Wow, half of 2025 is over. With the end of June comes the conclusion of my Hugo Awards reading. Sure, there may be a little bit of time left before the voting period is over, but honestly, I’m burned out. There are so many new books that want to be read and I feel I’ve done everything I could this year. I managed to read a lot more full categories than I had anticipated, so I’m counting it as a win. But now, it is officially over and I can go back to mood reading and making lists of favorite 2025 publications.
Quickie News
- The Hugo Awards voting period will end on July 23rd, so make sure to get your votes in.
- The Sword & Laser Podcast book club pick for July is The Devils by Joe Abercrombie. Who is a smart cookie for having requested the audiobook from her library a couple of weeks ago? That’s right, me! I’ll be starting in a few days. 🙂
The Nebula Awards Winners Have Been Announced
Huge congratulations to John Wiswell, who won Best Novel for his book Someone You Can Build a Nest In!
Other winners included:
- Best Novella: A. D. Sui – The Dragonfly Gambit
- Best Novelette: A. W. Prihandita – Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being
- Best Short Story: Isabel J. Kim – Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole
- Andre Norton Award: Vanessa Ricci-Thode – The Young Necromancer’s Guide to Ghosts
Congratulatoins to all the winners! Isabel J. Kim’s short story and John Wiswell’s novel are also Hugo Award finalists. Fingers crossed.
IGNYTE Awards Finalists
And we have more award news, with the IGNYTE Award finalists having been announced.
I am thrilled to see Nalo Hopkinson and August Clarke (aka H. A. Clarke) here! Yoon Ha Lee withdrew Moonstorm from the Lodestar ballot, so it’s nice to see the novel make this award list as well.
The list is long and there’s a lot of works on there I want to check out, both from known authors and ones that are new to me. Why on earth Moses Ose Utomi is not a Best Novella finalist, however, is beyond me. Seriously people, go read his books!
All the finalists and a link to the public vote can be found here.
TV, Movie, And Other Adaptation News
The Devils and James Cameron
It turns out James Cameron, of Titanic and Avatar fame, is a huge Joe Abercrombie fan. He has acquired the screen rights to Lord Grimdark’s latest novel The Devils. The two are set to co-write the script.
I haven’t read The Devils yet, although that will definitely happen in July, but any adaptation of a Joe Abercrombie book is a win, in my opinion. With a name as huge as James Cameron attached, and a director known for trying new things, it will hopefully turn out to be a great success.
Divine Rivals Adaptation
In equally exciting news, Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross has been bought by Paramount. The screenplay will be penned by Sofia Alvarez, who also wrote the first two To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before movie scripts.
Seeing how much I adored the book, I am hopeful that the adatpation will bring the same magic and longing to the screen. It will be a while before we actually get to see either of these projects come to life, and we all know Hollywood can throw a wrench in things, but it’s still nice to have two such big and cool adaptations to look forward to.
Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping Casting
Casting continues for the second Hunger Games prequel. I haven’t read either of the two prequels yet, and I think I’ll skip The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, but I will read Sunrise on the Reaping before the movie comes out. It has gotten much better reviews and the cast is already looking stellar!
Elle Fanning will play a younger Effie Trinket, Ralph Fiennes will be Coriolanus Snow, and Kieran Culkin will dazzle us as young Caesar Flickerman. The movie is set to come out in November 2026.
Books From the Future (or: Feed Your Wishlist)
Look at the pretties! Links go to Goodreads.
- The Poet Empress by Shen Tao is blessed with a stunning cover! And it has poetry magic. We’ll get to see just what that means in January 2026.
- Through Gates of Garnet and Gold is the eleventh (!) Wayward Children novella by Seanan McGuire and it promises a return to the character Nancy. This will also come out in January 2026.
- A Rather Vengeful Accord by Danielle Knight is giving Gideon the Ninth vibes. I will find out if that’s true in November 2025.
Exciting July Publications
The summer months are usually not as chock full of exciting publications as spring and fall, which is great for me, because I have a LOT to catch up on. July brings a lot of romantasy and cozy books, plus some novellas, which sounds just perfect for the holidays.
