It’s the last three days of 2025, which means it’s time to share my top books of 2025!
Some months it was really easy to figure out what my favorite book of the month was, and some months were a little difficult because I read a lot of great books that month. For 2025, I’ll be sharing 12 honorable mentions — basically my second favorite read of each month — and my favorite book of each month.
Without further ado, get comfy and cozy and let’s chat about my top books of 2025!
I’ll be sorting the honorable mentions month by month for no reason other than that’s how I feel like doing this, so let’s get started with the honorable mention for January!
Starting off the honorable mentions with my second favorite read of January, which was A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft. As always with Allison Saft, A Dark and Drowning Tide had the most vivid and descriptive atmosphere, well rounded characters and a plot that kept me intrigued from start to finish. I went to a book launch party for this book when it was released and wow I really loved listening to Allison discuss the writing process and inspiration for this book and having that knowledge in my head while reading made me love it all the more. I loved the dynamic between Lorelei and Sylvia; there was so much tension between the two of them and I loved the differences between their personalities. I loved following their journeys both as individuals and as a pair and I was so thrilled with their ending.
I also loved the side and minor characters, the world building was brilliantly done, and I was very invested with the mystery as well. Really, I just have nothing but positive things to say about A Dark and Drowning Tide. I loved it.
I’ve been meaning to read Emily St. John Mandel for years but was always a little intimidated by her books, so I was thrilled when my book club picked Sea of Tranquility as our February book club pick! When I started reading it, I had sent a message in our Discord chat for book club and at 4:08 pm I said “I’m about to start it! I’m hoping to get through like 3 chapters over the course of the rest of the day”, and then at 6:57 pm I messaged again and said “So update, I finished it and am giving it 4.5 stars” (Yes, I did go back in our chat to find the exact times and quotes).
I was completely hooked; I could not put this down. I did an immersive read and read this both physically and with the audiobook which was a fantastic experience, so I highly recommend the audiobook for this one. I loved this book so much that I actually went to the bookstore a few days after finishing it to pick up a physical copy for my collection since I borrowed it from the library.
I’m not the biggest sci-fi reader, so this being kind of a light sci-fi really worked for me. I absolutely loved the writing style and couldn’t put it down. The pacing was really well done and I loved the multiple timelines. I wouldn’t wait to see how everything was connected, and I thought it was brilliantly done. The big reveal was paced really well, and I figured it out just before it was revealed which was so satisfying. I loved that there was a real balance between serious subject matter (including mentions of COVID-19) with real humorous moments, like when Gaspery asked “what alphabet is this?” when reading a letter from 1912 to then Zoey replying with “Gaspery, that’s cursive”. I’ve thought about this book so many times since I read it in February, and I will definitely be reading it again sometime in 2026.
We all know I am an Emma Lord girlie through and through! Her latest adult novel, For The Record was such a wonderful read; I absolutely adored it! I won’t go too into detail here, since I wrote a full review for the novel, which you can check out here. I’ve been loving single dad romance books this year, and I’m absolutely positive that Samuel Blaze is to blame for that 🤣 I was absolutely obsessed with him and the relationship that he has with his son Ben. If you’re looking for a great romance read, you definitely need to pick this one up.
In February I read A Daughter of Fair Verona by Christina Dodd (it was so hard to pick between that and Sea of Tranquility for my February honorable mention) and in April I got to read the sequel, Thus With a Kiss I Die, and loved it! I don’t think it’s really a surprise to anyone that I would love a series that focuses on Romeo and Juliet’s daughter, and I’ve loved reading this series. The characters are so fun and funny; I like a lot of the direct to reader moments that our main character, Rosaline, has throughout the books. I love the family dynamics between the Montague clan, as well as the dynamic between the Prince and his sister. If you’re a fan of historical fiction and Shakespeare, I would definitely recommend this series!
2025 was the year of me discovering cozy mystery writer Ellie Alexander and oh my gosh I’m so glad that I did! I started with the first book in her Secret Bookcase Mystery series, The Body in the Bookstore, and I read all 6 books in the series from May 8th through 13th, so it’s pretty clear that I really enjoyed the series. This series has all the things I look for in a cozy mystery; lovable characters, comforting and soothing atmosphere, descriptions of delicious sounding food and drinks, books, and of course, a mystery. The underlying mystery and the way that unfolds throughout the series makes it extra compelling, and I appreciated that Annie, our protagonist, had a background in criminology and an understanding of case solving, which made certain aspects of the series much more believable than other cozies I’ve read.
