Debut Releases - June 2025
All the SFF debut novels from big 5 and selected indie publishers.
Debuts
Devils Like Us
by L.T. Thompson - Jun 3, 2025
Our Flag Means Death meets The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue in this YA historical fantasy about three queer and trans teens facing down a secret magical society.
Cas has a rule: Don’t tell anyone. Not about the nagging gender discomfort, and certainly not about the prophetic visions of untimely deaths. Cas broke this rule only once, and in response, Remy DeWindt ended their friendship forever.
Remy has spent the last eight years researching the secret society that kidnapped her father and the dark magic they practice. She’s determined to take them down and bring her father home—no matter what her former friend Cas thinks happened to him.
Finn is desperately in love with Remy, but Remy would never give in to a desire the church deems a sin. But Finn isn’t worried about sin. She already committed the worst sin of all when she made a sinister bargain for a deadly price—a price that will soon have to be paid.
When Cas’s latest vision sets the three of them on a collision course, they embark on a journey that will force them to confront hidden secrets and deadly magic—and also offer them the chance to find out who they truly are.
A Dance of Lies
by Brittney Arena - Jun 10, 2025
A debut fantasy romance filled with hope after heartbreak, secrets, and betrayal, as a dancer-turned-spy must decide how far she will go to secure her freedom
My protector is gone, revealed to be a monster. But I remind myself that I am not a damsel. I’m no princess bound within a tower.
I am a shadow.
Vasalie Moran was once a dancer in King Illian’s court, until he framed her for murder. Barely surviving her two years in the dungeons, she’s suddenly called to face her king. He offers her a deal: become his spy at the six-week royal Gathering and he’ll grant her freedom.
As Illian’s orders grow bloody and dangerous, forcing her to harm and betray those around her, Vasalie discovers that the monster she serves may be aligned with a bigger monster—one far closer to home. With her world threatened, Vasalie enlists the help of Illian’s brother and greatest adversary, the infamous King of the East.
As the rivalry between brothers escalates, with Vasalie caught in the middle, the horrifying truth of her past comes to light. If she wants to survive, she must decide who to trust, who to fight for, and how much of her soul she’s willing to damn in the process.
The Compound
by Aisling Rawle - Jun 24, 2025
You wake up in a compound in the middle of the desert, along with nine other women.
All of you are young, all beautiful, all keen to escape the grinding poverty, political unrest and environmental catastrophe of the outside world.
You realise that cameras are tracking your every move, broadcasting to millions of reality TV fans.
Soon, ten men will arrive on foot – if they all survive the journey.
What will you have to do to win?
And what happens to the losers?
LORD OF THE FLIES meets LOVE ISLAND in this explosive, addictive debut novel, as bingeable as the best reality TV, with dark undercurrents of literary dystopia and consumerist satire.
Sequels within a debut series
Flight of the Fallen
Book 2 in the Magebike Courier Trilogy
by Hana Lee - Jun 10, 2025
Hana Lee’s gritty, queer Mad Max–inspired fantasy trilogy continues with more high-stakes political intrigue, monsters of all kinds, and a high-speed motorcycle adventure to find a refuge for humanity beyond the wasteland.
Jin-Lu should be happy. Princess Yi-Nereen of Kerina Rut and Prince Kadrin of Kerina Sol have reunited after twelve long years, having survived a near-apocalypse. They are safe and in love—thanks to Jin—and they want her to join them for their upcoming nuptials in Kerina Sol.
But their happy ending came at the cost of Jin’s.
Jin lost everything in the fallout of saving the world. Now she’s Talentless, scrabbling to eke out a living in the lowest echelons of society. All she wants is to be left alone with her shameful secret, but the storms that sweep the wastes have other plans.
When refugees from a fallen city flood into Kerina Sol, the delicate balance between Talented and Talentless shatters. With tensions rising and civil war looming, Yi-Nereen, Kadrin, and Jin must join forces again to save their own people and the refugees.
Now their salvation lies beyond the wastes, in the mythical home of the the First City.