BookTok’s favorite authors return with must-read new releases! From steamy enemies-to-lovers romances to magical fantasy worlds, these twelve titles deliver the addictive tropes that made you fall in love with these writers. No matter what you crave, these BookTok-approved stories promise to keep you scrolling #BookTok for your next reading obsession.
More From Your Booktok Favourites
Katabasis
9780008501877 | HarperVoyager | TPB
R.F. Kuang

Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek. The story of a hero’s descent to the underworld.
Grad student Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become the brightest mind in the field of analytic magick.
But the only person who can make her dream come true is dead and – inconveniently – in Hell. And Alice, along with her biggest rival Peter Murdoch, is going after him.
But Hell is not as the philosophers claim, its rules are upside-down, and if she’s going to get out of there alive, she and Peter will have to work together.
That’s if they can agree on anything.
Will they triumph, or kill each other trying?
Arcana Academy
9781399728898 | Hodderscape | TPB
Elise Kova

A woman who wields magical tarot cards lands herself in a false engagement with the headmaster of a mysterious academy in this first installment of an enthralling romantic fantasy series from the bestselling author of A Deal with the Elf King.
Clara Graysword has survived the underworld of Eclipse City through thievery, luck, and a whole lot of illegal magic. After a job goes awry, Clara is sentenced to a lifetime in prison for inking tarot cards-a rare power reserved for practitioners at the elite Arcana Academy.
Just when it seems her luck has run dry, the academy’s enigmatic headmaster, Prince Kaelis, offers her an escape-for a price. Kaelis believes that Clara is the perfect tool to help him steal a tarot card from the king and use it to re-create an all-powerful card long lost to time.
In order to conceal her identity and keep her close, Kaelis brings Clara to Arcana Academy, introducing her as the newest first-year student and his bride-to-be.
Thrust into a world of arcane magic and royal intrigue, where one misstep will send her back to prison or worse, Clara finds that the prince she swore to hate may not be what he seems. But can she risk giving him power over the world-and her heart? Or will she take it for herself?
TROPES
Fake engagement 💍
Slow burn ❤️🔥
Enemies to lovers ⚔️💖
Forced proximity 🔒🤏
Magical school 🎇🏫
Morally gray 🖤
Girlboss x cold royal 👑 x 💙
The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy
9780356524740 | Orbit | TPB
Brigitte Knightley

A slow burn, enemies-to-lovers romantasy featuring a scholarly healer and a gentleman assassin, set in an exquisite fantasy world, perfect for fans of The Love Hypothesis and Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries.
Osric Mordaunt, member of the Fyren Order of assassins, is in dire need of healing. Naturally – such is the grim comedy of fate – the only healer who can help is Aurienne Fairhrim, preeminent scientist, bastion of moral good, and member of an enemy Order.
Aurienne is desperate for funding to heal the sick – so desperate that, when Osric bribes her to help him, she accepts, even if she detests him and everything he stands for.
A forced collaboration ensues: the brilliant Woman in STEM is coerced into working with the PhD in Murders, much to Aurienne’s disgust. As Osric and Aurienne work together to heal his illness and investigate the mysterious reoccurrence of a deadly pox, they find themselves ardently denying their attraction, which only fuels the heat between them.
Tropes include:
Enemies-to-lovers
High interaction slow burn
Hypercompetent idiots
He falls first and harder
Slaughter as a love language
Sweet Heat
9781472286444 | Headline Review | TPB
Bolu Babalola

Not every relationship makes it out of university.
But Kiki and Malakai were supposed to be forever.
Everything was perfect, until it all went up in flames.
Three years after their epic break-up, Kiki’s worked hard to forget her first love. But just as she thinks she’s got her life under control – jumping into the distractions of her romance-by-calendar-invite boyfriend, and plans for her best friend, Aminah’s, wedding – Kiki’s career implodes, the family business teeters on collapse, and Malakai returns . . .
As Malakai takes up his role as Best Man opposite her Maid of Honour, suddenly Kiki can think of nothing else: their simmering chemistry, what went wrong, and why it is now impossible to act normal around each other.
Juggling a new job, the prospect of her parents’ restaurant being sold, and keeping her best friend from going full bridezilla, dealing with The Ex is the last thing she needs. But somehow the spark between them is only getting hotter – and threatening to ruin everything.
They just have to get through the wedding, so why does it feel like playing with fire?
Heart-melting, hilarious and completely addictive, Kiki and Malakai return in this standalone second novel from Sunday Times bestselling author Bolu Babalola.
The Compound
9780008710095 | The Borough Press| TPB
Asiling Rawle

You wake up in a compound in the middle of the desert, along with nine other women.
All of you are young, all beautiful, all keen to escape the grinding poverty, political unrest and environmental catastrophe of the outside world.
You realise that cameras are tracking your every move, broadcasting to millions of reality TV fans.
Soon, ten men will arrive on foot – if they all survive the journey.
What will you have to do to win?
And what happens to the losers?
The Compound is an addictive literary satire on modern excess: it holds a twisted mirror up to our obsession with winning, losing and, above all, watching.
Immortal Consequences
9780008765002 | Electric Monkey | TPB
I.V. Marie

