Source: the publisher

Nobody’s Baby, by Olivia Waite

A delightful sequel to last year’s Murder by Memory! I inhaled it in two sittings, and thoroughly enjoyed revisiting the world and characters.

The Keeper of Magical Things, by Julie Leong

A lovely, warm, cozy sapphic fantasy about kindness, community, and learning to be your true self

The Secret Christmas Library, by Jenny Colgan

A ramshackle old castle, a hidden book, a treasure hunt, and a touch of romance— it’s the latest heartwarming holiday novel by Jenny Colgan.

A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping, by Sangu Mandanna

What a lovely, warm hug of a book! Cozy, heartwarming, and enchanting (but never saccharine or twee), A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping centers around found family, love, acceptance, healing, and the strength of rebuilding yourself after disaster.

The Martian Contingency, by Mary Robinette Kowal

I loved returning to the Lady Astronaut universe after several years. This installment looks at the Second Mars Expedition, and the start of the permanent colony. Elma York is back as the first-person narrator, and this book brings her arc to a satisfying point, if not the end of her adventures.

Murder by Memory, by Olivia Waite

A cozy mystery set on a generation spaceship, Murder by Memory features a practical, wise, and observant detective who unexpectedly finds herself inhabiting the body of… a murderer? A victim? Or both?

The Teller of Small Fortunes, by Julie Leong

I loved The Teller of Small Tales, Julie Leong’s debut novel. It’s a cozy quest fantasy with a found-family vibe, set in a vaguely British renaissance-era world.

Buried Deep and Other Stories, by Naomi Novik

Naomi Novik’s Buried Deep and Other Stories is a stellar collection of short fiction that displays all of her skill as a writer as well as the breadth of her imagination. I read it slowly, savoring each story.

Wooing the Witch Queen, by Stephanie Burgis

Wooing the Witch Queen was an absolute delight, from its sweet, sensitive, traumatized cinnamon-roll hero to its introverted, reclusive, but decidedly not evil heroine.

Mind Games, by Nora Roberts

I read Mind Games twice in 2024 and once (already) in 2025, which tells you something about how good it is; the book has already joined the ranks of my favorite non-fantasy Nora Roberts novels. Written with Roberts’s usual skill, Mind Games pits Thea Fox, a young woman with the sight, against the psychopath who killed her parents. . .