JULIE SOTO – ROSE IN CHAINS (July 3rd)
Julie Soto started out as a fanfiction writer but has been published traditionally for a while now. As far as I know, this is her first fantasy novel, however, and I am so excited to read it. I was granted an audibook ARC of this via NetGalley and my review will be up in a few days. The book was okay.
New York Times bestselling author Julie Soto crafts a lush and dark romantic fantasy that’s filled with intrigue, magic, and an irresistible enemies-to-lovers romance.
The war is over, the dark forces have won, and the hero who was supposed to save them is dead.
Captured as her castle is overrun by the enemy, the world as Briony Rosewood knows it is changed forever. Evil has won, and her people face imminent servitude, imprisonment, or death.
Stripped of her Magic and her freedom, Briony and the other survivors are quickly sold off to the highest bidders in an auction—and as Evermore’s princess, she fetches the highest price. After a fierce bidding war, she’s sold to none other than Toven Hearst, scion of a family known for their cruelty.
Yet despite the horrors of her new world and the role she must learn to play within it, all is not lost. Help—and hope—may yet arise in the most unlikely of places…
BRIGITTE KNIGHTLEY – THE IRRISISTIBLE URGE TO FALL FOR YOUR ENEMY (July 8th)
I love the title, I love the covers I’ve seen around, I love the premise. This sounds like the exact kind of romantasy I want to curl up with this summer.
The first in a slow burn, enemies-to-lovers romantasy duology featuring a scholarly healer and a gentleman assassin, set in an exquisite fantasy world, perfect for fans of The Love Hypothesis and Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries.
Osric Mordaunt, member of the Fyren Order of assassins, is in dire need of healing. Naturally – such is the grim comedy of fate – the only healer who can help is Aurienne Fairhrim, preeminent scientist, bastion of moral good, and member of an enemy Order.
Aurienne is desperate for funding to heal the sick – so desperate that, when Osric bribes her to help him, she accepts, even if she detests him and everything he stands for.
A forced collaboration ensues: the brilliant Woman in STEM is coerced into working with the PhD in Murders, much to Aurienne’s disgust. As Osric and Aurienne work together to heal his illness and investigate the mysterious reoccurrence of a deadly pox, they find themselves ardently denying their attraction, which only fuels the heat between them.
Romance tropes
Enemies to lovers
High interaction slow burn
Hypercompetent idiots
He falls first and harder
Evisceration as a love language
MEGAN BANNEN – THE UNDERCUTTING OF ROSIE AND ADAM (July 8th)
Megan Bannen piqued my interest with Hart and Mercy, then absolutely stole my heart with Twyla and Frank. Now it’s time to see what Rosie and Adam have in store for me.
From the author of The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy comes a new heart warming fantasy rom-com with an opposites-attract twist set in the delightful world of Tanria.
Immortal demigod Rosie Fox has been patrolling Tanria for decades, but lately, the job has been losing its lustre. After one hundred and fifty-seven years of being alive, everything is beginning to lose its lustre. When Rosie dies (again) by electrocution (again) after poking around inside a portal choked with shadowy thorns only she can see, she feels stuck in the rut that is her unending life.
Thanks to Rosie’s meddling, the portal inventor, Dr. Adam Lee, must come in person to repair the damage. When all the portals begin to break down, he declares an emergency evacuation of Tanria. In the mad rush to get out, Rosie and Adam end up trapped inside the Mist. Together.
And uptight Adam Lee in his bespoke menswear seems to know a lot more about what’s happening than he lets on. . .
SANGU MANDANNA – A WITCH’S GUIDE TO MAGICAL INNKEEPING (July 15th)
The follow-up (although not a sequel) to The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches promises to be another cozy romantasy that is right up my alley.
A whimsical and heartwarming novel about a witch who has a second chance to get her magical powers—and her life—back on track, from the national bestselling author of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches.
