Debut Releases - December 2025
All the SFF debut novels from big 5 and selected indie publishers.
Debuts
Twin Tides
by Hien Nguyen - Dec 9, 2025
Long-lost twin sisters unravel the mystery behind their mother’s disappearance and face the family betrayal that ultimately separated them in this breathtaking speculative young adult thriller.
Aria Nguyen and Caliste Ha are identical twins. A fact that they just learned when a police officer told them that their mother is no longer a missing person. She’s been found dead in Minnesota, a place neither knew they had a connection to.
Aria is from DC, where she’s been struggling to pay their sick aunt’s medical bills and only does so by writing her classmates’ papers for extra cash. Meanwhile, Caliste is a successful influencer in LA, not that their food mogul father cares. Both have dreamt of the moment they’d see their mother again, of being happy again, but they could’ve never imagined this nightmare. Their mom’s body apparently hasn’t aged, and there’s a bruise on her neck.
Now beckoned to the quaint yet eerie city of Les Eaux, where a ghoul supposedly haunts the waters, Caliste and Aria must delve into their family’s past to find their mother’s murderer. Secrets don’t unravel easily though. And some people in this small town don’t want to give theirs up without a fight.
Sequels within a debut series
This Brutal Moon
Book 3 in The Kingdom Trilogy
by Bethany Jacobs - Dec 2, 2025
Bethany Jacobs returns with the thrilling conclusion to The Kindom Trilogy that began with the Philip K. Dick Award–winning These Burning Stars, the debut epic space opera trilogy about revenge, power, and the price of legacy.
Violence has erupted across the Treble. The colony that Jun Ironway and Masar Hawks have fought to protect is now woefully compromised, and its people, unwilling to submit to tyranny once more, face a brutal fight for their lives and freedom.
In the midst of upheaval and rebellion, new enemies arise at every corner, including a familiar player who won’t let power slip through his fingers again. Not when he has every Kindom Hand under his heel. And whether he will be as bloody-minded as his predecessors remains to be seen.
As the quiet ones launch their attack and all hope seems lost, Cleric Chono looks to unlikely allies to fight a final battle for peace. But one crucial question remains: where is Six?