Kiss Me, Wait: 5 of the Most Anticipated Romance Novels of 2025

Unless Beyoncé or Taylor Swift drop a memoir next year, or Elvis comes out of hiding and pens his story, Onyx Storm is probably going to be the best-selling book of 2025. Pre-sales have already been huge. The series started with Fourth Wing, which sold roughly eleventy zillion copies and made “romantasy” a household word. The books center around Basgiath War College and dragon rider Violet Sorrengail. In this third installment, war is coming and Violet must travel out of safety’s reach to stand with Navarre.

A romance list is never complete without a marriage of convenience! This is the adult debut of Sonora Reyes, author of The Lesbiana’s Guide To Catholic School and more. This one is about Han and Kenny, who have been besties since the second grade. They would do anything for one another, which is why it isn’t a big deal when Kenny proposes they get married so Han can get a green card. But even a fake marriage can cause complications, especially when they start to feel the heat between them. Will their friendship be able to survive their engagement?

This year, Ali Hazelwood covered vampire and werewolf romance with Bride. Next year: mermaid romance! (Okay, not really, but it sounded good.) This steamy romance is about two college competitive athletes, Scarlett and Lukas. She’s a platform diver, he’s a gold-medal swimmer. After an injury that almost ends Scarlett’s career, Lukas helps her get back in the water—and then it turns into something more. It was just supposed to be a fling, but they find they can’t stay away from each other.

If you like a little murder with your romance, this is the trilogy for you! This final book in the series, which began with Butcher & Blackbird, is about a former surgeon working in a small Nebraska town who meets a motorcycle performer from a traveling circus. Fionn Kane treats Rose Evans after she is injured while murdering someone. (You thought I was going to say, “while performing a stunt,” didn’t you?) Hey, everyone has hobbies. But things don’t go well, and Rose ends up left in Nebraska, being treated by Fionn, who has quite the bedside manner.

New Ana Huang book, sittin’ in a tree, K-I-N-G-E-N-V…Y. So far, Ana Huang has covered pride, greed, wrath, and sloth in her Kings of Sin series. Now comes envy in these stories of badly behaved billionaires who must make good before they can get love. Not much is known about the plot of this one yet, and the actual cover hasn’t been revealed, but just the idea of the book is enough to place it on several lists of anticipated 2025 romances.