The First Astra Book Awards: 17 Phenomenal Books Were Recognized

Rebecca Yarro’s romantasy, “Onyx Storm,” was the ultimate winner, taking home the award for Book of the Year. It’s the third book in her “The Empyrean Fantasy” series and was released January 21, 2025. It’s a New York Times Bestseller and has won a number of other awards, including Amazon Best Romantasy Books of the Year 2025. There’s also a television show in development at Amazon MGM Studios! It sounds like things are definitely going well for Yarro.

The Astra Book Awards Nominees & Winners

Awards were given in 16 categories covering a range of genres. Congratulations to everyone! This is quite a reading list.

Best Celebrity Book

• Winner: “Eternally Electric: The Message in My Music” – Debbie Gibson
• “Devout: Losing My Faith to Find Myself” – David Archuleta
• “Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!” – Liza Minnelli
• “You with the Sad Eyes” – Christina Applegate

Best Children’s Book

• Winner: “I’m So Happy You’re Here: A Celebration of Library Joy” – Mychal Threets
• “I Am Rebel” – Ross Montgomery
• “The Dawn of Adonis” – Phil Earle
• “X Marks the Haunt” – Lindsay Currie

Best Comic Book

• “Absolute Martian Manhunter #1” – Deniz Camp & Javier Rodríguez
• Winner: “Absolute Wonder Woman #1″ – Kelly Thompson, Hayden Sherman, Jordie Bellaire & Becca Carey
• “The Power Fantasy #1” – Kieron Gillen
• “Ultimate Endgame #1” – Deniz Camp

Best Debut Book

• “Lenswoman in Love” – Kim Gottlieb-Walker
• “Of the Holy Trinity” – Dani Len
• “One Fall” – Joe Maldonado
• Winner: “The Best Man: Unfinished Business” – Malcolm D. Lee with Jayne Allen

Best Fantasy Book

• “Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil” – V. E. Schwab
• “Katabasis” – Rebecca F. Kuang
• Winner: “The Midnight Carousel” – Fiza Saeed McLynn
• “The Way of Lucherium” – Christopher J. Rziha

Best Fiction Book

• “My Friends” – Fredrik Backman
• Winner: “Something in the Water” – Phyllis R. Dixon
• “The Capricious Nature of Being” – Richard Plinke
• “Your Tomorrow Was Today” – Oyindamola Dosunmu

Best Historical Fiction Book

• Winner: “Atmosphere” – Taylor Jenkins Reid
• “Cleopatra” – Saara El-Arifi
• “Great Big Beautiful Life” – Emily Henry
• “The Luckiest Fool on Earth” – Phillip S Roberts

Best Horror Book

• Winner: “Dollface” – Lindy Ryan
• “Play Nice” – Rachel Harrison
• “The Bewitching” – Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• “Witchcraft for Wayward Girls” – Grady Hendrix

Best Humor Book

• “Adult Braces” – Lindy West
• “A Little Trickerie” – Rosanna Pike
• Winner: “That’s a Great Question, I’d Love to Tell You” – Elyse Myers
• “Vera, or Faith” – Gary Shteyngart

Best LGBTQ+ Book

• “A Lady for All Seasons” – TJ Alexander
• “And So It Was for Mary” – Aaron Denius
• “Black Flame” – Gretchen Felker-Martin
• Winner: “The Shots You Take” – Rachel Reid

Best Memoir

• “Awakenings in Real Life” – Dan Cohen
• Winner: “Life Is Lifey: The A to Z’s of Navigating Life’s Messy Middle” – Sarah Shahi
• “My Good Life” – Gregory M Lee
• “The House of My Mother” – Shari Franke

Best Mystery & Thriller Book

• Winner: “Dear Debbie” – Freida McFadden
• “My Husband’s Wife” – Alice Feeney
• “Not Quite Dead Yet” – Holly Jackson
• “Strange Buildings” – Ukatu

Best Romance Book

• “Anne of Avenue A” – Audrey Bellezza
• “How Freaking Romantic” – Emily Harding
• “Reasons to Be Loved by You” – Hannah Brown
• Winner: “Too Good to Be True” – Prajakta Koli

Best Romantasy Book

• Winner: “Alchemised” – SenLinYu
• “Brimstone” – Callie Hart
• “Devour the Snake” – Nikki St. Crowe
• “Onyx Storm” – Rebecca Yarros

Best Science Fiction Book

• “Shroud” – Adrian Tchaikovsky
• “The Book of Lost Hours” – Hayley Gelfuso
• “The Compound” – Aisling Rawle
• Winner: “When the Moon Hits Your Eye” – John Scalzi

Best Young Adult Book

• “Fake Skating” – Lynn Painter
• “Sunrise on the Reaping” – Suzanne Collins
• “This Ain’t Our First Rodeo” – Liara Tamani
• Winner: “We Fell Apart” – E. Lockhart

What a Reading List!

2026 Astra Book Awards Presentation

This list of outstanding books adds so much to my to-be-read list that I don’t know how I’ll ever finish them all. But it will definitely be worth it! The Hollywood Creative Alliance has done an amazing thing by adding the Astra Book Awards to their list of events. Books just don’t get the same amount of hype as other forms of media. This writer (and author) is thrilled to see it.

I’d love to hear which Astra Book Awards winners or nominees you’re going to read first. Or, if you’ve already read any of these, what are your thoughts? Come follow me on social media and comment on this article’s post.

You can also watch the full presentation of the Astra Book Awards on YouTube.