I read 72 books in 2025. My goal started at 52, then I began listening to more audiobooks, and the goalpost kept getting moved up. It’s hard finding time to read a physical book or even a Kindle, but popping my AirPods in and listening to an audiobook any time I’m doing household chores or driving has really helped me whittle down my TBR list.
I’m a huge fan of LibroFM, which carries almost all the audiobooks you can get via Audible but supports the independent bookstore of your choice. I’ve had a subscription for years, but they just launched a new annual plan, which gets you 13 books for $13 apiece. It’s worth the subscription to support your bookseller and favorite authors, take my word for it!
And without further ado, here were the best books of 2025, according to me.
Best books of 2025
I read a lot of five-star books in 2025, but of all of them, here are the ones I can’t stop thinking about.
My Friends by Fredrick Backman
A funny meditation on grief and belonging, My Friends follows a pair of unlikely companions, one an unhoused teen and the other a 30-something grieving his best friend’s death, in a novel that is very Backman-coded in its character quirks and remarkable tenderness. Personally, I loved that the entire book centered on an artist and his quest to find others who shared that connection. If you’ve already read this one, go back through his body of work and be sure you’ve also consumed Anxious People and A Man Called Ove (recommended in audiobook format).
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
A historical fiction read on the first women in the space program that explores how the gravity of our choices pulls us toward who we are meant to become. This is one book that lives rent-free in my mind. If you loved For All Mankind, devoured The Six or simply are drawn to the story of Sally Ride and the other astronaut trailblazers, Atmosphere is for you. It’s more in the vein of Evelyn Hugo than anything else TJR has written.
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
While it’s hard to choose favorites among a list of five-star reads, The Correspondent absolutely deserved all the accolades as the best book of 2025. An epistolary novel that shows how words exchanged at a distance can reveal the deepest truths about loneliness, connection and love, Sybil’s eight decades unfold through a series of letters to (and from) the various people who have come into her life over the years. This book is an absolute blessing and best consumed by listening to the audiobook with its full cast of characters.
What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Evans
An unsettling coming-of-age novel, What Kind of Paradise follows the upbringing of a child raised off the grid in the Montana wilderness to a conspiracy theorist father (or is he…?) who raises her to think the government is always after them. As she hits her teenage years, she starts to wonder what exactly her dad has been keeping from her. This novel ponders the cost of idealism and the thin line between freedom, control and truth, and I could not tear through it quickly enough.
The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett
The book starts with a cat, and that’s how I immediately knew I was going to love it. What follows is a pair of interlocking storylines: two emotionally adrift siblings set out on an unplanned road trip after their parents’ deaths, carrying with them unresolved grief, family secrets and a deep sense of displacement, as their lives intersect with a father and his estranged adult daughter. This book carried so much of what I love about Fredrik Backman’s novels—humor, spirit, the unexpected—and I can’t wait to read more by this author.
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
It’s hard to nail down the exact elevator pitch for this genre-bending debut, but I will say that it effortlessly blends time travel, romance and political intrigue. Part 1984, part Harry Potter in its magical realism and a whole lot dystopian, The Ministry of Time defies comparisons to other novels, though if you’ve seen the show Terror, you already know one of this book’s main characters, Commander Graham Gore.
The Briar Club by Kate Quinn
Kate Quinn never fails, but I’m usually falling in love with her WWII-era heroines, while this time she focused post-war on the national sentiment that accompanied the McCarthy-era paranoia. This historical mystery centers on a handful of women who occupy a boarding house in Washington, D.C. in the late-1950s and unravels layers of secrets, friendship and betrayal.
Wild, Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
A haunting novel whose central theme is climate change, Wild, Dark Shore takes place on a remote and mysterious island in Australia—based loosely on Macquarie Island, a UNESCO World Heritage site—where love, isolation and environmental peril collide. A woman in search of her missing husband washes ashore on the island, rapidly sinking as the sea levels rise, and the family in charge of minding the sea vault gives her refuge—though they have plenty of secrets of their own. I listened to Wild, Dark Shore on audiobook and loved the cast of narrators.
Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
This thriller centers on a woman who returns to her rural hometown, where an unresolved tragedy and a past love resurface, forcing her to confront the choices that shaped her life. Set in a close-knit farming community in 1950s/60s England, Broken Country weaves together themes of class divide, marriage, motherhood and regret—and how a single moment can quietly fracture generations.
Heart the Lover by Lily King
This was my first Lily King, and it just about murdered my soul. A relatively quick read about desire and selfhood, Heart the Lover chronicles a complex love triangle over the course of three decades, starting when the trio of friends met during college. This one is very short on audiobook (under six hours) if you’re looking for a quick read (erm, listen).
Honorable mentions
Because I know not everyone loves fiction like I do, I do listen to a fair number of memoirs, and one I really loved was From Here to the Great Unknown, which traces Elvis’ legacy through his daughter Lisa Marie and what it was like growing up in his shadow. The audiobook is narrated by Julia Roberts (as Lisa) and actress Riley Keough (Lisa’s daughter) as herself.
And although I didn’t include any contemporary romances (i.e. pink books) in my top reads of 2025, I tackled plenty, and one of the best was One Golden Summer. This emotionally charged romance captures the ache of first love, second chances and the magic of summer. If you have not read any other Fortune books, I’d recommend starting with Every Summer After as they’re connected.
All the books I read in 2025 with star ratings
Here’s everything I read in 2025, as well as how I rated it:
- All the Colors of the Dark
- The Ministry of Time
- Counterfeit
- The Darling Girls
- Where the Forest Meets the Stars
- Bright Young Women
- The Life Impossible
- Lakeside Supper Club
- Expiration Dates
- How to End a Love Story
- The Favorites
- Love Song for Ricki Wilde
- Beg, Borrow, Steal
- Say you’ll remember me .5
- Great, Big Beautiful Life .5
- Cover Story .5
- The Soulmate .5
- Beautiful Ugly .5
- Yours Truly .5
- Part of Your World
- Just for the Summer .5
- Summer Romance
- Briar Club
- Something Wilder
- Honeymoon Crashers
- Broken Country
- Atmosphere
- These Summer Storms
- Worst Case Scenario
- My Favorite Bad Decision
- Wild, Dark Shore
- How Freaking Romantic
- Everyone Is Lying
- Love Haters
- Famous Last Words
- The Academy
- Louisiana Lucky .5
- Horse
- 107 Days .5
- Twice in a Blue Moon .5
- Well, Actually
- The Housemaid
- The Teacher .5
- Best Offer Wins
- Witch’s Guide Innkeeping .5
- Lovelight Farms
- Mansion Beach
- Grace and Henry
- Good Spirits DNF
- Forever, Interrupted
- Sipsworth
- Small Things like These
- Golden Summer
- Highland Hearts
- It’s Different This Time
- Wreck
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