It’s that time of year when I look back at the books I’ve read this year and try to pick out a few personal favourites, focussing on those first published in 2025. I was aiming for five titles, but seem to have ended up with eight, which is close 😏
Clicking on the title will take you to my review, except for The Raven Scholar which I’ve only just read and haven’t got around to reviewing yet, nor do I think I’m capable of doing it justice if I’m honest, but that’s a problem for another day!
Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey
A loose retelling of Beauty and the Beast mixed with elements of Alaskan folklore, I absolutely adored it. Ivey brings the Alaskan wilderness and everything that entails to life brilliantly.
Birdie’s keeping it together, of course she is. So she’s a little hungover on her shifts, and has to bring her daughter to the lodge while she waits tables, but Emaleen never goes hungry. It’s a tough town to be a single mother, and Birdie just needs to get by.
And then Birdie meets Arthur, who is quieter than most men, but makes her want to listen; who is gentle with Emaleen, and understands Birdie’s fascination with the mountains in whose shadow they live. When Arthur asks Birdie and Emaleen to leave the lodge and make a home, just the three of them, in his off-grid cabin, Birdie’s answer, in a heartbeat, is yes.
Out in the wilderness Birdie’s days are harsher and richer than she ever imagined possible. Here she will feel truly at one with nature. Here she, and Emaleen, will learn the whole, fearful truth about Arthur.
Nesting by Roisín O’Donnell
Nesting is a superb novel and all the more so for being a debut. Intelligent, insightful, and thought-provoking, it captures the reality of living with and trying to extract oneself from intimate partner abuse.
On a bright spring afternoon in Dublin, Ciara Fay makes a split-second decision that will change everything. Grabbing an armful of clothes from the washing line, Ciara straps her two young daughters into her car and drives away. Head spinning, all she knows for certain is that home is no longer safe.
This was meant to be an escape. But with dwindling savings, no job, and her family across the sea, Ciara finds herself adrift, facing a broken housing system and the voice of her own demons. As summer passes and winter closes in, she must navigate raising her children in a hotel room, searching for a new home and dealing with her husband Ryan’s relentless campaign to get her to come back. Because leaving is one thing, but staying away is another.
What will it take for Ciara to rebuild her life? Can she ever truly break away from Ryan’s control – and what will be the cost?
Human Remains by Jo Callaghan
I didn’t mean to, but I binge-read the three books in this series on holiday after I was talked into reading the first one. The deelightful individual in question was quite right to recommend the series, but I don’t want it to go to their head! I can’t wait for book four!
THE TRUTH WILL ALWAYS COME OUT – BUT AT WHAT COST?
Fresh from successfully closing their first live case, the Future Policing Unit are called in to investigate when a headless, handless body is found on a Warwickshire farm. But as they work to identify the victim and their killer, the discovery of a second body begins to spark fears that The Aston Strangler is back.
When DCS Kat Frank is accused of putting the wrong man behind bars all those years ago, AIDE Lock – the world’s first AI detective – pursues the truth with relentless logic. But Kat is determined to keep the past buried, and when she becomes the target of a shadowy figure looking for revenge, Lock is torn between his evidence-based algorithms and the judgement of his partner, with explosive results.
When everything hangs in the balance, it will all come down to just how much an AI can learn, and what happens when they do…
Human Rites by Juno Dawson
If you’ve been visiting my blog for a little while, you’ll know that I adored the first two instalments in this trilogy. Human Rites brought the story of these witches to a brilliant and satisfying close.
The Coven is reunited but broken…
Niamh is back from the dead … but she hasn’t come back alone. Elle mourns a son she never had. Ciara languishes in a prison for witches. And Leonie reels from a very unexpected surprise.
Five very different witches with one thing in common: they were unwittingly chosen by the dangerously charming Lucifer, the demon king of desire, to fulfil a dark prophecy.
