(Another successful NaNoWriMo in the books (pun intended). Let’s return to our regularly-scheduled programming!)
Let’s kick off our 2025 wrap-up, beginning with taking a look at my favorite books that I read in this past year, regardless of whether or not they actually released in 2025. As long as I read it for the first time (or had a transformative re-read), it’s fair game. I’ll also be including series into a single entry on this list, like last year.
Also, I just need to note that I actually struggled putting together a complete list this year, and that’s because I spent a huge chunk of my reading time in 2025 re-visiting series that I’ve already read before. Occasional re-reads are always super fun, but because of my habit of doing that a lot this year (and because I no longer work in a library and have insider knowledge/access to new releases), my catalogue of brand-new reads was pretty low!
Let’s get into it!
10) A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder ~ Holly Jackson
This is the only re-read that I wanted to put on the list this year, just so that some newer experiences had their chance to shine (I also re-read Vampire Academy/Bloodlines and Renegades this year). And this re-read was mostly inspired (a very delayed sort of inspiration) by the tv show adaptation that released a while back. Though it’s not exactly exciting news, the trilogy is just as great as I remember it. I still don’t adore the twist near the end of the second novel, and the third novel’s extremely-engrossing tension-building narrative loses a little oomph when you know what’s coming, but this series still stands tall and proud amongst a sea of YA murder mysteries.
9) Fairy Tail 100 Year Quest ~ Hiro Mashima
This manga has been going on for a little while now, and I’ve been faithfully following along. But I also did a full re-read from the beginning this year, alongside the four new volumes that came out in 2025. And, let’s be clear, this series isn’t exactly something that’s going to go into the hall of literary classics. Even more so than the OG Fairy Tail, 100 Year Quest is a bit of a mess. But it’s a mess that’s got heart, humor, unique characters, exciting hype moments, and entertaining battles. For just a light-and-breezy manga read, you can’t really ask for much else. And I’m just such an addict for Fairy Tail that I’ll gladly take anything, really!
8) Sonic the Hedgehog IDW ~ Ian Flynn
Sonic’s had a shockingly lengthy lifetime in the artistic medium of comic books, more so than you might even be aware of. Decades of comics, if you can believe it. But the IDW run is the most recent one, and for my money it’s also the best. The art style is immaculate, the action is swift and speedy, the quips and humorous beats are on-point, and the continuous storyline is a joy to read. More than anything, the characters are just perfect. Ian Flynn is known as the loremaster of Sonic (genuinely, he was hired by Sega to be the Sonic loremaster), and his deep love of the series shines through in the huge cast that all feel perfectly in-sync with their video game portrayals. A must-read comic run for Sonic fans, or just general comic enjoyers.
7) The Naturals Book One ~ Jennifer Lynn Barnes
I want to say upfront that the longer this series went on (I read the whole four-book saga), the more it fell apart. It seemed to lose the plot a bit as it went on, venturing into some contrived and insane territory that didn’t thrill me. Thankfully, it’s an episodic sort of series, where each book is largely standalone. That makes it still really easy for me to recommend taking a look at the first installment, The Naturals. It has an engrossing premise (gifted teens roped into a life-threatening police investigation), the characters are really layered and not traditional protagonists, and the twist is very exciting. Just, you know…stop after reading this one (or do the second book too, that one’s also decent).
6) The Counselors ~ Jessica Goodman
Though nothing necessarily groundbreaking in the world of YA mysteries, this was still a really entertaining read, and my second-favorite book by this author that I read this year (uh oh, spoilers!). At its core, it’s about a teenage protagonist and her friends trying to solve a mystery, with the setting being a fancy summer camp located in an otherwise underprivileged small town. Like the best YA books, though, the story evolves past the plot to look into the unique socioeconomic undertones of the theming, explores the complexity of friendships dying out overtime, and poses questions about how far people are willing to go to keep up appearances.
5) The Tournament ~ Rebecca Barrow
I have some pretty complicated feelings towards this book. It’s extremely well-written, I loved the characters, I was engrossed from start-to-finish, and I’ll probably remember it vividly for years to come. I also hated it…in a good way? The final fifty-or-so pages of this novel will have you on the edge of your seat, and the closing chapter will most likely make you want to rip the book in half and scream in anger. But it’s a purposeful and methodical, almost devious, evoking of emotion that Rebecca Barrow managed to concoct with this story. You’re not angry because the book is poorly written. Quite the opposite. You’re angry precisely because Barrow wants you angry…and I have to give the book props for that.
