The heat has officially arrived here in Kentucky, and with it comes one of my favorite seasonal rituals: the Summer Reading Stack. You know the one. The books you optimistically pile up beside your hammock, or your travel bag, or your nightstand, knowing full well you won’t read them all, but determined to try anyway.
As I prepare to disappear into as many pages as possible between projects and planning, I’ve rounded up some of the June 2025 SFF releases that have piqued my curiosity, stirred my genre-loving soul, and whispered, “read me next.” This month’s picks include vampire spaceships, cursed couriers, underwater palaces, swan-based political coups, and so much more.
So pour yourself a tall glass of iced tea (or Romulan ale — I won’t judge), and dive into this list of stellar speculative fiction releases.
10 Fantastical New SFF Books for June 2025
Black Salt Queen by Samantha Bansil
Out June 3 (Bindery Books)
A dying queen. An heir who can’t get it together. A rival powerful enough to tear down everything. This high-stakes island fantasy features matriarchal legacy, political power grabs, and complicated magic. It’s giving Game of Thrones meets The Green Bone Saga — and I am here for it.
- Bansil, Samantha (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 416 Pages – 06/03/2025 (Publication Date) – Bindery Books (Publisher)
Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove
Out June 3 (Bindery Books)
If you told me this book was Dracula meets Battlestar Galactica, I’d throw my credits at the nearest data terminal. Set on the spaceship Demeter (a clever nod to Stoker), this queer horror story features space vampires, interstellar travel, and a haunted AI that might need to become Blade.
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Truelove, Barbara (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 407 Pages – 06/03/2025 (Publication Date) – Bindery Books (Publisher)
The Witch Roads by Kate Elliott
Out June 10 (Tor Books)
When the royal road trip from hell goes sideways (thanks, arrogant prince), it’s up to Elen the courier to get everyone out of a haunted town alive. This one promises political intrigue, ancient magic, and the kind of “why am I always the responsible one?” energy I feel deep in my soul.
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Elliott, Kate (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 439 Pages – 06/10/2025 (Publication Date) – Tor Books (Publisher)
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab
Out June 10 (Tor Books)
Three women. Three timelines. Vampires. Schwab’s gothic sensibilities are on full display in this “toxic lesbian vampire” novel (her words, not mine), and I’m already bracing for heartbreak, blood, and beautifully written trauma.
- Hardcover Book
- Schwab, V. E. (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 544 Pages – 06/10/2025 (Publication Date) – Tor Books (Publisher)
The Ghosts of Gwendolyn Montgomery by Clarence A. Haynes
Out June 17 (Legacy Lit)
A glamorous NYC publicist finds herself haunted — literally and figuratively — after a museum tragedy. Throw in a psychic caught in a ghostly love triangle and some deeply buried secrets, and this one sounds like The Sixth Sense meets Scandal with a Bronx twist.
- Hardcover Book
- Haynes, Clarence A. (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 240 Pages – 06/17/2025 (Publication Date) – Legacy Lit (Publisher)
Seventhblade by Tonia Laird
Out June 17 (ECW Press)
An Indigenous warrior mother seeking vengeance in a colonized city? Yes, please. Add in morally gray alliances, godlike powers, and a blood debt that could ignite a revolution, and you’ve got a fantasy epic I’m bumping to the top of the list.
- Laird, Tonia (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 376 Pages – 06/17/2025 (Publication Date) – ECW Press (Publisher)
New SFF for Young Readers (and the Young at Heart)
A Forgery of Fate by Elizabeth Lim
Out June 3 (Knopf Books)
Beauty and the Beast but make it a con artist with prophetic painting powers? Lim continues to blend folklore and feminism with flair. Truyan agrees to marry the Dragon King to save her family, but we all know that kind of bargain never goes according to plan…
- Hardcover Book
- Lim, Elizabeth (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 480 Pages – 06/03/2025 (Publication Date) – Knopf Books for Young Readers (Publisher)
Among Ghosts by Rachel Hartman
Out June 24 (Random House)
A medieval town where freedom is earned by surviving a year and a day — until a ghost, a dragon, and a murder shake the walls. Hartman’s return promises haunting imagery and a layered coming-of-age story, perfect for fans of Seraphina and The Graveyard Book.
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Hartman, Rachel (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 399 Pages – 06/24/2025 (Publication Date) – Random House Books for Young Readers (Publisher)
Embrace the Serpent by Sunya Mara
Out June 24 (HarperCollins)
A jeweler’s apprentice finds herself in the Serpent King’s castle. To survive, she marries him — but finds herself drawn to someone else entirely. Intrigue, jewels, forbidden romance… this one’s for readers who like their fantasy a little dark and a lot twisty.
- Hardcover Book
- Mara, Sunya (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 352 Pages – 06/24/2025 (Publication Date) – HarperCollins (Publisher)
A Treachery of Swans by A. B. Poranek
Out June 24 (Margaret K. McElderry Books)
Inspired by Swan Lake, this sapphic fantasy delivers palace politics, magical transformations, and a mission to restore a kingdom’s lost magic. When the king dies and blame falls on the wrong person, Odile must team up with the very person she betrayed to find the truth.
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Poranek, A. B. (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 368 Pages – 06/24/2025 (Publication Date) – Margaret K. McElderry Books (Publisher)
Bonus Picks (Because I Can’t Help Myself)
- The Poppy Fields by Nikki Erlick
- This Princess Kills Monsters by Ry Herman
- A Song of Legends Lost by M. H. Ayinde
- Skipshock by Caroline O’Donoghue
- If Wishes Were Retail by Auston Habershaw
- The Two Lies of Faven Sythe by Megan E. O’Keefe
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Walker, Rysa (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 02/09/2026 (Publication Date) – Starry Night Books (Publisher)
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Walton, C. R. (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 11/01/2025 (Publication Date)
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Prokofiev, Roman (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 10/07/2025 (Publication Date) – Magic Dome Books (Publisher)
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Elliott, Bradley (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 433 Pages – 06/24/2025 (Publication Date) – Bolger Books (Publisher)
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Lothy, Adrienne (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 446 Pages – 06/24/2025 (Publication Date) – Read the Stars Publishing (Publisher)
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Rozak, Miles (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 1005 Pages – 06/17/2025 (Publication Date) – Megaulcite Press (Publisher)
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Gorman, K. (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 673 Pages – 06/17/2025 (Publication Date) – Aethon Books (Publisher)
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Dragon, Austin (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 257 Pages – 06/03/2025 (Publication Date) – Well-Tailored Books (Publisher)
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Gillespie, M. A. (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 113 Pages – 06/02/2025 (Publication Date)
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Dunkler, A. R. (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 06/01/2025 (Publication Date)
That’s all for now, fellow explorers of the weird and wonderful. If you pick up any of these, let me know — I’m always up for a good bookish conversation, especially if it involves morally ambiguous magic or sentient spaceships.
Until next time: read deeply, imagine wildly, and remember… the TBR pile is infinite, but your joy is the compass.
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