📚 September 2025 Book Releases
- dessimalakov
- Sep 6
- 15 min read
Updated: Sep 13
Whether you're chasing the final golden days of summer or cozying up for autumn, September always brings a wave of exciting new reads—and this year is no exception. The September 2025 book releases are stacked with everything from long-awaited fantasy sequels and atmospheric thrillers to swoony romances and high-stakes dramas. Whether you're into dark academia, witches, sports romance, literary fiction, or speculative sci-fi, there’s something here for every kind of reader.
Below you’ll find a carefully curated list of standout titles hitting shelves this September—complete with blurbs to help you find your next favorite.
September 2025 book releases
September 2nd
The Hallmarked Man
by Robert Galbraith
A silver shop tucked beside Freemasons' Hall becomes the scene of a chilling discovery: a dismembered body locked away in its vault. While the police suspect it's a known armed robber, one woman—Decima Mullins—is convinced that the corpse belongs to her missing partner, the father of her newborn child. Taking on the case, Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott find themselves navigating not just forensic twists, but secret societies, hidden men, and personal stakes that spark straight to the heart. On top of that, Robin’s moving forward with her relationship, while Strike's feelings are more tangled than ever.
The Hallmarked Man is the Cormoran and Robin ride—or sleuth—didn’t know they needed: layered, emotional, and as twisty as ever.
Genre: Crime
Series: Cormoran Strike, Book 8
Fearful
by Lauren Roberts
Set within the same beloved world as Fearless, Fearful introduces Mara—an unexpected observer of royal dramas and deadly plots. A fateful decree from King Kitt Azer pulls her back into the kingdom she once fled, where love, power, and vengeance swirl in dangerous harmony. As Mara steps closer to the throne and deeper into heartbreak, she finds that destiny isn’t something written in stone—it’s carved in the choices that hurt.
This novella takes us behind the scenes of the Powerless trilogy, giving a beautifully bittersweet look at love’s lingering shadows and the weight of ruling—or resisting—the fate someone else has planned for you.
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Series: Powerless, Book 3.5
Hot Desk
by Laura Dickerman
Imagine Writers & Lovers crashed into Younger—set in the open-plan chaos of today’s publishing world—and you’re halfway to Hot Desk. Rebecca Blume and Ben Heath are forced to share a desk (thanks to post‑pandemic office downsizing), but never at the same time—a passive-aggressive Post-it war over a cactus starts it all.
When literary legend Edward David Adams (the Lion) passes away, leaving his unpublished estate up for grabs, their cattiness escalates into full rivalry—and something more complicated. As they dig into family connections and decades-old friendships—cue a Blizzard of ’82-style flashback—they learn that legacy, ambition, and maybe even love can’t be controlled.
Bright, clever, and full of publishing-world charm, Hot Desk is equal parts enemies-to-lovers romance and feminist literary nostalgia—perfect for readers who like their banter with a side of bookish conspiracy.
Genre: Romance
Discontent
by Beatriz Serrano
Marisa is head of “creative strategy” at a hip Madrid ad agency—meaning she’s officially an expert at pretending to care. On the surface, she’s got a sleek apartment, a conveniently available neighbor, and enough promotions to fill two résumés. But inside? She’s bored, burned out, and flirting with actual existential dread.
When she’s forced on her company’s team-building retreat—amid psychopathic bosses, enthusiastic coworkers who live for marshmallows, and mountains of tranquilizers—Marisa’s curated facade starts to crumble. As the retreat spirals from faux-fun to full meltdown, she teeters between snark-fueled survival and utter collapse.
Equal parts darkly hilarious and terrifyingly real, Discontent nails the absurd dread of cubicle life—and every line feels like a punchline you’ve memorized from your own soul.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Crazy Spooky Love
by Josie Silver
Melody Bittersweet comes from a long line of ghost-sensitive women—except she’s not interested in chatting with spirits. On her twenty-seventh birthday, she opens the Girls’ Ghostbusting Agency, determined to exorcise ghosts, not console them. Her first client? A haunted house plagued by three mischievous ghost-brothers stirring up more trouble than a toddler sugar rush.
Cue complications in the romantic department: Leo Dark—her showboating ex and reluctant business rival—is making things awkward, and Fletcher Gunn, a sharp-as-heck local reporter (and total skeptic), is sniffing around and making her heart do that weird fluttery thing. Ghosts, love triangles, and unexpected chemistry— Crazy Spooky Love delivers all the chills and the thrills…without ever losing its sense of humor.
