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15 Most Recommended Books Of 2025
Looking for the highly recommended books of 2025? Check out this list of 15 books of 2025 . The list includes some of the incredible books I read in 2025. I really think you should add all these novels to your 2026 TBR. I’m excited to share this list, which includes some of my most anticipated books of 2025. The list features gripping historical fiction, and steamy romance novels. Most of them are also great suggestions for book clubs. I also hope you’ll discover some under-the-radar authors.
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Alchemised by SenLinYu
Alchemised follows Helena Marino, a once-promising alchemist who wakes as a prisoner with no memory of the months before her capture. The war is over, her friends are gone, and Paladia is now ruled by corrupt guilds and necromancers. Everyone thinks Helena was a minor healer, but her missing memories suggest she was far more important. Sent to the ruthless High Reeve to unlock the truth in her mind, Helena faces a dangerous world of alchemy, undead magic, and buried secrets. This is one of the most loved dark fantasy books of 2025.
In this riveting dark fantasy debut, a woman with missing memories fights to survive a war-torn world of necromancy and alchemy—and the man tasked with unearthing the deepest secrets of her past.
“What is it you think you’re protecting in that brain of yours? The war is over. Holdfast is dead. The Eternal Flame extinguished. There’s no one left for you to save.”
Once a promising alchemist, Helena Marino is now a prisoner—of war and of her own mind. Her Resistance friends and allies have been brutally murdered, her abilities suppressed, and the world she knew destroyed.
In the aftermath of a long war, Paladia’s new ruling class of corrupt guild families and depraved necromancers, whose vile undead creatures helped bring about their victory, holds Helena captive.
According to Resistance records, she was a healer of little importance within their ranks. But Helena has inexplicable memory loss of the months leading up to her capture, making her enemies wonder: Is she truly as insignificant as she appears, or are her lost memories hiding some vital piece of the Resistance’s final gambit?
To uncover the memories buried deep within her mind, Helena is sent to the High Reeve, one of the most powerful and ruthless necromancers in this new world. Trapped on his crumbling estate, Helena’s fight—to protect her lost history and to preserve the last remaining shreds of her former self—is just beginning. For her prison and captor have secrets of their own . . . secrets Helena must unearth, whatever the cost.
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Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson
Not Quite Dead Yet is a twist-filled thriller, Jet Mason learns she’ll be dead within a week after a violent Halloween attack leaves her with a fatal injury. With the clock ticking, she questions everyone around her—family, friends, even her ex—realizing she may have had enemies after all. As her condition worsens, Jet teams up with her childhood friend Billy. Together, they race to uncover who wanted her dead. If you are looking for best thriler with great twists, this is for you. Also check out : 5 Must-Read Nominees from the Goodreads Choice Awards
A twisty thriller about a young woman trying to solve her own murder.
In seven days Jet Mason will be dead.
Jet is the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Woodstock, Vermont. Twenty-seven years old, she’s still waiting for her life to begin. I’ll do it later, she always says. She has time.
Until Halloween night, when Jet is violently attacked by an unseen intruder.
She suffers a catastrophic head injury. The doctor is certain that within a week, the injury will trigger a deadly aneurysm.
Jet has never thought of herself as having enemies. But now she looks at everyone in a new light: her family, her former best friend turned sister-in-law, her ex-boyfriend.
She has at most seven days, and as her condition deteriorates she has only her childhood friend Billy for help. But nevertheless, she’s absolutely determined to finally finish something:
Jet is going to solve her own murder.
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We Are All Guilty Here by Karin Slaughter
We Are All Guilty Here is the first book in Karin Slaughter’s North Falls series drops readers into a small town shaken by the disappearance of two teenage girls. Officer Emmy Clifton takes the case personally—she ignored a cry for help she now regrets. As Emmy follows the clues, she discovers the girls kept dangerous secrets and that North Falls is far darker than it looks. Everyone is hiding something. And someone is willing to kill to protect the truth. This is also one of the engaging thriller audiobooks of 2025
The first thrilling mystery in the new North Falls series from Karin Slaughter, New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Girls and the Will Trent series.
Welcome to North Falls—a small town where everyone knows everyone. Or so they think.
Until the night of the fireworks. When two teenage girls vanish, and the town ignites.
For Officer Emmy Clifton, it’s personal. She turned away when her best friend’s daughter needed help—and now she must bring her home.
But as Emmy combs through the puzzle the girls left behind, she realizes she never really knew them. Nobody did.
Every teenage girl has secrets. But who would kill for them? And what else is the town hiding?
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Story of My Life by Lucy Score
When Hazel loses her apartment and faces losing her writing career, she escapes New York and impulsively buys a house in rural Pennsylvania. The town is falling apart, but it’s full of surprising charm and a grumpy, handsome contractor named Cam who becomes her unexpected inspiration. As Hazel tries to rebuild her life and rediscover her voice, she finds herself pulled into the community (and Cam’s orbit). Story of My Life is funny, warm, and full of small-town magic. Also check out best small-town romance books to read.
