Best Books of 2025: My Top 5 Reads

If you’re looking for the best books of 2025, here are my top five favorites! From dark academia to fantasy to commercial fiction, this past year was a true adventure.

My reading goal for 2025 was 48 books, and I surpassed that, though I don’t actually know how many I read because at some point, I stopped tracking them on Goodreads. I'll share more about that later.

Here are my top five reads of 2025. Technically, there are seven books on this list, but I don't think you can read one without the other, so I am lumping them together. These books were not necessarily published in 2025—I just read them during the year.

Ninth House and Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

Set on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, Ninth House follows Alex Stern, a 20-year-old college student who is attending Yale on scholarship. Because of her unique ability to see ghosts, she is recruited by Lethe, one of Yale's secret societies that is dedicated to policing the other societies that dabble in dark magic. When her mentor, Daniel Arlington (Darlington), goes missing and a local woman is murdered, Alex must recruit the help of a ghost to find out what happened to them and save Darlington before he is lost forever.

My favorite thing about these books was the atmosphere. These dark academia novels have a foreboding tone, and the fact that they are set on a prestigious, historic college campus with real buildings and landmarks makes it all the more fascinating to me. The secret societies at the center of these books exist in real life, though their purpose is less nefarious. I love that Bardugo took her alma mater and created an immersive, gritty, realistic story world.

• This book is for readers who enjoy low fantasy, magic, academic settings, and dark history. 

• Learn more and buy the books on Leigh Bardugo’s website. 

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

Addie LaRue is a 17th-century French woman who makes a deal with the devil to get out of an arranged marriage. She is granted her freedom, but she's forgotten. As soon as she leaves another person's presence, they forget her entirely, and she lives 300 years without a single soul knowing who she is, until 2014 in New York City, when she meets a young bookseller who, for some reason, remembers her.

This book takes a timeless motif and turns it into a heartbreaking, gripping, sexy, and thought-provoking story with characters who are driven by desperation and their deepest desires. 

• This novel is for readers who enjoy historical fiction, character-driven stories, and endings that are open for interpretation. 

• Learn more and buy the book on V.E. Schwab’s website. 
  

Divine Rivals and Ruthless Vows by Rebecca Ross

Iris and Roman are rival journalists at the same publication. When bypassed for a promotion, Iris joins another paper as a war correspondent and is assigned to cover a war raging between the gods. Armed with her trusty typewriter, Iris goes to the frontlines, and her only companion is often a mysterious pen pal—until Roman shows up, too.

Divine Rivals incorporates some Greek mythology-type lore into a war story, and I really loved this juxtaposition because it created an interesting and unique atmosphere for this book and provided a creative backdrop for the rivalry between two young writers. It has a little splash of romance, a lot of tension, a lot of action, and it is wrapped up into a neat duology. Plus, there are magic typewriters. 

• This novel is for readers who enjoy fantasy, the enemies-to-lovers trope, historical fiction, and mythology. 

• Learn more and buy the books on Rebecca Ross’s website. 

The Wedding People by Alison Espach

Phoebe is at a personal low—she's depressed after her divorce, her cat just died, and she feels like she has nothing left to live for. So she books herself a hotel room at a beautiful resort with the intention of ending her miserable life. But when she runs into a bride who has rented out the hotel for her wedding, Phoebe realizes that she can no longer go through with her plans of self-expiration. She ends up befriending this bride, integrating herself into this group of wedding people, and becoming part of this weeklong event at the resort. It is an emotional and powerful story about finding yourself after a loss and reclaiming your life when it feels like there's nothing left to live for. 

The Wedding People is one of those books that was an unlikely hit for me. I read this with my book club, and the consensus among all of us is that this was our favorite read of the year. I thought this would be a fluffy, kind of funny, Emily Henry-type story, but what I found was a more literary commercial fiction blend. It's funny, it is kind of a black-humor type situation, but it is an excellent, excellent read.

• This book is for readers who enjoy character-driven, emotionally complex stories and black comedy. 

• Learn more and buy the book on Alison Espach’s website. 

Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center

Thirty-something Helen wants to find herself after divorcing her husband, so she signs up for a wilderness survival trip in Wyoming. The only issue? Her annoying kid brother’s best friend is signed up for the same course. While Helen thinks challenging herself in the wilderness with help her find happiness, she learns about the power of gratitude, friendship, and family, and realizes happiness wasn’t so far away after all.

Happiness for Beginners was another one of my favorites this year, and I really didn't expect to like it as much as I did. I thought it would be kind of a beach read, but it turned out to be very thought-provoking. 

• This book is for people who enjoy light, meaningful reads, self-discovery stories, and complicated family dynamics. 

• You can learn more and buy the book on Katherine Center’s website. 

Why I Stopped Tracking My Reading on Goodreads

Earlier, I mentioned I stopped tracking books I’ve read on Goodreads.

When tracking everything I read, reading started to feel like a chore, and I don’t want one of my favorite hobbies to become burdensome. Therefore, I’m going to refrain from setting a reading goal for myself this year, and I’m not going to track the number of books I’ve read in Goodreads.

I want to read for the sake of reading—for the enjoyment, wonder, and respite I glean from fiction. So I am not going to set any kind of reading goals for myself this year. 

Do you have a reading goal for 2026, or are you going to take it easy and see where the year takes you? What were your favorite books you read in 2025?