2025 Jewish Debuts

You’ll have to forgive me for being a little late with this post. I couldn’t gather my list and get everything together until October. The good news? Most of these books are available for purchase right now!

A debut is a wonderful moment for a writer, but it is also incredibly stressful. In today’s climate, there is less and less opportunity to grow over the course of a career. If you want to ensure Jewish writers continue to be able to publish stories, then please consider supporting them – especially debuts. Before we get to the list, here are some suggestions for how to help out a debut. Many are free! And if you have a debut book coming out in 2026 please do let us know.

The most important way to help is buying or pre-ordering the books. Sales are often used by publishers to determine if an author can publish a second book with them. Out of cash? Library requests are free, and they too can help towards sales. Actually reading the book – and then posting a review on major review or sales website – is also critical for a book to find its audience. Did you love the book? Tell your friends! Follow the authors that resonate with you on social media or through their newsletters. Boost a post or two. Attend a local event. You have no idea how much this means to the authors who are shaking with trepidation that nobody will show up to their signing. Even if you hate a book – please be kind. Someone put their heart and soul into making this art. I put together these round up posts in the spirit of ahavat chinam – loving my fellow Jew no matter who they are or if I know them or not. I’d ask you to keep that spirit alive.

For the purposes of this post, a 2025 Jewish Debut is an author who identifies as Jewish and has their first book coming out in the 2025 calendar year. Unlike the rest of the website, for this post, the book does not need to contain Jewish content. I haven’t read them all (although I have read some, and they were great!!). The only other criteria for inclusion was that someone thought to inform me about the above criteria being met. I can’t promote you if I don’t know about you! So if you belong on this list, shoot me a message. If you qualify for 2026, let me know. Maybe next year I can get the post up before the year is almost over.

Without further ado: HERE COME THE 2025 JEWISH DEBUT BOOKS (in alphabetical order)

Francie Baum was hoping that turning seventeen would bring some changes, but maybe not so many all at once: a cute new boyfriend from the neighboring school, a shaking up of her once-solid friend group, extra homework from her Hebrew teacher, and, more worrisome, her older brother’s ongoing refusal to return to rehab. She didn’t realize senior year of high school would be this complicated.
 
As she edges closer to college and the uncertainty of the future, Francie must figure out how to navigate all this and more, demonstrating how acts of lovingkindness have the power to mend even the deepest fractures.

Find It: Amazon | Bookshop

Alice Rue has never spoken to her longtime crush Nolan Altman, but after she saves his life, the EMTs tell his family that Alice is Nolan’s girlfriend. She wants to set the record straight, but Nolan’s in a coma, and if the family feels comforted by the idea of Nolan having his “girlfriend” by his side for what might be his last moments, isn’t it kinder to go along with it? At least for now?

The Altmans are impossibly nice and supportive, and there’s something about Nolan’s sister Van that makes Alice feel more seen and understood than she has in years. She knows it’s wrong to lie, but it’s easy to convince herself that she’s doing the right thing by evading the truth.

But what she can’t avoid is her growing chemistry with Van. Alice must decide if she can unravel this tangle of lies to salvage her chances with the woman who just may be the love of her life—especially if Nolan wakes up.

Find It: Bookshop | Amazon

Unlike the high-achieving members of her family’s secret society, Ada Castle has mastered nothing but the art of falling for the wrong guys. But now she finally has the chance to prove her worth: she just needs to gain access to a hidden school that her family has been trying to locate for generations. Granted, she accidentally goes on a date with the recruiter first, then is temporarily abducted, but Ada manages to secure herself an invitation to the Genesis Institute, where descendants of exiled Renaissance masters practice long-lost arts and sciences.

The school is a utopia of sustainable technology, medical advancements, and myths come to life, yet they are unjustly hoarding their resources. Ada goes undercover to steal their innovations for the rest of the world, but Genesis nurtures her creativity and challenges her views, and she can’t help but fall for the school…and maybe also for her frustratingly off-limits recruiter-turned-mentor.