I also started Ellie Alexander’s Bakeshop Mystery series this month, so special shoutout to that one as well because I’m loving continuing that series. I’m also super thrilled that the spinoff series to the Secret Bookcase Mystery series comes out next month and I have an ARC of it, so I’m really excited to read that.
June was actually a really great reading month for me because I did my 30 Plays in 30 Days challenge and found multiple 5 stars throughout the month, so my honorable mention for June is actually another 5 star, and that’s Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel! My review of it on Goodreads literally just says “I never wanted this to end” and that could not be more true. As I mentioned when talking about Sea of Tranquility, I loved Emily St. John Mandel’s writing style and storytelling. This book hit so close to home as a performer and theatre educator. There were for sure parts of it that transported me back to the beginning of the pandemic and how lost I felt with my career at that time because there was just so much that I couldn’t do, and while that normally would really drag me down, that didn’t happen with this book. Instead, it made me feel more connected to the characters and led to me wanting to do nothing but read this book.
Tell Me What You Did by Carter Wilson was a massive hit for me! Honestly, if I didn’t have to work I would’ve stayed up all night reading this, I was absolutely addicted! I love books that have podcasts and multimedia elements and I think this one went above and beyond in that respect. I was so intrigued by the QR codes in the book and then the fact that they led to videos of an actress reading out the scene that we just read? Like, that’s incredible! It was so chilling and I was honestly on the edge of my seat and my heart was pounding while reading. The pacing was fantastic and kept the story moving fantastically. I definitely need to read more from Carter Wilson because I just loved this.
We all know that I love Mia P. Manansala, and I was so excited to read her YA debut, Death in the Cards. I had so much fun while reading this one; while I’m not really into Tarot Card readings, I find it super interesting and I loved the combination of Tarot and a mystery; I thought that was such a cool form of storytelling, so I was immediately intrigued. This one was definitely giving me some Veronica Mars and Nancy Drew vibes which is right up my alley and if a mystery is giving those vibes then I’m guaranteed to love it. I love Danika as the main character, and especially loved the family dynamics in this one, which is something that I think Manansala does incredibly well. I don’t know if this is going to end up being a series, but I hope it does because I’d love to follow these characters again.
The Husbands by Holly Gramazio was one of the books on my 25 in 2025 list that I was really looking forward to reading and had meant to read in 2024, so I’m glad that I got to it because I loved it! I turned on the audiobook one night when I was crafting and I could not stop listening. I thought it was so fun and the concept was really well executed. I read it over the course of a few days which I think was a great way to consume this one. The nature of the story can be a little repetitive which I can see some people getting frustrated with, but I didn’t feel that way at all. I’m definitely looking forward to reading more from Holly Gramazio.
If you’re a mystery reader and you’re not reading Katy Watson I don’t know what you’re doing with your time, but you need to get on that. In October I read the 5th book in the Three Dahlias Mysteries, A Deadly Night at the Theatre and as per usual, I loved it! I really loved that this one was set in the London Theatre District and I felt transported to London while reading. I love getting to know the Dahlias better throughout each book and I really am so attached to them. I discovered these books through MegWithBooks and now I need everyone else to start reading them because I am obsessed. If you’re a cozy mystery reader you should really be reading these!
I had been hearing a lot of buzz around Play Nice by Rachel Harrison this year, so I was excited to get it as my Book of the Month pick and then to finally read it in November and I loved it! I thought Clio was a really interesting character to follow and found the dynamic that she had with her sisters, father and stepmother really interesting to follow. I love a good haunted house story, so I was really interested in the main plot of Clio going back to her supposedly haunted childhood home. I also loved the excerpts from her mother’s book that we got to read. The atmosphere was really great in this one; some parts had me feeling seriously freaked out! I’m definitely looking forward to reading more from Rachel Harrison.
I’ve been a huge fan of Rachel Lynn Solomon for years and read all of her books and found What Happens in Amsterdam to be completely captivating! I read 285 pages in one sitting and didn’t want to stop!
