25 Must-Read New Book Releases in March 2025
Spring is almost here, and with it comes a fresh wave of incredible book releases! March 2025 is packed with exciting new book releases. I’ve rounded up 25 must-read new releases—plus 5 extra books I have my eye on that I just couldn’t leave out! Whether you’re in the mood for a time-traveling love story, a dark and twisty mystery, or a beautifully written historical epic, this month has something for every book lover.
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Historical Fiction
Romance
Fantasy
Mystery/Thriller
5 Extras You Can’t Miss!
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Historical Fiction
One Good Thing
Georgia Hunter
Pamela Dorman Books | March 4, 2025
In 1940s Italy, best friends Lili and Esti navigate Mussolini’s oppressive Racial Laws and the Nazi occupation, risking everything to protect Jewish war orphans. Forced into hiding as nuns in a Florence convent, they forge documents for the Underground until disaster strikes. Gravely injured, Esti entrusts her young son, Theo, to Lili, who embarks on a harrowing journey through Nazi-occupied territory to keep him safe. A powerful story of friendship, motherhood, and survival, One Good Thing is a testament to love’s resilience even in the darkest times.
The King’s Messenger
Susanna Kearsley
Sourcebooks Landmark | March 4, 2025
Set in 1613, as King James unites Scotland and England under one crown, rumors swirl that his son, Prince Henry, was poisoned. Andrew Logan, a King’s Messenger with a secret gift of Sight, is sent on a perilous mission to capture Sir David Murray, a former courtier accused of treachery. In an era where whispers of witchcraft lead to death, Andrew must navigate courtly intrigue, betrayal, and hidden dangers in this gripping tale of loyalty, deception, and forbidden gifts. Perfect for fans of Diana Gabaldon and Philippa Gregory.
The Girl from Greenwich Street
Lauren Willig
William Morrow | March 4, 2025
In 1799 Manhattan, the mysterious murder of Elma Sands forces political rivals Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr to join forces in defending accused killer Levi Weeks. As handbills spread accusations and public outrage grows, Burr sees the high-profile case as a chance to fund his ambitions. Hamilton refuses to let him seize the spotlight alone. With a looming trial, a heated election, and their own bitter rivalry at play, the two race to save a man’s life—while setting the stage for their own infamous duel. Part murder mystery, part true crime, The Girl From Greenwich Street uncovers a dark chapter of history with a shocking twist.
The Jackal’s Mistress
Chris Bohjalian
Doubleday | March 11, 2025
In war-torn Virginia, 1864, Libby Steadman struggles to keep her gristmill running while fearing her husband is lost in a Union prison camp. When she discovers gravely wounded Union officer Jonathan Weybridge left for dead, she faces an impossible choice—let him die or risk treason by nursing him back to health. As battle lines shift around her, Libby’s act of compassion could cost her everything, or offer a chance to negotiate for news of her husband. The Jackal’s Mistress is a sweeping tale of love, humanity, and survival in the midst of brutal war.
The Paris Express
Emma Donoghue
Summit Books | March 18, 2025
Inspired by the 1895 disaster immortalized in stunning photographs, The Paris Express is a gripping novel set aboard a train teeming with a diverse cast of passengers. As the locomotive hurtles toward fate, members of parliament rush to a crucial vote, a medical student fears for a dying girl, a secretary champions the future of moving pictures, and a young anarchist plots a deadly act. With characters from across the globe, their intersecting lives create a riveting tale of ambition, secrets, and impending catastrophe.
Romance
Promise Me Sunshine
Cara Bastone
The Dial Press | March 4, 2025
Still reeling from the loss of her best friend Lou, Lenny is struggling to move forward, dodging her worried parents and the daunting “live again” list she’s supposed to complete. The only thing keeping her afloat is a babysitting job for overworked single mom Reese and her spirited daughter, Ainsley—except Ainsley’s grumpy uncle, Miles, is always around. Miles, however, sees through Lenny’s act and, knowing grief himself, proposes a deal: he’ll help her tackle her list if she helps him bond with Ainsley and mend his strained relationship with Reese. As they spend more time together, Lenny realizes that sometimes, losing everything is just the beginning of finding yourself—and love—again.
