Hit List: Top 25 Reads From 2025!

 Greetings, all! As we are into the new year, I wanted to start off with a bit of a tradition, namely—giving a comprehensive review of the books I read in the last year!

For starters, as you saw earlier, the scratch-off TBR tracker was a massive success. I loved being able to reveal new books, I’ve all but forgotten the order in which I laid the books down, so I am pleased to report that it is even more of a surprise with each new scratch-off, and it’s super-easy to add on new books! 

I’m going to keep using it for the new year—except the “monthly reading” portion. I ended up covering each monthly read from 2025 with a piece of Post-it Note (I only had hot pink... don't judge me!) and putting up new titles--stay tuned to see which ones I picked myself for each month! I also added even more books, both on "Library Lane" and the main trail, as a few of the titles I'd placed by themselves ended up amassing sequels!

As for the one book I didn’t read last year, Wildwood (selected for October’s prompt), I still want to read it at some point this year. (I blame Wuthering Heights for missing out on it, honestly, as you will soon see.)

In trying to figure out how to rank/list all the 29 books I managed to squeeze in last year, I opted to take the topmost 25, in honor of 2025. The others I lumped into an “Honorable Mention” category, just because I did read (well… mostly…) them, but didn’t enjoy them enough to warrant a ranking. Without further ado, let’s explore!

Honorable Mentions

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (DNF)

Okay, this one comes up first, and let me just say: I want to enjoy classic literature. I learned a lot about this book and others like it while studying literature classes in high school and college. I gave it my best, I read as much as I could. It took me two months to get through maybe half of it. The writing was just so stiff and melodramatic (well, duh, Gothic literature!) It was hard to follow any semblance of story, I wasn’t interested in any of the characters, and finally, two weeks before the end of October, I gave up. Will I eventually go back and finish it? There are a few classic titles I have in my “Maybe Later” shelf on Goodreads, so perhaps, when I reach a point where I can give these titles the undivided attention they deserve, I will revisit it.

Fandri’s Adventures by Kasper Beaumont (DNF)

*sigh* Unfortunately, I also encountered an indie book I didn’t quite get into as much as I thought I would. Actually, this particular title was one I completely forgot that I’d started, haplessly muddled my way through the first few chapters, and then had to abandon because it wasn’t interesting enough. I started this one shortly after reading an excellent fairy tale retelling, and based on the blurb I was really expecting a cute, whimsical adventure with usual fantasy races such as fairies, halflings, and elves, but in unique contexts… And what I got was a very confusing hodgepodge that felt like it was geared toward middle-grade, sure, I was expecting that… but for some portions to feel like they were written by a middle-grader? That was unexpected. The plot seemed to wander in the manner of a lot of the early stories I used to write, the characters were hardly distinguishable from one another, and I just didn’t feel the compulsion to read on that I was looking for. I spent several months trying to push my way through it before I had to give up and move on to the next title. Will I go back and finish it? Maybe. But I really think I might have to be in a certain mood to pick it up again.

Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey

This one I did finish, but… *sigh*. It was just… weird. And misogynistic. I picked it up with so much optimism, since it had dragons and I’ve heard multiple people in author and reader circles cite Dragonriders of Pern as their seminal introduction to speculative fiction, so I very much wanted to like it. There were aspects about the lore that I definitely found interesting, but on the whole, it just missed achieving any sort of rank.

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

Another one that I really wanted to like, based on how popular Jojo Moyes was. I found this book at a local library and when I learned that it was about a traveling library service, I got excited about the subject matter and figured it was a good way to get introduced to her writing, more than something like Me Before You, for example. 

At first, it was interesting, getting to know the characters and learning about the struggles of a rural traveling book delivery service in an age when that sort of pastime wasn’t well thought of—but there were other aspects that very much turned me off of it, and the payoff didn’t amount to much. 

Top 25 Reads of 2025

#25 Legends of the Gem by J. D. Cunegan

This one ended up at the bottom of the list and I feel really bad about it. I have enjoyed everything else I’ve read from this author, including Bounty and the novel that this anthology ties into, Notna. Probably, if I had read this collection in conjunction with that book at the time, I would have retained enough of the interest and excitement to carry a better understanding of it. But since it’s been a few years since I read Notna, my interest in learning how a corrupt artifact corrupts absolutely across all eras and every point in history, waned very quickly and I didn’t really find the same thrall I expected in this small tidbit.

#24 Stella Diaz Has Something To Say by Angela Dominguez

This was one of several middle-grade novels I read this year. It was fun exploring it alongside the rest of the students I work with, and the story was very entertaining, but I suppose the only downside was that it probably wouldn’t have been something I chose with my interests. The characters were fun, it was a very simple plot, and we’ll leave it at that.