4) Empirium Trilogy ~ Claire Legrand
I read this way back in January, so I nearly forgot all about it while putting together this list, but rest assured that it’s a pretty fantastic trilogy. It kicks off as a classic YA Fantasy tale, involving a young girl with powers who is perceived to be the chosen one, and set on a path that will lead to a whole heck of a lot of crazy stuff once the girl wonders if maybe she doesn’t want to be a chosen one, and a mysterious voice in her head agrees with her. Then, we jump POVs into the far-future following a seemingly unrelated series of events with a different girl, and the way the two storylines intersect is pretty magical!
One of the main characters can be a little aggravating as the series goes on (in terms of the choices they make), but it’s all intentionally-crafted stuff that develops into some dense, exciting, Fantasy goodness. Great ending, too!
3) Thrawn ~ Timothy Zahn
While books two and three of this reboot Thrawn trilogy were only mostly-okay, this first installment was something special. Maybe I’m a little biased because of how much I love Star Wars, or maybe it was because it had been a little while since I’d last really jumped into a good-old novel set in that galaxy far, far away, but I really loved this book.
Across several different POV characters, we follow a storyline of rising up the ranks, redefining one’s own life path, charging forward no matters the odds (and no matter how ruthlessly one must do so), and confronting the idea of exactly what it means to fight for what one believes in. I loved each of the main characters, and I especially enjoyed how we mostly see Thrawn from an outsider’s perspective, where he is most interesting (he’s really boring when he himself is the POV). I also appreciated both the attention to detail in crafting a rich world and plot, but also the restraint in not giving in to copious amounts of Star Wars cameos and whatnot.
2) They’ll Never Catch Us ~ Jessica Goodman
I’ve devoured so much YA literature in my lifetime that I’m not as jaw-droppingly shocked by YA storytelling tropes as I used to be (doesn’t keep me from loving the genre, mind you). So when a YA novel comes around that does end up leaving me delighted and speechless in equal measure? You better believe it’s shooting way up the list of compelling and incredible novels! And They’ll Never Catch Us has for sure earned itself a spot in my rankings of one of the best YA novels that I’ve ever read. If you’re a fan of the genre, please give this one a read!
It had my attention from the very beginning, presenting a story of two competent-but-flawed sisters who have so much in common but also so many differences, and watching their relationship strain to the breaking part was as heartbreaking as it was engrossing. Speaking of engrossing, the core mystery was super compelling, and the twist was as shocking as it was inspiring (and it really made me want to go and re-read certain parts). And then the twist of the twist? What a phenomenal way to finish the story!
1) Priory of the Orange Tree Series ~ Samantha Shannon
For years, I’ve glanced at this brick-sized tome sitting on the shelves of bookstores, and kept hearing it’s name pop up in literature-focused conversations. Well, on a recent visit to Books-A-Million, I finally snagged a copy for myself, to see if it held up to all the hype.
Uh…yeah. It does.
I almost don’t even quite know what to add to the conversation, for those who have already heard this book’s praises be sung. For those not-in-the-know, Priory of the Orange Tree is a monumental achievement in Fantasy storytelling and worldbuilding. Despite being over 800 pages long, it flies by in the blink of an eye as you ravenously flip from one page to the next, eagerly devouring each new action set piece, plot reveal, heartwarming or tragic moment of character development, or lore exploration. And each of the POVs are so compelling that I found myself eagerly liking all of them (instead of wishing the chapter would end so I could get back to someone else).
I will say that this book (and the series as a whole, because book two is just as fantastic) is not for everyone. The book is 90% dialogue and worldbuilding, and about 10% action. Don’t go into this expecting these massive battles as are typical in the Fantasy genre, because while they do happen, it’s very rare. The author, instead, excels in a way I’ve rarely seen at crafting compelling and unforgettable worlds and characters. Despite how ludicrously dense and theroetically complicated it all is, Samantha Shannon writes in just such a way that it all makes sense, and helps you organically learn about the world and its denizens while you read.
A titan of the Fantasy genre, undoubtedly.
But hey, that’s just my opinion!
The Contrarian Corner 