Wild Side
Elsie Silver
Bloom Books | March 4, 2025
To keep custody of her nephew, she makes an unthinkable choice—marrying Rhys Dupris, the man who betrayed her. Secretive, brooding, and always disappearing with unexplained bruises, Rhys is infuriatingly distant… except when he’s watching her with a heat that’s impossible to ignore. Their arrangement was supposed to be simple, but living under the same roof makes resisting him harder than she ever imagined. As she glimpses the fiercely protective, unexpectedly tender man beneath the mask, hating her husband becomes a battle—and loving him feels all too easy.
My Big Fat Fake Marriage
Charlotte Stein
St. Martin’s Griffin | March 11, 2025
Connie doesn’t trust nice guys—there’s always a catch. But then she meets Beck, a charming, bow tie-wearing editor who seems almost too good to be true. When he confesses he’s told his colleagues he’s married—despite being single—Connie impulsively backs up his lie. Now, stuck playing the role of his fake wife on a writing retreat, the ruse starts to feel dangerously real. As shared beds and stolen kisses blur the lines, Connie wonders if Beck is the exception to her rule—or just another heartbreak waiting to happen.
Kate Landry Has a Plan
Rebekah Millet
Bethany House | March 18, 2025
Forty-year-old Kate Landry’s life is a whirlwind of beignets, running her café, and raising her teenage niece, all while dealing with the fallout from a painful breakup. But when her first crush, the charming Micah Guidry, returns to town as the hunky local librarian, her carefully crafted world is turned upside down. Amid the chaos of Mardi Gras and the interference of her scheming ex-fiancé, Micah unexpectedly becomes her hero, igniting feelings she thought she had left behind. Falling in love in New Orleans was never supposed to be this complicated.
Hangry Hearts
Jennifer Chen
Wednesday Books | March 18, 2025
Julie Wu and Randall Hur used to be best friends, but now their families are rivals, only seeing each other at the Pasadena Farmers Market. When they’re forced to work together on a community-service school project with ultra-rich London Kim, old feelings resurface. London quickly develops a crush on Julie, but Julie can’t stop thinking about Randall, and Randall is jealous of London’s interest. Secret meetings and stolen kisses follow, but when their families find out, they are heartbroken. With the Year of the Dragon offering a chance for resolution, Randall is determined to fight for Julie—and for a second chance with their families. Hangry Hearts is a heartwarming romance about love, family, and overcoming obstacles to find happiness.
Fantasy
The Ragpicker King
Cassandra Clare
Tor | March 4, 2025
In the thrilling sequel to Sword Catcher, Lin and Kel navigate treacherous paths of power, deception, and forbidden love. As Kel hunts down those behind a brutal palace massacre, he’s drawn into a deadly conspiracy threatening the royal family—one led by the man engaged to the woman he loves. Meanwhile, Lin, having falsely claimed to be the Goddess Reborn to save a friend, must prove her powers or face exile, forging uneasy alliances to access the magic she desperately needs. With Castellane on the brink of chaos and Prince Conor seeking her help to cure his father’s madness, Lin and Kel must choose their allies wisely—because one wrong move could mean death.
Oathbound
Tracy Deonn
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers | March 4, 2025
Severed from the Legendborn and bound to the Shadow King, Bree Matthews is alone, having sacrificed everything to keep her loved ones safe. Now forced into an unbreakable bargain, she must train under the Shadow King while unknowingly becoming his protégé. Meanwhile, the fractured Round Table faces war, Nick invokes an ancient law to confront the High Council, and mysterious kidnappings and Merlin deaths escalate. But no matter how far Bree runs, her past—and her destiny—will always catch up with her.
Sunrise on the Reaping
Suzanne Collins
Scholastic Press | March 18, 2025
As the 50th Hunger Games—the brutal Quarter Quell—begins, District 12’s Haymitch Abernathy is ripped from his home, his love, and his dreams. Facing twice the usual number of tributes, he enters the arena alongside an unlikely trio: a close friend, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. Set up to fail, Haymitch must decide if survival is enough—or if he can fight for something greater.
The Bane Witch
Ava Morgyn
St. Martin’s Griffin | March 18, 2025
Piers Corbin has always been drawn to poison—both in plants and in men. After faking her death to escape a dangerous marriage, she seeks refuge with her estranged great-aunt and discovers her true lineage as a Bane Witch, a woman who consumes deadly plants to rid the world of evil men. As Piers hones her deadly craft while working at her aunt’s café and charming the local sheriff to avoid suspicion, a serial killer sets his sights on her. Now, it’s time to feed. In The Bane Witch, Ava Morgyn delivers a dark, thrilling tale where a little poison can do a world of good.
