Hey there, bestie!

I'm Lory Amin, your WatchWhatYouReadNext podcast host.

Join me as we dive into exciting new reads that'll have you reaching

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Hello, everyone.

I am so excited to be back.

And today we have anticipated 2022 2025 new releases.

So if you're new to this channel, this is the what's next podcast

YouTube channel, we have it all we're doing some video content.

It's also going to be available on audio the next day.

If you're watching on YouTube, feel free to share in the comments and

let us know your thoughts about these books and what books should we

recommend and review moving forward.

So, in this episode, we're going to talk about anticipated 2025

releases that I actually have read.

There's 12 books that I'm going to talk about.

There's a mix of rom coms, and then we have some mysteries to talk about.

So, let's get started.

So, we're going to start with First Time Caller by BK Borison.

This comes out in February.

. So, First Time Caller is by BK Borison.

It's a retell of Sleepless in Seattle where her single mom, her

daughter, calls into a radio station looking for love for her mom.

And and the radio station host is basically just a cynic of love.

He doesn't want to fall in love.

And she actually picks up the phone and says like, Hey, this is what I'm going on.

This is being vulnerable.

And they decide to bring her into the radio to talk, to help

her find her love of her life.

And as one does, she falls in love with the host and it's just really sweet.

It's really good.

This is has the Sleepless in Seattle, Sleepless in Seattle vibes.

It's set in Baltimore, a single mom.

It's just like fun, radio station, kind of like old school Delilah.

So, so I love this.

This is just, just delightful.

The Calls Fell Viral is one dust in 2025 and it's just like fun.

I really love this episode, this book.

I actually listened to it, the audio book, and I really think it's excellent.

So it's a really fun modern love take on Sleepless in Seattle.

So that's The First Time Caller by B.

K.

Borenson.

The next book I want to talk about, it comes out in August.

And that is Anywhere With You by Ellie Palmer.

So this is a road trip romance where a divorcee, because she just recently got

divorced decided to reconnect with her best friend, her former best friend, who

stopped talking to her after her wedding.

And so she decided, you know what, I just, I hate my job,

but I'm trying to figure it out.

And her sister calls her out of nowhere and says, Hey, I'm going to get a lobe

in this like remote island in Minnesota.

And she's like, what do you mean you're going to get a lobe?

So she's trying to convince her former best friend who appears out of nowhere to

come with her to go and break the wedding.

And it's a road trip to Minnesota.

It's basically, he lives in a Carvey Camper.

He's been singing songs in, college concerts and stuff like that.

And so he's been around the world for most of his life.

And so he's like, basically, like, let's just get together.

And there is romance, it's sweet, it's really fun.

It's actually set in a place where it's a perfect summer romance.

So I think you can wait for this for the summer.

Well, it comes out in August.

So this is a perfect summer romance.

I think I really love the take on of the past timeline because they

were best friends from college.

They got to know each other when they were like teenagers and then they were

pen pals because she ended up moving away.

And then went to college together, and they have this like, small

group between her sister, his best friend, her, him, and her.

And it's just like a fun, it's also a take on like, you know, they do

have getting divorced, and finding starting over from the beginning.

And then realizing like, what you build your life on for security, 20s,

it no longer matters in your 30s.

And like, things shifted.

And so this was like a fun take on that idea of like, how your life

can change and how your priorities change and your values change.

And so she does like a big transformation, a big character

arc, but this was a fun one.

And it wrote a review by Ellie Palmer.

You should add this to pre order if you have not done this before,

if you have not done this.

And so the next one is a popular book.

It's the end of a four book series, which is Wild and Wrangled by Lyla Sage.

The first book in the series is Done and Dusted, and it's a cowboy set in Wyoming,

big, rancher, , like western romance.

And it's small town romance that's really good.

So, the first book is Done and Dusted, and I think it's brother's best friend.

She comes back from town, she's a horse girl, she's trying to get

And she falls in love with the bad boy that she always wanted to.