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Sweet Heat
by Bolu Babalola
Kiki Banjo is back—now a podcast host dishing out romantic wisdom, though behind the mic she’s a bit of a heartwreck. Enter Malakai, her effortlessly charming ex, who just happens to be the best man at her best friend’s wedding. What could go wrong? Saved from emotional trainwreck mode by a forced “be civil” mandate, Kiki and Malakai tiptoe around one another through wedding chaos, professional snafus, and undeniable chemistry that refuses to cool.
This is second-chance rom-com magic at its best. Expect sharp humor, emotional growth, and that beguiling Babalola wit that turns “maybe we shouldn’t” into “absolutely we should.”
Genre: Romance
Vianne
by Joanne Harris
Ever wondered how the enigmatic chocolatier from Chocolat became Vianne? This long-awaited prequel peels back the years to Marseille, where a young, pregnant Vianne (then Sylviane) scatters her mother's ashes and follows a wind-whispered impulse from New York to Provence. In the bustling streets and markets of Marseille, she lands a waitressing job, discovers the transformative joy of cooking with bittersweet chocolate spices—magic in its own right—and carries secrets that could unravel everything she’s building.
Rich with sensory detail, longing, and the bittersweet pull of destiny, Vianne reminds us that every legend begins with the courage to carve out one’s own life—and one taste at a time.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Wild Reverence
by Rebecca Ross
Matilda is a goddess in the most unexpected way—a humble messenger from the under-realm forced to hide her power in a world where gods kill to gain advantage. She lives in the quiet, carrying letters between realms, until a letter from a lonely mortal named Vincent cracks the surface of her routine. A decade later, she tumbles into his life in the middle of the night—literally—bringing longing, destiny, and complications she never saw coming.
In Wild Reverence, Rebecca Ross invites us back to the world of Divine Rivals with a romance that sparkles between divine politics, mortal longing, and quiet bravery. It’s intimate yet epic, filled with shadows, secrets, and the kind of connection that feels both predestined and painfully fragile.
Genre: YA Fantasy Romance
A Land So Wide
by Erin A. Craig
Mistaken is everything Greer Mackenzie thought fairytales promised—and everything she feared. This town is surrounded by magical stones that keep out horrors like the Bright-Eyeds—but they also trap the people inside indefinitely. Greer, a gifted mapmaker with wanderlust running in her veins, never dared to dream outside the walls—until the day she watches her love Ellis slip beyond the boundary at night, pursued by something monstrous.
Fueled by heartache and fierce resolve, Greer defies the town’s curse and ventures into the icy wilderness to rescue him. What she finds is a terrain as beautiful as it is brutal, brimming with ancient magic, monstrous shape-shifters, and long-buried secrets about Mistaken’s origins—and her own.
A dark, sweeping fantastical tale rooted in Scottish folklore, A Land So Wide is equal parts chilling folktale and aching love story. Think fairy magic written in frost, danger whispered in pine, and the bravest journey of all—toward freedom.
Genre: Fantasy
September 9th
The Secret of Secrets
by Dan Brown
Robert Langdon is back—and this time, the stakes are as mind-bending as ever. What starts as a visit to Prague for a lecture by Katherine Solomon (yes, that Katherine) quickly spirals into murder, a missing manuscript, and a centuries-old mystery tied to the origins of consciousness itself. As Langdon races through cryptic symbols, ancient texts, and a few sinister enemies, he’s forced to question not just what’s hidden in history—but what reality itself is made of.
If you’ve missed the puzzles, the page-turning pace, or Langdon’s knack for surviving in tweed, The Secret of Secrets delivers exactly what you came for—with a new scientific twist that might just scramble your brain in the best way.
Genre: Mystery Thriller
Series: Robert Langdon, Book 6
Wild Card
by Elsie Silver
Sebastian—grumpy, undeniably irresistible, and a fire pilot? Yes, please. But he’s also your ex-boyfriend’s dad. Oops. Gwen never expected to crash back into his orbit, yet somehow one twist of fate turns into living under the same roof—and suddenly every boundary is combustible. As Gwen wrestles with attraction, guilt, and family drama while Bash rebuilds his bond with his son, “following the rules” starts to feel totally pointless.
