18th July 2025
vampir’s throne, they must first find the long- lost Wolf Crown before he does. Second novel in Torday’s critically acclaimed series.
Dominique Valente Witchlight Usborne, 9th, £8.99, PB, 9781805316800
Eglantine’s magical house is getting sicker and sicker, as are the dragons and gargoyles, and the witches have to use time travel, disguise spells and genie wishes to get to the bottom of what is happening. A sequel to Witchspark.
Teenage & YA
AR Capetta Costumes for Time Travellers
Walker Books, 9th, £7.99, PB, 9781529528794
This cosy time travel fantasy is an LGBTQ+ romance between two unique love interests: Calisto, who grew up outside of time, and Fawkes, who grew up all over time. Calisto lives in the town of Pocket when Fawkes floats into his life, and soon Calisto and Fawkes are on the run from Shakespeare’s London to ancient Crete to California on the eve of a millennium to save Pocket from being erased.
AJ Clack Lie or Die: Blood Moon Firefly Press, 2nd, £8.99, PB, 9781917718066
In the sequel to Lie or Die Kass competes in the reality TV sequel, Blood Moon. There she meets contestants who will go to extreme lengths for fame and fortune, and finds out that she has just three days to identify the Werewolves and save her friends.
Suzanne Collins ( 7), Nico Delort (illus) The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Illustrated Edition
Scholastic, 9th, £30, HB, 9781546159544
The second book in the Hunger Games series is now being released with illustrations throughout from Delort.
Anna Fiteni The Wicked Lies of Habren Faire
Electric Monkey, 23rd, £9.99, PB, 9780008684174
Sabrina follows her sister into the wood and is drawn into a world of
faeries and magic, entering into a dangerous negotiation to try to get her sister back. Set in 19th-century Wales,
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Fiteni’s debut was inspired by Welsh folklore.
Kika Hatzopoulou Moth Dark Penguin, 30th, £9.99, PB, 9780241733097
Sascia is drawn into a war between humanity and elves in the latest standalone romantasy from the author of Threads That Bind.
Bex Hogan Owl King Head of Zeus, 9th, £14.99, HB, 9781035912681
The Owl King is hunting for a bride and his eye falls on the beautiful Lyla. Her sister is determined to save her from this fate but risks destroying peace between the kings and queens of the faery world. This fantasy standalone, billed as Swan Lake meets 1,001 Nights, is set in the same world as Hogan’s Nettle.
Curtis Jobling Wyrdwood UCLan Publishing, 2nd, £8.99, PB, 9781916747692
Something strange is happening in Merryweather-by-the- Sea. Kiki returns home for the holidays and discovers that someone has moved into her family home and stolen everybody’s hearts. Can Kiki work out who Fay is, and why her family seem to be bewitched?
MA Kuzniar Forest of Hearts Simon & Schuster Children’s, 23rd, £16.99, HB, 9781398534087
A major fantasy launch for S&S is this dark retelling of Snow White, in which princess Elka, who seeks to break a curse by killing seven men for their hearts, falls for a wounded huntsman.
Shelby Mahurin The Shadow Bride Electric Monkey, 9th, £9.99, PB, 9780008582524
Celie is now a vampire and a dark force is coming, meaning that she and Michal must set aside their attraction to mend the veil and right the balance, once and for all. Conclusion to Mahurin’s popular vampire romantasy duology.
Miranda Moore A Beautiful, Terrible Thing David Fickling Books, 9th,£8.99, PB, 9781788453684
Moore won DFB and Arvon’s Search for a Storyteller prize in 2024 with the
unpublished manuscript of this moving story about the relationship between Cara, whose little brother was hit by a car, and
Nathan, the driver. The novel is compulsive and sensitive, and the court scenes are particularly well executed.
Morgan H Owen Gladiator, Goddess Simon & Schuster Children’s, 9th, £16.99, HB, 9781398538511
Gia, a girl who dreams of being a female gladiator, and Claudia, the daughter of a Roman emperor, battle conspiracies to overthrow the Empire and their growing feelings for one another in this sapphic, feminist romantasy.