Sera Swan used to be one of the most powerful witches in Britain. Then she resurrected her great-aunt Jasmine from the (very recently) dead, lost most of her magic, befriended a semi-villainous talking fox, and was exiled from her Guild. Now she (slightly reluctantly and just a bit grumpily) helps her aunt run an enchanted inn in Lancashire, where she deals with her quirky guests’ shenanigans, tries to keep said talking fox in check, and longs for the future that seems lost to her. But then she finds out about an old spell that could hold the key to restoring her power…
Enter Luke Larsen, handsome and icy magical historian, who arrives on a dark winter evening and might just know how to unlock the spell’s secrets. Luke has absolutely no interest in getting involved in the madcap goings-on of the inn and is definitely not about to let a certain bewitching innkeeper past his walls, so no one is more surprised than he is when he agrees to help Sera with her spell. Worse, he might actually be thawing.
Running an inn, reclaiming lost magic, and staying one step ahead of the watchful Guild is a lot for anyone, but Sera Swan is about to discover that she doesn’t have to do it alone…and that the weird, wonderful family she’s made might be the best magic of all.
SARAH BETH DURST – THE ENCHANTED GREENHOUSE (July 15th)
We’re staying cozy with another companion novel, rather than a sequel, to Durst’s Spellshop. I enjoyed the first book, although I wasn’t as in love as with some other cozy romantasies. But I will very likely read this one, as well.
Terlu Perna broke the law because she was lonely. She cast a spell and created a magically sentient spider plant. As punishment, she was turned into a wooden statue and tucked away into an alcove in the North Reading Room of the Great Library of Alyssium.
This should have been the end of her story . . . Yet one day, Terlu wakes in the cold of winter on a nearly-deserted island full of hundreds of magical greenhouses. She’s starving and freezing, and the only other human on the island is a grumpy gardener. To her surprise, he offers Terlu a place to sleep, clean clothes, and freshly baked honey cakes—at least until she’s ready to sail home.
But Terlu can’t return home and doesn’t want to—the greenhouses are a dream come true, each more wondrous than the next. When she learns that the magic that sustains them is failing—causing the death of everything within them—Terlu knows she must help. Even if that means breaking the law again.
This time, though, she isn’t alone. Assisted by the gardener and a sentient rose, Terlu must unravel the secrets of a long-dead sorcerer if she wants to save the island—and have a fresh chance at happiness and love.
Funny, kind, and forgiving, The Enchanted Greenhouse is a story about giving second chances—to others and to yourself.
MOSES OSE UTOMI – THE MEMORY OF THE OGISI (July 15th)
THESE BOOKS ARE SO GOOD YOU GUYS!!! Seriously underknown/underrated, this novella trilogy does spectacular things with language and ideas, with time and characters, and I cannot wait to eat it up. I’ve had this pre-ordered since it was listed.
The epic conclusion to Moses Ose Utomi’s critically acclaimed Forever Desert series, The Memory of the Ogisi shatters every truth, destroys every lie, and is a story of oppression no one shall ever forget.
Even deserts have a beginning. Even gardens have an end. Even water has a story.One thousand years after Tutu and five hundred years after Osi the City of a Thousand Stories stands resolute on the edge of the Forever Desert. A teeming oasis, water flows into every mouth that thirsts and knowledge sprouts in every mind that hungers for it.
Ethike is an Ogisi, one of the City’s many historians, who has devoted his life to studying a little-known figure named Osi. Unfortunately, the city has never approved any of his research papers and if he doesn’t find Osi’s story soon he will be stripped of his position.
Desperate to keep himself and his family from losing everything, Ethike ventures into the Forever Desert in search of the Lost Tomb of Osi. If he can find it, he will finally be able to prove his worth to the City’s elders and, more importantly, cement Osi’s role in history. But history is a tale told by those with power. What Ethike uncovers beneath the sand is far beyond anything he could have expected….and it is extremely angry.
MORGAN RYAN – A RESISTANCE OF WITCHES (July 15th)
WWII, but with witches. Witches fighting Nazis! This is a historical fantasy debut and I’m not sure the cover fits the description, but I am very intrigued and want to check it out.
