If 2024 was the year of the blockbuster sequel and the BookTok takeover, then 2025 was the year books felt big again—emotionally, politically, imaginatively. Across genres, authors were asking bold questions: How does a family survive the unspeakable?
What does freedom look like after systems fail? What do we owe our histories, our bodies, and the people we love? And in true 2025 fashion, readers embraced it all—messy family sagas, sweeping historical epics, cozy witch stories, runaway romantasy hits, razor-sharp thrillers, and nonfiction that demanded we pay attention.
From the early-year powerhouses—Adichie’s triumphant return, Yarros’s record-breaking romantasy, and the intimate, aching memoirs that set January’s tone—to the lush summer releases that dominated book clubs, and the fall thrillers that kept readers up all night, 2025 became a reading year defined by intensity and reinvention.
Authors dug deeper into identity, grief, rage, desire, justice, and the fractures of modern life, while still delivering the escapism, romance, magic, and imagination that pull us to stories in the first place.
By December, the year closed with a flourish: biography, speculative fiction, soothing memoir, holiday romances, and the kind of genre-bending fantasy only December can carry.
Taken together, the books of 2025 tell a story about us—what we feared, what we hoped for, and what we chose to pay attention to.
January Books
January 2025 arrived with a lineup of books that felt urgent, unflinching, and emotionally charged—stories and memoirs that cracked open power structures, personal histories, and the hidden costs of survival. From Peter Beinart’s political and spiritual reckoning in the aftermath of Gaza, to Geraldine Brooks’s intimate exploration of grief, to Layne Fargo’s razor-edged tale of ambition and obsession on the ice, the month’s fiction and nonfiction pulsed with intensity. Historical epics like Homeseeking and Isola stretched across continents and centuries to examine exile, resilience, and the meaning of home, while blockbuster romantasy Onyx Storm dominated cultural conversations with its high-stakes battles and massive fanbase. Even horror turned reflective in Grady Hendrix’s feminist Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, and Shari Franke’s memoir confronted the dark side of internet fame and family branding. Together, these books set the tone for 2025: bold, probing, emotionally fearless, and unafraid to interrogate the systems—political, familial, or fantastical—that shape our lives.
Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning by Peter Beinart
Peter Beinart’s Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza is a searing blend of memoir, theology, and political reflection in which he confronts what Jewish identity means after the 2023–24 Gaza devastation. Written partly as a letter to a former friend, the book questions long-held ideas about Zionism, Jewish safety, and the moral responsibilities tied to collective memory. Early readers have called it provocative, morally urgent, and deeply argued, reflected in its strong 4.4–4.5 Goodreads rating.
Critics from spaces like Partners for Progressive Israel describe it as a powerful reckoning that pushes readers beyond familiar boundaries, especially in how it examines the “revenge” undertone in some Jewish commemorations. While left-leaning reviewers praise its clarity and courage, more conservative Jewish commentators have labeled it muddled or overly harsh on Israel — a divide that only underscores how essential and conversation-shaping this book has become in 2025.
Get Book: Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza!Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks
Geraldine Brooks opens 2025 with Memorial Days, a slim yet emotionally overwhelming memoir that traces her life after the sudden death of her husband, journalist Tony Horwitz, and reflects on the 35-year marriage they built together. Brooks writes with stark honesty about love, loss, faith, and the rituals that help (and fail) to hold a grieving person upright, shaping the book into one of those rare “finish in one sitting, then sit quietly afterward” reads.
Critics have echoed the publisher’s description of it as a “spare and profoundly moving memoir” poised to sit alongside the classics of grief writing, and Columbia Magazine notes that even in her deepest vulnerability Brooks remains a “generous writer,” guiding readers toward a more compassionate understanding of mourning. Independent reviewers and bloggers frequently call it beautifully written, devastating, and quietly life-altering—highly recommended precisely because of the pain it carries. Arriving in the same year Brooks received the 2025 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, the memoir is already being recognized as a standout work in her celebrated career.
Get Book: Memorial Days!The Favorites by Layne Fargo
Layne Fargo’s The Favorites burst into 2025 with a sharp, addictive story set in the glittering but brutal world of elite ice dancing. Centering on Katarina “Kat” Shaw and Heath Rocha—childhood sweethearts turned Olympic-caliber partners—the novel weaves together their charged rise to stardom with a true-crime–style documentary a decade later that attempts to uncover what really destroyed their partnership. It’s a cocktail of ambition, poverty, obsession, and unresolved desire, all spinning beneath the controlled elegance of competition.
Penguin Random House calls it a national bestseller and “an epic love story” set in the “sparkling, savage sphere” of figure skating, while Kirkus likens it to “Colleen Hoover–style romance heading to the Olympic rink,” praising its melodramatic sweep and documentary-script structure. Reviewers have compared its vibe to The Cutting Edge meets Daisy Jones & The Six—but much darker—highlighting how deftly it examines toxic love and media fascination. Though some readers on Reddit and Goodreads feel the drama is “a lot,” many others rave about its intensity and its unflinching look at the cost of ambition, making it one of January’s buzziest and most polarizing novels.
Get Book: The Favourites!Isola by Allegra Goodman
Allegra Goodman’s Isola—a Reese’s Book Club pick and early 2025 standout—reimagines the true story of Marguerite de la Rocque, a wealthy young French woman cast into the heart of sixteenth-century colonial ambition. When Marguerite is forced by her guardian to join his expedition to New France, an unexpected romance with his servant leads to their brutal abandonment on an icy, uninhabited island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. What follows is a gripping tale of survival, faith, and fierce resilience as Marguerite battles isolation, starvation, and the elements with almost nothing but her will to live.
Critics have embraced the novel’s sweep and emotional power—Kirkus calls it a “sweeping page-turner” that is both intimate and epic, naming it one of the Best Books of 2025 and a Kirkus Prize finalist. Bloggers praise its vivid, cinematic pacing and strong themes of resilience, noting how it blends survival drama with feminist historical storytelling. Its appearance across multiple “Best of 2025” lists, including major People × NYT round-ups, has cemented Isola as one of the defining historical novels of the year.
Get Book: Isola by Allegra Goodman!Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
Rebecca Yarros’s Onyx Storm, the explosive third installment in the Empyrean series, returns readers to Violet Sorrengail’s war-ravaged world just as the stakes finally tip into all-out chaos. Forced to leave the fragile safety of Aretia, Violet ventures into the wider continent to forge alliances, confront new enemies, and protect both her found family and her dangerously complicated partner, Xaden. As expected from Yarros, the novel delivers high-intensity battles, political intrigue, sweeping worldbuilding reveals, and the trademark spicy romance that made the series a global phenomenon. Its impact on release was staggering:
People reports that it sold 2.7 million copies in its first week, making it the fastest-selling adult novel in two decades according to The New York Times. On Goodreads it maintains a rating above 4.2 with more than a million responses, and it swept the 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards for both Readers’ Favorite Romantasy and Audiobook. Reviewers describe it as a nonstop, high-adrenaline fantasy but also caution about its heavy themes—graphic war violence, gore, and explicit romance. Outlets such as Marie Claire and The Guardian have highlighted the series’ massive BookTok fandom and praised Yarros for continuing to foreground disability representation through Violet’s portrayal of Ehlers–Danlos syndrome. All together, Onyx Storm has emerged as not just a blockbuster sequel, but one of the defining cultural book moments of early 2025.
Get Book: Onyx Storm!Homeseeking by Karissa Chen
Karissa Chen’s Homeseeking is a sweeping, six-decade historical saga that follows lovers Haiwen and Suchi as their lives are fractured by war, political upheaval, and the long shadows of migration. From Shanghai’s song halls to Hong Kong nightlife, from military encampments in Taiwan to immigrant neighborhoods in New York and California, the novel traces the ways love, exile, and the idea of “home” evolve—and survive—across continents and generations.
Reviewers have been effusive: the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette calls it “one of the best books of 2025” and even “one of the best debut novels of this century,” while Kirkus praises its blend of “romantic lyricism” and “hard-edged realism,” noting how vividly it captures the emotional and political landscapes its characters inhabit. Bloggers and book clubs alike have embraced it as a five-star epic for fans of multi-era, migration-centered fiction, and its selection by major clubs like GMA has cemented it as one of early 2025’s most defining and widely discussed literary debuts.
Get Book: Homeseeking!Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
Set in a 1970s maternity home in St. Augustine, Florida, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls follows four pregnant teenage girls who have been hidden away to give birth in secret, only to discover a mysterious book of witchcraft that becomes their unlikely lifeline. As they endure a punitive, deeply misogynistic institution designed to control and punish them, their tentative experiments with magic turn into a fierce attempt to reclaim power in a world determined to break them, blending slow-burn horror with feminist rage and coming-of-age drama.
Goodreads reviewers describe it as “a little creepy and a lot enraging,” the kind of book that makes you want to “go out and fight the patriarchy,” while critics praise how it trades jump scares for a simmering, anger-inducing exploration of systemic misogyny. Outlets like The Southern Review of Books have highlighted the way Hendrix uses horror to confront the real-world treatment of vulnerable girls, helping to establish it as one of 2025’s most talked-about feminist horror novels.
Get Book: Witchcraft for Wayward Girls!The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom — Shari Franke
In The House of My Mother, 21-year-old Shari Franke delivers a stark, emotionally direct memoir about growing up as the eldest child in a high-profile Mormon family vlogging empire—headed by her mother, Ruby Franke of the 8 Passengers YouTube channel—and the emotional and psychological abuse that unfolded away from the camera’s curated glow. Franke recounts the painful path that led her to call Child Protective Services to protect her younger siblings, the events culminating in her mother’s arrest for aggravated child abuse, and her own journey toward autonomy after a childhood turned into online content.
Coverage in outlets like People emphasizes how essential and overdue this story feels, framing the memoir as a necessary critique of family vlogging and a reclaiming of narrative after years of being filmed without consent. Reviewers praise Franke’s approach as earnest and tightly focused, noting how she refuses to exploit her family’s suffering and instead centers her own healing. With an impressive ~4.7 Goodreads rating and widespread discussion around internet culture, parasocial audiences, and children’s digital rights, the book has become one of 2025’s most defining memoirs—and a pivotal addition to the conversation about the ethics of putting children online.
Get Book: The House of My Mother!February books
February 2025 delivered a vibrant mix of big emotions, big twists, and big cultural moments, with books that leaned hard into romance, reinvention, and reckoning. From Tessa Bailey’s high-angst, high-spice Dream Girl Drama to Ali Hazelwood’s steamy, athlete-centered Deep End, the month brought romance front and center—fun, messy, and unapologetically bold. Gillian McAllister’s Famous Last Words added a jolt of domestic suspense, while Jojo Moyes offered warmth and heartbreak in We All Live Here, a sprawling family story about rebuilding a life from the rubble. Tia Williams’s A Love Song for Ricki Wilde infused the season with lush Harlem magic and time-bending romance, and Kristin Hannah’s The Women remained a towering presence, its paperback resurgence keeping readers deep in Vietnam-era history and emotional catharsis. Together, February’s books balanced escapism and gravity—stories of desire, resilience, family, and the power of stepping into a new chapter, even when the past refuses to stay quiet.
Dream Girl Drama by Tessa Bailey
Tessa Bailey kicks off February with Dream Girl Drama, the third installment in her Big Shots series—a chaotic, high-angst romance that pairs pro hockey player Sig Gauthier with Chloe Clifford, a harp-playing, champagne-stealing whirlwind who feels like destiny from the moment their paths collide at a country club. After a moonlit kiss convinces them they’ve finally found “the one,” everything implodes when they discover their parents are engaged, making them soon-to-be step-siblings. What follows is classic Bailey territory: forbidden chemistry, heavy tension, big feelings, and plenty of signature spice as Sig helps sheltered Chloe navigate independence in Boston while trying (and failing) to keep their relationship strictly platonic.
Readers on Goodreads hover around a 3.4 average, noting the book’s unapologetically dramatic trope stack and addictive tension. Meanwhile, romance reviewers like Jeeves Reads Romance raved about the audiobook—“ate this up too fast”—especially the way Sig wears his heart on every page. Bloggers repeatedly call it “pure FUN,” even when divided on pacing or the couple’s dynamic, and PEOPLE spotlights it as Winter 2025’s buzziest spicy romance, boosted by its placement in Spotify’s “Spicy Audiobooks” hub.
Get Book: Dream Girl Drama!Deep End by Ali Hazelwood
Ali Hazelwood dives into college athletics with Deep End, a steamy, emotionally layered romance that follows Scarlett Vandermeer, a Stanford platform diver recovering from a devastating injury, and Evan, the star swimmer who becomes both her temptation and her undoing. Scarlett is determined to keep her life perfectly controlled—ace her pre-med path, avoid drama, and never risk her heart—until a shared secret pulls her and Evan into a “teammates with benefits” arrangement that quickly grows more intimate than either intended.
The novel blends elite-athlete pressure, mental health struggles, and sexual exploration with Hazelwood’s signature cocktail of science-nerd banter and high heat. Goodreads ratings hover around 3.8–3.9, with many readers calling it her spiciest book to date. All About Romance praised its humor, banter, and strong sports atmosphere, while Marie Claire spotlighted it as one of Hazelwood’s boldest works—particularly for its BDSM and erotic elements—yet still rooted in the emotional beats her fans crave.