Elphie: A Wicked Childhood
Gregory Maguire
William Morrow | March 25, 2025
Gregory Maguire’s Elphie explores the untold childhood of Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of the West, before her powers fully take hold. Shaped by her mother’s wild ways and her father’s strict piety, young Elphie navigates sibling rivalries, the mistreatment of Oz’s Animal populations, and the struggles of friendship and education. Marked from birth by her green skin and sharp wit, she learns to survive in a world that sees her as an outsider. As she prepares to enter Shiz University—where she will meet the dazzling Galinda—her path toward witchhood and destiny begins.
Mystery/Thriller
Count My Lies
Sophie Stava
Gallery/Scout Press | March 4, 2025
In Count My Lies, Sloane Caraway’s harmless fibs take a dark turn when a small lie about being a nurse lands her a nanny job for the wealthy Lockharts—a seemingly perfect New York family. But as she settles into their privileged world, Sloane realizes she’s not the only one keeping secrets. Beneath the picture-perfect facade lurks a far more dangerous truth, and soon, she’s caught in a web of deception she may not escape. Sophie Stava delivers a gripping, twist-filled thriller about the lies we tell, the truths we twist, and the peril of keeping up appearances.
Wild Dark Shore
Charlotte McConaghy
Flatiron Books | March 4, 2025
On the remote island of Shearwater, Dominic Salt and his three children are the last inhabitants, tasked with safeguarding the world’s largest seed bank before rising sea levels force them to leave. Isolation has fractured the family, but when a mysterious woman, Rowan, washes ashore during a brutal storm, they begin to find solace in her presence. Yet Rowan harbors secrets about why she came to Shearwater—just as Dominic hides dark truths of his own. As tensions rise and another storm looms, trust becomes a matter of survival in this haunting tale of loss, resilience, and redemption.
Silent as the Grave
Rhys Bowen, Clare Broyles
Minotaur Books | March 11, 2025
In Silent as the Grave, Molly Murphy Sullivan juggles motherhood while her husband, Daniel, is away on business. When her friend Ryan O’Hara invites her and the children to visit a film set, an unexpected opportunity arises—Molly’s adopted daughter, Bridie, is cast in a leading role. But as the film’s production takes a dangerous turn, Molly suspects sabotage in the cutthroat world of early cinema. With deadly mishaps on set and whispers of a film studio feud, Molly must go undercover to unravel the mystery before the next accident turns fatal.
This Book Will Bury Me
Ashley Winstead
Sourcebooks Landmark | March 25, 2025
In This Book Will Bury Me, college student Jane Sharp, grieving her father’s death, becomes captivated by true crime. As she joins a community of online sleuths, she and her friends dive into a baffling case—the murders of three college girls in Delphine, Idaho. As they dig deeper, they uncover more questions than answers, with details that don’t add up and a killer who seems smarter than they imagined. A year later, Jane decides to reveal the shocking truth behind the case, a confession that will stun even the most dedicated true crime enthusiasts.
I Would Die for You
Sandie Jones
Minotaur Books | March 25, 2025
In I Would Die for You, Nicole Forbes lives a peaceful life in a small seaside town, until a writer knocks on her door, asking about the downfall of the biggest British band of the 1980s—a past she left behind. On the same day, her daughter goes missing, and the school claims her aunt picked her up, even though Nicole has no such relative. As she investigates the mysterious connection, Nicole is forced to confront long-buried memories. Back in 1986, Nicole’s younger sister, Cassie, is obsessed with the band Secret Oktober, and when their lead singer, Ben Edwards, becomes drawn to Nicole instead, it sets in motion a chain of events that threatens to unravel everything. With 80s nostalgia and a thrilling plot, Sandie Jones weaves a gripping tale of fandom and its dangerous consequences.
Plus 5 More!
Broken Country
Clare Leslie Hall
Simon & Schuster | March 4, 2025
When her brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart all those years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son Bobby, who died a few years earlier.