A historical fantasy debut set against the backdrop of World War II, where a witch journeys to find a book of unspeakable power before it lands in Nazi hands
Stubborn, plain-spoken and from an unimpressive family, Lydia Polk never expected to be accepted into the Royal Academy of Witches. Eight years later, with Hitler’s army rampaging across Europe, the witches of Britain have joined the war effort, and Lydia is key to the she must use her magic to track down magical relics before Hitler—known to be obsessively seeking the artifacts himself—and his sycophants can. Then a Nazi witch infiltrates the Academy with heart-breaking consequences, leaving the coven shaken, exposed and the elder British witches have no interest in further loss of coven life in service of a government that has forced them into hiding for decades, no matter the consequences to the world. But with the discovery of the Grimorium Bellum, an ancient book that leaves a trail of death and destruction wherever it goes—one the Nazi coven is desperate to get their hands on—Lydia’s mission has never been more urgent.
Alone and woefully outnumbered, Lydia makes her way to the heart of occupied France, where she finds allies in Rebecca Gagne—a fierce French resistance fighter chockful of secrets—and Henry Boudreaux—a handsome Haitian-American art historian with a little magic of his own. Together, they traverse the country, stalked by the natural and supernatural alike, in search of the grimoire. But, as Lydia soon discovers, finding the Grimorium Bellum is only half the the book has a dark agenda of its own. Lydia must subdue it before the witches of the Third Reich can use it—but she’ll have to survive the book herself, first.
SETH HADDON – VOLATILE MEMORY (July 22nd)
Another novella with “memory” in the title, this caught my attention with its comps. Ex Machina meets This Is How You Lose the Time War? Sign me up!
Ex Machina meets This is How You Lose the Time War: Seth Haddon’s science fiction debut, Volatile Memory, is a heart-filled, vengeful sapphic sci-fi action adventure novella.
With nothing but a limping ship and an outdated mask to her name, Wylla needs a big pay day. When the call goes out that a lucrative piece of tech is waiting on a nearby planet, she relies on all the swiftness of her prey animal instincts to beat other hunters to it.
What you found wasn’t your ticket out—it was my corpse wearing an AI mask. When you touched the mask, you heard my voice. A consciousness spinning through metal and circuits, a bodiless mind, spun to life in the HAWK’s temporary storage. I crystallized, and I was alive.
Masks aren’t supposed to retain memory, much less identity, but the woman inside the MARK I HAWK is real, and she sees Wylla in a way no one ever has. Sees her, and doesn’t find her wanting or unwhole.
Armed with military-grade tech and a lifetime of staying one step ahead of the hunters, Wylla and HAWK set off to get answers from the man who discarded HAWK once before: her ex-husband.
KARIN LOWACHEE – A COVENANT OF ICE (July 29th)
Okay, so I haven’t read the first two books in this trilogy yet, but Lowachee blew me away with her novel War Child, so I need this. Also, it’s nice that I can now read all three novellas in one go.
The exciting conclusion to the gunslinging dragonrider trilogy!
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 forever: 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.
News from the blog
As I mentioned all the way at the beginning of this post, I am done with Hugo Award reading for this year. Could I still cram in the Astounding award finalists I haven’t read yet? Probably. Do I want to? No. No, it’s enough now. I will be reading lots of 2025 publications this summer and catch up on series and trilogies I put on hold due to my Hugo Award reading project. It will be wonderful.
What I read last month:
The Scapegracers Trilogy was a blast, with every book a five-star read. But my Hugo fatigue started showing and Dungeon Crawler Carl book five was just the book I needed to keep me from getting into a slump. The rest of the Lodestar ballot was middling, which at least made ranking the books easy.
Speaking of which, here are my final Reading the Hugos posts for the year:
Currently reading:
- Ali Hazelwood – Not in Love
- Joe Abercrombie – The Devils
I was so good this year with the Hugo ballot, but I must admit it feels like a weight off my chest being done. I threw in a bit of contemporary romance, almost as a palate cleanser, but I am also super excited to start The Devils. After that, I’ll probably continue with Dungeon Crawler Carl, because I can’t seem to stay away from that world.
Until next month: Stay safe, stay kind, and keep reading.