Gatlin Perrin Dirk Jones Is NOT the Chosen One
Firefly Press, 9th, £7.99, PB, 9781917718080
In this queer, creepy caper, Dirk ends up in the middle of an apocalypse after they are kidnapped from a shopping centre in North Wales.
Sara Raasch, Beth Revis The Crimson Throne Sourcebooks Fire, 7th, £16.99, HB, 9781464266829
A fae guardian of the realm falls in love with a charming Elizabethan spy in this enemies-to-lovers romantasy, set in the Scottish court.
Dustin Thao You’ve Found Oliver First Ink, 2nd, £9.99, PB, 9781035052431
Readers are reunited with Oliver a year after the death of his best friend Sam in the sequel to You’ve Reached Sam. Macmillan promises more heartbreak and hope with a devastating magical twist.
XiXi Tian All the Way Around the Sun
Penguin, 23rd, £9.99, PB, 9780241532638
Stella Chan is forced to join the Zhao family on a college tour around the West Coast, after the loss of her big brother David. Stella is initially annoyed at having to travel with Alan Zhao, who she remembers as being a bratty kid, but along the way her feelings start to change.
Bill Wood Be Right Back Scholastic, 9th, £8.99, PB, 9780702338533
It is a year on from the action of Let’s Split Up, in which Buffy, Jonesy, Amber and Cam found the killer behind the murder of the hot It couple at school. But now there is a copycat killer on the loose and the bodies start piling up during a Halloween festival.
Graphic novels
Phil Earle, Fred Fordham (illus) When the Sky Falls: Graphic Novel
Andersen Press, 10th, £14.99, PB, 9781839135620
Graphic novel retelling of Earle’s bestselling wartime adventure, about the relationship between a boy and a gorilla, with illustrations from the artist behind the graphic novels of To Kill a Mockingbird and Brave New World.
Jean-Luc Fromental, Joëlle Jolivet Miss Cat: The Mystery of the Melting Snow
Thames & Hudson, 22nd, £9.99, PB, 9790500660347
Strange things are happening in a ski resort where the snow melts at night and magically reappears in the morning in the latest Miss Cat mystery. Third in a series.
Katie Hicks Astral Panic Flying Eye Books, 9th, £16.99, PB, 9781838742089
Gale hopes that the Simply Pear brand, with its app and supplements,
will help him master his anxiety in this coming-of-age graphic novel about mental health and the negative side of the wellness industry.
Laura Knowles How to Be a Dragonfly DK Children, 2nd, £8.99, flexibound, 9780241685860
Follow a newly hatched larva as he learns how to navigate life as a dragonfly in this educational graphic novel, made in partnership with the Royal Entomological Society. For children aged five to seven.
Gift books
Helen Mortimer, Lars van de Goor (illus), Gabriella Barouch (illus) Step Inside a Fairytale
Magic Cat Publishing, 23rd, £16.99, HB, 9781917044844
Mortimer retells eight classic fairy tales in this gift title, published with real-world artwork by van de Goor and character artwork by Barouch.
Filippa Widlund A Year in the Moominhouse
Macmillan Children’s Books, 30th, £19.99, HB, 9781509853595
This carousel gift book has six 3D scenes of the blue Moominhouse throughout the year and is publishing for Moomin 80, an anniversary year celebrating the publication of Tove Jansson’s first Moomin story, The Moomins and the Great Flood.
Non-fiction
History Ancient Rome DK Children, 2nd, £20, HB, 9780241738023
This immersive book is about the realities of daily life for everyday people during the Ancient Roman period, and explores what people ate, how they washed, where they slept and what they wore. There is also information about the emperors who ruled and the soldiers who made up one of the most powerful armies the world had ever seen.
Rob Flowers Flush It Down: The Story of Sewers Through Time
Cicada Books, 2nd, £14.99, HB, 9781800660649
Take a trip underground to the sewers of history, from the Cloaca Maxima of Ancient Rome to Joseph Bazalgette’s Great London Sewer in this book about the different ways people have dealt with human waste.
Meel Tamphanon (illus) The Story of Gold Thames & Hudson, 14th, £16.99, HB, 9780500653852
Readers will learn about the history of gold via 30 different objects, including the golden breastplate of a tattooed
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Books Children’s Previews
TODD PLITT
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