Ada’s tangle of lies starts to unravel when one of her new friends goes missing. To rescue her, Ada is forced to work with a dangerous (and dangerously hot) classmate whose suspicions threaten her cover. And when the information she’s shared with her family puts her missing friend and all of Genesis in peril, she’ll have to choose whom to betray: the family she loves or the school that has helped her find herself.

Find It: Amazon | Bookshop | BookishlyJewish Review

When Cy Adler dies, it’s a shock to everyone, especially his daughter, Cammy. Almost thirty, slightly aimless, and stuck in a basement apartment in Queens, she’s forced to return to River Hill, her one-square-mile New Jersey hometown, to sit shiva. Cammy’s fraught relationship with her mother, Beth, has never been easy. And now, with her beloved father gone, she would rather be anywhere but back in her childhood room, in a house filled with guests noshing on snacks and offering their condolences. So Cammy does whatever she can to make it through seven turbulent days of mourning.

Amid getting stoned, reconnecting with her best friend and her high school crush, evading the rabbi, and spending a debauched night in Atlantic City, Cammy must reckon with her roots—with the place she fled for the glamour of New York, where she thought she belonged. But is she really any better off than those she left behind? While navigating the swirl of emotions that accompany grief, Cammy also uncovers hidden truths about her father, which lead her to doubt how well she knew the man she adored. Then again, does she even know herself?

Find It: Amazon | Bookshop | BookishlyJewish Review

It’s the beginning of the school year—and Briar’s newest resident, D.J. Rosenblum, is not here for it. Ever since her cousin Rachel died, D.J.’s family has been a mess: Her aunt and uncle are catatonic. Her mom is even more scatterbrained than usual. She had to postpone her bat mitzvah a whole year. Worst of all, she and her mom had to move—leaving her best friend, Eva, behind.

Briar does have one redeeming factor, though: Here, in Rachel’s hometown, D.J. can finally get to the bottom of her cousin’s death. With the help of a chatty journalist and a queen-bee hacker, D.J. can fill in the last days of Rachel’s life. And if she can just figure out her Torah portion—with help from her cute tutor, Jonah—maybe, just maybe, she’ll be able to solve a bigger mystery.

Find It: Amazon | Bookshop | BookishlyJewish Review

Psalome Shipmen is a Dazzler, a hostess working on the gaming floors of The Elysium, the galaxy’s most decadent space casino. But she is also a prisoner to the debt she inherited from her deadbeat father, with years of service ahead of her until she can earn her way out.

Kiyokimora GoldWeaver is a disgraced heiress looking to rescue her family business with an audacious scheme to rob the casino. To pull it off, she needs Psalome on board. When they team up, it looks like a simple job – until Psalome meets Ilaria, the jewel in Kiyo’s master plan, and sparks begin to fly.

With a recovering alcoholic card counter and Psalome’s little sister – who happens to be dating The Elysium’s artificial intelligence – as part of the crew, they might still beat the odds… or learn that the house always wins.

Find It: Amazon | Bookshop

Merriment Feast’s life is one constant party, complete with dazzling gowns and delicious pastries. Everything is perfect…except for her aunt’s physically grueling training. Merri believes it’s her responsibility to protect her family’s traditions and the power they’ve held for generations.

Rue Famine knows that only Feasts benefit from Feast rule. As the heir of House Famine, she spends her days studying potion-making in an enormous, dusty library and learning how to use her magic to help others.

Custom dictates that the heirs of Feast and Famine must duel on their thirteenth birthday. Only one family can rule the land of Fauret, and Merri and Rue have been raised as rivals.

But as the contest draws near and dangers escalate, their true enemy may be a shared one…

Find It: Amazon | Bookshop

This funny mother-daughter caper story stars 73-year-old, overweight former beauty, Aurora, who is a perpetually broke, eccentric divorcee living in the wealthy enclave of Marin County. When Aurora discovers her father’s widow has died, she decides to drive to Los Angeles to see if this means money for her.

Enter Aurora’s high-strung and estranged daughter, 43-year-old Leyla, who spends her days keeping up with the other Marin uber-moms, manically pursuing perfection. When she overhears a conversation and suspects her husband is embarking on an affair, she decides to sneak into a Cannabis business conference he is attending, also in LA, to spy on him.