#23 The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

I found this one, and I’d wanted to read it for a while, especially after reading and enjoying Wishtree last year. Applegate does well with close, intimate interactions between characters and simple scenes with beautiful imagery and a compelling story.  Based on a true story about a gorilla raised in captivity and displayed in a mall "zoo", Ivan is a conscientious character who interacts very simply with the world around him and the characters such as the stray dog that visits the mall, the janitor that cleans the floors, and the elephant that is his captive neighbor. It was good!

#22 Postern of Fate by Agatha Christie

This one was an impulse selection, picked up because it was Agatha Christie, not necessarily Poirot or any of the other serial investigators she writes about. What I learned from this story, though, is the same as, say, Crooked House—when you don’t have an endearing cast of characters like Poirot and Captain Hastings, Monsieur Japp and Miss Lemon to entertain you between the points of the investigation, all that there is left is just long stretches of characters lying to each other and twisting circumstances and creepy imagery. Not the best Agatha Christie mystery I’ve ever read.

#21 The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

This one I read on the beach, and I was very happy I did! It’s the perfect twisty mystery-thriller to read on vacation in some exotic location far removed from one’s home. However, I ranked it lower than the other whodunnits on this list purely because the subject matter itself gave me the heebie-jeebies, and the payoff I felt wasn’t as satisfactory as, say, a Ruth Ware mystery. Lucy Foley is twisty, yes. But there’s just too much trauma going on between characters that gave me the ick, so here it is on the list.

#20 Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy

It was interesting coming back to the Jack Ryan series, after being away from it for so long. The last one I read in the series wasn’t all that good, but this one I arrived on because of the monthly reading prompt, incidentally the first one of the year. I enjoyed it well enough, but also there were stretches of technical detail (standard Tom Clancy fare) that had me flipping through without absorbing any of it. Good enough, but I don’t recall quite enough participation from Jack Ryan himself, it was mostly a case that Ryan figures out the game-plan, and other military ops take over and actually do the action part.

#19 Sunday the Rabbi Stayed Home/Monday the Rabbi Took Off by Harry Kemmelmann

I put these two together because they were more or less the same. I really am enjoying the Rabbi Small series. It’s a fun cozy glimpse into Jewish life and belief systems, coupled with a little whodunnit on the side. The small-town drama between bickering men on the synagogue “board of directors” is as endearing as the Rabbi’s keen ability to piece things together despite their dislike of him!

#18 Set in Stone by Frank Morin

This is one of the indie books I read this year. I was excited to get into it, having received a promotional postcard/bookmark at the last ComicCon I attended, and having been curious about it ever since. To learn what I thought of it, and how I’d rate it, check out my review on >this link<. Needless to say, I liked the concept of the Petralists and the lore that went into the world-building of this book, but there were other things that warrant its placement on this overall ranking.

#17 Sphere by Michael Crichton

I picked up this one at about the same time as Prey, if that tells you anything. It sat on my shelf a long time until I finally put it on the scratch-off poster—and then I read it. Whoof! Let’s just say, it’s full of Crichton’s typical slow-build style, a bunch of characters dithering about and learning about each other, developing the connections and the mystery—but then when things fall apart, the plot just implodes in the most horrific and page-turning way possible! When a friend shared a post on social media asking if you’d rather explore all of the ocean or explore all of space, I said “I READ MICHAEL CRICHTON. NO THANK YOU TO BOTH OF THEM.”

#16 Close to Death by Anthony Horowitz

Actually, this one might have gotten a higher ranking because Horowitz slipped out another book in this series I enjoy without me even knowing (how dare he!)… If I hadn’t read Thursday Murder Club first. After that, this felt like a copy-paste, you know when production companies release two very similar movies (or try to copy a just-released film to capitalize off the success of the first one) and you’re forever getting the two films confused, and you end up watching one repeatedly while forgetting the other exists? That’s what this felt like. It wasn’t even the same level of peril as the previous ones, because it was more of a jump back in time, with “Tony” listening through a case Hawthorne already solved, instead of the two of them trying to figure out a case together. Sorry Tony, this wasn’t as much of an addition to the series as I hoped for.

#15 Hummingbird by Natalie Lloyd

Working in a grade school, I have learned the joys of Scholastic Book Fairs that I never got when in grade school myself. (That is not to say we never went to book sales at the library, or bookstores in general growing up, don’t freak out!) This book in particular showed up shortly after a fifth-grader raved to me about this author, who writes about disabled characters and draws from her own experiences as a disabled person. It’s a cute story, revolving around a girl with brittle bone disease and her larger-than-life personality and the adventures she finds in the unlikeliest of places. Unfortunately the fifth-grader moved on to middle school before I could let her know that "OMG I read that author you recommended and I absolutely agree with you!" W, if you ever read this, thank you for your glowing recommendation.

