, I think the ‘maybe’ makes the story IMMENSELY MORE INTERESTING!) I am sold so hard!
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists, YA
Representation: M/M
Published on: 30th March 2025
Goodreads
“Just get your teeth in me already, blood boy. I have places to be.”
Theo Fairgood is the golden boy. Popular, athletic, and determined to uphold his family’s good name.
Kade Renfield is trouble. Black clothes, fast fists and a bad attitude. He’s waiting for his grand story to start, but until then he’s stuck chasing highs, crashing parties and snarling at anyone who stares.
They should only cross paths when Theo trips Kade in the halls.
But when Theo gets attacked by a horrifying creature at his own party, Kade is the only one who can drag him to safety. It turns out he shouldn’t have. Theo is fine. Bloodthirsty and, you know, dead - but otherwise fine.
Kade tries to stay away. But vampire venom is addictive, and Theo doesn’t have anyone else who knows his thirsty secret. They grudgingly strike a Theo feeds on Kade. Kade gets the best high he’s ever had and no withdrawal sweats. And since they’re trapped together, they might as well team up and find out who turned Theo, who murdered an old man the night of the party, and why Theo’s touch burns Kade but no one else.
As they unravel the mysteries of their strange hometown, the most startling discovery is that Kade is soft under all his spikes, and Theo can be gentle when he isn’t around his jock friends. They might actually enjoy each other’s company when Theo doesn’t have his fangs in Kade’s neck.
The golden boy and the town freak can’t be together. They can’t even be friends. But they’re the only ones who can protect each other as their enemy’s plans are revealed and the boys discover they’re linked in ways they could never have imagined.
Blood Tethered is the first book in a LGBT vampire romance YA trilogy full of forced proximity, banter and blood-drinking.
Addictive vampire venom??? A wrecked bad boy ‘waiting for his story to start’? Be still my beating heart! PLUS, if I have my info correct, we should be getting all three books of this trilogy this year! (Book 2 in April, book 3 in May!) THAT doesn’t happen too often!
Will you be reading any of these? Did I miss any releases you think I should know about? Let me know!
Just finished Every Dark Cloud, thanks for the recommendation! I loved the setting, I wasn’t expecting darkness to be so calm and cosy. The use of senses and tech was really imaginative too.
Oh that’s awesome! I haven’t started it yet, but now I’m even more excited to get to it :D