Hazel is given a one-two punch when she’s forced to move out of her Upper East Side apartment and is given a final warning from her publisher.
If she doesn’t turn in a book by her next deadline, they’re cutting her loose.
Hazel rashly decides to leave what’s left of her city life behind and impulse buys a house in rural Pennsylvania sight unseen. How better to entertain the loyal readers she still has and rediscover her writing mojo than immersing herself in small-town life?
Too bad this town looks to be on its last legs. At least she’s finding swoon-worthy inspiration from her hot, grumpy contractor Cam and his animal-rescuing, community-involved family. It’s all just research. What could go wrong?
A note from the author: This series is my love letter to every reader who said they wanted to move to a fictional town
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Finding Grace by Loretta Rothschild
Honor’s life looks perfect—loving husband, adored daughter, stable home—but her longing for another child begins to consume her. Then one shocking moment changes everything. Years later, a choice Tom makes sends ripples through both their lives, connecting two women in ways they never expected. As past secrets rise and old love collides with new, the truth threatens to break everything open. Finding Grace is about motherhood, loss, and the fragile line between forgiveness and betrayal.
Honor seems to have everything. She adores her daughter Chloe and her husband Tom (even if he does work one hundred hours a week). But her longing for another baby threatens to eclipse all of it―until a shocking event changes their lives forever.
Years later Tom makes a decision that ripples through their families’ lives in ways he could not have foreseen. As the consequences of that fateful choice unfold, two women’s paths become irrevocably intertwined. But when old love clashes with new, who will be left standing? And what happens when your secrets come back to haunt you?
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Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
Onyx Storm picks up with Violet Sorrengail entering her second year at Basgiath War College, only to realize nothing she learned can prepare her for what’s coming. With war closing in and trust growing harder to give, she steps beyond the wards to search for allies far from home. The journey forces her to confront her limits—and a dangerous truth she’s been avoiding. If she wants to protect her dragons, her home, and the man she loves, Violet must face the storm she’s been running from. Also check out cozy fantasy books to read now.
After nearly eighteen months at Basgiath War College, Violet Sorrengail knows there’s no more time for lessons. No more time for uncertainty. Because the battle has truly begun, and with enemies closing in from outside their walls and within their ranks, it’s impossible to know who to trust.
Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves—her dragons, her family, her home, and him.
Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything. They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find—the truth. But a storm is coming…and not everyone can survive its wrath.
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Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
Sunrise on the Reaping takes you back to Panem for the Fiftieth Hunger Games, a Quarter Quell designed to intimidate an entire nation. Haymitch Abernathy hopes for an ordinary life with the girl he cares for, but when his name is drawn, everything he knows collapses. Inside the Capitol, he learns the arena is designed not just to kill—but to break him. Still, Haymitch refuses to be another pawn, and his fight becomes bigger than survival alone. Also read best romantasy books people are loving it.
When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?
As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.
Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.
When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.
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Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
Great Big Beautiful Life centers on writers Alice Scott and Hayden Anderson, who are assigned to uncover the truth behind the elusive Margaret Ives. Alice hopes the story will finally launch her career, while Hayden wants control over the narrative. But once they arrive on Margaret’s island, each one receives different fragments of her past. To finish the story and protect their NDAs—they’ll have to piece things together without destroying their fragile connection. Also check out best romance audiobooks for your tbr.
Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping new novel from Emily Henry.
Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: To write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years–or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the 20th Century.
When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game.
One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she has a whole month to win the legendary woman over.
Two: She’s ready for this job and the chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a Serious Publication
Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this book, is glowering at her in a shaken-to-the core way that suggests he sees her as competition.
But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces they can’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room.
And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad…depending on who’s telling it.
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Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Atmosphere follows Joan Goodwin, a quiet physics professor who has always dreamed of leaving Earth. When NASA admits women into their program in 1980, she earns a coveted spot. Training pushes her further than she expects, but she finds purpose, friendship, and unexpected love. During a mission in 1984, one event shifts the course of her entire future. Joan’s journey explores ambition, sacrifice, and what it means to chase something that could cost everything. Also read 33 gripping Historical Fiction books that will transport you through time.
Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.
Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easygoing even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.
As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.
Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, it all changes in an instant.
Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, creating complex protagonists, and telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love—this time among the stars.
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The Crash by Freida McFadden
The Crash begins with Tegan fleeing her past as she nears the end of her pregnancy. A violent storm forces her off the road in rural Maine, where a couple brings her into their isolated cabin. At first, it feels like safety—until small warnings start to pile up. As Tegan’s unease grows, she realizes the people protecting her may be the ones she should fear the most. She must find a way out before it’s too late . Also read : 41 discussion-worthy questions for The Crash by Freida McFadden.
The nightmare she’s running from is nothing compared to where she’s headed.
Tegan is eight months pregnant, alone, and desperately wants to put her crumbling life in the rearview mirror. So she hits the road, planning to stay with her brother until she can figure out her next move. But she doesn’t realize she’s heading straight into a blizzard.
She never arrives at her destination.
