Seattle Staff Faves 2025: Fiction, Part 1
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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Tartufo
After narrowly defeating a popular donkey in the mayoral election, Delizia Miccuci faces the decline of the rural Italian village of Lazzarini Boscarino, but when local truffle hunter Giovanni Scarpazza discovers a colossal truffle with mysterious potential, the villagers are thrust into an uncertain future. (NoveList Plus)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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All the Water in the World
A young girl documents her escape from a flooded and now uninhabitable New York City. (Kirkus Reviews)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Boy From the Sea
A surprise arrival at an Irish fishing town upends a family and community. (Kirkus Reviews)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Moderation
Girlie Delmundo's digital work as a virtual reality moderator collides with her personal life when she falls for a coworker. (Library Journal)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Malinalli
A pivotal figure in Mexican history is the subject of a novel that combines historical fiction and fantasy. (Kirkus Reviews)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Midnight Shift
When four isolated elderly people die back-to-back at the same hospital by jumping out of the sixth-floor window, Su-Yeon doesn't understand why she's the only one at her precinct that seems to care. (NoveList Plus)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Death at the White Hart
When a pub owner is found gruesomely murdered, Detective Nicola Bridge returns to her quaint coastal hometown to uncover dark secrets hidden beneath its picturesque façade, risking the destruction of everything she thought she knew. (NoveList Plus)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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King of Ashes
Deadly trouble awaits Roman Carruthers in his corrupt hometown when the Black wealth management whiz attempts to outwit a murderous drug gang threatening his family. (Kirkus Reviews)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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A Sharp Endless Need
Star high school basketball player Mack Morris grapples with grief and forbidden desire for her talented teammate Liv Cooper while navigating college recruitment, societal pressures and the complexities of first love in small-town Pennsylvania. (NoveList Plus)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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There's No Turning Back
Banned by the Italian Fascist regime when it was first published in 1938, this groundbreaking novel follows eight diverse women at their Roman college as they navigate love, ambition, and personal secrets, capturing their struggles for independence and identity in a society resistant to change. (NoveList Plus)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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