Top 5 New Books Releasing July 1, 2025

If you’ve followed me for awhile, you know I often play with the format of the New Release Spotlight. I’ll go a month or two with one format, then I will switch it up.

The honest truth is, these weekly Spotlights are a ton of work for me. I am forever searching for an easier way.

So for July 2025, the Spotlights are back on my blog, but with a new twist: I will Spotlight only 5 favorite new release titles each week. These can be any mix of YA, middle grades, and picture books.

This format forces me to choose only five new books, which in some weeks, will be difficult because there are usually so many great new titles. But I hope a more pared-down list will be helpful. Library budgets rarely increase these days, and it may be difficult for librarians to choose from such a large number of fantastic new books.

If you prefer the longer Spotlights, I will add more titles to my lists on bookshop.org throughout the month. Look for the July 2025 lists for YA, middle grades, and picture books for the full lists of what I would normally add to my Spotlights.

These titles have also been added to The Ginormous Booklist.

Looking for the Canva presentations of the Spotlight? I am working on those! I will share the links through my email list at the end of July. You can join my email list here.

Disclosure: All book covers below are Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. There is no additional cost to you if you click on the links or make a purchase.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

When the Moon moves into the long-empty house next door, all the rooms fill up with light—and Stella finally has a friend.

But without the Moon in orbit, the world is going topsy-turvy. The tides stop, and the Earth has a new wobble. Stella worries, but the Moon just wants to stay and garden.

Can Stella convince the Moon that life on Earth needs the Moon back in orbit? And what will become of her wish for a friend next door?

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

If Carter hadn’t been checking his phone, he might have seen his brother coming down the ski slopes in his direction. And if Carter had seen his brother in time and avoided the crash, he might not have two broken legs right now.

Oops.

Now Carter is stuck at home for weeks, with both his legs in casts. Bored, he starts checking out the live feeds from police cams around his town. Before he knows it, he’s obsessed — watching his classmates when they don’t know he’s looking, and discovering some other VERY STRANGE things going on that no one else is noticing.

But what happens when Carter is found out… and the people he’s watching know where he lives?

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

A terrible accident. A horrible loss. A regrettable tragedy. That’s all anyone in Fenix can talk about when a fire consumes the local high school, taking the life of a student. The town mourns, except who really knew—let alone cared about—Eden when she was alive? And why was she in the building that night?

Five teens each hold a piece of the truth about what happened. They also have their own secrets, secrets they will fight to protect with the same fury as the blaze that killed Eden. But silence is meant to be broken, and this story can’t be extinguished…

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

When Brenda’s internet goes out right before an important scholarship deadline, she stumbles right into Kat’s family’s coffeeshop. Brenda is swept away by cool, confident Kat, who actually cares about Brenda’s 19-step plan to save the world through science. Meanwhile, Kat can’t stop thinking about Brenda, who is smart, passionate, and doesn’t seem to care that Kat is the prophesized Chosen One.

The only problem? Kat and Brenda are from different universes. Like need-to-find-a-portal-to-go-on-a-second-date different universes.

As their universes collide and things spiral out of control, can a girl who is determined to save the world find love with a girl determined to outrun her destiny?

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Two moments in time. Two very different girls. And one story that connects them both.

It’s the year 2024, and Zinnia Davis is on a mission to ace her personal essay. But when an admissions rep hints that her adoption story is “lacking heart,” she has to figure out a new spin. Frankly, Zinnia doesn’t know much about her birth parents; that is, until her favorite author releases a new novel—Little Heart—about a princess with a heart-shaped birthmark on her forehead and separated from her mother at birth…just like Zinnia. Could this be her birth mother?

Flashback to 2006, and teenager Tuesday Walker is barely making it through high school after experiencing a loss that had her on leave for months. To cope, Tuesday writes a series of entries in a journal, but when the journal is lost, it feels like reliving the trauma all over again. Tuesday’s search for the journal uncovers dangerous secrets about her past, her crush, and her own mother’s story.

If Tuesday isn’t careful in her search, Zinnia will have to reap the consequences in the present.