Get Book: Deep End!Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister
Gillian McAllister returns with Famous Last Words, a tense, emotionally intricate domestic thriller that asks one chilling question: what if the man you love becomes the villain on the evening news? The story centers on a woman whose husband has taken three people hostage, killed two, and then disappeared—forcing her to confront not only the horror of what he’s done, but the terrifying possibility that she never truly knew him at all.
As she tries to piece together the truth, McAllister unravels a layered exploration of marriage, loyalty, memory, and the secrets we keep even from ourselves. Early reviewers draw strong comparisons to Wrong Place Wrong Time, praising McAllister’s talent for pairing high-concept suspense with deep emotional stakes. Publisher copy frames it as a “suspenseful domestic thriller,” a description echoed by early readers who call it twisty, morally thorny, and nearly impossible to put down—a one-sitting binge designed to leave readers questioning how well anyone knows the people closest to them.
Get Book: Famous Last words!We All Live Here by Jojo Moyes
Jojo Moyes returns to contemporary drama with We All Live Here, a warm, emotionally tangled family novel centered on Lila Kennedy, whose life is unraveling in every direction. Her marriage has ended, money is evaporating, her house is quite literally collapsing, and she’s reeling from her mother’s death when her grieving stepfather moves in, her ex’s new partner announces a pregnancy, and the father she hasn’t seen in 35 years suddenly reappears. As Lila, her daughters, and their messy, interwoven family navigate grief, forgiveness, and the fragile architecture of home, Moyes explores how imperfect people can still build something whole together.
Kirkus awarded it a starred review, calling it “a moving, realistic look at one woman’s post-divorce family life” that’s both poignant and funny. Even bloggers who don’t typically read family fiction describe it as classic Jojo Moyes: warm, emotional, and irresistibly readable, with a heroine you can’t help rooting for. Goodreads ratings around 3.9 reflect the same sentiment—readers praise its mix of humor and heartbreak and its empathetic portrayal of blended families and complicated parents.
Get Book: We all live Here!A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams
Tia Williams’ A Love Song for Ricki Wilde brings a lush, time-bending romance to 2025 paperback season, weaving together modern-day Harlem with the magic and music of the Harlem Renaissance. The story follows Ricki Wilde—the impulsive, artistic youngest daughter of a wealthy Atlanta funeral-home family—who escapes suffocating expectations to open her dream flower shop in the ground-floor apartment of Ms. Della’s historic Harlem brownstone. One enchanted February night, under the scent of night-blooming jasmine, she meets a mysterious musician whose life is intertwined with the building’s past in ways that feel irresistibly supernatural.
Named one of the best romances of 2024 by The New York Times and Amazon and nominated for an NAACP Image Award, the novel has continued its momentum into 2025 for good reason. Kirkus praised its “richly layered characters” and noted its broad appeal beyond traditional romance readers, while bloggers rave about its intoxicating Harlem atmosphere, magical realism, and gorgeous found-family elements—one calling it “fun, sexy, warm, and definitely unique… it made me laugh and cry.” The result is a romance that feels both contemporary and timeless, blooming with music, magic, and fate.
Get Book: A Love Song for Ricki Wilde!The Women by Kristin Hannah
Kristin Hannah’s The Women continued to dominate charts, book clubs, and conversations well into 2025, cementing its place as one of the most defining historical novels of the decade. The story follows Frances “Frankie” McGrath, a sheltered young woman from Southern California who shocks her family by joining the Army Nurse Corps and serving two harrowing tours in Vietnam. On the front lines she treats unimaginable combat injuries, forms fierce bonds with fellow nurses, and discovers a strength she never knew she possessed—only to return home to an America that refuses to recognize or honor the women who served.
It’s a sweeping, emotionally charged novel about friendship, trauma, patriotism, and the lifelong journey toward healing. The book debuted at #1 on The New York Times bestseller list and held the top spot for 10 weeks, making it 2024’s most frequent weekly bestseller, and its influence spilled straight into 2025. Kirkus praised its vivid reconstruction of a little-known chapter of the Vietnam War, while Bill Gates called it “eye-opening and inspiring,” noting how it reshaped his understanding of the era. Bloggers and readers alike have described it as one of the most powerful Vietnam War novels they’ve encountered—even as some critics note its melodramatic edges—further fueling its staying power across two reading years.
Get Book: The Women!March books
March 2025 delivered a powerhouse lineup of emotionally intense, socially charged, and widely discussed books—stories that dug deep into trauma, obsession, memory, and the forces that shape who we become. From the sweeping, decades-spanning heartbreak of Broken Country to the dark psychological spiral of Ashley Winstead’s This Book Will Bury Me, the month leaned heavily into characters reckoning with old wounds and impossible choices. Romance readers were treated to Elsie Silver’s deeply tender Wild Side, while Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie made a major return with Dream Count, an ambitious, feminist, cross-continental novel that immediately became a literary event. John Green’s Everything Is Tuberculosis brought urgency and moral clarity to global health, and Suzanne Collins dominated YA with Sunrise on the Reaping, a devastating origin story that redefined a beloved character. Together, these March releases offered catharsis, confrontation, and unforgettable storytelling—books designed not just to be read, but to be felt long after the final page.
Broken Country by Anne Hall
Set against the quiet rhythms of the English countryside, Broken Country follows Beth, a farmer’s wife whose settled life with her dependable husband, Frank, begins to fracture when Gabriel—the boy she loved at seventeen—returns to their village with his young son. The novel moves fluidly between Beth’s present and a 1969 London murder trial in which Gabriel stands accused, slowly unspooling the grief, buried secrets, and impossible choices that bind the three of them across decades.
What begins as a seemingly familiar “old flame returns” setup transforms into a gripping blend of love triangle, courtroom thriller, and meditative family drama. Reviewers describe it as “a sweeping tale about love, grief and secrets,” praising its thriller-like pacing and emotional weight. Blogs repeatedly highlight Hall’s vivid, tender portrayals of Beth, Frank, and Gabriel—and many warn that tissues are essential, calling the book “sad, beautiful, and unputdownable.” Its selection as a Reese’s Book Club pick and early film interest from Hello Sunshine have propelled it into must-read status for 2025.
Get Book: Broken Country!This Book Will Bury Me by Ashley Winstead
Ashley Winstead’s This Book Will Bury Me is a dark, introspective psychological thriller that follows Jane, a woman grieving her father’s death who begins spending her nights inside true crime forums searching for connection—and distraction. When she stumbles onto a string of murders that echo her own deepest trauma, her fascination turns into dangerous obsession. As she starts writing a tell-all true-crime manuscript that threatens to expose others and herself, the novel pushes into thorny questions about parasocial fandom, the ethics of consuming tragedy, and how easily grief can warp into voyeurism.
Reviewers call the book “propulsive” and “immersive,” with bloggers praising Jane as an “endearing, flawed and honest” narrator. But it has also sparked debate: its loose inspiration from real crimes has made some readers uneasy, a concern Winstead directly addresses in her preface. Thriller blogs emphasize that the novel is essential reading for true crime fans willing to confront discomfort head-on, especially those interested in how the internet blurs the lines between justice-seeking and self-destruction.
Get Book: This Book Will Bury Me!Wild Side by Elsie Silver
Elsie Silver’s Wild Side, the third book in the beloved Rose Hill series, delivers a small-town marriage-of-convenience romance packed with emotional depth. After her sister’s death, chef Tabitha Garrison assumes she’ll become guardian to her nephew Milo—until she discovers the legal guardian is Rhys Dupris, her sister’s brooding landlord and a man with whom she shares a messy, unresolved past. Determined to keep Milo rooted in Rose Hill, Tabitha proposes a marriage of convenience. Rhys, a professional wrestler hiding a secret public persona, reluctantly agrees, setting up a deliciously tense grumpy/sunshine dynamic, forced proximity, and two fiercely guarded people slowly—almost unwillingly—building a real family.
Romance bloggers are obsessed, calling it “hot, steamy and full of healing,” and praising its balance of spice with tender explorations of grief, guardianship, and recovery. Jeeves Reads Romance placed it on a “Best of the Year (So Far)” list for its electric enemies-to-lovers tension and beautifully slow emotional unraveling. Goodreads reflects the buzz with high ratings and constant discussion, especially among fans of marriage-of-convenience, secret-identity, and grieving-guardian tropes. Readers consistently adore Milo, calling him “the heart of the book,” and many highlight how well Silver blends emotional vulnerability with trademark heat.
Get Book: Wild Side by Elsie Silver!Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Dream Count—her first novel in twelve years—arrives as a major literary event, weaving together the lives of four women whose stories move between the U.S. and Africa. The novel follows Chiamaka, a Nigerian travel writer stranded in the U.S. during the pandemic; her brilliant, sharp-edged lawyer friend Zikora; her cousin Omelogor, a finance worker who moonlights as a porn scholar; and Kadiatou, a Guinean immigrant housekeeper whose arc echoes the real-life case of Nafissatou Diallo. Through these intersecting narratives, Adichie explores love, aging, sex, power, and the thorny politics of whose voices get believed.
Critics have embraced the book’s sweep and urgency: the Associated Press calls it a “vibrant return” infused with deep empathy even as it confronts institutional failures around sexual violence, while both The Washington Post and The Times describe it as ambitious, panoramic, and unapologetically feminist—one reviewer even labeling it a “feminist War and Peace.” Some bloggers argue it can feel uneven or less polished than Americanah, yet still powerful, especially in Kadiatou’s devastating chapters. Already longlisted for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction and rapidly translated worldwide, Dream Count stands as one of the defining novels of the year.
Get Book: Dream Count!Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green
John Green’s Everything Is Tuberculosis is a sweeping, urgent work of nonfiction that blends history, reportage, science, and intimate human storytelling. Anchored by Henry—a young TB patient Green met in Sierra Leone—the book traces the disease from its romanticized 19th-century mythology to its grim modern reality as a curable infection that still kills more than a million people each year. Green exposes how poverty, failed policy, and unequal access to care—not biology alone—sustain TB as the world’s deadliest infectious disease, making the book as much about ethics, global health systems, and political responsibility as it is about bacteria.
Critics across the board have praised it: Kirkus, Booklist, School Library Journal, and the AP all offered starred or glowing reviews, calling it a “highly readable call to action” and celebrating Green’s ability to make complex science feel deeply personal. Bill Gates wrote a standout review on Gates Notes, arguing that its message about global health investment is “more important than ever.” The book debuted at #1 on The New York Times nonfiction list and remained there for weeks, with readers responding to its blend of anger, hope, clarity, and classic John Green emotional honesty. Goodreads users consistently describe it as eye-opening, enraging, and unexpectedly moving—especially in how it forces wealthier nations to confront their complicity in a “disease of the poor.”
Get Book: Everything Is Tuberculosis!Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
In Sunrise on the Reaping, Suzanne Collins returns to Panem with a brutal and deeply emotional prequel centered on the 50th Hunger Games—the Second Quarter Quell—and the making of Haymitch Abernathy. Long before he’s the jaded mentor to Katniss, we meet Haymitch as a teenage boy from impoverished District 12, thrust into an especially nightmarish arena with twice the usual number of tributes while the Capitol’s media machine turns every death into spectacle. The novel traces how trauma, rebellion, and his particular brand of bitter, sardonic compassion are forged in that crucible.
It opened bigger than any Hunger Games book before it, selling over 1.5 million copies in its first week and topping bestseller lists worldwide. The Guardian calls it “not for the faint-hearted,” praising its sharp examination of media manipulation, class inequality, and the horror of a Games designed to be even more savage. Fans and bloggers describe it as an “emotional rollercoaster” that leaves Haymitch’s later cynicism feeling tragically inevitable, and with a collector’s edition and 2026 film adaptation already on the horizon, it’s firmly established as the defining YA blockbuster of 2025.
Get Book: Sunrise on the Reaping!April books
April 2025 delivered a whirlwind of fiction that felt sharp, stylish, and emotionally supercharged — a month defined by big releases, big twists, and big feelings across genres. Liann Zhang’s Julie Chan Is Dead skewered influencer culture with dark humor and thriller bite, while Emily Henry’s Great Big Beautiful Life topped bestseller lists with its blend of romantic tension, family mystery, and sunlit coastal charm. Tahereh Mafi reignited a beloved universe with Watch Me, ushering Shatter Me fans into a new era of dystopian angst, conspiracies, and impossible love. Romance heavy-hitters Abby Jimenez and Ana Huang brought depth and heat—Jimenez exploring long-distance love under the weight of caregiving and trauma, Huang diving into bodyguard chemistry, high-society danger, and morally grey passion in King of Envy. Meanwhile, Jeneva Rose delivered twisty, compulsive suspense with The Perfect Divorce, pulling readers back into Sarah Morgan’s chaotic orbit of lies, betrayal, and media frenzy. Together, April’s books showcased stories about reinvention, identity, power, and the messy, magnetic pull of human relationships—making it one of 2025’s most dynamic reading months yet.
Julie Chan Is Dead by Liann Zhang
Liann Zhang’s debut, Julie Chan Is Dead, is a darkly funny, razor-sharp thriller that takes aim at identity, clout culture, and the surreal performance art of living online. The story follows estranged twins Julie and Chloe, whose lives intertwine dangerously when Julie fakes her own death and slips into Chloe’s world as a mid-tier influencer. Her new persona pulls her straight into the seductive, cult-like collective known as the Belladonnas—led by the magnetic yet menacing Bella Marie—where curated perfection masks manipulation, toxic hierarchies, and genuine peril.
