Two Harvard dropouts found a billion-dollar start-up that threatens to ruin them; a man falls in love in a sun-drenched French château; a Hollywood starlet blurs boundaries with her therapist. These are just a handful of the standout stories being published in 2025, penned by a fresh cohort of debut novelists.
Spanning romance, crime, literary fiction, and sometimes a combination of all three, these are the stories we can’t stop thinking about – the ones we’ve been speeding through, swapping, and urging each other to read in the Penguin office. Below, we get to know the 13 debut authors, as they share their real-life inspirations and literary influences, and shed new light on the fiction titles we predict will be among the best books of 2025.
Crime and mystery novels
Literary love stories
Stories of friendship and family
Thought-provoking reads
