It may only be the first week of the year, but there’s already plenty of discussion about what the biggest best-sellers of 2024 are likely to be.
Romantasy, Second World War anniversary recollections and a celebration of Jane Austen are likely to be among the hot book trends of 2025.
“Romance has been absolutely huge this year, particularly what we call spicy romance,” says Bea Carvalho, head of books at Waterstones.
“Next year, we’ve got books coming from big-name authors including Jojo Moyes, Emily Henry and Taylor Jenkins Reid.”
New publications are also expected to mark the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth.
Meanwhile, in health and wellbeing, manifesting is still drawing readers, with a new book from self-help guru Paul McKenna.
Here are just a few of the books to look out for in 2025 - according to the experts at Waterstones.
13. So Thrilled For You by Holly Bourne (Hodder & Stoughton, Jan 16)
She’s known as the bestselling author of teen and YA books, but this one will break her out into a wide adult market,” Carvalho predicts. It centres on a group of friends at different stages of their lives, and their decisions on whether to have a baby or not, until the friendships unfold at a baby shower. | Contributed
14. Three Days In June by Anne Tyler (Chatto & Windus, Feb 13)
Out in time for Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author brings us the story of a woman whose daughter is getting married and whose estranged husband turns up in time for the wedding, and how family dynamics play out over the course of the wedding weekend. | Contributed
15. Sharpe’s Storm by Bernard Cornwell (HarperCollins, Oct 21)
The 19th book in the Sharpe series which finds the war against Napoleon raging around Europe and, as Britain is poised to invade France for the first time, Richard Sharpe and his men face a truly fierce army. | Contributed
16. Whistle by Linwood Barclay (HarperCollins, Jun 5)
He’s best known for his taut thrillers, but Linwood Barclay brings us his debut horror in which a children’s author and illustrator finds strange things happening when her son finds a forgotten train set in their new house, and the emergence of a supernatural presence. She is also being compelled to draw a disturbing new character who has no place in a children’s book. | Contributed