Best Books of 2025
Welcome to my personal list of the best books of 2025. I’ve collected the best romance novels, general fiction, and nonfiction that I read this past year. But first, here are some of my reading stats for the year.
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My Reading Stats for 2025
I went into 2025 with 2 main goals for my reading.
- I hoped to read more than I did in 2024, which was 59 books.
- I wanted to avoid romance novels that were part of a series with cliffhangers.
The year ended with me reading 19 more books than in 2024.
I managed to avoid reading books with cliffhangers until the fall when I didn’t do enough research and accidentally started a 3-book series. I ended up DNFing the final book, which proves to me once again that I rarely like a cliffhanger series in romance. They almost always drag on longer than I like.
2025 Reading Stats:
- 72 total books read
- 50 romance novels, 69% of total reading
- 11 general fiction
- 11 nonfiction, 15% of my reading – all of them read on audio, which is the only way I read nonfiction
- 53% of my reading was through audiobooks, which is the first time audio was my highest percentage
- 43% was digital/kindle
- 4% was print
- 4 DNFs
Best Books of 2025: Romance Novels
Romance is my most favorite genre, and I am excited to share my favorites of the year with you, but first we need to address the spice scale.
Rebekah’s Spice Scale
- Closed Door – no foreplay
- Closed Door – spicy foreplay
- Open Door – low spice
- Open Door – high spice
- Open Door – extremely high spice
Click here for a refresher on closed door vs open door. Also, it should be noted that when I say “spice/spicy” here, what I really mean is explicit details of intimate moments. Low vs high spice is the difference in how many pages and details are being used for intimate moments.
Right Man Right Time by Meghan Quinn
Tropes: Fake Dating, Age Gap, Hockey
Spice Level: 4
Available on Kindle Unlimited
In Right Man Right Time, Ollie and Silas meet in a bar when Ollie rushes up to Silas and asks him to pretend to be her boyfriend to make her ex jealous. Silas plays along perfectly, but as Ollie is about to walk away, Silas says to her, “You owe me.” which ends up starting their fake dating relationship.
Silas is a professional hockey player and 10 years older than Ollie, who is a spunky college student. Silas has his own issues with an ex, which is why he wants Ollie to pretend to be his girlfriend. His ex cheated on him, which has left him really insecure.
Ollie is a great match for him though. Where he doubts, she is confident. It wasn’t even until I read this book that I fully realized how much the women tend to be the ones questioning if the fake relationship could be more, but here it is Silas that is uncertain. And reading Ollie’s confidence was incredibly refreshing.
Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez
Tropes: Insta-Love, Long Distance, Grief, Mental Health, No Third Act Breakup
Spice Level: 3
Available on Kindle Unlimited
In Say You’ll Remember Me, Samantha and Xavier have an epic first date that neither one wants to end. They end up spending hours and hours together, but Samantha is moving across the country. They don’t really want to do long distance, but the connection between them feels too special to let go. Which is how they end up stuck in a long distance relationship that really isn’t working for either of them.
I could relate to this book a lot, which is probably why it landed on my top 5. My husband and I spent the majority of our dating years doing international long distance – and that was before FaceTime and texting. We didn’t even have cell phones. It was hard being apart, but breaking up would have made us even more apart. All of that heartbreak and tension was captured perfectly in this book.
I do want to add a gentle trigger warning for aging and ailing parents. This book might not provide the escapism that you are hoping for if that is a stress in your life currently. Specifically, Samantha’s moms is dealing with dementia, and it’s a major plot point in the book.
Sin & Ink by Naima Simone
Tropes: Forbidden Romance, Widow, Grief, Workplace, He Falls First
Spice Level: 5
Available on Kindle Unlimited – audio included.
Sin & Ink is heavy, tension filled forbidden romance. Eden lost her husband, Conner, to a brain aneurysm that happened during an MMA fight. The book starts 2 years after Conner’s death. Connor’s brother, Knox, gave Eden a job at his tattoo shop to help her get back on her feet after Connor’s death. She has been working there for the past 2 years, and Knox has been tortured by her presence in his shop.
Knox has been fighting his feelings for Eden since before she married his brother. Now she is constantly in his space. Her polite little touches, like a pat on the arm or brushing past him, are pure torture. He is infatuated with her.
And we soon learn that Eden is starting to feel the same. But giving in to these desires is crazy. The stakes in this book are so high! Knox and Eden exploring this relationship together has the potential to disrupt everything in their lives. They work together. They share family. Eden doesn’t have good family of her own and so Connor‘s family really filled a need and a void for her. Taking this risk to be together truly jeopardizes everything which makes every moment between them that much more intense.
Irreversible by Jennifer Hartman & Chelley St Clair
Tropes: Trauma Bond, Kidnapping, Slow Burn, Grumpy/Sunshine
Spice Level: 4
Available on Kindle Unlimited
In Irreversible, Isaac is an undercover detective who is researching a series of missing person cases. Things go wrong for Isaac when the people he is investigating kidnap him. He finds himself chained alone in a room. On the other side of the wall, also being held captive, is Everly.
Originally, Everly and her husband were attacked in their home. Her husband was shot and killed. She taken and although she has seen many people come and go on the other side of her wall, she has been kept alive in captivity for 2 years.
When the authors announced this book, they described it as Love is Blind, but with kidnapping. Honestly, that is what sold me on the book. Irreversible has a lot of high stakes drama. It is gritty and heavy. Plus, there was a reveal in the book that truly left me stunned.
