Seattle Staff Faves 2025: Fiction, Part 2
Every year we ask our staff across the system for their favorite books published in a given year. Like last year, we needed two parts to accommodate all of the adult fiction our staff read! Enjoy this variety of fiction staff favorites, with annotations by staff members or as noted. (Created November 2025)
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Home of the American Circus
After an emergency leaves her short on rent, thirty-year-old Freya Arnalds bails on her lackluster life as bartender in Maine and returns to her suburban hometown of Somers, New York, to live in the house she inherited from her estranged parents. (NoveList Plus)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Hong Kong Widow
In 1950s Hong Kong, refugee Mei enters a deadly seance competition in a haunted mansion to seek revenge against the man who ruined her life, but decades later, the horrors of that final night return, demanding she confront what truly happened. (NoveList Plus)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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A Rare Find
When an aspiring archaeologist teams up with her childhood enemy for a treasure hunt, they find it impossible to bury their growing feelings, in this charming queer historical romance. (NoveList Plus)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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For Whom the Belle Tolls
"It's a funny, heartfelt novel (and a spicy romance) about self-acceptance and found family that centers on a recently deceased woman who chooses to open a customer service desk in hell in her afterlife. Fun facts: the author is PNW local, lives on a boat, and this book started as a collection of TikTok skits called Hell's Belles."--Veronica H.
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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The Convenience Store by the Sea
Machida concocts a heartfelt and pleasantly quirky tale of a convenience store chain that serves just what its customers need. (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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These Summer Storms
After her tycoon father’s death, a woman reunites with her estranged family for a dramatic week on their private island. (Kirkus Reviews)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Persians
"One of my fave book covers of the year!"--McCall O.
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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Amplitudes
A powerful collection of queer and trans speculative fiction that asks the question, “But what if things were different?” (Kirkus Reviews)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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Cosmic Love at the Multiverse Hair Salon
Mare’s fun solo debut skillfully blends a fascinating science fictional concept—individual decisions creating shifts between parallel universes—with cozy, down-to-earth queer romance. (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Cinder House
In this ghostly fairy-tale retelling, a spectral Cinderella struggles to stay corporeal enough to make it to the ball. (Kirkus Reviews)
Format: Book
Availability: Available