Wild Card is small‑town romance with sizzling tension, shame‑you’re‑blushing moments, and the kind of chemistry that laughs in the face of logic.
Genre: Romance
The Maiden and Her Monster
by Maddie Martinez
In the shadowed village of Eskravé, the forest devours anyone foolish enough to wander after nightfall. Malka, a healer’s fiercely protective daughter, knows this better than most. So when the local church accuses her mother of murder, Malka strikes a desperate bargain: lure out the “monster” and save her family. But the creature she finds isn’t a bloodthirsty beast—it’s an ancient, disgraced golem with its own agenda. It’ll help Malka…for a price: she must first set its rabbi creator free. As their pact unfolds, this unlikely pair confronts bigger threats, and Malka realizes that the true monster might be the fear people wield against what they don't understand—and that she might be falling for the very creature she sought to expose.
Dark fairy-tale energy, sapphic romance, folklore steeped in Jewish myth—the enchantment in The Maiden and Her Monster is as haunting as the woods it’s set in and as fierce as Malka herself.
Genre: Fantasy Romance
People Watching
by Hannah Bonam‑Young
Prudence “Prue” Welch is the queen of quiet routines: running her dad’s gas station, scribbling poetry, caring for her mom with early-onset Alzheimer’s—and intentionally staying put in her small Northern Ontario town. Then Milo Kablukov—the kind of adventurous stranger who shows up in a battered van plastered with questionable bumper stickers—crashes into her life. What starts as a friendship, fueled by curiosity and chemistry, turns into a sexy, spontaneous agreement between two people who needed each other more than they expected.
People Watching is a tender, heartfelt romance that balances grief, longing, and sensual “what ifs” with the kind of emotional truth that sticks with you long after the final page.
Genre: Romance
September 11th
Among the Burning Flowers
by Samantha Shannon
Step into Yscalin—the land of lavender fields under the slow burn of looming dragons. Marosa Vetalda, raised within gilded walls and ruled by her cold-hearted king father, feels more prisoner than princess. Across the mountains, her betrothed Aubrecht holds power, but also hope to reshape a fragile kingdom. Somewhere in between, Estina Melaugo stalks draconic beasts long thought dormant.
With the fire-wreathed wyrm Fýredel awakening, every fracture in this kingdom is poised to ignite. Among the Burning Flowers explores resistance through whispered hopes and flaming prophecy—lighting the spark for the epic saga that follows in The Priory of the Orange Tree. Illustrated with ethereal vignettes, this novella is a gorgeous burst of worldbuilding and emotional depth—perfect if you’re craving lush fantasy that feels both grand and intimate.
Genre: Fantasy
Series: The Roots of Chaos, Book 0.2
The Gingerbread Bakery
by Laurie Gilmore
Dream Harbor is gearing up for the wedding of the year, and everyone’s pitching in. Annie is busy baking the cake of all cakes, while Mac—you might know him as the perpetually grumpy-but-entirely-charming pub owner—is part of the guest list… and slowly becoming part of Annie’s daily plans. As snowflakes fall over the gingerbread-scented holiday bustle, who knew that decorating a cake could lead to decorating hearts?
This is a classic Gilmore small-town romance—enemies-to-lovers with playful banter, a found-family vibe, and that perfect balance of sugar and spice. If you’ve been waiting for Annie and Mac’s moment, this one’s absolutely worth the wait.
Genre: Romance
Series: Dream Harbor, Book 5
September 16th
The Wilderness
by Angela Flournoy
Five Black women. Two decades. One beautifully tangled map of adulthood.
Start with Desiree and Danielle, estranged sisters trying to make sense of their shared past. Add January, grappling with unexpected pregnancy and ambivalence. Throw in Monique, a librarian turned accidental online voice of truth, and Nakia, building a life—and a restaurant—from scratch. As they navigate career traps, heartbreak, motherhood, and the creeping pressures of gentrifying cities, their friendship becomes the beating heart of modern Black womanhood.
The Wilderness is intimate and expansive, threaded with witty observations, big emotions, and the stubborn hope that chosen family might be the best kind of map when real adulthood gets messy.
