Atria Books

If you read just one novel from 2025, let it be Theo of Golden. Theo arrives in the small town of Golden as a mysterious, benevolent stranger and is quickly accepted by the locals. In the town café, he lingers over a wall of portraits depicting 92 people he doesn’t know and resolves to purchase and return the artwork to its subjects.

The story follows Theo through moments that appear simple—an unhurried conversation, a small kindness, a friendship that quietly takes hold—but resonate with surprising depth. We know little about him beyond his deep knowledge of the arts, yet through each portrait and its recipient, we see how fully he notices others. Before long, we’re invested in the tender ways people shape one another simply by showing up and being seen.

Reflective and character-driven, this novel offers cozy, small-town charm without veering into sentimentality. Theo of Golden is comforting without being sugary, hopeful without being preachy—a book to linger over and return to when you need reassurance about what matters most: connection, kindness and belonging.

St Martin’s Press

This charming novel intertwines meticulously researched history with endearing characters, resulting in a heartwarming story of second chances, family bonds, wit and a touch of magic. Spanning past and present, it transports readers to 1920s Brooklyn, where young Augusta works alongside her father in his pharmacy—an unconventional role for a woman at the time. Her great-aunt Esther, an immigrant steeped in old-world herbal remedies, infuses the pharmacy with wisdom and warmth, creating a community hub where healing transcends science. Esther’s potions hint at something beyond mere chemistry—is there magic in them after all? And was a love potion to blame when Irving, the pharmacy’s delivery boy, abruptly left town, severing a blossoming relationship with Augusta and leaving her heartbroken and guarded? 

Decades pass. Augusta has built a fulfilling life through career and friendships, yet love remains elusive. At 80, she reluctantly steps into retirement, uncertain of her future—until a stunning reunion with Irving reignites questions of forgiveness and rekindled possibilities. With rich historical details and its exploration of love’s endurance, this novel offers a nostalgic and inspiring read. 

Random House

There are some authors whose work you can’t help but return to, and Elizabeth Strout is one of them. Tell Me Everything is the fifth in a series set in Crosby, ME, home to characters we know and love. Former teacher Olive Kitteridge invites Lucy Barton, an acclaimed writer living in Crosby since COVID, to flesh out a potential storyline in which more of the town’s history is revealed. Retired attorney Bob Burgess takes on the murder case of a young man accused of killing his mother. Bob has a sense of an unfinished life, which he talks about on his regular walks with Lucy—he struggles with his unspoken love for Lucy and laments the challenges of marriage in later life. Notably aloof and snarky, Olive shows a softer side in this novel, impressing old acquaintances who judged her harshly—and she may hold the key to solving the murder.

What makes this novel remarkable is how we see the townspeople aging, how people have changed and how they’ve stayed the same. Ultimately, Tell Me Everything is about the search for meaning and connection, and the things people choose to conceal or reveal about themselves.

Thomas & Mercer

Tucked away in a small town in Maine, unbeknownst to the neighbors, a group of retired spies gathers as old friends. They call themselves the Martini Club. Maggie Bird is a seasoned intelligence officer, raising chickens and growing vegetables on her small farm. When a strange woman knocks on her door with a cryptic message, Maggie knows it could only have originated from someone involved in a decades-old case that went horribly wrong. The next day, this stranger lies murdered in Maggie’s driveway. While her friends revisit the case that’s been brought back to life, Maggie navigates a web of contemporary conspiracies. When local law enforcement officer Jo Thibodeau gets involved, she suspects the Martini Club retirees are being coy about a secret past. 

As we’re drawn into the world of espionage, deceit and intrigue, it would be easy to forget that these savvy former agents are long retired—it’s refreshing to see them portrayed as computer-literate, competent and up for adventure. If you enjoy these retired spies, they’ll return in The Summer Guests, set to be released in March 2025.

Lake Union Publishing

Never-married Great Aunt Ada works as a matchmaker in Philadelphia. When Marilyn, her sassy twenty-year-old niece, gets kicked out of the house for kissing the rabbi’s son in an embarrassingly public way, seventy-seven-year-old Ada takes her in, just as she took in Marilyn’s mother decades ago. Marilyn’s parents hope Ada will find a suitable husband for their daughter while she’s in Ada’s care. Instead, Marilyn realizes newfound freedom and sees firsthand how a woman can support herself and be fulfilled without a man. It’s the ‘60s, and Marilyn doesn’t want to go to college to find a husband—she wants to become an author and is thrilled when Ada gives her a typewriter. Ada herself is a gem—feisty, entrepreneurial, seemingly hard as nails, but with quite a loving heart underneath her tough exterior. The intergenerational bond between Marilyn and Ada deepens over time, filled with moments that are both funny and touching. As Marilyn’s choices become clearer, we wonder right up to the end what she’ll choose, and we’re rooting for her.

Bloodhound Books

A brutal crime takes place behind a drugstore in a quiet English village, leaving a man dead and a university student/part-time escort named Beth (nicknamed Mouse) barely alive. When Vicar Kat and her pharmacist husband, Leon, stumble upon Mouse, they get her to the hospital, where Kat takes an interest in her recovery. More suspicious deaths occur in rapid succession. Both Mouse’s and her grandmother Doris’s lives have been threatened; Mouse’s roommates die in an act of arson. Seeking answers, the three women become amateur sleuths. Doris, twice the age of Kat and Mouse, is the brains of the trio, with IT skills, a brown belt in karate, and gun know-how—all, talents in high demand to solve the case. Neither the local police nor Kat’s husband like it that the women have become so invested, but are they concerned for their safety, or because the women may be on to something?

If you’re drawn to a credible plot and strong female characters, you’re in luck—there are three more books in this Kat and Mouse series.