My Top 10 Reads of 2025!

I cannot believe we are already five days into 2026! Last year went by so quickly, it feels like it just disappeare. I read some really great books in 2025 and it was hard to narrow down my favorites. To help me pick just ten (with a couple bonus!), I give myself some categories to pick from each year (like a favorite book that made me cry or a favorite new release).

Here are my top 10 favorite reads of 2025:

Favorite New Release

Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping released in April, right after I had Leah, and I had such a fun time reading it. While I loved a lot of new releases in 2025, Vera Wong is my favorite! I loved the first book in 2024 and this sequel was such a delight. I don't know how much I'd like Vera Wong in real life, but I could read about her all day long. I also love the other characters around her and the relationships they all form with Vera and each other, as well as the mystery. I'm hoping this author writes another Vera Wong book (I've read the Auntie books by Jesse Q Sutanto and enjoyed them, but I like Vera more).

A Favorite Book that Surprised Me

The Key to my Heart by Lia Louis

The Key to my Heart is a contemporary romance dealing with grief--Natalie's husband died two years ago and she's having a hard time moving on. It was on my 2025 TBR list, so you would think I was expecting to enjoy it, but I kept putting it off and was reluctant to try it for some reason. As soon as I started it, though, I was hooked. I loved the romance in this and especially the love triangle. The friendships and relationships were very well done as was the foreshadowing. There was music involved, as she was a pianist, and a little mystery around the music, which was really fun and I didn't see the resolution of that coming. It felt a bit like a Sophie Kinsella book, but a little more serious. Overall, I was surprised by how much I ended up loving it.

Favorite Nonfiction

Why Does He Do That? by Lundy Bancroft

I love to read nonfiction and this year, I set a goal to read at least one nonfiction book a month (I hit that goal plus some). I read some really good ones and it was hard to pick just one (the runner up was Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss). I learned so much from Why Does He Do That? and was able to understand situations both in my past and that I'm close to currently in a new way. I think it's a must read, especially for girls as they start to date seriously (my husband and I want all our daughters to read it when they are older). The book is very well-informed, but also very accessibly written and well organized, making it easy to read and also easy to go back to as a reference.

Favorite Spontaneous Read

The Secret Bridesmaid by Katie Birchall

The Secret Bridesmaid could have also been put under a book that surprised me--it's another contemporary romance following Sophie, whose job is a "professional bridesmaid". People hire her to be their bridesmaid, to both plan the wedding and pretend to be their friend for the wedding, as their bridesmaid. She gets hired by the parents of a rich and spoiled girl to be a bridesmaid, but the girl doesn't want her and does everything she can to make Sophie's life miserable. I loved the hate-to-friendship relationship there and of course, the romance that made the whole situation even more tricky. I also appreciated how clean the book was.

Favorite Christie Book

Death Comes as the End by Agatha Christie

I read at least one Agatha Christie book a month, so she's a big part of my reading every year. I love to pick a favorite by her and this year, it was Death Comes as the End. This one also surprised me (I guess I had a lot of those this year!) with how much I liked it, because it is a bit different than Christie's typical murder mysteries--it is a historical mystery set in Ancient Egypt. Because of that, the names and setting are quite different from most of her books, but the richness of the characters and the murder mystery that keeps you guessing until the end were the same. I ended umep loving the mystery and the themes of this book and was so sad when I finished it.

Favorite Series Book

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion is a very hyped series and for good reason. I was seeing it all over and tried the first in the summer. It was an okay read, cute but a little slow. I'd heard from others though that the series took a couple of books for them to get into it. Book two, I already liked much more than book one and by book three, I was fully invested and loving it. I'm so happy that there are going to be so many books in the series, even if it will be hard to wait for them all to be released. The book series shines with its characters (there are characters you simply love and characters you simply love to hate) and their relationships with each other. It also has the most charming little town as a backdrop that I wish I could live in!

Favorite Recommended Book

Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon

Mother-Daughter Murder Night was my favorite read in October. Lana Rubicon gets cancer and moves in with her daughter and teenage granddaughter as she goes through treatment, when they get wrapped up in a murder. It was a fun whodunnit mystery, but my favorite part was the relationship between the three--the grandmother, mother, and daughter. There was a different dynamic between them all and we got to see each of their perspective throughout the book. They all played a role in solving the mystery and their relationship with each other grew in a really satisying way.

Book that Made me Cry

What Does it Feel Like? Sophie Kinsella

What Does it Feel Like made me bawl. Sophie Kinsella is the author of Confessions of a Shopaholic (among other books) and this is her final, semi-autobiographical book that she wrote. A successful novelist, the main character Eve wakes up in the hospital after having had a brain tumor removed, but with no memory of it. The book is short, but so emotionally charged. I have the hardest time with mothers who have cancer and this book was no exception. But I also loved it. I devoured it in one sitting. At the time that I read it, Sophie Kinsella was still around, but a few months later, she passed away. I'm really sad for her and her family. I am so glad she wrote this book, and her others, before she died.

Favorite Read Aloud Book

One Wrong Step by Jennifer A. Nielsen

One Wrong Step is a middle grade historical fiction about climbing Mount Everest in the 1920's. Jennifer A. Nielsen is one of my favorite authors for middle grade historical fiction and this was one of my favorites by her. We actually listened to this one in the car together on a long trip (it was a 7 hour drive, round trip) and everyone in the family was very invested in the story, including my husband--at one point, he had to run inside a store and had us pause the book while he did so he wouldn't miss anything. The reader was fantastic, the story and characters were amazing, and we all learned a lot. My favorite part of it was the next day when Ben and I were doing the NYT Mini together (back before they put it behind a paywall) and there was a prompt about Mount Everest--because of listening to the book, we knew the answer! It made me happier than it probably should have.

Favorite Book by a Favorite Author

Exiles by Jane Harper

Jane Harper was an unexpected favorite author for me. She writes character-driven thrillers set in Australia and I have loved every single one of her books. Exiles is the third in a series, but you could read it without reading the others (I read the other two so long ago, I was having a hard time remembering what happened in them, and it didn't affect the book much at all). The book follows Aaron Falk as he visits some old friends on the weekend of the one-year anniversary of a woman's disappearance. Jane Harper does a good job of mixing current tension with mysteries from the past, and layering all of that with relationship dynamics that draw you into the characters' lives.

Bonus:

Favorite Reread with the Kids:

Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery

I had to add in two bonuses this year, because I reread Anne of Green Gables as I read it aloud with my girls and it was so fun! I loved sharing Anne's world with them and especially seeing how much my girls all loved the book and the movie. Every night as we were reading, they begged me to keep going when it was time to stop. Then as we watched the movie together, they fell in love with Gilbert, noticed the differences from the book, and anticipated all the best parts (knowing what was coming because of reading the book). It was such a fun experience together.

Favorite Reread:

These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder

My main rereads during 2025 were the Little House books and it was so fun to revisit them! My favorite of the series was These Happy Golden Years. I actually remembered very little of the book, as I hadn't read it since I was maybe 8 or 9. I don't remember what I thought when I was a child other than I loved all things Little House, but as an adult, I absolutely loved seeing the romance between Laura and Almanzo bloom. It was heartwarming and sweet--now this year I want to reread all the Little House books with my girls and introduce them to the TV show!

Those are my picks for my favorite books I read in 2025! I had such a great reading year and am looking forward to 2026. What were your favorite reads in 2025? I'd love to hear from you in the comments below!