15+ Favorite Books of 2025 from the Everyday Reading Community

#1 – Correspondence by Virginia Evans
This is a top book by a landslide! I’m not usually interested in epistolary novels (books written with letters) and honestly, this novel didn’t change that for me. But I know people LOVE this book, so don’t let my review deter you from picking it up. Sybil Van Antwerp, wrote letters every day – to friends, writers, even people who had hurt her – as a way to make sense of life. But when someone from his past contacts him, he is forced to face painful memories and ends up sending the one letter he kept to himself for years. This is fine, but somehow I don’t like it as much as others 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 yet (in fact I’ve had it on my bookshelf)! It was back in the 1980s during the launch of the space shuttle – sounds interesting and I can see why many of you loved it too!

#3 – My Friend by Fredrik Backman
Another new release I haven’t read yet, this one is super exciting and full of bestseller lists, awards and book clubs! After losing her best friend and aging out of an orphanage, 18-year-old Louisa is left alone – until a random encounter with a famous artist puts her in charge of his most famous painting. He and one of his old friends head to the seaside town where it all began, uncovering the friendship and summer that inspired it all.

#5 – Wild Dark Shores by Charlotte McConaghy
I receive so many messages from people throughout the year, all with mixed reviews good and bad. But I’m glad to hear that it was a success for most of you! This is the story of a father and his three children who live on a small seed-protecting island off the coast of Australia. The water was rising, meaning they had to leave immediately. But when a mysterious, half-dead woman washes up on the beach, many 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 praised how she got it No put it down! It’s a mix of mystery, romance, and lots of impossible decisions. From the start you know the farmer is dead. But who killed him? The story then jumps back in time, showing Beth and Frank’s long, beautiful marriage that was not without its challenges, including the loss of their son. They hit another bump in the road, when Beth’s teenage love, Gabriel and her son Leo, move back to the small town. This one is full of unexpected twists and turns.

#7 – The Sun Rises at the Harvest by Suzanne Collins
This is one that is also on my personal list of favorite books of 2025. I can’t get into it Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes at all (I actually put it back on Audible which I almost never do), so I had low expectations for this one. Then this one caught my attention (the audio is amazing!) and reminded me of the feeling I was reading about Hunger Games for the first time.

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

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

#13 – The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel
The story switches between Eva Traube Abram’s life during World War II and now, as an 80-year-old woman. Eva, a Jewish woman in Paris during the war, is forced to leave her home for the Free Zone where she begins forging documents for Jewish children. Fearing that these children would lose their true identities, he and his partner, Remy, created a code to preserve the children’s names. Jump forward 60 years and Eva sees the Book of Lost Names in the newspaper which indicates that the book is now in a library in Berlin and the coding system has not yet been deciphered by researchers. Eva is the only one who has the answers, but she must face the past she has buried for years.

#14 – The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau by Kristin Harmel
I’m telling you now that this will be in next year’s Summer Reading Guide. This historical fiction book is set in the present day and World War II and I loved seeing all the pieces come together. I was grabbed.

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

#16 – Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
The premise of this one sounds very interesting! Clementine is an overworked book publicist whose life is perfectly planned—until she inherits her late aunt’s magical apartment and finds a strange, handsome man in her kitchen. Iwan, a tattooed chef with big dreams, turns out to be renting…from seven years ago, and their unexpected love story throws Clementine’s well-ordered life completely off track.