Another season, another batch of new releases! With December almost upon us, I figure it’s about time I put together a post for my most anticipated books that are being released in December, January, and February.

You’ll notice that this post is pretty short and romance heavy, and I think a lot of that is because the next three months are pretty slow ones as far as publishing new books. But that doesn’t make me any less excited to read these books! Plus I expect it will pick up a lot more in the spring, especially for May. Anyways, on to the books!

It Takes Two to Tumble by Cat Sebastian (December 12)

I binged Cat Sebastian’s first three books this last summer and am really excited to read something new from her! I don’t care that much what it’s about, but the blurb sounds super cute, which is making me even more excited to check out this book.

Essentially, It Takes Two to Tumble is a romance between a country vicar and a naval captain. The vicar is roped into helping take care of the captain’s children when he’s at see and falls in love with the children and, when the captain returns, their father as well. If it’s anything like Sebastian’s previous books, it’s going to be great!

Heart on Fire by Amanda Bouchet (January 2)

I’ve been waiting for this book for a year!!! I love fantasy and I love romance, but A Promise of Fire is the first book I read that really combines the two genres into one book. I had no idea when I started it that it was part of a planned trilogy, but as soon as I finished the first one and realized, I immediately went out and bought the sequel and proceeded to read it in one day. The problem is, I started this series right after the sequel came out, and then the third book got pushed back, so I had to wait a full year for Heart on Fire. Book nerd struggles!

I won’t say too much about the plot of this book since it’s the third in a trilogy, but like I mentioned, this trilogy is a romance set in a high fantasy world in which the Greek gods are real. Cat was doing her best to hide and blend in when Griffin saw her and realized he needed her powers in order to secure his position as the new leader of his country. When she wouldn’t go with him willingly, he kidnapped her, and all kinds of adventures and romance ensued. I can’t wait to see what the last book has in store!

Down by Contact by Santino Hassell (January 16)

If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you probably already know that I’m obsessed with Illegal Contact by Santino Hassell, which is super shocking to me because I don’t usually care for contemporaries, let alone football romances. But I totally loved it and seriously cannot wait for the sequel, Down by Contact. There was an excerpt at the end of Illegal Contact that had tons of chemistry and tension between the two main characters, so I think their story is going to be great in a full-length book.

In the excerpt, you see Simeon and Adrian start a major fight between their two football teams that leads to Simeon’s throwing arm being seriously injured. As a penalty for their actions, the NFL sentences the two of them to community service teaching Brooklyn teens how to play football. As the two work together, Simeon starts to realize that there’s more to Adrian than just his asshole jock persona, and Adrian starts to question his intense feelings for Simeon. Seriously, this is going to be such a great book!

In light of emerging information about Hassell’s inappropriate behavior, I no longer stand by this endorsement of Down by Contact. Please see this post for more details.

Iron Gold by Pierce Brown (January 16)

You might have noticed in October that I wound up binging the entire Red Rising trilogy, so it should come as no surprise that Iron Gold is on this list! Can I just say how glad I am that I only just read Red Rising and didn’t have to wait ages for Iron Gold to come out? Though even three or so months feels like forever! I’m so excited to see more of this world and revisit some of my favorite characters.

The Red Rising trilogy is a dystopian meets science fiction trilogy following the story of Darrow, a Red from Mars who gets caught up in a sprawling movement to overthrow the current ruler of the solar system after his wife is executed. Iron Gold is set 10 years after the Rising and sees Darrow struggling to create a new order. It also introduces three more points of view, including a young Red girl who has fled her refugee camp, an ex-soldier broken by grief, and the heir to the former Sovereign who Darrow killed as part of the Rising. It’s going to be such an epic book and I can’t wait to see what else Brown has in store for these characters!

Hello Stranger by Lisa Kleypas (February 27)

I’m always excited for any Kleypas novel, but Hello Stranger is another book that I’ve been dying to read after reading an excerpt teasing the book. There was just so much chemistry and tension between the two main characters, and I can’t wait to see them fall in love with each other.

Hello Stranger is a historical romance set in Victorian England that follows the story of Garrett, a badass female doctor who’s used to taking care of herself, and Ethan, a former detective who is “as gallant as he is secretive.” In the scene I read, Garrett was treating patients in an unsavory part of London and was rescued by Ethan when some thugs attacked her on her way home. According to the blurb, they eventually decided to have one night of passion before going back to being strangers, but neither of them can quite forget that night, and when a dangerous assignment goes wrong, the two find themselves thrown together again.

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So those five are the ones I’m most excited for and that I already have preordered (except for Iron Gold, because I’m going to Brown’s book signing and will need to buy a copy there). Since it’s such a short list, I thought I’d include a few books that are coming out in the next few months that I’m also interested in, but that I’m not sure I’ll necessarily read right away.

One of those is The Cruel Prince by Holly Black. I actually don’t know a ton about this book, but I heard a few people raving about this book after they got arcs at BookCon, so it’s kind of been on my radar ever since. And then Leigh Bardugo gushed about it, and now I’m super excited to read it.

Another is Reign of the Fallen by Sarah Glenn Marsh. This could easily wind up being another disappointing YA fantasy, but the cover is amazing and it involves necromancers, which I’ve loved ever since reading Garth Nix’s Abhorsen trilogy, so I’m excited to check it out.

I’d also like to check out The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert and The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton. Again, I know very little about these books, but I’ve been hearing good things about it from people who got arcs, and a couple of the authors on the YA panel at the Brooklyn Book Festival that I attended said they’re must-reads, so I’m excited for them to be published.

Of course, I have to mention Tempests and Slaughter by Tamora Pierce. I definitely won’t be reading this right away as I’d like to reread all of the Tortall books before I get to it. Plus I think it involves one of the main characters from The Immortals series, which I actually haven’t read yet. So I have to read those, and then I also kind of want to wait and buy this in paperback so it matches the rest of my Tortall books, but we’ll see.

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There you have it! The books I’m most excited are coming out in the next three months, plus a few more I’m potentially interested in. What books are you most anticipating this winter? Let me know in the comments!