Genre: Literary Fiction
The Summer War
by Naomi Novik
Think fairy tales get cozy once curses break? Think again. Celia unwittingly dooms her brother Argent to a life devoid of love—simply by lashing out with a sibling tantrum that becomes prophecy. Years later, Argent is chasing fame and glory, while Celia’s desperate to undo the damage. When she learns of an ancient war between her people and immortal summerlings, it becomes clear: this isn’t just about fixing one broken heart—it’s about healing a world torn apart by centuries of resentment.
With bittersweet magic, family tension, and a civil war brewing beneath fields tinged with summer light, The Summer War is a novella rich in fairy‑tale tragedy—not unlike finding heartbreak blooming in a lavender field.
Genre: Fantasy
September 23rd
The Primal of Blood and Bone
by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Poppy’s awakening wasn’t supposed to happen—but now that she's stirring ancient powers, the world itself is unraveling. With the Blood Crown fallen and a cold-eyed death god making his return, both Poppy and Casteel must brace for a battle that could tear the realms apart. Allies include gods with their own dark secrets, and the choices they face may cost them everything they've fought for.
With love, destiny, and rebellion burning at its core, The Primal of Blood and Bone drenches every page in mythical heat—and reminds us why this series is one of the most addictive realms to escape into.
Genre: Fantasy Romance, Series: Blood & Ash, Book 6
We Love You, Bunny
by Mona Awad
Remember Samantha Heather Mackey—the lonely MFA student who fell into the hypnotic, surreal world of the Bunnies in Bunny? Well, she’s back... chained to a chair this time. After Sam’s debut novel claws its way into public acclaim, her former frenemies—the cultishly glamorous Bunnies—kidnap her to set the record straight. One by one, they step forward to tell their side of the story—the birth of their unholy club, the bizarre creative rituals, and the dark magic of creation itself.
Equal parts fairy‑tale slasher and dark academia fever dream (think Heathers meets The Vegetarian), We Love You, Bunny reinvents the Bunny‑verse as both sequel and standalone.
It’s wickedly funny, smart as a dagger, and utterly intoxicating.
Genre: Horror, Dark Academia
Tourist Season
by Brynne Weaver
Welcome to Cape Carnage—a deceptively picturesque seaside town with colorful cottages, quirky shops, and more unsolved murders than your average true-crime binge. Harper Starling knows how to garden, how to protect, and, surprisingly, how to dispose of tourists—composting them in her award-winning flowerbeds if they dare threaten her “perfect” sanctuary.
Then Nolan Rhodes rolls in. Charming, relentless, and deadly with a purpose—he’s not just any tourist; he’s a serial avenger on a one-man rampage. Every year marks another victim tied to the hit-and-run that shattered his life—and Harper? He’s saved the best for last. Sparks fly through grudging alliances, razor-sharp banter, and body-count threats when truth—or maybe obsession—takes root between them.
Darkly funny, slow-burn enemies-to-lovers meets twisted suspense—Tourist Season drips with morbid charm and proves that in this romance, love is truly the most dangerous game.
Genre: Romance
Alchemised
by SenLinYu
Helena Marino used to be a healer in the Resistance—until a brutal war stripped her of her memories, her allies, and her freedom. Now she's a prisoner in a necromancer-ruled society, her past buried and her abilities suppressed. The only hope of recovering who she once was lies in Kaine, the High Reeve: a powerful necromancer who might hold the key to her lost memories—or use them to rip her apart.
As Helena fights to reclaim both her identity and her agency, she discovers that the line between victim and weapon is thinner than she'd ever imagined. Alchemised is a dark, haunting debut drenched in gothic magic and emotional intensity—a slow-burning dance between grief, power, and the truth we hide from ourselves.
Fun Fact: Did you know Alchemised has its roots in the Harry Potter fandom? SenLinYu first wrote the story as Manacled, a wildly popular Dramione (Draco/Hermione) fanfiction, before reimagining it into a completely original fantasy novel. And the magic doesn’t stop there — Alchemised has already been picked up by Legendary Entertainment in a seven-figure deal to be adapted into a movie.
Genre: Fantasy
Thief of Night
by Holly Black
Charlie Hall is back—and this time, the shadows she thought she'd conquered are turning against her. Just as she claims the Hierophant’s power to hunt rogue shadows, her lover Vincent returns—but without any memory of their past… and with Red, the ruthless shadow he used to be, lurking in his mind. Tasked with tracking a blight responsible for a church massacre, Charlie is vulnerable in a way she’s never been—lonely, heartbroken, and facing a darkness she may not outlast.