Aurora and Leyla’s separate quests simultaneously intersect and enmesh in Los Angeles over the course of a weekend provoking hijinks and chaos, and yes, even some healing.

Find It: Amazon | Bookshop | BookishlyJewish Review

Azrael Ashmedai Hart must be cursed. He’s a witch twice named for the devil. He’s making his way back to his family manor in Hallowcross after a failed screenwriting career. He’s adopted a cat he’s allergic to, and if all of that is not enough, he’s also forced to come face-to-face with his childhood best friend and former crush.

Victoria Starnberger, the bubbly girl-next-door Az lost touch with after an awkward incident in college, has just been disowned by her parents for quitting business school and buying Azrael’s late parents’ Hopelessly Teavoted tea shop against their wishes. Being cut off financially is one thing. But, now Vickie also owes a lesser devil for the souls her parents promised him in exchange for her gift to summon the dead by touching something they treasured in life, destroying the object in the process.

When spirits all over town, including Az’s parents, keeping warning her about a sinister threat, Vickie and Az are forced to combine their powers to save the Hallowcross. But to do so, they must prevent her magic from immolating him after Vickie’s devil places a curse on them to keep them from touching until she repays her debt. As they race against the clock to find clever ways around their curse, they find it increasingly harder to deny that they’ve been hopelessly devoted to each other all along.

Find It: Bookshop | Amazon

As the healer’s daughter, Malka has seen how the wood’s curse has plagued her village, but the Ozmini Church only comes to collect its tithe, not to protect heretics with false stories of monsters in the trees. So when a clergy girl wanders too close to the forest and Malka’s mother is accused of her murder, Malka strikes an impossible bargain with a zealot Ozmini priest. If she brings the monster out, he will spare her mother from execution.

When she ventures into the shadowed woods, Malka finds a monster, though not the one she expects: an inscrutable, disgraced golem who agrees to implicate herself, but only if Malka helps her fulfill a promise first and free the imprisoned rabbi who created her.

But a deal easily made is not easily kept. And as their bargain begins to unravel a much more sinister threat, protecting her people may force Malka to endanger the one person she left home to save―and face her growing feelings for the very creature she was taught to fear.

Find It: Amazon | Bookshop

From the Boston Tea Party to the Capitol Crawl, inspire young activists in this bold nonfiction picture book that explores 25 moments of protest, resistance and revolution throughout American history. In a powerful celebration of the United States’ 250th birthday, teach kids how we campaign and vote. We challenge tradition. Protest is American by definition! 

Find It: Amazon | Bookshop

Dr. Ben Friedman’s mental health clinic, The Well Space, has helped hundreds of patients with mental health issues live better lives. But Ben doesn’t need any help for himself. He’s got it all under control, even though he suffers from worsening panic attacks and hasn’t been to the office in a month.

Florist delivery driver Nell uses her green thumb and sheer optimism to get by, but under the surface, her roots are withering. The rent is late, her son is sick, and to top it all off, she woke up to an eviction notice. When she knocks on the wrong door and drops her flower arrangement, it’s just one more mistake to smooth over with a smile. But the grumpy, formally dressed man at the door sees right through her cheerful front.

An unexpected connection sparks between them as Nell helps Ben through a panic attack on his porch. To thank her, Ben orders flowers for every patient in his practice. Nell agrees to deliver them—but only if he comes along for the ride. A blossoming attraction in the florist delivery van leads them to try a three-week trial run for dating. Three weeks to see if Ben can step out of his comfort zone, and if Nell can overcome her painful past and nourish her long-forgotten goals.

Find It: Amazon | Bookshop

​From lighting the menorah and spinning the dreidel, to eating latkes and frying sufganiyot in oil, this book would be the perfect holiday gift to teach kids about the many traditions of Hanukkah. It’s sure to be a latke fun for the whole family!

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Welcome to the brain of Matt Check. Here you’ll find thoughts of bluegrass music, unrequited love, modern-day Nazis and uncircumcised penises. “Ugh, smegma,” as he likes to say.

Matt’s goal? To make a life for himself in New York City, land the perfect banjo lick, and find love along the way. Bonus points if he can succeed in making his father proud.

Find It: Amazon | Bookshop