The second book and third book in the series are like one of them is a

interior designer coming back to town, and then the other one is enemies

to lovers brothers best friends, sisters best friends, in this case.

And so it's the different brothers and people so the third book in the series.

He is a single dad and in this book, she's the mom of the, of the kid that is

the third book Single Dad and Stormont.

And so, we start off a wedding day for her, the heroine's wedding day,

and she's, she's stood up in the altar and she's like, what are I gonna do?

And she's rescued by the guy that, the one that got away, and it's dusty.

So she ends up in a bar, in her wedding dress, and she's like crying.

And he comes, picks her up, takes her out of the bar, takes her out of the

place, takes her to Chili's for food, gets her, like, some outfits from the

gas station, and they start a romance.

And so they reconnected, second chance romance, they reconnected

after ten years of being apart.

And he's always been pining for her.

She's just feels like she's not worthy.

She has a lot of baggage of coming to terms with her family.

Her family has money, and she feels like they have a lot of

control and expectations for her, and she doesn't want to have that.

She's a lawyer.

She's not happy where she's at in her life, but she loves her daughter.

She has like a second family with her her, that's her daughter's dad.

His family and everyone and so they're all connected.

They all work in this ranch and I think it's the Red or Blue Ranch.

And it's just like a fun place to be.

If you like horses, if you like small town, if you like, you

know, family, and just like a big family saga, this book is for you.

So this is Wild and Wrangled.

I really enjoyed this one.

It's a really, there's a really great second chance moments, and

I understood why they broke up.

Because they were too young, they were just like not, they were

just not ready to be together.

And so it makes sense for them to come back together when they're established,

when they have lived their life fully.

And they have, they're willing to stay, stick around.

And the best part, he respects her choices over children.

And I think that's like a really beautiful thing to see.

Because not everyone is meant to be a parent.

Not everyone is meant to have a family.

And sometimes you just want to have respect for that.

And so he totally respects her for that.

And I think this is a beautiful, beautiful conclusion.

So I really enjoyed this one.

It's Wild and Wrangled by Lyla Sage.

Alright, so we're going to move to some rom coms, so I'm

waiting on one single rom com.

So some of them are coming up this summer, and some of them

are coming up a little bit later.

So, the first one is Summer of the City.

I think this comes out in March, I think it comes out,

summer, it's a summer romance.

And Summer of the City is a screenwriter who is She's tasked to come to New

York and write a, write a script for a big movie that said, they gave

her a list of locations and they're like, make a rom com out of this.

She doesn't believe in love and she's like, whatever.

So she has this chance encounter with, first she left New York with this rich guy

and he was always paying attention to her and he was like, oh my gosh, I want her.

And she just told him like, no, she doesn't want him.

She's like, I'm going to LA.

I'm getting out of, you know, New York as much as possible.

She hates New York.

And then comes back and stays in this beautiful apartment, and

stays, like, and he is her neighbor.

And they reconnect, and she still doesn't want him, because he's a billionaire.

And she knows his story, he doesn't know her story.

She's like a, she has a pseudonym, as far as she's been writing.

And somehow they connect with each other.

They have, like, this bickering.

And she sort of, like, doesn't like him relationship.

And he finally was like, you know, I'm just in between jobs.

I actually have to how to keep a positive image.

And so would you be interested in being my fake girlfriend?

And she agrees to do that because he decided he also offered to take her to

different locations for her to register.

And so it's like some of us were I really enjoyed the spot.

Look, it has all my favorite elements about going to New York City.

It has one area which I actually absolutely, I've done it in parts.

But it's one of those things that I wish I can just go back to do it, which is

walking the whole island in one day.

You start from the top part of town, from the 100 something street, and

you walk all the way to Battery Park.

So, it's like, kind of like finding your way.

It's, you walk the Broadway, essentially.

It walks the whole island.

And so, you get to see the different neighborhoods, the different places.

So, if you've never been to New York, this is a great local, New York local

book tour to get the New York vibe.