Early praise paints the novel as “edgy, vicious, and impossible to put down,” with publishers and reviewers celebrating Zhang’s ability to make the influencer world feel both mesmerizing and grotesque. Pique Newsmagazine calls it a “wonderful debut,” noting how Zhang exposes “the rotten insides of the influencer industry with sharp insight and dark humor.” Bloggers echo the sentiment, describing it as “twisted, dark, gripping, and thought-provoking,” with clout-chasing, cult dynamics, and sibling rivalry propelling it into full-on one-sitting territory.
Get Book: Julie Chan Is Dead!Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
Emily Henry’s Great Big Beautiful Life takes readers to the sun-washed coastal town of Little Crescent, Georgia, where celebrity journalist Alice Scott and Pulitzer-winning reporter Hayden Anderson find themselves in a high-stakes rivalry. Both are competing to write the biography of former heiress Margaret Ives, a woman whose glamorous, tragic, and not-entirely-truthful past has made her a near-mythic figure. Margaret agrees to speak to each of them separately for one month before choosing who gets the coveted book deal. As Alice digs deeper into the Ives family’s tangled legacy—and begins to suspect Margaret is hiding more than she reveals—she also finds herself unexpectedly drawn to Hayden, turning professional competition into a slow-burn, deeply felt romance.
The novel debuted at #1 on The New York Times fiction list and quickly became the top national bestseller. Critics praised its ambition: the Chicago Review of Books highlighted Henry’s “writing prowess” and her deft balance of romance, family history, and the slipperiness of truth, while Publishers Weekly called it a “stunner” and Kirkus labeled the central love story a “delightful slow burn.” Even mixed reviews from outlets like The Miami Student and The Stanford Daily still admitted it’s a “charming love story,” underscoring just how broadly the novel resonated.
Get Book: Great Big Beautiful Life!Watch Me by Tahereh Mafi
Tahereh Mafi’s Watch Me marks a major return to the Shatter Me universe, launching the Shatter Me: The New Republic series and picking up ten years after the events of Imagine Me. The oppressive Reestablishment has fallen, but the New Republic built in its place is already buckling under corruption, paranoia, and unrest. Into this fragile world step James Kent—Aaron and Adam’s younger brother, now grown—and Rosabelle Wolff, a sharp new character whose loyalties challenge everything James believes. Forced into a reluctant enemies-to-lovers alliance, the two navigate conspiracies that threaten to unravel everything the original heroes fought for.
Reviews and publisher copy alike describe the novel as “brimming with pulse-pounding action and torturous romance,” an explosive blend of high-stakes dystopia and classic Mafi emotional turmoil. Goodreads ratings hover around 4.3 stars, with readers thrilled by how fully James is developed and how the world expands in meaningful, dramatic ways. Bloggers say it hits all the nostalgic notes OG fans crave—intense monologue, romantic angst, impossible choices—while noting that newcomers may struggle without the original series as context. Overall, Watch Me reignites the franchise with a potent mix of danger, longing, and rebellion.
Get Book: Watch Me by Tahereh Mafi!Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez
Abby Jimenez’s Say You’ll Remember Me is a deeply emotional contemporary romance about two people trying to love each other across distance, trauma, and the crushing realities of caregiving. Samantha Diaz is a burned-out social media manager caring for her mother, who is living with early-onset dementia. During a rare getaway, she meets veterinarian Dr. Xavier Rush, and what begins as a brief escape becomes a powerful connection neither of them expected. But with Sam in one state, Xavier in another, and both weighed down by complicated family dynamics and unresolved emotional wounds, the question becomes whether love can survive the realities shaping their lives.
Reviewers praise the book for how deftly it balances romance with heavier themes: SuperSummary highlights its blend of developing relationship and explorations of illness, identity, and duty; Book Club Chat calls it an “impactful and heartfelt read” about two people fighting to stay together against the odds. Bloggers describe it as “raw, realistic, and a gut-punch of romance,” noting how Jimenez wraps serious family drama in a hopeful, tender love story. Marie Claire’s recent ranking of Jimenez’s novels also spotlights this book as the launch of a new series, continuing her signature mix of humor, heart, and tough life topics.
Get Book: Say You’ll Remember me!King of Envy by Ana Huang
Ana Huang’s King of Envy, the fifth installment in the wildly popular Kings of Sin universe, follows Ayana Kidane—a brilliant, disciplined overachiever whose life is planned to perfection, right down to her imminent society wedding. But when a series of escalating threats pushes her to hire the notoriously private security mogul Vuk Marković, her carefully ordered world collides with a man whose dangerous reputation is matched only by his emotional intensity. As her wedding begins to unravel and Vuk becomes the one person who makes her feel genuinely safe, their relationship deepens into a connection that is both fiercely emotional and blisteringly physical—until the ghosts of Vuk’s past threaten to destroy everything they’ve built.
Goodreads reviewers describe the novel as angsty, extra-spicy, and emotionally heavy, packed with tropes fans adore: bodyguard romance, morally grey MMC, and high-society chaos. A Washington Post profile on Huang highlights her signature blend of inclusive, emotionally intense storytelling and high heat, naming King of Envy one of 2025’s most anticipated romances. Retailer copy emphasizes the suspense thread woven through the relationship, noting how Ayana knows she should stay away from Vuk—but can’t, especially when he’s the only one who makes her feel safe.
Get Book: King of Envy!The Perfect Divorce by Jeneva Rose
Jeneva Rose’s The Perfect Divorce, the long-awaited sequel to The Perfect Marriage, picks up eleven years later to find high-powered attorney Sarah Morgan living the life she fought so hard to rebuild: a new husband, a thriving career, and a newborn baby. But her fresh start crumbles when her husband Bob cheats—and his mistress mysteriously disappears. At the same time, new evidence resurfaces in the old murder case that once made Sarah a true-crime headline, dragging her back into a nightmare of investigations, media scrutiny, and marital mind games. People calls it a “highly anticipated sequel” that plunges Sarah straight into chaos when Bob’s affair collides with a new missing-woman case.
Thriller reviewers say the duology “owes a debt to Gone Girl,” citing its use of unreliable narrators, twisty secrets, and razor-edged psychological tension. Others describe it as a “dark, multi-layered psychological thriller” that spirals from divorce into something far more dangerous, constantly forcing readers to question who—if anyone—can be trusted.
Get Book: The Perfect Divorce!May Books
May 2025 unfolded as a month of rich emotional depth, big-hearted storytelling, and genre-spanning explorations of identity, family, and the choices that shape our lives. From the speculative brilliance of The Names, which examined how a single decision can reverberate across generations, to Fredrik Backman’s tender, bittersweet My Friends, the month leaned heavily into stories about how people break, heal, and carry one another through time. Romance was equally powerful: Kennedy Ryan delivered her most layered work yet with Can’t Get Enough, Carley Fortune brought shimmering lakeside nostalgia in One Golden Summer, and Alexis Daria wrapped up her Primas of Power series with a spicy, heartfelt finale about finding yourself after loss.
Cozy mysteries and crime got vibrant new life through Uzma Jalaluddin’s Detective Aunty and the darkly comic chaos of Sue Hincenbergs’ The Retirement Plan, while Hannah Orenstein’s Maine Characters offered a tender, atmospheric take on sisterhood and second chances. Closing the month with grandeur, Isabel Allende’s My Name Is Emilia del Valle delivered sweeping historical fiction filled with revolution, journalism, and an unforgettable heroine. Across genres, May’s books shared a common thread: transformation—the bravery to confront the past, choose differently, and imagine a new future.
The Names by Florence Knapp
Florence Knapp’s The Names is a striking, speculative literary debut built around a single, life-altering choice. On the day Cora escapes her abusive husband and goes to officially name her newborn son, she is torn between three possibilities: Gordon (her husband’s demand), Julian (the name she secretly loves), and Bear (her daughter’s whimsical pick). From that moment, the novel fractures into three parallel timelines, tracing the boy’s life under each name and returning to the family every seven years across more than three decades.
What unfolds is a deeply layered meditation on domestic abuse, trauma, identity, and the ripple effect of even the smallest decision—how one terrifying moment can alter not just a child’s future, but the emotional landscape of an entire family. Critics have been effusive, calling it “spring’s hottest debut,” “extraordinary,” and “a beautiful portrait of how someone’s choice can echo on into the decades.” Reviewers praise Knapp’s ability to balance dread with warmth and fleeting whimsy, focusing not on the brutality of abuse but on survival, healing, and the quiet acts of courage that shape a life.
Get Book: The Names by Florence Knapp!My Friends by Fredrik Backman
Fredrik Backman’s My Friends is a tender, quietly devastating novel about four teenagers bound together by one transformative summer—and by a painting whose reappearance years later disrupts the life of a young woman carrying her own private wounds. Moving fluidly between past and present, the story explores friendship, art, trauma, and the complicated ways people break and remake each other over time.
Early readers call it “deeply moving” and “bittersweet,” praising Backman’s unmatched gift for extracting emotion from the smallest, softest moments. Many consider it among his most powerful works, especially in the way it portrays art as a refuge for kids enduring abuse, neglect, and poverty. Some note the pacing can feel slow for readers expecting a lighter contemporary tone, but even those critiques acknowledge the emotional weight and humanity that make the novel resonate long after the final page.
Get Book: My Friends!Can’t Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan
In Can’t Get Enough, the final book in Kennedy Ryan’s Skyland series, Hendrix Barry is a high-powered talent manager whose life is already packed to the brim: a thriving career, a fiercely loyal chosen family, and the emotional weight of caring for a mother with Alzheimer’s. She’s convinced she knows exactly what she wants—especially her decision to remain childfree—until Maverick, a wealthy tech entrepreneur, crashes into her carefully controlled world. Their relationship forces Hendrix to interrogate her ideas about love, work, legacy, and what a fulfilled future might look like for a Black woman who has spent years carrying everyone else.
Trade blurbs and early reviews are calling this “Ryan’s best work yet,” applauding its mix of brutal emotion, whip-smart humor, and seriously delicious spice. Readers love how it tackles caregiving, ambition, and Black womanhood without losing the swoony heart of the romance, repeatedly describing it as layered, heartfelt, and “more than a love story”—a book that feels designed to spark real-life conversations long after the last page.
Get Book: Can’t Get Enough!One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune
Carley Fortune returns to her signature lakeside nostalgia with One Golden Summer, a standalone romance set once again in the beloved community of Barry’s Bay. The story follows Alice, a photographer who has spent her adult life observing the world from behind her lens rather than living fully within it. After her grandmother Nan suffers a serious fall, Alice brings her back to the lake in hopes that the familiar summers of her childhood might offer them both healing. There, she encounters Charlie Florek—one of the teens she famously photographed years earlier in an image that changed the course of her career.
What unfolds is a shimmering, slow-burn friends-to-lovers romance that plays out over a single transformative season, filled with tenderness, unresolved longing, and the quiet bravery of learning to be seen. Reviewers call the novel “luminous” and “radiant,” praising Fortune’s lakeside storytelling at its finest: richly nostalgic, emotionally layered, and steeped in summer light. Early readers highlight Nan as a standout character and say the book captures that quintessential Carley Fortune blend of love, grief, friendship, and the ache of a perfect summer you wish would never end.
Get Book: One Golden Summer!Along Came Amor by Alexis Daria
Alexis Daria closes out her beloved Primas of Power series with Along Came Amor, a vibrant, heartfelt romance about rediscovering yourself when life doesn’t look the way you planned. Ava Rodriguez is freshly divorced and struggling to figure out who she is beyond other people’s expectations—until a no-strings, one-night hookup with hotel owner Roman Vázquez offers a spark she hasn’t felt in years. The plan is simple: enjoy it, forget it, move on. But everything implodes (and deliciously so) when Ava and Roman learn they’re maid of honor and best man at the same wedding, thrust together in the middle of her loud, loving Puerto Rican family and all their glorious chaos.
Secret hookups, messy feelings, and deep soul-searching follow as Ava works through people-pleasing habits, burnout, boundaries, and the terrifying possibility of a second chance at love. The accolades have been pouring in: a New York Times Editor’s Choice, starred reviews in Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, and placements on multiple “Best Romance of 2025” lists. Reviewers call it “spicy, hilarious, and oh-so-real,” celebrating the big family dynamics, nuanced emotional arc, and Ava/Roman chemistry that “leaps off the page.”
Get Book: Along Came Amor!Detective Aunty by Uzma Jalaluddin
Uzma Jalaluddin’s Detective Aunty is a warm, witty, and wonderfully twisty cozy mystery centered on Kausar Khan—a recently widowed woman in her fifties who returns to Toronto after nearly twenty years abroad, only to discover her daughter has been accused of murdering a local shopkeeper. Armed with sharp observational instincts, a no-nonsense attitude, and her ever-present dupatta, Kausar throws herself into an amateur investigation set within a lively South Asian Canadian, Muslim community. As she chases clues through auntie gossip, neighborhood drama, and buried secrets, the novel blends heartfelt family dynamics with classic whodunit charm.
Kirkus memorably dubbed it “Jack Reacher in a dupatta,” and reviewers across the board call it a “delightful” and “hidden gem” cozy that delivers both humor and genuine suspense. Critics praise Kausar as a refreshing older heroine who upends stereotypes about “meddlesome aunties,” while the mystery itself lands with a satisfying twist—and a small cliffhanger that neatly sets the stage for a series to come.