This book completely transported me to Amsterdam — the descriptions and imagery were so vivid, I could really picture everything that RLS was describing and it definitely made me want to hop on a plane and leave behind everything in my life the way that Dani does 🤣 I love second chance romance and I thought adding the marriage of convenience trope was so much fun. I loved reading Dani and Wouter grow as individuals and as a couple and how they brought out the best in one another. I really enjoyed their love story. I also loved Wouter’s family and getting to know them. I think this was another really solid romance by Rachel Lynn Solomon and I can’t wait to read her next one!
Alright, now that we’ve gotten my honorable mentions out of the way, let’s talk about my top books for each month!
The year started off strong with I Am Not Jessica Chen by Ann Liang being my favorite read of the month and a 5 star read at that. It’s no secret that I love Ann Liang, she’s one of my favorite current authors and her YA contemporaries are some of the best I’ve read in a long time. She has such an understanding for character building and writing flawed and complex characters. I found myself getting so emotional while reading I Am Not Jessica Chen and think that it discusses some really important issues that teenagers face today. You can read my full review here.
Apparently I am an outlier here, but I absolutely adored Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao! I thought the atmosphere was absolutely stunning; the world that she built was so interesting and complex, I could’ve spent hours in the book. The writing was also gorgeous; there were so many quotes that made me so emotional. I really resonated with Water Moon and I can’t wait to read more from Samantha Sotto Yambao. You can read my full review of Water Moon here.
I don’t think anyone is surprised to hear that my favorite March read was Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins. Not only was it my favorite read of March, it’s also my favorite read of 2025. I truly have not stopped thinking about this book since I read it. Sunrise on the Reaping gave me more emotional whiplash than any book has before, I truly was crying like 5 pages in, and I loved it with every fiber of my being. I had such an incredible experience reading Haymitch’s story for the first time; I haven’t felt this connected to a story in a really long time. I’ve felt that way about the entire Hunger Games series, it really is something truly special and I think they’re such important books to read. I could gush non stop about this book, but if you want to hear more of my thoughts on it, you can read my full review here.
This year I finally started the Rebel Blue Ranch series by Lyla Sage and honestly, I was so surprised by how much I loved it. I was glad that I started reading the series this year and only had to wait a month and a half between finishing Lost and Lassoed and the release of Wild and Wrangled. Oh, how I loved this story. I really do love second chance romance and was rooting for Cam and Dusty right away. Their chemistry was undeniable and I loved how they supported one another. This really was such a lovely romance read and I’m looking forward to doing a reread of not only Wild and Wrangled, but the entire Rebel Blue Ranch series.
I love Hamlet, I love retellings, I love Hamlet retellings, and Smile and Be a Villain by Yves Donlon is probably my favorite Hamlet retelling I’ve read in some time. Smile and Be a Villain is actually a prequel retelling of the events just before we meet Hamlet in Shakespeare’s story. Yves Donlon is an incredible writer; the world that they’ve built throughout this story is so incredibly detailed and intricate and I love the magic system. The characters? Ugh, I have such a love for them; and not only because I already deeply loved Hamlet and Ophelia from the original story — these characters feel so alive. I was absolutely enraptured by this story and while I did immediately want to jump into the sequel, The Rest is Silence, there just wasn’t the right time for me to be able to really dedicate time to it, so I’ll for sure be reading it early on in 2026. You can read my full review for Smile and Be a Villain here.
I had mentioned earlier that in June I decided to do a reading challenge where I read 30 plays in 30 days. The main reason why I did so was because I wanted to read the plays nominated for Best Play and Best Revival of a Play at the Tony Awards. Most specifically, I wanted to read John Proctor is the Villain by Kimberley Belflower. I haven’t stopped thinking about this play since June. I almost do not have words to describe how much I loved this play. I’m so glad that I reread The Crucible right before reading it, because the way that Bellflower mirrored The Crucible and its themes was so wonderfully and brilliantly done and really showed how our society has not changed much since 1692. I love Kimberly Belleflower’s writing; it was funny and witty but had the gravitas necessary for the topics discussed. I have also never been so moved by stage directions before, but literal stage directions made me cry so hard that I couldn’t read what was on the page and had to stop and calm myself down. That is a powerful piece of theatre. I didn’t need to see what was happening, all I had to do was read the stage directions and I was moved to tears. This play made me feel everything and it’s absolutely my new favorite play.