So, Summer in the City, it comes out, it's a perfect summer romance,

so just put them, put them in the pre order for summer romances.

This book comes out in February, which is Dream Girl Drama by Tessa Bailey.

Tessa Bailey is a hit or miss for me.

Some books work for me, some books don't work for me.

This one worked for me.

And this one, I'm sharing it.

So Dream Girl Drama essentially it's a forbidding romance,

but it's not really forbidden.

So, they need, they have a champ encounter, they need at the country club,

she's a ballerina, and he is a, he's a hockey player, but he's not earning a lot

of hockey player money, he's just like, kind of like in the middle ground thing,

and so, they need, because their parents are actually meeting, they need a champ

encounter, he, helps rescues her after a conflict, then after that they meet at

a family dinner where it turns out her parents, their parents, her, his dad and

her mom are getting married or planning to get married and so they're told you're

not supposed to be together, it's not good for image, it's like not really

helpful, so it's sort of forbidden and she's in shelter and so she decided she

wanted to go to Boston and so she decided she wanted And he actually helps her.

He pays for her apartment and takes care of her.

And he doesn't have a lot of money, but he, like, takes care of her.

And she doesn't know.

She's still sheltered.

She doesn't know, like, the money to charge him.

How to, like, how to access everything.

And so it's just interesting, like, the dynamics of it.

She's a little bit more younger in that maturity level.

This is her first time living on herself, like, living by herself

and, like, managing her, her stuff.

And so, it's interesting to see, but things happen, it's worse

out, and it's not just, it's not as forbidden as it seems to be.

It's not step sister, step brother.

they were, they ended up being together and it's just delightful.

So I did read This In One Sitting.

I sat down and I was like, I don't know what to read.

And I'm just like, I, it was a fast read.

It was a neat, great read.

So Dream Girl Drama by Tessa Billie would work with me.

All right, the next one just already, already is out and is Bet,

Borrow and Steal by Sarah Adams.

This is an open door romance.

There is actually some.

It's not a lot of spikes, it's just like medium sized.

But I know Sarah Adams is well known for Closer.

I'm going to start writing some explicit scenes and related to the books.

This is the third book among Kentucky.

This is, I think it's a sister or from the hero from the first book.

So in the second book, I think it's the second book.

So those, those first and second books, the characters come in, but

you can read this as standalone.

In this case, they're both our teachers.

He is also, he also has money, but we don't know why.

They're both our writers.

Secret, she's secretly writing.

He's a secret author.

He's the son of a famous author.

And they're both our actual neighbors.

He actually left town.

They were, they were enemies before they left.

He's physically crying for her.

She doesn't want him.

And he left town so he can actually, was going to get married to somebody else.

And then returns to town, returns to his job, and they both are

teachers in the same school.

And they both have to work together, and be neighbors.

And it's just sexual tension arises.

It's good, it's a good book for writers, if you're a writer, if

you're looking for inspiration.

It's a really good book to read.

So this was Bet Borrow and Steal by Sarah Adams.

It's a pretty book, pretty good book.

I would say, listen to the audiobook.

It's delightful.

And you can borrow it from the library.

Or you can just request it.

Now we're going to move to my area of, my new area of expertise,

which is Mysterious Brothers.

And the first book is No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding.

By Catherine Mack.

So No One's a Mr.

Guy, at this point, by Catherine Mack, is the second book in the Everyone

I know dies in a car accident.

Whenever I go to vacation, everyone dies, or someone dies or something like that.

This is the second book in the series.

Essentially, it's a mystery.

It's kind of like a really wacky cozy mystery.

It's not fully cozy, but it's still a mystery.

There's women in the place.

So, in this book, there's an author who writes a cozy mystery series.

The first book of the series, she ended up trying to kill her

partner because she was supposed to fictionalize her version of her story.

When she was young she was almost scammed for money.

And so, she wrote a series, she was seriously humiliated by her.

In the first book, she ended up going on vacation, on a book

tour, and nearly people died.