With shadows that betray, magic that hurts, and a heroine who’s never been great at playing nice, Thief of Night dives deeper into morally gray territory while keeping its sharp, twisted humor intact.
Genre: Dark Fantasy
Series: The Charlatan Duology, Book 2
September 25th
The Impossible Fortune
by Richard Osman
The beloved Thursday Murder Club is back—this time thrown off their cozy routines by wedding hosting duties. Joyce is tangled in table plans, Elizabeth is grappling with loss, Ron is juggling family issues, and Ibrahim is still offering therapy to an old client. When a wedding guest disappears and a dangerous villain targets an uncrackable code, the gang’s detective instincts ignite again. Hopped with wry humor, unexpected crimes, and a slice of lemon drizzle cake, The Impossible Fortune is the fifth installment in this warm-hearted cozy mystery series—a welcome return for readers who miss amateur sleuthing done with charm.
Genre: Crime, Mystery
Series: The Thursday Murder Club, Book 5
September 30th
Fake Skating
by Lynn Painter
Dani and Alec used to be inseparable—until life, distance, and a messy divorce tore them apart. Now, Dani’s back in Minnesota for her senior year, and Alec? He’s a full-on hockey god, the kind who gets cheers just for skating into a room. Cue the fallout. But when Alec needs to polish his reputation and Dani wants her shot at managing the team to boost her college dreams, a fake-dating deal is born.
What starts as a strategic arrangement quickly gets real: old memories resurface, secrets bubble up, and their playful banter turns into something warmer.
Fake Skating isn’t just a cute YA rom-com—it’s a cozy homecoming, a rekindled friendship, and a reminder that some love stories are worth fighting to thaw.
Genre: Romance
Crossroads of Ravens
by Andrzej Sapkowski
Before he became the White Wolf, Geralt of Rivia was just an idealistic young witcher fresh out of Kaer Morhen—haunted more by his own expectations than any monster’s roar. In Crossroads of Ravens, a reckless act of heroism lands him at the brink of a noose—only to be saved (somewhat reluctantly) by Preston Holt, a grizzled mentor with shadows of his own.
Under Holt’s watchful eye, Geralt steps onto the Path—the brutal, lonely way of a monster hunter—and discovers that surviving isn’t about slaying beasts, but deciding who you become when death is your constant companion. It’s about the cost of legend, and whether your conscience can outlive the darkness.
If you’ve ever wondered how the legend of Geralt began—or how you make peace with who you’re destined to be—this bittersweet, morality-steeped origin story is everything you’ve been waiting for.
Genre: Fantasy
The Book of Lost Hours
by Hayley Gelfuso
Imagine a library that preserves the memories of the dead, accessible only by magical watches—and targeted by forces bent on rewriting history. Eleven-year-old Lisavet Levy finds herself trapped in this mystical space in 1938, surrounded by memory-laced books and specters while her father remains missing. Decades later, in 1965, Amelia Duquesne—haunted by her American spy uncle’s disappearance—is drawn into the same realm when the CIA asks her to help recover a crucial memory book. As timelines intertwine and truths blur, both women discover that memory isn’t just a record—it’s resistance.
Rich in historical detail, lyrical wonder, and emotional resonance, The Book of Lost Hours is a mesmerizing debut about the power of remembrance, the fragility of truth, and how stories keep us alive across time.
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Heart the Lover
by Lily King
Jordan’s college senior year was supposed to be ordinary—classes, late-night card games, daylight dreams. But then Sam and Yash swept in: two brilliant classmates who brought friendship, laughter, and a dizzying kind of first love that felt electric and unstoppable. Years later, Jordan is settled, successful—and shockingly postmarked by that youthful triangle when a surprise visit brings the past crashing back.
Heart the Lover is a tender, evocative story about how decisions made in our reckless twenties ripple into decades, and how some love stories don’t fade—they linger, sharpen, and redefine us.
Genre: Literary Fiction
september 2025 book releases
If you enjoyed exploring this list of upcoming book releases, I would love to hear your thoughts! Feel free to share your comments, recommendations, or any books you are eagerly anticipating.
Disclaimer: I have added an affiliate link for your convenience so you can directly purchase the book if you are intrigued. This also means that I will receive small commission. This does not affect inclusion in my reviews or the overall rating of the book.