Lights Out by Navessa Allen
Tropes: Dubious Consent, Mask Play, Stalking, Insta-Lust, No Third Act Breakup
Spice Level: 5
In Lights Out, Allie has an infatuation with a TikToker who makes masked thirst traps. At the start of the book, she sends one of the videos to the guy she’s in a “situationship” with and asks if they can act out the video, but that relationship falls apart. However, her ex-situationship showed his roommate, Josh, the video. Surprise, surprise. Josh is the masked TikToker.
This sends Josh on a journey of trying to see if he can figure out how Allie is interested in him, and he essentially starts the process of stalking her. He starts by breaking into her house while she’s at work and filming a TikTok in her bedroom. While this has the potential to be really dark and twisted, it feels much more like a game that they are both consenting to.
Lights Out is a lighthearted look masked tiktokers and dubious consent. Ali and Josh fall for each other hard and fast, and they compliment each other’s weirdness in really beautiful ways. I love the way that the book is written with sharing each of their inner monologues. You can hear how much they are questioning their own sanity as they dive into this relationship with each other. I highly recommend the audio version.
Want to see more books I loved? Here is a list of 30+ books I read in 2025 and rated 4 or 5 stars.
Best Books of 2025: General Fiction
I read 11 general fiction novels this year, books that I would not consider romance novels. Out of the 11 I read, here are my top 2 favorites. I’ll also give an honorable mention to The One by John Marrs, which also got 5 stars from me.
Cover Story by Susan Rigetti
In Cover Story, Lora Ricci is an aspiring writer who just landed an internship at Elle magazine. That is where she meets Cat Wolfe, who ends up taking Lora under her wing. But can Cat really be trusted?
This is one of the very few books which I started re-reading immediately after finishing it. I would avoid reading too much about the book, simply let the story unfold as you go, and perhaps you’ll want to read it twice as well. Enjoy the journey. It is a wild one.
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Atmosphere is about the first women to join the NASA space program in the early 1980s. That isn’t the type of book that I would normally reach for, but I have previously loved other books written by Taylor Jenkins Reid so I took a chance on it.
I could not put the audiobook down. At one point I was crying so hard while listening, two of kids came to check on me. That doesn’t sound like a great endorsement for the book, but trust me that it is.
Want to see more books I loved? Here is a list of 30+ books I read in 2025 and rated 4 or 5 stars.
Best Books of 2025: Nonfiction
I read 11 nonfiction books in 2025. I especially enjoy nonfiction that features social commentary and sharing people’s stories. Here are the three I enjoyed the most in 2025 – each of them I rated 5 stars. I listened to all 3 of them on audio, and they were narrated by the authors – which made them even better.
I’ve Got Questions by Erin Hicks Moon
Some of the Christians out there are embarrassing me. I’ve cringed thinking about being associated with them. I’ve asked myself, “What is the church doing?!” But if I pull at that thread, will it unravel the whole thing? Will asking questions destroy the entire framework of my faith?
Is this what deconstruction looks like? Isn’t that a bad word in the church? Does it mean I have one foot out the door? I’ve Got Questions was the warm hug I didn’t even know I needed.
Erin doesn’t give answers to all the questions, but gives permission for the questions. She acknowledges how uncomfortable it is to change our minds on something, while still offering hope that there will be love and beauty waiting on the other side.
She reminded me of the solid truth of Jesus and his love. It was genuinely so comforting to be reminded that if we just lock in on Jesus and love, we’ll be alright. I needed this book more than I realized. Maybe you need it too.
Awake by Jen Hatmaker
In the memoir Awake, Jen Hatmaker tells the story of discovering her husband’s affair and getting a divorce after 26 years. However, the book truly is a love letter to Jen’s family and friends that surrounded while her life fell apart.
You have to listen to Awake on audio. Not only does Jen narrate the book, but she also includes the voices of her friends and family throughout. If someone sent a meaningful text or wrote a note, their voice is the one that narrates that text. I have never experienced that in an audiobook before. It was incredibly touching.
The entire book was a reminder of how important it is to be in community with others and the weight of the impact that you can have on someone’s life.
Paris by Paris Hilton
You might think you know Paris Hilton, but you don’t. This memoir was shocking. While Paris was being portrayed in the media as wild party girl, she was overcoming devastating circumstances.
I want to keep my description of the book vague because it is best to go into the book blind. I highly recommend listening to the audio version so you can hear Paris’s story in her own voice.
Want to see more books I loved? Here is a list of 30+ books I read in 2025 and rated 4 or 5 stars.
More Reading Inspiration:
- Join Currently Reading’s patreon to listen to Love & Chili Peppers every month. Love & Chili Peppers is a podcast dedicated to romance novels that I co-host along with Kaytee Cobb. It is an exclusive monthly podcast for the patreon supporters of Currently Reading.
- Listen to the first episode of Love & Chili Peppers here for free!
- 15 Things I Learned from Reading 100 Books in a Year
- What Is Kindle Unlimited? – The Ultimate Guide & What To Read
- Best Books of 2024
What were your best books of 2025? I would love to hear what made your list and if you loved any of the books that made my list.
Disclosure: This post contains commissionable Amazon affiliate links. At no extra cost to you, I may receive a commission based on your purchase. Top image is by beasternchen via Pixabay.