The 15+ Favorite Books of 2025 from the Everyday Reading Community

#1 – The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
This was the top book by a landslide! I am not normally drawn to epistolary novels (books written in letters) and honestly, this one didn’t change that for me. But I know people LOVE LOVE this book, so don’t let my review sway you from picking it up. Sybil Van Antwerp, writes letters every day – to friends, authors, even people who’ve hurt her – as a way to make sense of life. But when someone from her past reaches out, she’s forced to face painful memories and finally send the one letter she’s kept to herself for years. This was fine but somehow I didn’t love it the way other people seem to.

#2 – Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
I’m a HUGE fan of Taylor Jenkins Reid, but I haven’t read this new one of hers yet (I actually have it sitting on my bookshelf)! It takes place in the 1980s during the time of the space shuttle launches – it sounds intriguing and I can see why so many of you also loved it!

#3 – My Friends by Fredrik Backman
Another new release that I haven’t read yet, this one was super buzzy and all over tons of best seller, award, and book club lists! After losing her best friend and aging out of foster care, 18-year-old Louisa is out on her own – until a random encounter with a famous artist leaves her in charge of his most famous painting. She and one of his old friends hit the road to the seaside town where it all started, uncovering the friendship and summer that inspired it all.

#5 – Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
I received SO many messages from people throughout the year, all with mixed reviews good and bad. But I am happy to hear that it was a hit for most of you! This is a story of a dad and his three kids who live on a tiny island protecting seeds off the coast of Australia. The water is rising, which means they have to leave soon. But when a mysterious, half-dead woman washes ashore, lots of secrets between the father and the new woman come into play.

#6 – Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
Analese on the Everyday Reading team read this one and raved about how she could not put it down! It’s a mix of mystery, romance and a lot of impossible decisions. From the beginning you know the farmer is dead. But who killed him? The story then jumps back to before, showcasing Beth and Frank’s lovely and long marriage that hasn’t been without challenges, including the loss of their son. They face another bump in the road, when Beth’s teenage love, Gabriel and his son Leo, move back into the small town. This one is full of unexpected twists.

#7 – Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
This is one that also made it onto my personal favorite 2025 books list. I couldn’t get into The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes at all (I actually returned it on Audible which I almost never do), so I had low expectations for this one. Then this one sucked me right in (the audio was terrific!) and reminded me of the feelings I had reading The Hunger Games for the first time.

#11 – The Will of the Many by James Islington
A fugitive teen enrolls in an elite academy run by a brutal empire, all while secretly trying to uncover the truth about their family’s execution. This sci-fi fantasy is fast-paced, full of big secrets and twists, which totally explains why so many of you loved it in 2025. Putting this on hold at the library immediately.

#12 – Red Rising by Pierce Brown
Darrow is a simple miner on Mars, working as hard as possible to prepare Mars for the rest of civilization. Despite his efforts, he soon realizes he has been betrayed by society. Mars is already thriving with cities, lush greenery and much more – making him realize that he and his people (the Reds) are nothing more than slaves for the rest of mankind. Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the ruling classes school in his design to destroy the society from within.

#13 – The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel
This story jumps back and forth between Eva Traube Abram’s life during WWII and now, as an 80 year old woman. Eva, a Jewish woman in Paris during the war, was forced to flee her home to the Free Zone where she began to forge documents for Jewish children. In fear of these children losing their real identities, her and her forging partner, Remy, come up with a code to preserve the children’s names. Jump forward 60 years and Eva sees the Books of Lost Names in a newspaper indicating the book is now in a library in Berlin and the coding system hasn’t been able to be cracked by the researchers. Eva is the only one to have the answers, but she will have to face her past she has buried for all of these years.

#14 – The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau by Kristin Harmel
I’m giving you a heads up right now that this will be on next year’s Summer Reading Guide. This historical fiction book is set in the present and WWII and I loved seeing all the pieces come together. I was GRIPPED.

#15 – The Things We Leave Unfinished by Rebecca Yarros
Rebecca Yarros is best known for her fantasy series The Fourth Wing, but this one is pure, heartfelt romance. After a messy divorce, Georgia returns to her great-grandmother’s estate and butts heads with Noah Harrison, the bestselling author tasked with finishing her grandmother’s final novel, and as they uncover the unfinished love story, sparks fly – though Georgia isn’t sure she’s ready to open her heart again.

#16 – The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
The premise of this one sounds really intriguing! Clementine is an overworked book publicist whose life is perfectly planned—until she inherits her late aunt’s magical apartment and discovers a strange, handsome man in her kitchen. Iwan, a tattooed chef with big dreams, turns out to be subletting…from seven years in the past, and their unexpected romance throws Clementine’s carefully ordered life completely off course.