Welcome the class of 2025! Meet this year’s debut authors
Seven authors share their book launch year.
Since 2007 the Debutante Ball has been celebrating debut authors and following their journey to the book shelf, through book launches and in the days, weeks and months after that milestone.
This year welcomes the biggest group of debut authors yet, including Gloria L. Huang, Cherisa Jerez, Catalina Margulis, Alexandria Faulkenbury, Kristin Offiler, Penny Zang, Emily Krempholtz. Over the next 12 months, these authors will share their insights, lessons and experiences as they launch their debut novels, revealing a behind-the-scenes glimpse of publishing, life as an author, and the rollercoaster ride of launching a book.
Stay tuned for get-to-know-you author profiles, Q&As, giveaways and more.
For now, meet our class of 2025, in order of launch date.
Gloria L. Huang, KAYA OF THE OCEAN
KAYA OF THE OCEAN is a contemporary middle grade novel with elements of Chinese mythological fantasy. A Chinese-American girl living in Hawaii and struggling with anxiety and a fear of the water learns she’s secretly descended from the Chinese water goddess Mazu, and she must learn to control her new powers before they harm herself or anyone she loves.
Release date: January 7, 2025
Website: https://www.glorialaihuang.com/
Order here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/768788/kaya-of-the-ocean-by-gloria-l-huang/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lailaswrites/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@lailaswrites
C. I. Jerez, AT THE ISLAND’S EDGE
An Iraq War veteran returns to Puerto Rico to reconnect with—and confront—the past in a heart-wrenching novel about duty, motherhood, and the healing power of home.
As a combat medic, Lina LaSalle went to Iraq to save the lives of fellow soldiers. But when her convoy is attacked, she must set aside her identity as a healer and take a life herself.
Although she is honored as a hero when she returns to the US, Lina cannot find her footing. She is stricken with PTSD and unsure of how to support her young son, Teó, a little boy with Tourette’s. As her attempts to self-medicate become harder to hide, Lina realizes she must do the toughest thing yet: ask for help.
She retreats to her parents’ house in Puerto Rico, where Teó thrives under her family’s care. Lina finds kinship, too—with a cousin whose dreams were also shattered by the war and with a handsome and caring veteran who sought refuge on the island and runs a neighborhood bar.
But amid the magic of the island are secrets and years of misunderstandings that could erode the very stability she’s fighting for. Hope lies on the horizon, but can she keep her gaze steady?
Release Date: 3/18/2025
Website : www.cijerezbooks.com
Also find her on: Blue Sky/Instagram/Threads: c.i._jerez
Facebook: C.I. Jerez
TikTok: CIJerez
Catalina Margulis, AGAIN, ONLY MORE LIKE YOU
Estranged best friends find themselves starting over from scratch as they turn 40 and ask are their best years behind them or will they find a way to make 40 the start of something amazing. For fans of Jennifer Weiner and Elin Hilderbrand.
Release date: April 29, 2025
Website : Catmargulis.com/books
Also find her on: Instagram/Threads: @catmargulis
TikTok: @cat.margulis
Cat’s Substack is called: Passion Project with Cat Margulis
Alexandria Faulkenbury, SOMEWHERE PAST THE END
Somewhere Past the End follows Alice Greene as she tries to put her life back together following the mysterious disappearance of the cult she's loved and longed to leave all her life.
Release date: May 20, 2025
Website: https://alexandriafaulkenbury.com/
Also find her on: X: @lexibury Instagram/Threads: @amfaulkenbury
Kristin Offiler, THE HOUSEWARMING
When up-and-coming jewelry designer Zoe Gilbert vanishes from Block Island, RI, a blogger launches a years-long campaign blaming the disappearance on Zoe's four friends, the last people to see her alive. But on the fifth anniversary of the disappearance, Zoe’s friends are drawn back together for a housewarming party on Block Island, unraveling years of lies, secrets, and the truth. THE HOUSEWARMING explores how our past can haunt our present, the complex bonds of female friendship, and the true cost of true crime.
Release date: July 29, 2025
Website: www.kristinoffiler.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristinoffilerwrites
Penny Zang, DOLL PARTS
DOLL PARTS a dual timeline suspense following one woman as she begins to uncover the truth of the death of her estranged best friend and the Sylvia Plath adoring sad girls they attended college with decades ago, all while holding a secret that will slowly unravel her new, suburban dream life.
Release date: August 26, 2025
Book link: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/doll-parts-penny-zang/1146431751?ean=9781464228148
Penny’s Substack is called: Mourning Pages
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pennyzang/
Threads: pennyzang
Bluesky: pennyzang.bsky.social
Emily Krempholtz, VIOLET THISTLEWAITE IS NOT A VILLAIN ANYMORE
A cozy fantasy romcom about a powerful plant witch who quits her life of crime to open a flower shop in a quirky small town. But when a magical plague (and her own dark past) comes knocking, she has to team up with the grumpy alchemist next door to become something she never thought she could be: one of the good guys. (Berkley/Ace)
Release Date: Fall 2025
Website: www.emilykrempholtz.com
Instagram: @embakesbooks_
TikTok: @writersofrohan
Bluesky: @writersofrohan