Side Note: Just because it’s low on the list doesn’t mean I actively disliked it. Sometimes I enjoy something but it gets bumped down on the list purely for the fact that I enjoyed other things a lot more!

#14 Sideris Gate by Cheri Lasota

This was another indie book, which I actually enjoyed every bit as I anticipated. Lasota hooked me with her vampire romantasy, so when I had the opportunity to try her sci-fi, I was excited. Check out the full breadth of my thoughts by reading >this review<.

#13 The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

After surprisingly enjoying Maze Runner more than I thought I would (in particular, since watching the movie; the adaptation was very different than the source material!), I welcomed the opportunity to continue through the series. On the other hand, it follows the typical YA dystopian pattern of characters somehow defying the odds of some shadowy group of “adults”, and yet being thrust into an even-more dire situation. All the same, I am finding the series rather fascinating. Thomas and the others, now that they escaped the Maze, are thrown in with other groups from other Mazes, and all of them are tasked with making it across a wide desert of the outside world full of wild and diseased humans--all while trying to avoid catching the disease themselves!

#12 A Light In The Window by Jan Karon

This one was a continuation of this cozy little series I started reading a long time ago. I am reading them slowly one by one, and collecting them for my personal library. Eventually I’ll have the whole series. There’s just something so charming about a small town like Mitford and a handful of characters having squabbles and going about their everyday lives and running into the odd conflict that needs to be resolved. This one in particular featured Father Tim and his adoptive son Dooley a lot by themselves, as the town gets snowed in, and also the budding romance between Tim and children’s author Cynthia. Beautiful and simple!

#11 The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

And then we get to a cozy-ish whodunnit! This one I discovered via a friend on social media who read it, and from watching clips of the BBC show Taskmaster and also some episodes of Richard Osman’s House of Games, I was familiar at least with the author. What I received from the book was a quaint little mystery where a group of residents in a retirement community get together and puzzle over cold cases—until a real murder happens in their town, and they get to investigate for real. I enjoyed the book immensely, and when the adaptation released on Netflix I watched it—and enjoyed it a little less. The casting was brilliant, but the way it abridged and pieced together the plot of the novel left quite a bit to be desired. This one was enjoyable, and really just missed my Top Ten by a very slim margin!

#10 Walk The Wire by David Baldacci

This one is in the top ten purely by virtue of it being the only Baldacci I read all year. There were just so many great new books I read this year, I’m surprised, usually I can get a few of his novels in. This one is a continuation of the Amos Decker series, dealing with a murder in a small oil town that also featured an incognito military base that no one wants to talk about… but with Decker on the case, secrets can’t stay buried for long! I really liked the twists in this one. I confess, characters that intentionally mistrust the "good guys" and withhold information, government agent cover-ups and things of that nature tend to irritate me a little, but I can appreciate the uniqueness of every Baldacci novel I've read!

#9 Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness

I’ve done it. I’ve finished the Chaos Walking trilogy. Wow, Patrick Ness can really write! Todd and Viola have come a long way. Book 2 saw Todd and Viola separated by falling into two different camps, one led by the wily Prentiss who wants to control and rule everyone and everything, and the other a community of women led by Mistress Coyle, who were rejected and exiled by Prentiss and the other men, and wants to serve retribution on those men and herald what she believes is a better and more equal society. While the first book, The Knife of Letting Go was entirely from Todd’s point of view, and the second book The Ask and The Answer split the narrative between Todd and Viola, this book introduces a third point of view—that of The Return, a name of one particular member of the native alien species known as the Spackle, and how this species feels about being all but invaded by humans who regard them as little more than animals. This book felt very chaotic and yet stunning and poignant. Every time I sat down to read a little more it was harder and harder to tear myself away from it. Very well done! And the payoff, although a bit unorthodox, I felt fit the series itself. 

#8 Red Rising by Pierce Brown

This one in particular is a book that I’d seen occasionally and yet might have never picked up myself, except that it came highly recommended. Finally I read it, and I understand the hype. I’m not usually one for grimdark fantasy, as I’ve said before. Mark Lawrence is pretty much the only breed of grimdark I’ve tolerated so far—but once I started this book, it had me in an absolute chokehold. A network of worlds, a young man from a harsh mining planet, forced into gladiator-like games, a more intense version of The Hunger Games with a bit of Uglies thrown in. (But with much more finesse than Scott Westerfield could ever hope for!) Violent and gory, yet intriguing and complex enough to keep me reading, and who knows, I might even consider picking up the rest of the series!

#7 The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

I saw the Netflix adaptation several years ago, and enjoyed it very much as a period piece—but reading the book was not at all what I was expecting! It’s framed as a series of letters, a writer who receives a letter from a remote island who happened to receive one of her books, and offers to tell her their story of the German occupation of Guernsey in exchange for her writing about it. Each character had a different style in their letters that demonstrated who each of them were, and I read each one of them as if I was the recipient, and I loved it! Written correspondence is such a lost art, that a whole book written in that style is entrancing in its own right. I highly recommend this one!