Get Book: Detective Aunty!The Retirement Plan by Sue Hincenbergs
Sue Hincenbergs’ The Retirement Plan is a darkly comic suburban caper that asks what happens when three sixty-something best friends, trapped in stale marriages and facing grim financial futures, decide the only way out is… murder. Their plan? Hire a hitman to kill their husbands and use the life insurance payouts to finally retire in peace. Their problem? The husbands have already hired the same hitman for their own identical scheme. What follows is a riot of crossed wires, escalating chaos, and donut-fueled strategizing that spirals into a twisty, laugh-out-loud thriller.
Early reviewers call it “jaw-droppingly hilarious” and “an absolute scream from first page to last,” praising its meticulous plotting and lively portrayal of middle-aged women who are fed up and done playing nice. It’s already drawing comparisons to The Thursday Murder Club and other cozy-but-sharp crime hits, and coverage spotlighting older protagonists notes that film rights were snapped up early—signaling major buzz well beyond the book world.
Maine Characters by Hannah Orenstein
Hannah Orenstein’s Maine Characters is a warm, emotionally rich blend of women’s fiction and summer romance, pitched as “Parent Trap for adults.” The novel follows half-sisters Lucy and Vivian, who meet for the very first time at their late father’s cherished lake cabin in Maine—a place overflowing with memories for one sister and entirely unfamiliar to the other. Over the course of one charged summer, they clash, connect, and slowly unravel the family secrets that have shaped their separate lives. The lakeside town, its tight-knit community, and a hint of romance help guide them toward understanding what kind of relationship they want to build—not just with each other, but with their own futures.
Early reviews call the book “a love letter to lake life” and “an absolute treasure,” celebrating its immersive Maine setting, relatable sibling dynamic, and Orenstein’s knack for capturing the “beautiful messiness” of family and the human heart. Some note it’s more of a quiet, character-driven summer novel than a plot-heavy drama, but even those readers praise its tenderness, atmosphere, and emotional wisdom.
Get Book: Maine Characters!My Name Is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende
Isabel Allende’s My Name Is Emilia del Valle is a sweeping, adventurous work of historical fiction set against the turbulence of Chile’s 1891 civil war. The novel follows Emilia, the illegitimate daughter of a Chilean aristocrat and an Irish novice nun, who is raised in San Francisco by a progressive stepfather who nurtures her love of storytelling. As a young woman, she reinvents herself as a pulp-fiction writer and newspaper columnist under a male pseudonym, before traveling to Chile to report on the war—and to search for the father she has never known. What emerges is a story of revolution, journalism, and a fiercely independent heroine trying to carve out her own destiny in a world intent on limiting her.
Critics have called the book “stunning,” “riveting,” and “a swashbuckling tale” of love, war, and political upheaval. Emilia is praised as another unforgettable Allende protagonist—bold, rule-breaking, and irresistibly alive. Reviewers also highlight how the novel doubles as commentary on modern political unrest and the enduring power of journalism, with some describing it as a “deeply researched historical adventure” and a “spellbinding masterpiece” that feels both quintessentially Allende and sharply resonant for 2025.
Get Book: My Name is Emilia Del Valle!June Books
June 2025 delivered one of the most eclectic and electrifying reading months of the year, blending sweeping imagination, sharp social commentary, and page-turning suspense. Allison King’s The Phoenix Pencil Company enchanted readers with its fusion of intergenerational history, quiet magic, and questions about memory and privacy, while Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Atmosphere rocketed into bestsellerdom with a big-hearted NASA drama about ambition, sexism, and a late-in-life queer love story. V.E. Schwab dominated fantasy with Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, a lush, centuries-spanning sapphic vampire epic hailed as an instant classic. Jess Walter brought grit, humor, and emotional heft to So Far Gone, a genre-bending road novel about fractured families and America’s divides, and Amy Poeppel delivered warm, witty cultural contrast in Far and Away, a feel-good house-swap dramedy with surprising depth. Rounding out the month, Liv Constantine’s Don’t Open Your Eyes added high-octane suspense with its eerie premonitions and domestic chaos. Across genres, June’s books shared a common pulse: reinvention, reckoning, and the courage to face what haunts us—whether memory, the past, or the future we fear we might be racing toward.
The Phoenix Pencil Company by Allison King
Allison King’s The Phoenix Pencil Company is a richly imagined blend of contemporary fiction, historical intrigue, and quiet magical realism. The novel follows Monica, an MIT dropout and reclusive coder who moves in with her aging grandparents—only to uncover her family’s astonishing secret. The women of her lineage once worked at a World War II–era Shanghai pencil factory where “Reforged” pencils had the power to replay the memories of whoever wrote with them. As the narrative slips between Monica’s present and her grandmother Yun’s past—where Yun was pulled into espionage by occupying forces and later by rival factions in China—the book becomes an intergenerational story about love, betrayal, and the responsibility of memory.
Reviewers, including Reese’s Book Club, praise it as a “masterful blending of history, fantasy, and romance,” highlighting how it uses both magic and technology to explore data privacy, storytelling, and the fragility of family histories. SFF reviewers call it “well-written and engaging,” noting its cozy, character-driven heart and its intimate portrayal of relationships alongside thoughtful commentary on data preservation, secrecy, and the choices we make about what to reveal—and what to protect.
Get Book: The Phoenix Pencil Company!Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Atmosphere transports readers to the high-pressure, adrenaline-fueled world of NASA in the 1980s Space Shuttle era. The novel follows Joan Goodwin, one of the few women fighting for recognition and respect within an overwhelmingly male program. As she trains for a high-stakes shuttle mission, Joan must navigate institutional sexism, the politics of aerospace glory, and a late-in-life queer love story that reshapes how she understands ambition, desire, and belonging. When a fictional shuttle tragedy threatens not only her mission but also the fragile progress women have made in the space program, Joan is forced to confront what she’s willing to risk for the stars.
Winner of the 2025 Goodreads Choice Award for Historical Fiction, the book has been called a “big story—full of heart and adventure” and a “cosmic love ballad for space nerds,” balancing propulsive NASA set pieces with an intimate, emotionally resonant romance. Some reviewers note slower pacing in the middle compared to Reid’s earlier blockbuster hits, but most agree the emotional payoff—and explosive final act—make it one of summer 2025’s standout reads.
Get Book: Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid!Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab
V.E. Schwab’s Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is a genre-blurring dark fantasy that stretches across five centuries to tell three intertwined stories of sapphic vampires. Beginning in 16th-century Spain, moving through fog-drenched 19th-century London, and ending in contemporary Boston, the novel follows young women who are “planted in the same soil,” bound by a shared lineage of hunger, rage, and refusal to be tamed by patriarchal societies determined to control their bodies and desires. The result is a sprawling gothic epic about love, violence, power, and the steep cost of immortality.
Topping bestseller lists and winning the 2025 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Fantasy, it’s been widely hailed as “unmissable” and “a must-read” for anyone craving vampire fiction that digs deep into women’s interior lives rather than relying on blood-soaked spectacle alone. Critics and booksellers praise Schwab’s lush, incantatory prose, the tender yet ferocious queer romances, and the way she makes an old vampire trope feel startlingly fresh and new.
Get Book: Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil!So Far Gone by Jess Walter
Jess Walter’s So Far Gone is a sharp, propulsive, darkly funny road novel that begins with a disaster: Rhys Kinnick, a disgraced former journalist hiding from the world in a cabin outside Spokane, loses track of his young grandchildren—and they’re kidnapped on his watch. What starts as a desperate rescue mission spirals into a wild, violent, and often hilarious cross-country chase involving an ex-cop, an old flame, and a militia-style compound, forcing Rhys to confront not only his fractured family but the fractured nation around him.
Critics are raving: Book Marks aggregates a full “Rave” consensus, Kirkus calls Walter “a beacon of wit, decency, and style,” and The Chicago Review of Books describes the novel as “a greatest hits album” of Walter’s strengths—combining whip-smart dialogue, political bite, and deeply felt family storytelling. Reviewers highlight how the book tackles American polarization without losing its sense of fun, hope, and redemption, making it both timely and wildly entertaining.
Get Book: So Far Gone!Far and Away by Amy Poeppel
Amy Poeppel’s Far and Away is a warm, witty culture-clash dramedy that begins with a desperate house swap between two women on opposite sides of the world. Lucy, a Dallas mom reeling after her son publicly detonates his picture-perfect future, needs to get out of town—fast. Greta, a Berlin-based art curator whose husband has accepted a job in Texas without consulting her, needs space of her own just as urgently. Their impulsive exchange sends Lucy and her kids into Berlin’s sleek, intimidating art scene while Greta and her family land in Texas suburbia, navigating NASA rumors, neighborly quirks, and a McMansion that is decidedly not as advertised. What follows is a heartfelt examination of marriage, parenting, reinvention, and the myth of “greener pastures.”
Praised by Elin Hilderbrand as “absolutely delightful” and hailed by several authors as Poeppel’s “best novel yet,” the book has become a USA Today bestseller and a book-club staple. Reviewers love its “intelligent feel-good” energy, warm humor, and sharp yet compassionate commentary on cancel culture, snap judgments, and the importance of listening before you condemn.
Get Book: Far and Away!Don’t Open Your Eyes by Liv Constantine
Liv Constantine’s Don’t Open Your Eyes is a chilling, speculative-tinged domestic thriller about Annabelle, a woman whose picture-perfect life begins to fracture when she starts experiencing vivid dreams of a future she desperately hopes isn’t real. In these nightmares, she hates her husband, her daughters are in danger, and her world is coming apart. When details from the dreams begin appearing in real life, Annabelle realizes they aren’t products of anxiety—they’re premonitions. Convinced someone intends to harm her daughter Scarlett and unsure whether she’s glimpsing the future or losing her grip on reality, Annabelle must race to uncover the truth before the nightmare becomes irreversible.
Early buzz has been enormous: bestselling thriller authors call it “deliciously eerie and immersive,” “a compulsively readable nail-biter,” and “a rollercoaster ride” with a jaw-dropping ending. Trade outlets echo the excitement—Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Library Journal, and The Washington Post all praise its taut suspense, twist-heavy structure, and the way its supernatural edge injects fresh energy into the domestic-thriller genre.
Get Book: Don’t open your eyes!July Books
July 2025 delivered a spectacular mix of horror, heart, humor, and high-stakes suspense, giving readers one of the most eclectic and addictive reading months of the year. Silvia Moreno-Garcia set the tone with The Bewitching, a deeply atmospheric, multigenerational tale of witchcraft and academia that left readers deliciously unsettled. Thriller fans devoured Shari Lapena’s She Didn’t See It Coming and Ruth Ware’s The Woman in Suite 11, both packed with claustrophobic tension, buried secrets, and the compulsive pacing that made each a one-sitting read. For romantasy lovers, Brigitte Knightley’s The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy became an instant sensation—full of banter, worldbuilding, and slow-burn enemies-to-lovers chaos—while Sangu Mandanna delivered peak cozy comfort with A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping, a warm, hopeful magical-inn story rich with found family and healing. Laura Wood added Hollywood sparkle with Let’s Make a Scene, a swoony second-chance rom-com drenched in tension and summery charm, and Clémence Michallon closed out the month with Our Last Resort, a tense desert-resort thriller steeped in cult trauma and sibling secrets. Together, July’s books offered eerie chills, swoony sparks, comforting magic, and edge-of-your-seat suspense—making it one of 2025’s most unmissable reading months.
The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s The Bewitching is a haunting, time-bending horror novel that threads together folklore, academia, and multigenerational secrets. Moving between early 1900s Mexico, 1930s and 1990s Massachusetts, and a present-day New England campus, the story follows Minerva—a pressured grad student researching the life and work of horror author Beatrice Tremblay. Her academic curiosity turns chilling when she uncovers a connection between Tremblay’s stories and her own great-grandmother, Alba, whose family farm in Mexico may have been the site of a real witch’s curse. As disappearances, strange phenomena, and whispers of malevolent brujas rise across the novel’s shifting timelines, Moreno-Garcia braids terror, history, and the burden of inherited trauma into one creeping, atmospheric narrative.
Early reviews call it tense, richly detailed, and deeply unsettling—a “gripping” blend of Central Mexican witch lore, dark academia, and gothic horror. Critics widely praise it as one of 2025’s standout historical horror releases and an absolute must-read for fans of witchcraft, academia, and slow-building dread.
Get Book: The Bewitching!She Didn’t See It Coming by Shari Lapena
Shari Lapena’s She Didn’t See It Coming is a razor-sharp domestic thriller that opens with a nightmare scenario: Bryden Frost, a 35-year-old accountant, wife, and mother, simply disappears. Her phone, laptop, keys, and car are all still at home—she’s just gone. When her body is discovered, the investigation quickly tightens around the people closest to her, peeling back the glossy veneer of her picture-perfect marriage and high-rise lifestyle to reveal a tangle of secrets, lies, and betrayals.
Reviewers call the novel “a twisting, gripping, gruesome read,” praising its relentless psychological tension and the classic Lapena quality of keeping readers guessing at every turn. Many highlight it as the type of thriller you inhale in one sitting—propulsive, bingeable, and engineered for maximum suspense. While some note it prioritizes compulsive pacing over literary subtlety, most agree it cements Lapena’s status as a “master of psychological suspense,” delivering a shocking conclusion that lingers long after the final page.