I.V. Marie’s thrilling dark academia debut set at a magical boarding school in purgatory where some fates are worse than death … For fans of Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House, Olivie Blake’s The Atlas Six and Naomi Novik’s A Deadly Education.
Welcome to Blackwood Academy: a boarding school located on the fringes of the afterlife.
No one knows why they end up at Blackwood; but when they enter the school’s arched gates the only way out is to be chosen for the Decennial – a series of magical trials held once a decade. The chosen pupil is offered a choice: graduate and join Blackwood’s magical elite, or venture into the unknown and cross over to the Other Side.
Wren knows she has what it takes to win―unless, that is, her arch-rival (and subject of her tortured dreams) Augustine steals her spot.
Irene has never cared about playing by the rules and will break whatever (and whoever) stands in her way, including her only friend, Masika.
Olivier has given up securing the nomination. But he’ll stop at nothing to keep Emilio, from crossing over to the Other Side.
All are determined to be Blackwood’s chosen candidate. All are determined to win. But this Decennial will be unlike any before.
Six nominees.
Four trials.
One victor.
The competitors are about to learn that there are some fates worse than death.
Love Arranged
9780349438016 | Piatkus | BPB
Lauren Asher

Get ready for the final addictive romance in the Lakefront Billionaires series from Sunday Times bestselling author and TikTok sensation, Lauren Asher
Lorenzo
Five months. Two people ‘in love’. One fake relationship with an expiration date.
Sounds simple enough.
The problem is, Lily Muñoz and I have history.
So, when she volunteers to date me so I can improve my public image, I should say no.
Our past complicates everything, but since my future depends on her, I agree to her plan.
Faking it for the public is expected, but falling in love in private?
That isn’t part of our arrangement.
Lily
Using a dating app sounded like a great idea, up until I discovered Lorenzo Vittori was my match.
My sister’s boyfriend hates him. My mom is wary of him.
And me? I’ve spent the last year avoiding him.
But when my business is threatened, I’m forced into teaming up with Lorenzo to save it.
All I need to do is help him win the mayoral election, and he promises to protect my shop.
It doesn’t take me long to learn that I’m not cut out for fake relationships, but Lorenzo?
He isn’t capable of a real one.
Immortal Dark
9780316570398 | Hodder Children’s Books | BPB
Tigest Girma

Sink your teeth into this thrilling Black vampire romantasy!
Hidden in our world, a society of vampires originating in Africa, can only feed from select human bloodlines. Each bloodline represents a House more cutthroat than the next. To ensure peaceful co-existence and inherit their legacy, human children of these families must study at an elite university before choosing a vampire companion.
Lost Heiress, Kidan Adane grew up far from Uxlay University. She is obsessively protective, mildly nihilistic, and willing to do anything to save her loved ones. When her sister, June, disappears, Kidan is convinced a vampire stole her – the alluring yet dangerous Susenyos Sagad, the same vampire bound to her own House.
To stay in Uxlay, Kidan must study an arcane philosophy, work with four enigmatic students, and survive living with Susenyos – even as he does everything to drive her away. It doesn’t matter that Susenyos’ violence speaks to her own and tempts Kidan to surrender to a life of darkness. She must find her sister and kill him at all costs.
When a murder mirroring June’s disappearance shakes Uxlay, Kidan sinks further into the ruthless underworld of vampires, risking her very soul. Here, she discovers a centuries-old threat. And June could be at the very centre of it.
The Cruel Prince meets Ninth House in this dangerously romantic dark academia debut, where a lost heiress must infiltrate a secret society and live with the vampire she suspects kidnapped her sister.
Time of Your Life
9781398728318 | Orion | TPB
Jessa Hastings

She wasn’t supposed to meet someone like him.
He wasn’t supposed to be her undoing.
It’s 1995, Joah Harrigan is the brash, enigmatic frontman of the biggest band in the world, and Ysolde is the iconic face of a generation. She’s who people write their songs about-the kind of girl who could ruin a man.
He doesn’t fall, and she doesn’t chase. But from the moment they meet, it’s headfirst, reckless, and inevitable.
Too much, too fast, too consuming.
Loving Ysolde makes Joah feel alive, but it also makes him feel trapped. Her star burns just as bright as his, and he doesn’t know how to be with someone he can’t control. The more he wants her, the more he resents her for it.
But fame is corrosive, and so is love. Neither Ysolde nor Joah were built to survive both, because some loves don’t end-they can’t-so they just destroy you.
The Rebecca Ross Collection: Five-book collection
9780008761400 | HarperFire | PB
Rebecca Ross

Five titles included:
The Queen’s Rising, The Queen’s Resistance, Sisters of Sword and Song, Divine Rivals, Ruthless Vows
Rosie in Chains
9780008711689 | HarperVoyager: Magpie | TPB
Julie Soto

The war is over, the dark forces have won, and the hero who was supposed to save them is dead.
Captured as her castle is overrun by the enemy, Princess Briony Rosewood is stripped of her magic and auctioned off to the highest bidder.
She’s sold to Toven Hearst: scion of a family known for their cruel control of magic – and her long-time, and unresolved, infatuation. Yet despite the horrors of her new world and the role she must learn to play within it, all is not lost.
Help – and hope – may yet arise in the most unlikely of places…