In this book, the movie, the events from the first book

actually make it to a movie.

And so after the movie, they one of the stars, the two stars in the movie, are

going to get married in Catering Island.

And so, and one of the stars is her best friend.

So, they get a story, they get to know that someone's going to die

at the wedding in Catalina Island.

Mind you, there's a hurricane about to happen, so everyone has to evacuate

the island, but they don't want to evacuate because the wedding's happening.

And it's a super wedding, it's a celebrity wedding, and people start dying.

And people started trying to figure out who's going what, and who's

the murderer, and what is going on.

It is wacky, it's fun there's a lot of footnotes, that's how she communicates off

the, the, the heroin communicates with us.

And so, my suggestion is, if you can't wait for the audio, wait for the audio,

because it's much more easier to manage.

But if you're just reading it, and you don't mind the footnotes, the footnotes

are important, they help you kind of like understand the story in the background.

specific thing.

So that's, no one was supposed to die at this wedding, and it is fun,

it is wacky, and there's mystery, and there's people who are dying

in the wedding, but it's not gory.

So the next one is already, just came out this week, and she doesn't have a

clue by getting out her book and this is another mystery, where the, our, the hero

and the heroine are attending a wedding.

It's her ex fiance's wedding.

She's an author, too.

And so she, and he's also an author.

And he's, and he's been they've been working together, but

they stopped working together.

And something happened to that relationship that they're just

like trying to figure out.

And all, it's a mystery, it's a kind of like a lockdown mystery because they're

all stranded in a PNW, PNW island.

Pacific Northwest Island and there's a cheetah, I think it's a cheetah or

leopard, running around, so you're not supposed to, there's people

murdered, there's people like, mystery about like, Sellers and like who's

killing who and all of the drama.

It is fun.

It is, can't be.

It is joyful.

And I did not guess who was a mother until the very end, which was fun.

I sometimes, I guess sometimes I'm just surprised.

And this one I did, I was pleasantly surprised and the

ending was just like fun.

It was just can't be.

It's just fun.

It's a fun mystery.

So these are Mr.

I would say.

There's a little bit of romance, not too much, but they're still

there, so they're a little bit, so.

The next one is already out, too.

It is Murder in the Dressing Room, like all the stars.

This is a drag queen murder mystery.

So, this one is set in Britain.

Holly the drag queen is doing a performance and there's one

performance she's doing some beauty garlands shoes and stuff like that.

And someone dies at that, that performance and they're trying

to investigate who killed who.

And there's like a whole robbery mystery, and it's set in England.

It's just like, can't be fun.

It's just delightful.

The audiobook is narrated by Holly Starrs, and it's just so much fun.

I would suggest listening to this audiobook, because it's just

like a fun I'm wrong, should you?

And you just transfer to, you know, fun theater, drag

queens, drag shows in London.

So, and you get to go to different neighborhoods and get

to understand different things and it's just like, it's just fun.

There's a romancer, there's a, there's a really not, the drag queen is in

a relationship and it's just fun and the relationship is like great

because he's like I'm really going to do this, and she's like, yeah,

you know, I'm just going to try it.

So they're going to try to experiment and try to solve the murder.

And yes, they get a piece of the murder, but who knows?

Maybe they get away with murder.

So, all right, so we got some quirky, captivating standouts.

And these are still murder mysteries.

We got Vera Wong is coming back.

She's moving to Dougman.

So Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping on a Dead Man is the second

book in the Vera Wong series.

You can read this standalone.

I have not read the first book but this one you can actually understand the story.

You understand the previous story of Vera Wong.

The story is that she was really lonely.

She has a tea shop and she's very meddling like she's a meddling auntie And so

she actually basically solves a murder for her tea shop and then she feels

like she's an expert She's an expert investigator and so Somebody comes with

a murder someone tries to defraud her and then she connects with someone who

is coming up with a murder like someone Disappear and so she's trying to figure

out and this person's an influencer.