#6 Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Another book I acquired from the same source as Red Rising, I was in the mood for more of these fantasy books that I’ve been storing on my shelves for a few years now—and I’m really glad I picked this one to read! I love the main concept of a Grace, a superhuman talent that certain people are born with, indicated by different-colored eyes. In particular, a girl with a Grace that allows her to kill people with very little effort, versus a young man with a Grace that makes him seemingly impossible to kill… What will they do? The story was beautiful and compelling, and the plot twists kept me guessing the whole time. I like it!

#5 The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

Another new grimdark author, another novel I felt intrigued by after reading a review of it by another author I follow, as a matter of fact… and a book I enjoyed quite a bit more than I anticipated! Locke Lamora is the leader of a gang of gentleman thieves, very shrewd and clever at accomplishing their goals—until a particular job runs him straight into the path of a dangerous ganglord of immense reputation, and Locke must accomplish a series of tasks, or die trying. Perhaps he may even die in the process of completing the tasks. As with Mark Lawrence, there were times I wanted to mentally “look away”, I had to pause my reading and get my mind off the visceral imagery and things that made my skin crawl—but every time Locke succeeded in getting one over on the enemies who underestimated him, I felt the surge of satisfaction that kept me reading! Brilliant and deft as a pickpocket’s hands, this is a well-plotted story and a richly-formed fantasy world I loved to imagine as I read!

#4 The Lost Plot by Genevieve Cogman

It was a joy to get back into the Invisible Library series! It had been so long, I forgot I was four books into it! Kai and Irene just barely survived a confrontation from the story’s big bad villain, and now they’re caught in a power play between Dragon factions vying for a manuscript that would give either side immense power. Meanwhile the twists and discoveries they encounter left me guessing almost the whole time! A well-balanced installment and a reminder of a wonderful series by a very talented author!

#3 Selkie’s Song by Kimberly A. Rogers

Beginning the top three is the perfectly lovely retelling of The Little Mermaid by the inimitable Kimberly Rogers! I already loved her Therian Way series, so getting into her enchanting fairy tale retelling series is a joy! (It almost made me jealous that I didn’t come up with ideas like that in writing my own retelling!) You can find out specifically what I enjoyed about it by clicking >this review<.

#2 Beauty and Beastly by Melanie Karsak

And of course second only to my top favorite read of 2025, an absolute (dare I say) pitch-perfect steampunk Beauty and The Beast retelling. Melanie Karsak does excellent steampunk/Victorian storytelling and world-building, but her take on Beauty and The Beast was such a blast, I read it quickly and enjoyed every sentence! I won’t say too much here because I’ve already raved about it in >this review<, but I loved it and yes, I’m definitely putting it in the top slot.

#1 The Book That Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence

And finally, the top read of 2025, the first book in one of the newer series by one of my favorite grimdark authors! As much as it feels cliche to put the very last book I spent the last hour of 2025 immediately into Spot Number 1 on my list of "best books"... it's absolutely warranted, more than any other Mark Lawrence book I've ever read!

While it contained a grimdark-level share of visceral scenes and creepy monsters… I actually felt that the approach of this one was more of a love letter, very tender and full of respect for books, the act of writing, and of the knowledge imparted by written language. I loved all the prose, I loved the characters, and I’m very intrigued by the twists and reveals afforded by a dual POV. On one side we have Livira, a girl who has been hauled away from her home in a remote desert settlement, intended for a life of servitude—but through her own tenacity and her perceived intelligence, she is well-nigh smuggled into an appointment to The Library, a famed edifice of knowledge and records that is central to the known world. On the other, a man named Evar who has been trapped with four others deep inside the stacks of The Library, with little knowledge of the world outside, their lives before, and an avenue of escape. A purely fascinating moment happens when Evar and Livira actually cross paths. Lawrence’s style of writing compels one to keep reading, pulling the reader in as immersive as being trapped inside a nearly infinite library for as long as our eyes can keep reading! It becomes less an activity of “comprehending words on the page” and you begin to experience all the encounters, the mysteries, the exploration, and the emotions along with the characters. I loved it so much, I can’t wait to get into the rest of the series!

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All in all, I’m proud of what I was able to accomplish in the reading fields—and the goal of 2026 is to read more of my Reader’s Review TBR pile! I did a great job with getting through my owned reads, but there are still so many indie books waiting for me, I am excited to get into them!

And what about you? What are some of your favorite books from 2025? What are you looking forward to reading in 2026? Share some titles below, and perhaps you might inspire other readers! In the meantime...

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