TBR: 25 in 2025

I love Morgan Matson, I love books set in the summer and I love a good middle grade — this quite literally has all of my interests so I’m not totally sure why I haven’t read it yet. Especially since I bought it when it was released in 2023 ( 😬). The Firefly Summer sounds like such a good time, and I’m hoping to read it in the late spring/early summer.

Another Shakespeare inspired book that I’m really excited to read. This one is a Hamlet retelling with magic where Ophelia is a witch. I won’t lie, I’m a little intimidated by this one because it’s fantasy (we all know how I am with fantasy) and it’s a big book, it’s like 500 pages (I know, a funny thing for a girl who has Les Mis on her favorite/most influential books of all time). I got the most gorgeous edition of this book from Fox and Wit and I’m really looking forward to reading it.

The amount of times that I had this book in my hands at a bookstore last year and then put it back was a truly insane number. I kept going back and forth between whether I would like it or not and then I was finally like “You know what, Caitlyn, you probably are going to like it, just buy it” so I did! I love romance, I love the western aesthetic and I’ve heard a lot of great things about this one, so really it just makes sense that I bought it. Books 2, and 3 are already out and book 4 comes out in April, so I have a feeling that me and Lyla Sage are going to spend a lot of time together this year.

I started reading Abby Jimenez last year; I read Part of Your World, Yours Truly and Just for the Summer and loved all of them, so obviously, her newest release, Say You’ll Remember Me is a book that I’m really looking forward to. I’ll be totally honest, the summary wouldn’t really give me a lot of excitement if I didn’t already know that I like Abby Jimenez’ writing, but since I know that I definitely want to read it, plus it’s named after Taylor Swift lyrics (Wildest Dreams, the song that you are) so I’d probably be checking it out regardless. 

You all know how much I loved The Dark We Know last year, you don’t need to hear me talk about it again. All you need to know is that if Wen-yi Le is writing it, I will be reading it! Unlike The Dark We Know, When They Burned the Butterfly is a fantasy. Something about the description is kind of giving me These Violent Delights vibes (I mostly think it’s the street gang thing) and I’m really looking forward to reading it.

I read Our Wives Under the Sea for Winterween last year, and while I didn’t dislike it, I was a little disappointed. It just turned out to be different than I had expected — I wanted more horror from it than it ended up being, but I definitely understood why so many people loved it and I did like Julia Armfield’s writing style. The second I saw that Private Rites was a speculative reimagining of King Lear, I knew I had to read it. I’m actually so excited to read this one, and think that I’ll have to do my annotation and reread of King Lear before reading this one. I think that this could be the Julia Armfield book for me. 

I feel like I’m the only person who hated In My Dreams I Hold a Knife…I thought the premise was solid but the execution was awful. I found the characters so insufferable (not a deal breaker for me) and completely uninteresting (a deal breaker for me) and that the pacing was horrible. I pretty much wrote off all of her works, but then I saw the summary for This Book Will Bury Me and thought I had to read this one. “A chilling, compulsive story of five amateur sleuths, whose hunt for an elusive killer catapults them into danger as the world watches” ? Like, yes, absolutely, sign me up. It sounds so interesting, I really hope this one works for me.

I read Lovelight Farms by B.K. Borison in 2022 and there were definitely aspects of the story that I enjoyed, but overall it was not for me. Nothing about B.K. Borison’s writing style really stood out to me, but I’ve been hearing a lot about First-Time Caller and this sounds like something I’d like, so I want to check it out. 

So far, I have given everything Ann Liang has written 5 stars, so I feel like this one is a pretty safe bet. While none of her YA novels have been full fantasy, both If You Could See the Sun and I Am Not Jessica Chen have speculative/magical realism elements, so in general, I know I love what she does with fantasy ideas. I got to hear her talk about this book a little bit at a book signing last year, and it definitely made me more excited to read this one, even if the words “epic historical fantasy” scare me just a little bit.

Now, if we’re gonna talk about fantasy books that I love, the Little Thieves series has to be near the top of that list. I picked up the audiobook of Little Thieves because Cossette told me to and I’m so glad I did because I devoured the first two books. Holy Terrors is the third book in the Little Thieves series which is a retelling of The Goose Girl from the perspective of the princess’ wicked maid who stole her identity. I love fairytale retellings, especially when they actually lean into the dark aspects of the original stories, so this series is perfect for me. I need to reread both Little Thieves and Painted Devils before Holy Terrors comes out in April and I seriously can’t wait. 

I had an ARC of Blue Sisters last year and I was so excited to read it. I had started it but then it had some topics in it that were too difficult for me to read at the time so I put it down and said that I’d read it at a later date when I was in a better headspace. I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about this book and I’m really looking forward to actually getting to read it.

I actually just finished this book! I got My Darling Dreadful Thing last year and kept meaning to read it but never got around to it, which is a real bummer, however, I just finished it for Winterween and I had such a great time reading this one! I really liked Johanna van Veen’s writing style and can’t wait to read more of her work. I’m pretty excited that I’m making this list public and I’ve already finished one book!

The Husbands is another book that I was seeing everywhere last year and I kept saying, “I’m going to read that soon!”. I had gotten it from the library at one point, but hit a bit of a reading slump at the time and ended up prioritizing other reads, but I do really want to read this one! I think the premise is really interesting and I’m curious to see how it’ll play out.