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The narrator of Lottie Hazell's debut novel, Piglet, is living a charmed life in London, with all her romantic, professional, and financial desires and aspirations rapidly being fulfilled.

This Is How You Lose the Time War (2019) is a slim novel that leaves you wanting more. A largely epistolary book, it starts with a letter found amongst the ashes of a destroyed world. Readers will find out that this and the following messages are correspondence between Red and Blue, two skilled agents on opposite sides of a time war.

For generations, Rhea Silvia’s family ruled Alba Longa, but the deaths of her mother and brothers leave her father broken and unable to remain , allowing her uncle Amulius to seize the throne. Forced into service as a Vestal Virgin to prevent heirs that could rule instead of Amulius, Rhea plans revenge. Rhea’s secret affair with Mars, the god of war results in the birth of twins, Romulus and Remus, who will one day reclaim the kingdom.

Raised by a Serial Killer (2024) by April Balascio is a memoir by the daughter of Edward Wayne Edwards, whose crimes went unpunished for decades until April, who long suspected that her father was a murderer, called a cold case line in 2009, and helped finally bring her father to justice.

A powerful story of redemption, grief, love, and perseverance. Colton Gentry has hit rock bottom. His best friend dies in a mass shooting, his rising country music career implodes (as does his marriage), and he is an alcoholic. After completing a stint in rehab, he returns to his childhood home in small town Kentucky to figure out what comes next. 

Nick Cutter’s latest novel delivers some truly unsettling body horror. Set over a single, tension-filled day, the story follows Margaret, a teenage girl uncovering harrowing truths about her missing friend Charity.  Her day leads to devastating revelations with far-reaching consequences and connections to millionaire tech pioneer, Rudyard Crate, whose childhood flashbacks are wild and horrifying.

Tananarive Due’s The Reformatory (2023) is a hauntingly beautiful masterpiece of historical fiction that lingers in your soul long after the final page. Set against the backdrop of a racially segregated South in 1930s Florida, the novel is both a riveting exploration of systemic injustice and a hallucinatory journey into the supernatural.

The Favorites (2025) by Layne Fargo is a loose reimagining of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, set in the world of competitive ice dancing.

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

Upon a Starlit Tide (2025) is a mesmerizing historical fantasy/dark fairy tale. In 1700s coastal France the protagonist, Luce, rescues a handsome sailor from certain death in the fickle sea. Confusingly she feels drawn to both him and to her loyal friend Samuel, an English smuggler.

The Mars House (2024), by Natasha Pulley, begins on a future Earth devastated by climate change. After flooding leaves London uninhabitable, ballet dancer January is forced to relocate to the only place that’s still accepting refugees—Tharsis, a colony on Mars which has developed a genderless society.

WPL's Fiction Book Group chose Nikki Erlick's debut novel, The Measure (2022), to be the first book up for discussion in 2025. In light of the pressure many feel to begin each new year with personal resolutions, the story felt particularly timely in January. That said, I think The Measure is the kind of novel that makes for great conversations in any season.