Spotify Reveals Best Debuts and Breakout Authors of 2025: Did Your Favorite Make the List? (Exclusive)

‘Dominion’ by Addie E. Citchens

“A brilliantly crafted Black Southern family drama told with the captivating force, humor, and tenderness carried in the hearts of these women, Addie E. Citchens’s Dominion wrestles with the many brutal, sinister ways in which we are shaped by fear and patriarchy, and studies how we might yet choose to break free,” the synopsis states.

PEOPLE previously described the first novel from the New Orleans-based author as “razor-sharp.”

‘Of Monsters and Mainframes’ by Barbara Truelove

Of Monsters and Mainframes is the debut novel from Barbara Truelove, an Australian author and game designer. It’s the “queer love child of pulp horror and ​classic ​sci-fi,” an official synopsis states. Billed as an “odyssey,” it’s also a revenge tale — or at least, it starts that way.

‘Great Black Hope’ by Rob Franklin

Narrated by Justice Smith (I Saw the TV Glow, Now You See Me: Now You Don’t) in its audiobook form, Great Black Hope is the debut novel from Atlanta-based author and Art for Black Lives co-founder Rob Franklin.

The novel follows an “upwardly mobile and downwardly spiraling Black man caught between worlds of race and class, glamourous parties and sudden consequences, a friend’s mysterious death and his own arrest,” per an official synopsis. PEOPLE previously said of the novel, “This gorgeous meditation on race, class and who gets to misbehave is a force.”

‘The Lamb’ by Lucy Rose

Lucy Rose’s first novel, The Lamb, has received Dakota Johnson’s stamp of approval via her TeaTime Book Club, plus praise from The Washington Post, The New York Times and PEOPLE, who called it “Femgore at its finest.”

This vivid — and occasionally gory — novel about a mother and daughter with a unique appetite, is just right “for fans of cannibalism and mommy issues,” Johnson, 36, previously teased of the book.

‘The Three Lives of Cate Kay’ by Kate Fagan

Kate Fagan’s The Three Lives of Cate has heard praise from several outlets — and one of Hollywood’s biggest bookworms. The book, which has been described as First Lie Wins meets The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, was among Reese Witherspoon’s book club picks for 2025.

The novel sees the titular author rise to fame with her bestselling book trilogy-turned-movie franchise — but she’s not who she says she is, carrying dark secrets that stem from a tragedy in her past. It’s a story Witherspoon, 49, says “swept me away with its big dreams, love and unexpected twists.”

‘The Tiny Things Are Heavier’ by Esther Ifesinachi Okonkwo

Esther Ifesinachi Okonkwo’s debut effort is “a heart-rending” book that follows a “Nigerian immigrant as she tries to find her place at home and in America — a powerful epic about love, grief, family and belonging,” per an official synopsis.

Named a top book of the year by Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and now Spotify, The Tiny Things Are Heavier “is a captivating portrait that explores the hardships of migration, the subtleties of Nigeria’s class system, and how far we’ll go to protect those we love,” a synopsis states.

‘House of the Beast’ by Michelle Wong

Michelle Wong got her start as a comic book artist and illustrator before releasing her debut novel, House of the Beast. The Sunday Times bestseller is a dark fantasy coming-of-age novel that follows a young woman who “strikes a deal with a mysterious and alluring god to seek revenge on her aristocratic family,” a synopsis teases.

On Spotify, the book’s description cheekily warns that listeners who dare to “enter the House of the Beast” should prepare to find violence, morally grey characters, a vengeful female main character and more.

‘Salty, Spiced and a Little Bit Nice’ by Cynthia Timoti

This debut novel from Cynthia Timoti is billed as a “deliciously sugar-free” romantic comedy à la Crazy Rich Asians and Always Be My Maybe. In other words, it’s a sweet treat for rom-com lovers!

“She’s salty, he’s spice — there’s no room for sugar in this fake relationship, but it may be sweeter than they think …,” an official synopsis teases.

‘You Are Fatally Invited: A Novel’ by Ande Pliego

Ande Pliego’s You Are Fatally Invited is a dark satirical thriller with a meta plot and “messy” characters. It follows a “writer’s retreat for thriller authors gone horribly wrong, and the revenge-driven event-coordinator who realizes she’s not the only one with dark intentions,” according to the author.

“I hope this story whisks you away to the salt-soaked shores of Wolf Harbor Island, and that within the estate’s twisting corridors and dangerous games and ill-timed wise cracks (looking at you, Fletch), you find the beating heart to be a fierce love for the genre,” she wrote of the thriller on Instagram.

‘This Is the Only Kingdom’ by Jaquira Díaz

One of PEOPLE’s must-read books of fall 2025, This Is the Only Kingdom is the debut novel from award-winning author Jaquira Díaz.

The book follows “a mother and daughter wrestling with the aftermath of a murder, set against the backdrop of a tightknit, working-class barrio in Puerto Rico,” according to an official synopsis. PEOPLE described it as both “gutting and gorgeous.”

‘Canticle’ by Janet Rich Edwards

Janet Rich Edwards, a writer and professor of epidemiology at Harvard University, explained why she wrote debut novel Canticle, which follows a “headstrong mystic and the sisterhood that shelters her,” in a guest article for PEOPLE.

The novel was inspired by Edwards’ time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger in the 1980s. It’s an experience that stuck with her long after she “came home, fell in love, got married, had children and a career,” she writes.

‘Best Offer Wins’ by Marisa Kashino

An official synopsis describes this debut novel from former journalist Marisa Kashino as a sharp “exploration of class, ambition and the modern housing crisis” — and it’s set to come to life in a Hulu series fronted by Greta Lee, per Deadline.

In the novel, which will see Lee as a “desperate buyer on the edge,” white picket fences become “the ultimate symbol of success — and obsession,” a synopsis teases, asking: “How far would you go for the house of your dreams?”

‘Woodworking’ by Emily St. James

When not in the writers room for Yellowjackets, writer and critic Emily St. James penned her debut novel, Woodworking — which an official synopsis bills as Detransition Baby meets Fleishman is in Trouble.

It’s a “story about the awkwardness of growing up and the greatest love story of all, that between us and our friends,” a synopsis says, and “a tonic for the moment and a celebration of womanhood in all its multifaceted joy.”

‘The Austen Affair’ by Madeline Bell

As the title implies, this one’s for the Jane Austen lovers. The enemies-to-lovers tale is also a bit “spicy,” according to author Madeline Bell, who hilariously revealed on Instagram that her grandma ignored her request to skip a racy scene.

The book follows two feuding actors starring in a film adaptation of one of Austen’s novels when an electrical accident sends them to the time period they are embodying for the movie. “200 years in the past with only each other to rely on, Tess and Hugh need to ad-lib their way through the Regency period in order to make it back home, and hopefully not screw up history along the way,” a synopsis teases. “But if a certain someone looks particularly dashing in those 19th century breeches … well, Tess won’t be complaining.”