As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel and Leo’s lives, tensions around the village rise, and jealousy rears its ugly head. Beth and her gentle and kind husband Frank are happily married, but they have their fair share of secrets, and their relationship relies on the past staying buried. And when the truth begins to come out, events spiral out of control, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice—between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.
A sweeping, sexy love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.
Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave
Elle Cosimano
Minotaur Books | March 4, 2025
Finlay Donovan and her nanny/partner-in-crime, Vero, have not always gotten along with Finlay’s elderly neighbor, Mrs. Haggerty, the community busybody and president of the neighborhood watch. But when a dead body is discovered in her backyard, Mrs. Haggerty needs their help. At first a suspect, Mrs. Haggerty is cleared by the police, but her house remains an active crime scene. She has nowhere to go . . . except Finlay’s house, right across the street.
Finlay and Vero have no interest in getting involved in another murder case—or sacrificing either of their bedrooms. After all, they’ve dealt with enough murders over the last four months to last a lifetime and they both would much rather share their beds with someone else.
The Undoing of Violet Claybourne
Emily Critchley
Sourcebooks Landmark | March 4, 2025
1938. Gillian Larkin is used to going unnoticed, until she is sent away to school and befriended by her roommate, the vibrant and spirited Violet Claybourne. As the Christmas holidays approach, Gilly can’t believe her luck when Violet invites her to spend them at her home, the crumbling Thornleigh Hall.
At Thornleigh, Gilly is dazzled by the family’s faded grandeur, and above all by Violet’s beguiling older sisters who seem to accept her as one of their own. But following a terrible accident in the house’s grounds, Gilly begins to realise the Claybourne sisters aren’t quite what she thought they were. And if she’s to survive in their world, she may have to become just like them . . .
A captivating novel of family secrets, desperate ambition and deepest betrayal, set against the winter of 1938, The Undoing of Violet Claybourne is the irresistible new mystery from the acclaimed author of One Puzzling Afternoon.
Early Thirties
Josh Duboff
Gallery/Scout Press | March 18, 2025
Victor and Zoey are getting old—well, older—and it’s beginning to be a real problem.
Best friends since college they have been through thick and thin, poor and poorer, drunk and drunker throughout their twenties in New York. Victor has built a successful career writing celebrity profiles for one of the last glossy magazines left standing, and Zoey is working for a fashion startup that is desperately trying to figure out how to monetize influencers, but has definitely figured out how to create a toxic work culture.
But their wild twenties where mistakes can be forgiven, and hangovers last just until the first bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich is now replaced with responsibility, deadlines, and regrets a greasy breakfast can’t cure.
Victor and Zoey both want something more, and when tragedy befalls Victor their once unbreakable bond is starting to show cracks. They begin to leave each other on read in their constant text thread, and push away what they feel might be the only true love of their lives in this immersive, hilarious, and heartbreaking story about coming of age, finding yourself, and maybe realizing growing up has just as much to do with the person you were as it does with the person you are struggling to become.
All Our Beautiful Goodbyes
Julianne MacLean
Lake Union | March 25, 2025
1946: World War II is over, and Emma Clarkson is poised to take flight. With dreams of attending university, she’s ready to leave behind the wild beauty of Sable Island, the only home she’s ever known. But when a handsome British sea captain is rescued from a nearby shipwreck, her destiny is forever changed.
Emma falls deeply in love with Oliver Harris, but their romance is not meant to be. Oliver returns to the sea, while Emma vows to forget him and pursue her own ambitions. When a handsome veterinarian arrives on the island to study the wild horses, Emma finds love again, but soon discovers that all is not as it seems…
1995: Mourning the death of her beloved grandmother, Joanna Griffin is shocked to learn that her grandfather once loved a young woman named Emma, but lies, betrayals, and catastrophic events separated them forever. As Joanna crosses an ocean to solve the secrets of her grandfather’s past, she learns that love is a powerful force, even mightier than the passage of time…
A shining thread of hope illuminates this epic tale of lost love and fallen dreams, set in the remote splendor of Nova Scotia and spanning decades.
March 2025 is bringing us so many incredible new books, and I can’t wait to dive into these stories! Whether you’re looking for an edge-of-your-seat thriller, a sweeping historical drama, or a cozy romance, this list has something for every kind of reader.
Which of these books are you most excited about? Let me know in the comments!
If you want more of my book recommendations, you can find curated book lists here.
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