Get Book: She Didn’t See It Coming!The Woman in Suite 11 by Ruth Ware
Ruth Ware returns to the world of her breakout hit The Woman in Cabin 10 with The Woman in Suite 11, catching up with journalist Lo Blacklock a decade after her original nightmare at sea. Now a Brooklyn mother of two and the author of a bestselling memoir, Lo is invited to an exclusive luxury hotel in the Swiss Alps owned by the enigmatic billionaire Marcus Leidmann—a chance, she hopes, to revive her travel-writing career. But when a death occurs on the property and unsettlingly familiar faces reemerge, Lo finds herself pulled back into a web of danger that spans Geneva, the Alps, and England. Reviews describe the novel as classic Ruth Ware: tense, atmospheric, and anchored by an imperfect, anxious heroine navigating a glamorous yet claustrophobic setting.
Critics praise its compelling writing, psychological depth, and nostalgic appeal for Cabin 10 fans, even as some note the central mystery may not be as shocking as expected. Still, Ware’s deft exploration of trauma, wealth, and control ensures the story delivers the suspenseful, locked-room energy readers crave.
Get Book: The Woman in Suite 11!The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley
Brigitte Knightley’s The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy is a playful, high-energy romantasy built around a deliciously slow-burn enemies-to-lovers pairing. Osric Mordaunt, a deadly assassin from the Fyren Order, is dying from a mysterious magical illness. Aurienne Fairhrim, a brilliant healer-scientist from the rival Haelan Order, is battling an outbreak of a long-forgotten pox in children and scrambling for the funding needed to deploy a vaccine. Their lives collide when Osric bribes—and strong-arms—Aurienne into helping him, forcing the two into a road-trip-style quest to cure his illness and investigate the spreading disease. Along the way, they engage in razor-sharp banter, hypercompetent-idiot shenanigans, and a great deal of extremely stubborn denial about their attraction.
Reviewers describe the book as quirky, dialogue-driven, and outrageously fun, with strong rom-com energy wrapped in a magical world. While some mention that the bawdy humor and pacing can verge on chaotic, many romantasy readers praise its fresh, character-focused take on the enemies-to-lovers trope and hail Aurienne as a standout “woman in STEM” heroine. The book has already become one of the buzziest romantasy debuts of 2025, boosted by Dramione-adjacent fanfic buzz and special-edition hype from OwlCrate, FairyLoot, and more.
Get Book: The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy!A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna
Sangu Mandanna’s A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping is a cozy, heartwarming romantasy that wraps readers in the charm of found family, magical mishaps, and slow-blooming love. The story follows Sera Swan, a witch running a delightfully chaotic magical inn while struggling to reclaim her lost powers and stay hidden from the ever-watchful magical Guild. Her inn is teeming with eccentric residents—talkative animals, meddlesome witches, and magical misfits—and life gets even more complicated when Luke, a historian carrying a mysterious spellbook, checks in. His arrival forces Sera to confront whether she’s willing to risk everything—her inn, her secrets, her fragile peace—for a chance to restore her magic and heal old wounds.
Early reviews call the book “warm,” “cozy,” and “the comfort read of the year,” celebrating its hopeful tone, humor, and emotional undercurrent of grief and second chances. Critics also highlight how perfectly it captures the chaotic-found-family energy that fans of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches adore—a soft, witchy hug of a novel with a gentle, satisfying romance at its core.
Get Book: A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping!Let’s Make a Scene by Laura Wood
Laura Wood’s Let’s Make a Scene is a glamorous, tension-filled second-chance romance set against the glittering (and pressure-cooker) world of Hollywood filmmaking. The novel follows Cynthie and Jack, former teen co-stars whose breakout movie made them famous—and whose spectacular falling-out turned them into tabloid fodder. Now, more than a decade later, they’re reunited on a new film, forced into close proximity while the studio shamelessly capitalizes on their unresolved chemistry with a fake-dating PR campaign. Told through dual timelines and perspectives, the story unpacks their messy past, the complicated realities of fame, and the heartbreak that derailed them the first time around.
Reviewers describe it as swoony, witty, and irresistibly tense—“the perfect mix of sass and softness”—with big enemies-to-lovers and fake-dating vibes. Readers praise its sparkling dialogue, sharp humor, and warm chosen-family elements, as well as Wood’s ability to infuse emotional heft into a fun, summery romance. Though some note minor pacing hiccups, Let’s Make a Scene is widely tagged as one of 2025’s standout rom-coms and a worthy successor to Under Your Spell.
Get Book: Let’s Make a Scene!Our Last Resort by Clémence Michallon
Clémence Michallon’s Our Last Resort is a tense, atmospheric psychological thriller set at an ultra-luxe desert retreat in Escalante, Utah, where secrets simmer under the scorching sun. The story follows Frida and Gabriel, siblings who were once inseparable after escaping a cult as teenagers but have since grown apart. Reunited for a holiday—and to discuss a documentary being made about their past—they find themselves trapped in a nightmare when a glamorous guest is found murdered and the resort locks down. Gabriel quickly becomes the prime suspect, marking the second time he’s been connected to a woman’s death. As police close in, the narrative alternates between the present-day investigation and the siblings’ harrowing cult upbringing, peeling back the layers of what they’ve both worked hard to bury.
Kirkus calls it a “GET IT” read, praising its blend of rich mystery and compassionate, deeply human character work. Reviewers highlight the eerie resort setting, the dual-timeline tension, and the haunting cult backstory, describing the novel as a slow-burn thriller that probes sibling loyalty, trauma, and survival. While some note it’s less shocking than The Quiet Tenant, many still recommend it for its atmosphere, complexity, and emotionally resonant heroine.
Get Book: Our Last Resort!August Books
August 2025 delivered a powerhouse lineup of thrillers, literary horror, historical fiction, and sharply drawn character dramas—a month defined by secrets, buried histories, and women fighting to reclaim their narratives. Stacy Willingham set the tone with Forget Me Not, a vine-soaked Southern cold-case mystery steeped in grief and memory. Karin Slaughter followed with We Are All Guilty Here, a gritty small-town thriller that crackled with her trademark Southern Gothic intensity. Samantha Downing brought dark humor to the forefront with Too Old for This, a gleefully twisted thriller about a geriatric former serial killer dragged back into chaos. Catherine Dang’s What Hunger delivered one of the year’s boldest literary horrors—a feral, visceral exploration of girlhood, rage, and intergenerational trauma. And Madeline Martin offered a counterbalance of heart and resilience with The Secret Book Society, a lush Victorian tale of forbidden novels, female friendship, and quiet revolution. Together, August’s books created a tapestry of suspense, fury, healing, and empowerment—stories that reached into the past, confronted the present, and refused to look away from the truths that haunt us.
Forget Me Not by Stacy Willingham
Stacy Willingham’s Forget Me Not is a tense, atmospheric Southern thriller that pulls investigative journalist Claire Campbell back into the darkest chapter of her family’s past. Twenty-two years ago, Claire’s older sister Natalie vanished just after her 18th birthday; blood was found in a car, a man was arrested, and everyone insisted the case was closed. But Claire never fully believed the story—and when her father calls her home to small-town South Carolina, she takes a summer job at Galloway Farm, the lakeside vineyard where Natalie was last happy. There, surrounded by heat, vines, and old memories, Claire is forced to confront buried family secrets, resurfacing suspicions, and the possibility that the truth was never uncovered at all.
Macmillan describes the novel as a “pulse-pounding Southern thriller,” and crime blogs echo that, calling it twisty, atmospheric, and more interested in grief, trauma, and memory than straightforward whodunnit beats. The Southern Review of Books praises it as “the perfect remedy for feeling like you missed out on vacation this summer,” spotlighting its immersive setting and taut suspense. On Goodreads—where it sits in the high 3-star range—readers highlight the strong sense of place, emotionally layered family dynamics, and an ending that prompts plenty of “we need to talk about that finale” reactions.
Get Book: Forget Me Not!We Are All Guilty Here by Karin Slaughter
Karin Slaughter’s We Are All Guilty Here launches her new North Falls series with a dark, propulsive mystery rooted in small-town secrets and the corrosive power of buried guilt. The story follows police officer Emmy Clifton as she investigates the disappearance of two teenage girls in her rural Georgia hometown—a case that becomes unsettlingly personal when Emmy’s own hidden ties to one of the girls begin to surface. As the search intensifies, long-held secrets within both the Clifton family and the wider North Falls community erupt into view, turning the investigation into a brutal examination of complicity, loyalty, and the lengths people will go to protect their own.
People magazine highlights it as Slaughter’s milestone 25th novel and a return to her Southern-Gothic crime roots, calling it a series opener that “starts with a bang.” Reviewers praise the richly rendered cast—one critic notes that by mid-book, you feel as though you’ve “been hanging out with them for years.” Crime roundups, including the Financial Times, flag it as one of 2025’s standout thrillers, while readers on r/thrillerbooks call it a “5-star read” packed with multiple twists, strong pacing, and a structure that avoids the typical detective-vs.-killer formula.
Get Book: We Are All Guilty Here!Too Old for This by Samantha Downing
Samantha Downing’s Too Old for This is a wickedly funny, darkly addictive thriller about Lottie Jones—a retired serial killer who has traded her murderous past for small-town quiet, church bingo, and gossip with her elderly friends. Living under a new identity, Lottie is determined to stay reformed…until an unexpected visitor threatens to expose everything she’s buried. Suddenly, the only way to protect her carefully constructed life might be to do the one thing she promised herself she’d never do again.
Downing leans all the way into the absurd delight of a geriatric serial killer, pitching the novel with the unforgettable tagline: “walker-wielding Lottie Jones is as twisted as they come.” Penguin Random House calls it an “instant national bestseller” and a “whip-smart story” propelled by Downing’s signature dark humor—dialed up to maximum chaos. Reviewers and readers alike are reveling in its twisted charm: Barnes & Noble praises it as “twisty, funny and downright dastardly,” while Goodreads reactions highlight the razor-sharp voice, the morally wrong-but-so-right premise, and the gleeful way the book skewers ageism in thrillers.
Get Book: Too Old for This!What Hunger by Catherine Dang
Catherine Dang’s What Hunger is a brutal, lyrical piece of literary horror that uses cannibalism not for shock value, but as a metaphor for girlhood, trauma, and the monstrousness forced onto young women who are never allowed to be angry. The novel follows Ronny, a Vietnamese American teenager in a small Midwestern town whose life collapses after a family tragedy and a sexual assault at a party. In the aftermath, she develops a terrifying craving—first for raw meat, then for human flesh—as she tries to navigate rage, shame, desire, and the suffocating expectations placed on her by her family and community. Threaded through Ronny’s story are her parents’ refugee histories and Vietnamese folklore, making the novel as much about intergenerational wounds and cultural inheritance as it is about body horror.
Simon & Schuster calls it “a visceral, emotional journey through the bursts and pitfalls of female rage,” a description early reviewers echo enthusiastically. A JoySauce feature praises its seamless weaving of family stories, folklore, and fear, while critics at Reactor and elsewhere group it with the rising wave of “it-girl cannibal” novels—books that examine exploitation, desire, and trauma through the grotesque. Bloggers describe it as “thought-provoking and unsettling,” and StoryGraph tags like teenage girl rage, Vietnamese food, body horror, and cannibalism make its vibe unmistakable: raw, furious, and impossible to look away from.
Get Book: What Hunger!The Secret Book Society by Madeline Martin
Madeline Martin’s The Secret Book Society is a richly atmospheric historical novel set in 1895 London, where three very different women find unexpected liberation through a clandestine literary sisterhood. Eleanor Clarke is trapped in a turbulent, socially suffocating marriage; Rose Wharton is a spirited American trying to fit into rigid British society; and Lavinia Cavendish is an artist concealing a dangerous family secret. Each receives a mysterious invitation from the reclusive Lady Duxbury, leading them to what appears to be a genteel afternoon tea—but beneath the lace and manners lies a covert book club where women can read “forbidden” novels, speak freely, and quietly resist a Victorian world that can still imprison “inconvenient” women in asylums.
Early praise from HarperCollins hails it as “a magnificent historical novel about the bonds of sisterhood and the power of books to unite and inspire,” celebrating Martin’s lush period detail and suspenseful plotting. All About Romance awarded it an A–, noting that it “speaks powerfully to what we have to lose” when women’s rights are under threat, without ever turning didactic. Other reviewers describe it as a moving, empowering story of hidden libraries, resilient friendships, and the revolutionary force of women gathering to read, think, and fight back—an irresistible pick for fans of bookish historical fiction with real bite.