So she becomes an influencer So there's a lot of it like how she builds fire

on TikTok How she connects with the different people, how she actually

gets them to fall in love with her, and how her own family she adopts.

Every character, every quirky character, she adopts them.

And she's just like a fun character to enjoy.

Like, her take on the way, the way of the world is like, I want

to be very well when I grow up.

Like, not the lonely part, but I really want to be her.

Like, to have this, like, family, to have this sense of like, you know.

Investigator seal, snoobie seal, and you're like, you know, the

confidence of like, you know, I'm just gonna do this and I'm gonna go

viral and it's just gonna be great.

And I have like, the confidence of like, accepting things and like, people

telling her like, you can't do this, she's like, no, I'm gonna do this.

So, Vera Wong is like, such a fun character to like, so.

That's Vera Wong's guide to the Deadman.

Then the next one is, Pomona Afton Can So Solve a Murder.

This comes out in March.

This is think about it, if Paris Hilton's grandma dies, and she becomes destitute,

and she has to solve her grandma's murder, this is the book for you.

It's an heiress who basically, her grandmother passes away, and then the

stipulation, unless they figure out who killed her, they all lose money.

And she loses her money, she loses her she loses everything.

And she has to be scrappy, and try to figure out how to get, get, Solve the

murder, but at the same time, actually figure out who she is in her life.

And what kind of things?

And so she actually realized that she, she couldn't be an influencer because

people were like, it's a public murder and they're like talking about her.

So she had to figure out like her expertise, her skills and

try to be scrappy and make money.

So she ended up working at a cafe.

She ended up moving in with her nanny's son.

Who is also the love interest who was also helping her stop the murder.

And she then develops her baking skills, and she becomes so good

that she actually opens a bakery.

So, I'm hoping to see more books in this series, because it's

actually pretty a lot of fun.

I really love this take on a seven year city, so it's a mystery

set in the Upper East Side.

It's just like fun, fun murder mystery.

I really love this character.

Bellamy Rose is also writes as Amanda Elliot

so they have books like Love you like Latke and Best Serve Hot, and other books

that are more 3D romance that I love.

They just just take on just a lot of 3D references, but at the same time,

it's still like a murder mystery.

And it has her take on things.

So, that's Pomona Afton Can So Solve a Murder

alright, the next one is actually For One Night Only, that is by Jessica James.

This book came out this month, and it's actually pretty, like, it's, I feel

like, Ben reunites a little bit of these villains and, like, why did Ben break up?

This book is for you.

I listened to this, it's a pop fan, pop punk, pop punk band, that needs

to reunite, and there's a, there's a relationship that happened,

that broke up, and so it's all the drama around the reunion tour.

They were trying to do it for one night only, it's a one night only concert, and

they're just trying to figure it out.

If they can actually come back together.

It is, it is interesting, it's a little bit empty, and there's a

little bit of spice, but not too much.

It's actually like, more like, like an interesting take, like a long

term take on Daisy Jones and the Six.

That's the best way I can describe it.

It's, it's like trying to figure out why you broke up, and then understanding,

like, how they can come back together.

In this one night only concert, and if they can actually move beyond

the one night only concert, if they can move beyond the moment, so.

Those are the books that I share in this recommendation.

So there's about 12 books that I share.

2025 comes the studio year of non competent industries.

I will be coming back with some mysteries, action thrillers for you

to take on, because I actually have quite a few to look for and review.

But if you enjoyed this show, feel free to, if you're watching the

replay, feel free to leave a comment.

Let me know if you read any of these books and what are your thoughts.

If you're listening to this podcast, feel free to like and subscribe.

Send me an email at laura@whattoreadnextblog.com.

com and let me know your thoughts and what you would like to see more.

So, thank you so much for listening and have a great day.

Thanks for joining me on this episode of The What to Read Next Podcast.

If you enjoy our bookish conversations and want more recommendations, don't forget

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Also, head on over to The Whattoreadnextblog for a list of

books mentioned in today's show.

Happy reading!