July saw the long awaited release of Holly Jackson’s adult debut with Not Quite Dead Yet and let me tell you, my girl Holly did not disappoint! I love love love love loved this book and could not stop reading it. The pacing? I need Holly Jackson to give all mystery authors a lesson in how to pace your story because it was perfectly laid out. The timeline for Jet to solve her own attempted murder kept the story moving at a brisk pace but not once did it feel rushed. The writing was, as always, exemplary and the characters were so well explored. You can read my full review of Not Quite Dead Yet here.
Our August pick for book club was The Wedding People by Alison Espach and oh my gosh I’m so so glad that it was. This was one of the most readable books I’ve read in a long time! Once I started reading it I couldn’t stop and didn’t want to put it down. I thought it was really well written and the heavy themes weren’t glossed over, and were discussed but for me at least, they weren’t too heavy. As someone who is very sarcastic and likes dark/dry humor it worked really well for me. I thought there was great character development all around (though they should’ve been lesbians!), and I just really enjoyed it! I loved the overall themes of transformation and human connection, and there were some really stunning quotes throughout the novel. I’m hoping to get a paperback copy of it when it’s released in April and I want to reread and annotate it.
I don’t need to rant on and on again about how much I love M.L. Rio, you all know I’m obsessed with her work, so of course, I was long and eagerly awaiting the release of Hot Wax. This was so different from If We Were Villains and Graveyard Shift and I loved that; I felt like Rio was really pushing herself as a storyteller with this one and I loved it. Though different from her debut and novella, something that all of her books have in common is that they really are character studies and I thought Suzanne was such an interesting character to follow! That woman would absolutely hate me, I can guarantee you that, but I felt so connected to her and loved reading her story. This book really was a full body experience, and you can read my whole review here.
I absolutely loved Sangu Mandanna’s last release, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches. For me, that was a perfect cozy fantasy, so I was so excited to read A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by her and I loved it so much! This book brought me so much joy (how could I not love a book with a live chicken skeleton?!) and made my heart feel so full and really moved me emotionally. Chapter 21 specifically made me absolutely sob; I really felt for all of the characters and cared about them. 2025 was a rough year for so many and just the state of the world in general, and I won’t lie, around this time I felt like I was holding in a lot of anger at the state of the world, and reading about characters who had been through some really difficult things and faced so much adversity creating their own little family and loving and supporting one another really moved me. I thought this was such a lovely story and I really adored it.
Another Ann Liang novel making my favorites list? None of you are shocked. I just adore her. I finally got around to reading Never Thought I’d End Up Here in November and thought it was such a beautiful read. I think Ann Liang does character exploration better than so many current authors. I love that she is not afraid to write flawed characters and let them grow and learn in such a realistic and organic way. The descriptions of China were so beautiful, I felt that I was on this trip with Leah and seeing her connect with her roots and truly find herself was so beautiful. This was another absolute hit from Ann Liang.
After hearing so many creators I love rave about Don’t Let the Forest In by C.G. Drews, I knew I had to read it, especially since it had caught my eye when it was first released. I wasn’t actually sure that I’d get to it before the end of the year, but I read it over the weekend and I’m so thrilled I did because I finally got out of my 5 star drought! The writing in this book was stunning. So atmospheric and vivid, the story leapt off the page. The artwork in the book was also incredible; the monsters were exactly as I pictured them and I couldn’t stop looking at the sketches; I thought having the sketches in the book added so much to the reading experience. I loved the characters, and really felt for Andrew and Thomas, I would defend those kids with my life! They were giving me some major Oliver and James from If We Were Villains vibes, so obviously I was obsessed with them and wanted to eat drywall every time they interacted. I did see both of the plot twists coming, but not in a bad way; I felt like as the reader we were supposed to know those things and were waiting for the fog that seemed to be over Andrew to clear so that he could realize these things as well. I was so enraptured in the story, I absolutely loved it.
Ahhhhh and there we have it! My top books of 2025! There were times when this was an incredible reading year and other times where it felt a bit like I was slogging through books, but overall I’m really happy with how my 2025 reading experience went and the books on this list made it such a wonderful year.
I’d love to know if you read any of these books and what you thought of them and what your favorite reads of 2025 are! Let me know in the comments!
Until next time 💜
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