Stranded in rural Maine with a dead car and broken ankle, Tegan worries she’s made a terrible mistake. Then a miracle she is rescued by a couple who offers her a room in their warm cabin until the snow clears.
But something isn’t right. Tegan believed she was waiting out the storm, but as time ticks by, she comes to realize she is in grave danger. This safe haven isn’t what she thought it was, and staying here may have been her most deadly mistake yet.
And now she must do whatever it takes to save herself—and her unborn child.
A gut-wrenching story of motherhood, survival, and twisted expectations, #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden delivers a snowbound thriller that will chill you to the bone.
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The Tenant by Freida McFadden
The Tenant follows Blake Porter as he tries to hold his life together after losing his job and facing the loss of his home. Renting out a room to Whitney seems like a simple fix, but her presence soon stirs up unsettling changes around the neighborhood. Odd smells, strange noises, and uneasy neighbors make Blake question what’s happening inside his own house. As his past catches up with him, the danger becomes impossible to ignore. Also read: Freida McFadden books in Order: A Must-Read Guide.
There’s no place like home…
Blake Porter is riding high, until he’s not. Fired abruptly from his job as a VP of marketing and unable to make the mortgage payments on the new brownstone that he shares with his fiancee, he’s desperate to make ends meet.
Enter Whitney. Beautiful, charming, down-to-earth, and looking for a room to rent. She’s exactly what Blake’s looking for. Or is she?
Because something isn’t quite right. The neighbors start treating Blake differently. The smell of decay permeates his home, no matter how hard he scrubs. Strange noises jar him awake in the middle of the night. And soon Blake fears someone knows his darkest secrets…
Danger lives right at home, and by the time Blake realizes it, it’ll be far too late. The trap is already set.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden knocks at your door with a gripping story of revenge, privilege, and secrets turned sour.
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Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez
Say You’ll Remember Me begins with Samantha and Xavier sharing a perfect first date, one that ends long before either of them wants it to. Samantha’s family troubles convince her there’s no room for romance, while Xavier refuses to let their connection fade. When they cross paths again, the feelings that once sparked between them return stronger than before, forcing them to decide if one unforgettable night is enough to change their future.
There might be no such a thing as a perfect guy, but Xavier Rush comes disastrously close. A gorgeous veterinarian giving Greek god vibes—all while cuddling a tiny kitten? Immediately yes. That is until Xavier opens his mouth and proves that even sculpted gods can say the absolute wrong thing. Like, really wrong. Of course, there’s nothing Samantha loves more than proving an asshole wrong…
. . . unless, of course, he can admit he made a mistake. But after one incredible and seemingly endless date—possibly the best in living history—Samantha is forced to admit the truth, that her family is in crisis and any kind of relationship would be impossible. Samantha begs Xavier to forget her. To remember their night together as a perfect moment, as crushing as that may be.
Only no amount of distance or time is nearly enough to forget that something between them. And the only thing better than one single perfect memory is to make a life—and even a love—worth remembering.
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Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
Broken Country tells the story of Beth, whose life unravels after her brother-in-law shoots a dog belonging to Gabriel Wolfe—the man she once loved. Gabriel’s return pulls old wounds to the surface, especially the grief over Beth’s lost son. As tension rises in their rural town, past choices collide with the present. Beth must decide whether to cling to the life she created or confront the version of herself she left behind. This is one of the most loved picks from Reese Witherspoon book club too.
Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.
As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.
A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.
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Deep End by Ali Hazelwood
Deep End follows Scarlett, a focused Stanford diver trying to recover from a career-threatening injury while preparing for med school. Lukas, a rising swim star, lives under his own pressures. Their worlds collide when a shared secret pulls them together. What starts as a temporary connection becomes harder to ignore as the Olympics draw closer. Scarlett soon learns that keeping distance can be just as intense as giving in. You will love this post : 28 hot, steamy, erotic romance novels to read.
A competitive diver and an ace swimmer jump into forbidden waters in this steamy college romance from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis.
Scarlett Vandermeer is swimming upstream. A Junior at Stanford and a student-athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. She has no time for relationships—at least, that’s what she tells herself.
Swim captain, world champion, all-around aquatics golden boy, Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. It’s how he wins gold medals and breaks records: complete focus, with every stroke. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes.
So they start an arrangement. And as the pressure leading to the Olympics heats up, so does their relationship. It was supposed to be just a temporary, mutually satisfying fling. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water.
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My Friends by Fredrik Backman
My Friends follows Louisa, an artist captivated by a painting of three tiny figures standing on a distant pier. Her search to uncover who they were leads her into the past, where a group of teens built a summer friendship that shaped their futures. As Louisa uncovers the truth behind the artwork, she begins to understand how memory, connection, and loss influence the life she wants to create. You will love this post : 12 insanely good books that will leave you with the best book hangover.
Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise, and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.
Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. These lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream, a reason to love.
Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be placed into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. She embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn how the painting came to be and to decide what to do with it. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more nervous she becomes about what she’ll find. Louisa is proof that happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this stunning testament to the transformative, timeless power of friendship and art.
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Stephy George