Get Book: The Secret Book Society!September Books
September 2025 felt like standing in a packed bookstore where every shelf was yelling your name at once—a month heavy on epics, emotions, and series people are ride-or-die about. Historical fiction went big and bruising: Nathan Harris’s Amity and Patrick Ryan’s Buckeye dug into Reconstruction and mid-century America, peeling back myths of “freedom” and the American dream to show the scars underneath. On the speculative side, SenLinYu’s thousand-page Alchemised and Rebecca Ross’s Wild Reverence gave romantasy and dark fantasy readers exactly what they wanted: lush worlds, devastating emotions, and gods, war, and trauma with zero easy heroes. Ongoing universes thrived too—Richard Osman’s The Impossible Fortune, Jennifer L. Armentrout’s The Primal of Blood and Bone, Elin Hilderbrand & Shelby Cunningham’s The Academy, Elsie Silver’s Wild Card, Laurie Gilmore’s The Gingerbread Bakery, and Bolu Babalola’s Sweet Heat all delivered that hit of familiarity plus fresh drama, from pensioner sleuths and boarding-school scandals to small-town Christmas pining and second-chance lovers. Nonfiction and literary work added even more depth: Arundhati Roy’s Mother Mary Comes to Me and Angela Flournoy’s The Wilderness offered raw, layered portraits of mothers, daughters, friendship, and modern Black womanhood, while Robert Galbraith’s The Hallmarked Man kept crime fans arguing and inhaling pages in equal measure. Put together, September’s books were all about legacy and aftermath—how history, love, obsession, and bad decisions echo across families, friendships, fandoms, and whole fictional worlds.
Amity by Nathan Harris
Nathan Harris’s Amity is a sweeping, haunting Reconstruction-era novel set in 1866, following siblings Coleman and June as they struggle to claim real freedom in the violent aftermath of emancipation. When June is taken to Mexico by their former enslaver, Coleman sets out across the desert to find her—launching a tense, emotionally charged odyssey through a landscape still shaped by racism, colonial power, and the brutal truth that freedom is never simply bestowed, only fought for. The novel moves between their parallel journeys, revealing the physical and psychological costs of survival in a world determined to hold them in bondage even after slavery’s legal end.
Early reviews call Amity “quietly breathtaking” and “riveting,” praising Harris’s perceptive, lyrical writing, the vivid and unforgiving desert setting, and his unflinching exploration of white supremacy’s lingering grip. Critics are already positioning it as a major contribution to Reconstruction-era fiction—and a powerful, worthy follow-up to his acclaimed debut The Sweetness of Water.
Get Book: Amity by Nathan Harris!Buckeye by Patrick Ryan
Patrick Ryan’s Buckeye is a sweeping, multi-decade portrait of two couples in the fictional town of Bonhomie, Ohio, whose lives are bound together by a devastating secret—one that ultimately reverberates through the next generation and shapes the futures of their sons. Set against the backdrop of mid-20th-century Americana, the novel peels back the polished veneer of small-town life to explore the deeper currents of identity, shame, family bonds, and the way history lingers long after it seems finished.
Reviewers describe Buckeye as melancholic, humane, and quietly powerful—“behind the American dream” rather than enamored with it—and praise its elegant prose and emotional precision. Its selection as a Read With Jenna book club pick has amplified its visibility, cementing it as a thoughtful, conversation-generating literary novel with wide book club appeal.
Get Book: Buckeye by Patrick Ryan!Alchemised by SenLinYu
SenLinYu’s Alchemised is a sprawling, 1,000-page dark fantasy epic that plunges readers into a world shaped by war, alchemy, and necromancy. At its center is Helena Marino, a former resistance healer and alchemist who awakens from magical stasis with her memories shattered. As she’s interrogated by Kaine—a ruthless commander with deep, unsettling ties to her past—the narrative unfurls across dual timelines, gradually revealing the truth about Helena’s role in the civil war, the choices she made, and the horrors she endured. Rather than offering clean lines between heroes and villains, the novel dives into trauma, complicity, moral ambiguity, and the brutal cost of survival in a world that has consumed itself.
Critics and readers alike have called it “devastating,” “emotionally honest,” and “a masterpiece of dark fantasy.” It debuted at #1 on The New York Times bestseller list and ignited massive conversation both for its roots in the viral Manacled fanfic and for its headline-making seven-figure film deal with Legendary Entertainment. In scope, ambition, and emotional impact, Alchemised stands as one of 2025’s defining fantasy releases.
Get Book: Alchemised by SenLinYu!The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman
Richard Osman’s The Impossible Fortune brings the beloved Thursday Murder Club back for their fifth adventure—this time balancing wedding chaos, personal grief, and a new criminal conspiracy that’s as twisty as ever. While Joyce throws herself into planning table settings and first dances, Elizabeth wrestles with loss, and the group is soon pulled into a mystery involving a dubious Bitcoin “fortune,” coded messages, bombs, and an eccentric array of suspects. As the clues spiral into increasingly strange territory, the friends must confront not only the case but the question of what really matters as they grow older.
Early reviewers say Osman delivers another “heartwarming, riveting, must-read” entry—full of humour, sharp plotting, and the cozy-crime charm fans adore, but also enriched with a surprisingly reflective layer about aging, purpose, and friendship. One in-depth analysis highlights how the fake Bitcoin stash becomes a metaphor for the illusions people chase, praising the novel for blending mischievous fun with genuine emotional depth.
Get Book: The Impossible Fortune!Wild Card by Elsie Silver
Elsie Silver closes out her beloved Rose Hill series with Wild Card, a steamy, emotional, small-town romance built around a forbidden “ex-boyfriend’s dad” love story. The novel follows Gwen and Bash—two lonely, complicated people who become unexpected roommates and slowly slip into a high-angst, age-gap entanglement that feels both impossible and inevitable. Silver leans into the tension of a relationship that absolutely shouldn’t happen, but treats the taboo premise with surprising tenderness, focusing on healing, longing, and the messy ways love can rewrite the rules we think we’re meant to follow.
Readers call Wild Card an emotional, fast-paced, “perfect book to end the series,” with many 5-star reviews praising the depth of the characters and the warmth Silver brings to a trope that could easily veer into shock value. The fandom reaction has been intense—Cosmopolitan even noted how fans are “sad and devastated” to say goodbye to Rose Hill—and while opinions vary on which book is their favorite, most reviewers agree this finale is a memorable, satisfying close to a series that’s become a staple of contemporary romance.
Get Book: Wild Card by Elsie Silver!Sweet Heat by Bolu Babalola
Bolu Babalola’s Sweet Heat reunites readers with Kiki Banjo and Malakai Korede—years after their fiery, unforgettable breakup in Honey & Spice. Now in their late twenties, Kiki is a successful but stressed podcast host facing a major career crisis, while Malakai has grown into a rising filmmaker with a reputation that puts him firmly in her professional orbit. When they’re forced to collaborate on a new project, old wounds spark new chemistry, and both must confront the versions of themselves they’ve outgrown—and the feelings they never fully let go of. The novel blends banter, longing, and emotional vulnerability as Kiki and Malakai navigate ambition, regret, and the terrifying possibility of a second chance with the one person who once broke their heart.
Coverage frames Sweet Heat as one of the “hotly anticipated” romances of the year, and early reviews praise Babalola’s trademark wit, electric dialogue, and nuanced exploration of emotional maturity. Review aggregators highlight a strong critical consensus, noting how skillfully the book balances fun, flirty moments with deeper reflections on identity, growth, and the courage it takes to love again.
Get Book: Sweet Heat!The Gingerbread Bakery by Laurie Gilmore
Laurie Gilmore’s The Gingerbread Bakery returns to the adored Dream Harbor universe with a warm, cinnamon-scented, Christmas-time enemies-to-lovers romance. Annie, the town’s beloved baker, is determined to keep her bakery thriving through the holiday rush—while Mac, the grumpy pub owner across the street, seems just as determined to get under her skin. When they’re forced to team up to help pull off a wedding for two fan-favorite Dream Harbor characters, their good-natured bickering turns into banter, sparks, and eventually something far sweeter. With small-town charm, festive ambience, and found-family moments sprinkled throughout, it delivers on every cozy romance promise.
The Dream Harbor series is already a BookTok favorite, and PEOPLE’s exclusive cover reveal positioned this entry as a heart-squeezing, feel-good holiday read. Early buzz highlights its classic tropes—enemies to lovers, forced proximity, and a guaranteed HEA—while romance readers call it the perfect comfort pick for fans of The Pumpkin Spice Café. It’s one of the season’s most anticipated cozy romances, full of warmth, charm, and confectionery chemistry.
Get Book: The Gingerbread Bakery!The Primal of Blood and Bone by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Jennifer L. Armentrout’s The Primal of Blood and Bone marks the sixth major instalment in the sweeping Blood and Ash universe, continuing the high-stakes romantasy saga of gods, Primals, prophecies, and lovers bound by fate in a world teetering on the edge of annihilation. Plot details have been deliberately guarded to avoid spoilers, but the novel picks up the emotional, political, and mythological threads left hanging in earlier books—deepening alliances, escalating the war, and pushing its central characters into even more perilous territory. It’s a volume that promises big reveals, painful choices, and the kind of romantic and cosmic drama that defines Armentrout’s universe.
Even before release, The Primal of Blood and Bone was one of the most intensely theorized romantasy titles online, with Reddit and TikTok buzzing for months as fans dissected clues and speculated on every possible twist. Early reader reactions call it high-stakes, twisty, and emotionally bruising—“the hype was right with this one”—while acknowledging the dense plotting and considerable length as part of the Armentrout experience. For devoted Blood and Ash readers, it’s a major, can’t-miss chapter in the unfolding saga.
Get Book: The Primal of Blood and Bone!The Academy by Elin Hilderbrand & Shelby Cunningham
The Academy transports readers to Tiffin Academy, an elite New England boarding school where reputation is everything and secrets simmer beneath immaculate lawns and ivy-covered walls. Told through multiple student and staff perspectives, the novel follows a dramatic academic year filled with scandals, hookups, academic pressure, shifting friendships, and the heavy weight of family expectations. As the characters collide—and sometimes implode—the book unpacks what it truly means to belong, or be shut out, inside a hyper-privileged world where one mistake can haunt you forever.
Reviewers describe it as a “fresh, buzzy take on boarding school life,” marking a fun yet emotionally complex new direction for Hilderbrand. Early reactions praise how compulsively readable it is—packed with gossip, drama, and a touch of mystery—while still digging into deeper themes of ambition, class divides, and the relentless pressure to fulfill parents’ dreams. One popular review sums it up perfectly: “dramatic, a page-turner, emotionally rich, and a perfect fall back-to-school read.”
Get Book: The Academy!Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy’s Mother Mary Comes to Me is a deeply intimate memoir about her lifelong, complicated relationship with her mother, Mary Roy—a trailblazing, often polarizing woman who defied expectations at every turn. Mary fled a conservative Syrian Christian family, raised her children as a single mother, fought a historic inheritance case that reshaped women’s rights in India, and founded a groundbreaking school. Roy traces these seismic events alongside memories of a turbulent childhood, her coming-into-self as a writer, and her evolution into one of India’s most outspoken political voices. The book threads personal history with the broader social and political shifts of modern India, revealing how private pain, maternal love, and public dissent shaped both women’s lives.
Critics have called the memoir “brave and absorbing,” applauding Roy’s emotional candor and the way she connects one family’s story to larger questions of patriarchy, law, rebellion, and belonging. Many reviewers note that readers of The God of Small Things will immediately recognize echoes—this memoir illuminates the lived experiences and generational wounds that informed Roy’s fiction, giving the narrative a layered, powerful resonance that lingers long after the final page.
Get Book: Mother Mary Comes to Me!The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy
Angela Flournoy’s The Wilderness is a sweeping, emotionally precise portrait of four Black women—Desiree, January, Monique, and Nakia—whose lives intersect and diverge over nearly two decades, from the late 2000s through the late 2020s. Moving between Los Angeles and New York, the novel traces their journeys through careers, motherhood, ambition, heartbreak, reinvention, and the shifting terrain of long-term friendship. As the women age, their relationships bend under the pressure of money, class, marriage, and unmet expectations, revealing how even the closest bonds can strain, fracture, or evolve into something entirely new. Flournoy examines the wilderness within and between them—the uncertainty of adulthood, the unpredictability of desire, and the often-unspoken negotiations involved in staying connected to the people who shaped you.
Critics are calling The Wilderness “era-defining” and a future modern classic, praising Flournoy’s wit, emotional acuity, and her ability to capture the complexities of contemporary Black womanhood. The Washington Post and other outlets highlight the novel’s rare balance: it interrogates the myth of unwavering, forever-steady friendship, yet still honors the comfort, joy, and deep-rooted history such relationships provide. It’s a big, ambitious novel—intimate, honest, and beautifully observed.
Get Book: The Wilderness!Wild Reverence by Rebecca Ross
Rebecca Ross’s Wild Reverence is a sweeping, emotionally charged adult romantasy set six centuries before the events of Divine Rivals, though crafted to stand entirely on its own. In a world where the gods still walk among mortals, the story follows Matilda—the youngest goddess, gifted with the rare ability to travel between realms—and Vincent, a mortal man who appears to her in dreams long before they meet in the flesh. As divine politics fracture, war brews, and tensions rise between gods and humans, Matilda and Vincent are pulled into a forbidden, fate-twisting connection that threatens to reshape their world and the fragile balance of power. Their story interweaves cosmic stakes with tender, aching romance, building toward a conflict that reverberates through the Divine Rivals universe.
Readers are already calling Wild Reverence lyrical, heartbreaking, and a seamless blend of romantasy and epic fantasy—“Ross at her absolute best.” Many early reviews crown Ross the “reigning queen” of the genre, praising her immersive world-building, lush prose, and character-driven storytelling. Coverage also notes that Ross completely rewrote the book during drafting to deepen its emotional core, a choice that clearly resonates in the finished work. For fans of the original duology, the novel adds rich layers of meaning; for new readers, it stands as a powerful, mythic love story all its own.
