Top Books of 2025

This year was hard for me to find books I truly was obsessed with and wanted to take the time to sit down and binge or couldn’t stop thinking about but these three are the ones that truly stood out to me with a couple series I wanted to share.

The Favorites by Layne Fargo

Wuthering heights retelling with modern olympic twist. Filled with drama and betrayal
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Starting out with The Favorites by Layne Fargo. This book follows Katarina and Heath told through two different writing styles. First through a documentary style and second through Katarinas POV. This book is a retelling of Wuthering heights with a modern twist involving olympic figure skating. This book had drama, with a compelling writing style they got me hooked from the beginning. This style is good for anyone who loved Daisy Jones and The Six but wanted more of a behind the scenes POV. This was my first 5 star book of the year by a new author. This has been the top book I recommended this year. As someone who loves the drama this was it it had everything and more. I felt like I had whiplash after finishing this one.

Sunrise on the Reaping

This book is a prequel to the Hunger games series. This follows mentor Haymitch games which is the 2nd quarter quell and 50th hunger games. In Catching Fire readers get a glimpse but reading this gives more into the world of the hunger games and helps with build and give more depth to characters we already know and love. One of my hyperfixations is hunger games and has so much nostalgia I really appreciated everything we got from this book. I am so excited to see the adaptation this November.

Problematic Summer Romance

This is a romance book that follows - on a trip to Italy for her brothers wedding and is written in a then and now perspective. I love Ali Hazelwood romances and usually I pick them up immediately this was the only book I picked up in the summer and I spent my beach vacation reading this book I took it everywhere with me and also destroyed it which shows how into it I really was. I can say this filled my cup and had me remembering why I love Ali Hazelwood’s writing. If you’re looking for a light summer romance with an age gap this was *chefs kiss*

Classic of the year

Frankenstein by Mary Shelly

Classic gothic novel tackling themes of creation and responsibility

Frankenstien

This book is a classic for a reason obviously. I really liked the style this was written in. It starts off with letters from the captain to his sister and his trip in the arctic. He come upon Frankenstein and listens to his story of how he got there and was following the creature then switches into the creatures tale and then ultimately ends with the captains letters to his sister again. I thought this was a great way to tell the story and really made me reflect on a lot. Not only is the content of the novel great and tackles themes of control and creation as well as how society others and isolates the unknown. I really enjoyed this novel. My husband had read this novel and always told me I would love it but never listened and now I understand why.

Top Series

Chestnut Springs

This series was one of the only series I read this year. I wanted to finish series I was in the middle of and this was one. A friend of mine also was on me about finishing this series. This series follows the Eaton boys and their different love stories starting off with youngest brother Rhett. Who is a bull rider. We get small town ranch and rugged cowboys. This is a fun light hearted series that was a great binge. It has romance and some spice that keeps you up and reading all night.

The Empyrean

This series I obviously had to read because it had a new release in January. This series follows Violet when she enters the war collage of Basgiath and forced into the dragon riders quadrant when she spent her whole life training to be a scribe. WE get to see this main character tackle everything that comes her way and overcome so much while also slowly falling for her enemy. This is the first series I read for the year. I had read onyx storm and I just wanted to dive back into the story so I started back at the beginning in February and took the whole month reading the series and annotating it with my thoughts. There were something that were referenced in the newest book that I missed and found in my reread which made it even more enjoyable the second time around.

Quick snapshot at my year recap of reading. There was more I read this year but these were some of the highlights. Comment any books you read throughout the last year and your superlatives for 2025.

November TBR