The Fiction Trends Everyone Chased in Frankfurt — Top 10
The Frankfurt Book Fair once again offered a sharp snapshot of the market’s evolving tastes. Last month, we saw clear momentum across key fiction trends, including Horroromance, Romantasy, Romance, Dark Romance, Contemporary Women’s Fiction, Crime & Thrillers, and vibrant YA/New Adult cross-over storytelling.
From more than 100 meetings in Germany last month, we’ve curated a selection of the top ten titles that garnered the most enthusiasm. We hope this spotlight helps you find exactly what will resonate in your market.
Top Fiction Books — Frankfurt Book Fair 2025
Blood & Betrayals
By Jeanette Rose and Alexis Rune
Book #1 Avalon University Series
Fear, Fury and Fire. To Know is Not Enough.
Power flows through the ancient halls of Avalon University like a neverending flood. Admission to the elite institution enables students to hone their magic under the watchful eye of their icy headmaster.
Summer Tuatha De Daanan planned to slide through her tenure at Avalon, unnoticed and inconspicuous. She has no interest in learning more about her past or why someone applied to the school on her behalf. Her emotional walls keep everyone at bay, and her sharp tongue makes people give her a wide berth. Yet, despite her best attempts, her emotional armor begins to melt from her feral vampire roommate to the angelic senior who is never dissuaded by her feigning disinterest. Maybe this could be good for her, a new life. Yet, dark secrets lurk in the halls of Avalon, and soon those same halls are drenched in blood.
The Wrath of the Fallen
By Amber V. Nicole
Book #4 Gods & Monsters Series
While the rebellion intensifies its efforts to overthrow Nismera, Dianna learns more of her past and the consequences of acts set in motion in the time of the Primordials. An old weapon appears once more to threaten Samkiel and Dianna’s future by robbing them of their past. Will they find a way to change the consequences of wheels set in motion so long ago, or will they be forever changed in the process?
Butterfly Games
By Kelly Scarborough
For fans of Philippa Gregory and Allison Pataki, a debut biographical historical novel about a young Swedish countess whose youthful love affair with the heir to her country’s throne has profound personal and political repercussions.
In the opulent world of the Swedish royal court, Jacquette Gyldenstolpe walks a dangerous tightrope between romance and political intrigue. Neglected by her parents and ostracized by the people around her, the young countess falls in love with Prince Oscar, heir to the Swedish throne—but their passionate affair has far-reaching consequences for the new Bernadotte dynasty, which is already challenged by threats from inside Sweden and beyond.
The Good Karma Refuge for Elephants
By David Michie
When Rob Forbes returns to his childhood home of Zimbabwe after decades away, he doesn’t plan to stay long. A big job back in London awaits. But he finds himself questioning his priorities amid the open-hearted exuberance of people who have so little compared to his wealthy colleagues; a powerful reconnection to the animals and wild places he loved as a child, and his growing friendship with Tibetan guru and neighbour, Rinpoche.
What if it is possible to live with the same ineffable lightness as the intriguing lama? Why is the joy of ubuntu – community – felt in the most improbable places? And could an orphaned elephant calf change his life?
Credenza
By Wendy Dalrymple
Whether it's renovating her home, running her online boutique, or taking care of her daughter, Veronica Marquette is no stranger to handling things on her own. So when her beloved Grandma Maddie passes away, she thinks nothing of hauling her cherished credenza home herself. But with the arrival of the peculiar piece of furniture, old family secrets also emerge. Veronica is confronted by an ancient enemy who has come to claim a lost relic that represents much more than she could have ever imagined.
Seeds of the Pomegranate
By Suzanne Uttaro Samuels
In early 20thcentury Sicily, Mimi Inglese, a talented painter, aspires to defy societal norms by attending the Palermo Art Academy. But when she contracts tuberculosis, her dreams come to an end. She and her family move to New York City, where she is sucked into the underbelly of City life and becomes involved in her father's money laundering scheme. When her father goes to prison, Mimi begins counterfeiting 5 bills to save her family from starvation and maybe save enough to make art again. But tragedy strikes when her sister dies. Overwhelmed by guilt and grief, Mimi finally abandons her artistic ambitions to care for her sister's child, Sebu. Escalating Gangland violence pervades their lives until a devastating tenement fire forces her to a crossroad. Does she have the courage to flee westward with Sebu and finally carve out a life of her own making? A gritty story of a woman learning to survive in a man’s brutal world.
Charlotte Salomon Paints Her Life
By Pamela Reitman
Inspired by the life and work of Charlotte Salomon, this novel shows an artist intent on pursuing her art against all odds. As a young GermanJewish art student at The Berlin Art Academy during Hitler’s rise to power in 1938, Charlotte’s first place prize is denied because she is a Jew, her enrollment annulled. After Kristallnacht, she is sent from Berlin into exile with her grandparents. When Charlotte’s grandmother leaps to her death, her Old World grandfather shocks her with the family secret, a legacy of female suicides. She struggles against her grandfather’s insistence that suicide, not art, is her destiny too. Haunted by the encroaching terror of the Third Reich and the threat of psychological disintegration, Charlotte clings to her determination to become a serious modernist painter, to complete her monumental work “Life? Or Theater?” and get it into safekeeping in a race against time before capture by the Nazis.
Reunions
By David Adams Cleveland
This rich and absorbing novel plumbs the friendships and secrets of four talented women during their 40-year reunion at Princeton University.
Gini, Annette, Bianca, and Apolonia come together for a joyous weekend of shared memories. Yet the reunion takes a bizarre turn when the four friends meet young Jacob, the son of their brilliant former classmate, Jake Burrage, now the reclusive CEO of Burrage Pharmaceuticals. Jacob seems to know more about the four women than any son should or could possibly know.
When Jacob disconcertingly calls into question pivotal moments that have shaped each woman's life, they must consider the specter of a mind-boggling possibility borne on the cutting-edge of biotech's wild frontier.
Courting the Sun
By Peggy Joque Williams
France, 1670. On her sixteenth birthday, Sylvienne d'Aubert thinks her dream has come true. She holds in her hands an invitation from King Louis XIV to attend his royal court. However, her mother harbors a longtime secret she's kept from both her daughter and the monarch, a secret that could upend Sylvienne's life.
In Paris, Sylvienne is quickly swept up in the romance, opulence, and excitement of royal life. Assigned to serve King Louis's favorite mistress, she is absorbed into the monarch's most intimate circle. But the naïve country girl soon finds herself ill-prepared for the world of intrigue, illicit affairs, and power-mongering that takes place behind the shiny façade of Versailles.
Cleave the Sparrow
By Jonathan Katz
2025 Literary Titan Gold Book Award
Wilder Crick, the worst presidential candidate in history, is dead. Now his reluctant apprentice Tom and ruthless campaign manager Shelly must carry out his final order—a bizarre, posthumous search for the true, hidden nature of reality.
"Some books tell a story," writes Literary Titan's Priscilla Evans. "Others drag you into a chaotic, unrelenting experience that scrambles your brain and leaves you questioning everything. Cleave The Sparrow is for people who enjoy satire so sharp it draws blood, philosophy so deep it makes your head hurt, and humor so dark you feel guilty laughing. It’s for fans of Catch-22, Infinite Jest, and Dr. Strangelove. It’s for anyone who has ever looked at the world and thought: This can’t be real. Because maybe, just maybe, it isn’t."