Get Book: Wild Reverence!The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith
Robert Galbraith’s The Hallmarked Man, the eighth Cormoran Strike novel, begins with a grisly discovery: a dismembered body hidden in the vault of a London silver shop. Police believe the remains belong to a convicted armed robber, but Decima Mullins—convinced the corpse is actually her missing boyfriend and the father of her child—hires Strike and Robin to uncover the truth. Their investigation leads them into a dense and dangerous web involving Freemasonry, human trafficking, the antiques underworld, and the shadowy corners of British institutions. As the mystery deepens, Strike and Robin must navigate not only the case’s labyrinthine connections but also the evolving emotional terrain between them.
Reviews for The Hallmarked Man have been mixed, but several major outlets praise its intricate plotting and the rich, intimate focus on its central duo—The Financial Times even highlights it as one of the standout crime releases of the season for its blend of complex mystery and emotional depth. Some critics take issue with its considerable length and certain strands of social commentary, yet its immediate debut at #1 on bestseller lists in both the US and UK confirms that the Strike series’ hold on readers remains as strong as ever.
Get Book: The Hallmarked Man!October Books
October 2025 reading felt like stepping into a season of reckonings—with time, with family, with power, and with the stories we tell ourselves to survive. Catherine Newman’s Wreck stayed close to home, tracing illness, aging parents, and everyday chaos with an honesty that’s both heartbreaking and oddly comforting. Mitch Albom’s Twice went bigger and more metaphysical, asking what it would mean to live your entire life over again—and whether a second chance actually fixes anything or just sharpens the ache of regret. On the cozier, spookier end of the spectrum, B.K. Borison’s Good Spirits and Kirsten Miller’s The Women of Wild Hill offered different flavours of hauntings: one a ghostly, soft-focus holiday romance about self-worth and love, the other a fierce, witchy multigenerational saga where ancestral rage, environmental fury, and feminist magic collide on a cursed strip of land. And in the realm of big, bingeable speculative fiction, Ariel Sullivan’s Conform delivered the pure hit of page-turning dystopian romantasy—love triangle, rebellion, and all—while digging into surveillance, genetic “purity,” and what it costs to choose individuality in a world built on control. Together, October’s books moved between the intimate and the epic, but they all circled the same core questions: who gets to shape a life, who gets to rewrite it, and what happens when you finally refuse to play along.
Wreck by Catherine Newman
Catherine Newman’s Wreck returns to the tender, funny, emotionally honest terrain she explored in Sandwich, this time following Rocky as she navigates a life that is quietly—but profoundly—coming undone. Now living in Western Massachusetts with her husband, daughter, and widowed father (while her son builds a life in New York), Rocky becomes increasingly fixated on a local train crash that feels inexplicably personal. At the same time, she begins struggling with a mysterious illness that no one can quite name. As these threads tighten around her, the novel opens up into a moving exploration of grief, uncertainty, aging parents, adult children, and what it means when the “normal” you’ve built suddenly falters.
A major outlet selected Wreck as a standout pick for the 2025 fall reading season, calling it “honest, hilarious and heartbreaking,” and early reviews praise Newman’s signature ability to balance everyday family chaos with heavier themes of illness, loss, and fear—without ever losing her warmth or humor. Vogue notes how real the novel feels, offering readers comfort through its unvarnished realism. On Goodreads and in book-club circles, Wreck has struck a deep chord with readers who love fiction about life’s messiness, emotional complexity, and the fragile threads that hold families together.
Get Book: Wreck by Catherine Newman!Twice by Mitch Albom
Mitch Albom’s Twice—released on October 7, 2025—poses one of those irresistible, quietly devastating questions he’s famous for: What if you had to live your entire life… twice? Blending love story, magical realism, and a meditation on memory, the novel follows a man who gets a second run at every moment of his life. That “gift” quickly becomes both blessing and burden as he confronts the choices he made, the ones he failed to make, and the lives he altered along the way. What emerges is a story steeped in love, regret, forgiveness, and the elusive chance to get things right the second time around—if such a thing is even possible.
Early reviews describe Twice as “enchanting, probing, and clairvoyant,” with one critic noting that it will likely make readers “weep and overflow with love.” Fans are already calling it “classic Albom”—philosophical, emotionally ambitious, and comforting in the way only his books can be, full of big questions about fate, free will, and the meaning of second chances.
Get Book: Twice by Mitch Albom!Good Spirits by B.K. Borison
B.K. Borison’s Good Spirits is a cozy, ghostly holiday romance that leans fully into its paranormal premise: what if the Ghost of Christmas Past fell for his assignment? Nolan Callahan is a grumpy, centuries-old Ghost of Christmas Past who usually spends December haunting terrible people in Annapolis. This year, though, he’s assigned Harriet York—a people-pleasing, “too nice” antiques shop owner who can’t understand why she’s being haunted at all.
As Nolan guides Harriet through key moments in her past so she can “mend her ways,” the two begin to uncover a deeper, magical connection between them, and Nolan starts to wish for something he’s never truly had: a future. Reviewers describe Good Spirits as a warm, witty, and surprisingly emotional paranormal rom-com—“a luminous modern fairy tale” and a “ghostly holiday love story” that blends grumpy–sunshine banter, time-twisty magic, and open-door romance. Early buzz focuses less on blockbuster hype and more on vibe: it’s become a niche-but-beloved hit among readers who love supernatural romance, Christmas settings, and stories about self-worth, family expectations, and finding someone who truly sees you.
Get Book: Good Spirits!The Widow by John Grisham
Grisham’s 2025 legal thriller follows newly widowed Mary Pat Foley, whose husband—a respected attorney—dies under suspicious circumstances just as he becomes entangled in a massive wrongful-death lawsuit.
When Mary Pat begins sorting through his files, she uncovers cryptic notes, sealed documents, and evidence that her husband may not have been the man she thought he was. As powerful corporations, cutthroat lawyers, and shadowy operatives close in, Mary Pat must navigate a legal and moral minefield to protect herself and expose the truth—if she can survive long enough to do it.
Get Book: The Widow by John Grisham!The Women of Wild Hill by Kirsten Miller
Kirsten Miller’s The Women of Wild Hill is a sweeping, witchy, multigenerational saga that asks a fiery question quietly burning beneath its pages: What happens when a family of women—gifted, wounded, furious, and powerful—finally comes home to face the legacy they’ve spent generations outrunning? Set on a haunted strip of Long Island where the land itself remembers every injustice, the novel traces a bloodline born from the ghost of Bessy, a murdered colonial-era witch, and carried forward by Sadie Duncan, the unlikely founder of a matriarchal line charged with protecting the earth. Now, five generations later, three scattered descendants—Brigid, the Hollywood storm; Phoebe, the healer hiding in Texas; and Sibyl, the chef who doesn’t yet know she’s a witch—are summoned back to confront an ancient, furious force rising to punish what humanity has done to the world. What follows is part family saga, part feminist reckoning, part ghost story, and part battle cry wrapped in fire and folklore.
Early praise paints it as “enchanting,” “fierce,” and “unapologetically feminist,” with critics calling it a masterclass in atmosphere and emotion. Reviewers highlight its dark humor, immersive witch lore, and a cast of women who are messy, flawed, loving, angry—and wholly unforgettable. Many readers describe it as cathartic and empowering, the kind of story that feels both mythic and modern as it confronts patriarchy, grief, destruction, and the price of reclaiming power. While some note a slow burn at the start, the overwhelming consensus is that The Women of Wild Hill is a powerful, heart-thumping, gorgeously written saga destined to become a new favorite for fans of feminist witch fiction and autumnal, witchy reads.
Get Book: The Women of Wild Hill!Conform by Ariel Sullivan
Ariel Sullivan’s Conform is a sharp, addictive dystopian romantasy built for binge-reading—set in a skybound society rebuilt after a devastating war, where genetic “purity” is worshipped and difference can be deadly. Emeline, marked as a “Minor Defect” for her heterochromia, spends her days underground destroying remnants of the old world and waiting for the state to assign her a procreation contract. But when she is unexpectedly chosen as Mate by Collin, an Illum enforcer, she’s thrust into the brutal spectacle of the Courting—a glittering, lethal competition where one misstep can end your life. As Emeline rises through a world of surveillance, caste hierarchies, and weaponized beauty, she’s pulled into a rebellion led by Hal, a magnetic Major Defect who challenges everything she’s been taught to fear. What begins as a controlled union becomes a story about power, desire, identity—and the dangerous hope that you might choose your own future, even when the world is engineered to make you conform.
Readers have been devouring it: early reactions call it “intense, addictive, and utterly compelling,” praising Sullivan’s blend of intricate worldbuilding and swoon-heavy romantic tension. The love triangle—between an Illum enforcer and a rebel leader—has become a full-on reader sport, with many confessing they “picked a side… then immediately changed sides.” Sellers and editors alike describe it as a blockbuster debut, a national bestseller with “peak buddy-read potential,” and the must-read launch title of Jenna Bush Hager’s Thousand Voices imprint. With its high-stakes plot, emotional punch, and commentary on control and individuality, Conform is already shaping up to be one of the standout romantasy hits of the year.
Get Book: Conform by Ariel Sullivan!November Books
November’s bookshelf is a study in tension—emotional, psychological, and generational. These stories peel back the polished surfaces of small towns, privileged families, cozy communities, and even our own memories to reveal the messy truths underneath. From David Baldacci’s everyman-turned-fugitive in Nash Falls to E. Lockhart’s gothic beach-house secrets in We Fell Apart, the month’s fiction asks what happens when the past refuses to stay buried. Gilly Macmillan’s The Burning Library and Heather Webber’s The Forget-Me-Not Library explore the power of memory—how it’s preserved, distorted, weaponized, or healed—while Olivia Dade and Marisa Kashino bring sharp, dark humour to second chances and suburban obsession. And at the heart of it all are stories of inheritance: curses, family legacies, generational wounds, and the relentless pressure of who we’re told we should be. November’s reads are gripping, surprising, and emotionally charged—a perfect blend of comfort and chaos as the year winds down.
Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Oyinkan Braithwaite returns to Lagos with Cursed Daughters, a darkly funny, unsettling story about the Falodun women—Monife, her cousin Ebun, and Ebun’s daughter Eniiyi—who grow up under the shadow of a family curse born from adultery, vengeance, and a grief no one ever properly faced. Many believe Eniiyi is Monife reborn, a superstition that haunts her coming-of-age as the book weaves together suicide, reincarnation, family secrets, and the quiet, daily ways trauma moves from one generation into the next. Braithwaite balances sharp humour with emotional weight, creating a narrative that asks whether a woman can ever truly outrun a past the world keeps insisting she inherit.
Early reviews call Cursed Daughters “wickedly funny” and “engrossing,” praising Braithwaite’s signature blend of dark comedy and social commentary. The Financial Times and The Guardian both highlight the vivid Lagos setting and the novel’s powerful examination of generational wounds, fate, and autonomy, even when the symbolism grows deliberately heavy. A New Yorker “Briefly Noted” column likewise singles it out as a compelling exploration of superstition, agency, and the emotional aftershocks families carry—making it one of the standout literary releases of the year.
Get Book: Cursed Daughters!Nash Falls by David Baldacci
David Baldacci’s Nash Falls introduces Walter Nash, a quiet, numbers-driven senior executive whose orderly life detonates in an instant. When the FBI informs him that Sybaritic Investments—his respectable, stable employer—is actually a front for a sprawling criminal enterprise, Nash is coerced into spying on his own CEO. But the moment an international crime boss uncovers his betrayal, he becomes the perfect scapegoat. Framed for a brutal crime and forced into the shadows, Nash must transform himself from a rule-following corporate man into someone capable of surviving the hunt—and fighting back. What follows is a high-stakes thriller about identity, reinvention, and the cost of uncovering the truth.
Early buzz calls Nash Falls a “gripping thriller” packed with Baldacci’s trademark momentum: relentless twists, tightly choreographed action, and a deeply human core. Reviewers highlight Walter Nash as an unexpectedly relatable everyman hero, and book clubs note that the emotional stakes around family and selfhood lift the novel beyond its conspiracy-driven plot. Goodreads sits in the mid-4s, and publisher copy frames it as classic Baldacci—cat-and-mouse suspense with a surprisingly tender heartbeat beneath the chaos.
Get Book: Nash Falls by David Baldacci!We Fell Apart by E. Lockhart
E. Lockhart returns to the windswept, haunted world of We Were Liars with We Fell Apart, a companion novel that unfolds in the raw aftermath of the original fire. This time the focus shifts to Matilda Klein and a neighboring family whose own secrets are beginning to crack under pressure. Crumbling mansions, missing people, privileged isolation, and that unmistakable “something is terribly wrong beneath all this wealth” energy pulse through every chapter. Lockhart once again blends gothic unease with sunlit beaches, giving the story a dreamy, disorienting quality that mirrors Matilda’s unraveling world.
Early coverage calls it “compulsively readable,” praising its sharp, eerie atmosphere—complete with cliffs, brutalist architecture, and emotional shadows that linger. Critics highlight that while the mystery and secrets propel the plot, the true heart of the novel is its emotional core: guilt, grief, complicity, and the price of loyalty in families built on fragility. Reviewers also note Lockhart’s signature twisty structure and atmospheric writing, framing We Fell Apart as a worthy, moody expansion of the Liars universe.
Get Book: We Fell Apart!The Forget-Me-Not Library by Heather Webber
Heather Webber returns with another tender, lightly enchanted story—this time about two women whose lives converge in a small Alabama town where memories literally live inside books. After Juliet Nightingale survives a freak lightning strike, she’s left with an ache she can’t name and an impulse she can’t ignore: take a solo road trip and follow the feeling of something missing. That winding path leads her straight to the Forget-Me-Not Library, where Tallulah Byrd Mayfield—newly single, raising two young daughters, and living with her stubborn, lovable grandfather—is trying to rebuild her life. Within the library’s magical stacks, the women’s stories begin to braid together as each searches for healing, clarity, and a renewed sense of purpose.
Early readers call the novel cozy, heartwarming, and “worth savoring,” praising Webber’s knack for blending real-world struggles with just a shimmer of magic. Library Journal highlights its comforting atmosphere and emotional resonance, while reviewers compare it to the works of Fannie Flagg and Karen Hawkins—books where community, compassion, and second chances take center stage. For readers who crave gentle magic, small-town charm, and stories that feel like a warm hug, The Forget-Me-Not Library is a standout.
Get Book: The Forget-Me-Not Library!The Burning Library by Gilly Macmillan
Gilly Macmillan’s The Burning Library delivers a rich, feminist twist on dark academia, following Dr. Anya Brown—a brilliant paleographer with a near-perfect memory—whose dream job at a prestigious Scottish research institute quickly becomes something far more dangerous. Recruited to study rare manuscripts, Anya discovers she’s actually been pulled into a covert war between two secretive societies of women, each determined to claim her talents for decoding the real-world Voynich manuscript and uncovering a mythical volume known as The Book of Wonder. What begins as academic ambition spirals into a globe-trotting conspiracy, weaving through the Scottish isles, Oxford, Cambridge, St Andrews, and Verona as Anya navigates mysteries, betrayals, and the dark undercurrents of institutional power.
Readers are calling it a “smart, fast-paced academic thriller,” praising Macmillan’s morally complex heroine and the book’s incisive look at ambition and female alliances within patriarchal systems. Reviews highlight the immersive settings, tightly layered manuscript puzzles, and a conspiracy that pays off with an “utterly rewarding” finale once the pieces snap together. For fans of brainy thrillers, academic intrigue, and stories where brilliant women take center stage, The Burning Library is a standout.
Get Book: The Burning Library!Second Chance Romance by Olivia Dade
Olivia Dade’s Second Chance Romance, the latest installment in her Harlot’s Bay series, kicks off with one of the most wonderfully chaotic premises of the year: Molly, a divorced audiobook narrator, rushes back to coastal Maryland after stumbling across an obituary for Karl—the baker who once broke her teenage heart—only to find him very much alive and very much annoyed. What follows is a gloriously stubborn, slow-burn reunion between two people who have spent years avoiding the truth: they never really got over each other. With Dade’s signature blend of humor, sexual tension, and heartfelt emotional excavation, the book leans into body positivity, complicated adult feelings, and the messy tenderness of returning home to the person you once hoped to become—and the person who once made you hope.
Reviewers are calling it classic Dade: funny, deeply emotional, and “delightfully unhinged” in the best way. Romance blogs praise the nuanced handling of vulnerability and miscommunication, noting that Molly and Karl may be some of Dade’s most stubborn—and most endearing—characters to date. Goodreads readers sit in the high-3s, highlighting the crackling banter, satisfying heat, and the kind of second-chance chemistry that makes a small-town love story feel both familiar and electrifying.
Get Book: Second Chance Romance!Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino
Marisa Kashino’s debut, Best Offer Wins, turns the suburban dream into a sharp, darkly comic nightmare. Margo Miyake, a D.C.-area publicist suffocating in a too-small apartment and ticking biological clock, becomes fixated on securing the perfect house—a symbol of stability, adulthood, and the life she’s convinced she should already have. When she hears about a soon-to-be-listed dream home, something in her snaps. What begins as mild curiosity spirals into full-blown obsession as Margo insinuates herself into the homeowners’ lives, bending rules, morals, and social norms with a terrifyingly cheerful determination. The result is a compulsively readable satire of the housing crisis, ambition, envy, and the quiet madness that can bloom behind a white picket fence.
Critics are describing it as “dark, biting, and laugh-out-loud funny,” and it’s already earned a Good Morning America book-club pick and a spot on TIME’s must-read list. Early readers praise its propulsive pacing, morally grey heroine, and twist that makes you rethink everything you’ve just read. Goodreads reviewers highlight how the tone shifts from breezy humor to full-on “I can’t believe she just did that,” capturing the absurd, cutthroat reality of modern house-hunting with unnerving accuracy.
Get Book: Best Offer Wins!December Books
December closed out 2025 with a dazzling mix of comfort reads, big-idea fiction, and stories that reminded readers why books matter in the first place. Biography lovers got a thoughtful, deeply human portrait of Dolly Parton in Ain’t Nobody’s Fool, while nonfiction fans found quiet solace in Hwang Bo-Reum’s Every Day I Read—a warm, contemplative ode to how books shape a life. Romance dominated the season too, from Lana Ferguson’s chaotic, sexy The Mating Game to Amy Lea’s charming, gender-flipped The Bodyguard Affair, and Zakiya N. Jamal’s New Year’s–sparkling second-chance rom-com Sparks Fly. Historical-fiction readers were treated to the visionary, luminous Canticle, while fantasy fans closed the year with Brandon Sanderson’s ambitious reality-bending epic Tailored Realities.
Across genres, December’s releases shared a surprising throughline: reinvention. Whether it was reclaiming power, rediscovering joy, starting over, or rewriting the story of your life (sometimes literally), these books offered both escape and reflection—the perfect reading mood for year’s end, when the world feels suspended between what has been and what might still be rewritten.
Ain’t Nobody’s Fool: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton by Martha Ackmann
Martha Ackmann’s Ain’t Nobody’s Fool digs beneath the rhinestones to reveal the razor-sharp mind, strategic genius, and emotional depth that shaped Dolly Parton’s rise from poverty in the Smoky Mountains to one of the most universally beloved figures in American culture. Known for The Mercury 13, Ackmann brings the same meticulous research and narrative sensitivity to Dolly’s story, tracing not only her musical evolution but also her philanthropic empire, her complicated dance with politics, and the quiet feminism embedded in her career-long insistence on agency, autonomy, and joy. Rather than chasing gossip, the biography draws out the sincerity and intentionality behind the persona — showing how Dolly turned authenticity and glamour into a kind of power few entertainers ever achieve.
Readers are already calling it “insightful, respectful, and full of heart,” praising Ackmann for capturing the legend without losing the woman. Early reviewers describe it as intimate without being intrusive, celebratory without being simplistic, and essential reading for anyone who has ever wondered how Dolly Parton became Dolly Parton. On Goodreads, fans call it a “must-read” — the rare biography that truly earns its subject.
Get Book: Ain’t Nobody’s Fool: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton!The Mating Game by Lana Ferguson
Lana Ferguson returns with The Mating Game, a spicy, wildly entertaining contemporary romance that pairs a no-nonsense wildlife biologist with a charismatic, camera-ready travel host. When the two are thrown together to film a documentary about animal mating habits, their on-location fieldwork quickly devolves into chaos: botched shoots, inconvenient attractions, and a chemistry that’s far harder to manage than any wildlife behavior chart. What begins as forced collaboration turns into a hilarious, heat-filled journey where science meets desire — and where both leads are forced to confront what they want, both in front of and far away from the camera.
Readers are eating this one up. Goodreads reviewers call it “ridiculously fun,” “high heat,” and “the exact chaotic, sexy escapism I needed.” Fans of The Nanny say Ferguson levels up here — delivering not just banter and spice, but a deeper emotional payoff that sneaks up on you. Romance blogs describe it as “workplace rom-com meets National Geographic… but make it horny,” praising the irresistible dynamic and pitch-perfect comedic timing.
Get Book: The Mating Game!Canticle by Janet Rich Edwards
Janet Rich Edwards’s Canticle is a sweeping, meditative historical novel that reimagines the extraordinary life of Hildegard of Bingen — the 12th-century mystic, composer, and visionary who defied the strict confines of her cloistered world. Through Hildegard’s eyes, the novel explores divine revelation, the intoxicating pull of forbidden knowledge, and the tension between spiritual calling and the limits imposed on medieval women. Edwards brings to life not only Hildegard’s soaring intellect and mystical experiences, but also the grit, sacrifice, and resilience required to carve out a voice in a world determined to silence her.
Early readers call Canticle “luminous,” “lyrical,” and “transportive,” drawing comparisons to Matrix for its feminist reimagining of a woman on the margins of recorded history. Reviewers praise Edwards’s meticulous research and the way she captures the ecstatic, dangerous power of a mind reaching toward the divine while navigating the earthly politics of a male-dominated church. For historical-fiction fans craving depth, beauty, and a heroine ahead of her time, this one stands out.
Get Book: Canticle!The Bodyguard Affair by Amy Lea
Amy Lea returns with The Bodyguard Affair, a fizzy, feel-good romantic comedy that flips the classic trope on its head: this time, the bodyguard is the woman. When a no-nonsense, hyper-competent security agent is assigned to protect a charismatic male celebrity in the middle of a PR disaster, their strictly professional arrangement quickly becomes a slow-burn tangle of forced proximity, late-night vulnerability, and sparks they absolutely shouldn’t be feeling. Lea mixes humor, tension, and emotional honesty as her heroine navigates both the job and the unexpectedly sweet man she’s supposed to keep at arm’s length.
Early readers call it “sweet, warm, and spark-filled,” praising the gender-flipped dynamic and Lea’s signature blend of banter and heart. Goodreads reviewers highlight its cozy millennial-rom-com energy, while several romance critics nod to The Bodyguard by Katherine Center—only this time with extra spice and an irresistibly modern twist. It’s a comfort-read with chemistry to spare.
Get Book: The Bodyguard Affair!Every Day I Read by Hwang Bo-Reum (translated by Shanna Tan)
A gentle, reflective memoir-nonfiction hybrid, Every Day I Read is a love letter to the quiet, sustaining magic of books. Hwang Bo-Reum traces how reading shaped her adulthood—guiding her moods, friendships, creativity, and sense of purpose. Rather than sweeping revelations, the book celebrates the small, nourishing moments that make up a life, treating literature as both companion and compass. It’s soft, introspective, and full of the kind of observations that feel like someone turning on a warm lamp in a dim room.
Korean readers embraced it as “the book equivalent of tea and a warm blanket,” and early English-language readers echo the sentiment, calling it soothing, thoughtful, and deeply relatable. Fans of The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down or books about the reading life will find this to be a tender, comforting gem—perfect for anyone who reads not just for plot, but for peace.
Get Book: Every Day I Read!Tailored Realities by Brandon Sanderson
Sanderson closes out the year with Tailored Realities, a speculative, fashion-driven epic where identity isn’t just expressed through clothing—it’s conjured by it. In this world, garments are powerful magical constructs that shape personality, destiny, and even reality itself. At the center is a gifted tailor whose rare ability to stitch identities makes them a target of a multi-realm conspiracy. What unfolds is a sprawling, inventive novel that blends world-shifting stakes with intimate questions about selfhood, perception, and who we become when the world hands us a pattern to follow.
Though full reviews are still forthcoming, early reader chatter calls it “classic Sanderson creativity,” praising the intricate magic system, the clever metaphors around fashion and identity, and the author’s signature late-act twists. SFF blogs are already labelling it one of his most genre-bending works to date, and pre-release excitement on Goodreads suggests it’s poised to be December’s big fantasy event—another must-read tentpole for Sanderson’s devoted fanbase.
Get Book: Tailored Realities!Sparks Fly by Zakiya N. Jamal
Zakiya N. Jamal rings in the holiday season with Sparks Fly, a bright, big-hearted rom-com about two ex–best friends who haven’t spoken in years—and are suddenly forced to co-plan the city’s most high-stakes New Year’s Eve event. What starts as a professional obligation quickly becomes a messy, tender unraveling of everything they never said: the hurt feelings, the miscommunication, the chemistry neither of them managed to outgrow. As they navigate late-night planning sessions, near-disasters, and a glitter-soaked countdown, the story becomes a warm, funny, emotionally honest second chance at both love and friendship.
Early readers call it “funny, heartfelt, and full of swoon,” praising the sparkling banter and the surprisingly mature emotional arc between the leads. Fans of Jamal’s debut say this one levels up—sharper dialogue, deeper feelings, and the perfect holiday-season vibe. Expect banter, warmth, healing, and confetti in all the right places.
Get Book: Sparks Fly!CONCLUSION
A Year That Changed How We Read—and What We Read For
Looking back across the months, one thing becomes clear: 2025 wasn’t just a strong publishing year; it was a culturally defining one. It gave us novels that sat heavy on the heart, romances that healed, thrillers that unsettled, speculative worlds that stretched imagination, and nonfiction that reshaped our understanding of history, health, grief, and activism.
More than anything, the books of 2025 captured the feeling of living through a world in transition. They reminded us that stories are how we make sense of upheaval, how we hold onto joy, how we imagine better futures—and sometimes, how we survive.
As we step into a new reading year, these books remain the ones readers will keep pressing into friends’ hands, revisiting in quieter seasons, and returning to for comfort, curiosity, or courage. They’re the stories that didn’t just define 2025—they’ll echo for years to come.