But Lucifer has a deadly offer for fledgling witch Theo: help him and her coven – her family – will be spared as the rest of humanity perishes in a hellish new reality. Save the ones she loves? Or save the world? The choice is hers…
The final confrontation between good and evil is about to commence in the spectacular conclusion to the insatiable Her Majesty’s Royal Coven.
The Final Vow by M. W. Craven
I came to M. W. Craven’s Washington Poe series relatively late but managed to catch up this year! 💪 I do now have a long wait until next August for book eight though…
An invisible killer with a 100% success rate. No one is safe. Not even those closest to Washington Poe . . .
A shooting at Gretna Green. A bride is murdered on her wedding day, seconds after she slips on her new ring. It’s brutal and bloody but she isn’t the first victim and she won’t be the last. With the body count now at 17, people are terrified, not knowing where the sniper will strike next.
With the nation in a state of panic, the police are at a loss and turn to Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw – the only team who just might be able to track down a serial killer following no discernible pattern and with the whole country as his personal hunting ground. Can Poe and Tilly stop an unstoppable assassin, who never misses his mark and never makes a mistake? Or will he find them before they find him…
The Names by Florence Knapp
A novel that took me completely by surprise, The Names is a forking-path narrative looking at how a boy grows up depending on the name he’s given. It’s a wonderfully simple premise that I fell in love with.
It is 1987, and in the aftermath of a great storm, Cora sets out with her nine-year-old daughter to register the birth of her son. Her husband intends for her to follow a long-standing family tradition and call the baby after him. But when faced with the decision, Cora hesitates. Going against his wishes is a risk that will have consequences, but is it right for her child to inherit his name from generations of domineering men? The choice she makes in this moment will shape the course of their lives.
Seven years later, her son is Bear, a name chosen by his sister, and one that will prove as cataclysmic as the storm from which it emerged. Or he is Julian, the name his mother set her heart on, believing it will enable him to become his own person. Or he is Gordon, named after his father and raised in his cruel image – but is there still a chance to break the mould?
Powerfully moving and full of hope, this is the story of three names, three versions of a life, and the infinite possibilities that a single decision can spark. It is the story of one family, and love’s endless capacity to endure, no matter what fate has in store.
The Life Experiment by Jess Kitching
The Life Experiment has a fascinating premise as the two main characters discover when they’ll die. It’s a thought-provoking idea and I couldn’t stop thinking about whether I’d want to know, and what I’d then do with that information.
When OPM Discoveries puts out an ad seeking participants for The Life Experiment, a study that claims to help people searching for meaning, Layla and Angus are among those who apply. Little do they know they’re about to be told when they will die.
Layla, a corporate lawyer, has foregone all relationships for her career. Growing up on the poverty line, Layla fought tirelessly to better her circumstances, but stuck in the monotony of long hours, impossible deadlines and the London rat race, she wonders if happiness can be found behind a desk after all.
Angus, an esteemed Fairview-Whitley, is struggling with his family’s expectations after the death of his brother and a failed investment. Unsure what to do with his life, Angus is frozen in a cycle of late nights and lazy days, watching time pass him by.
Unaware that they are participating in the same experiment, Layla and Angus meet by chance the day they get their results. Their attraction is instant, but can they open their hearts to more when their time might be brief?
The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson
An absolutely magnificent novel that offers a fantasy with a murder mystery and political intrigue. I adored it and can’t wait for the follow up.
She might win the throne. She might destroy an empire. Either way, it begins with murder.
After twenty-four years on the throne, it is time for Bersun the Brusque, emperor of Orrun, to bring his reign to an end. In the dizzying heat of mid-summer, seven contenders will compete to replace him.
Trained at rival monasteries, each contender is inspired by a sacred animal – Fox, Raven, Tiger, Ox, Bear, Monkey, and Hound. An eighth – the Dragon proxy – will be revealed only once the trials have begun. Eight exceptional warriors, thinkers, strategists – the best of the best.
Then one of them is murdered.
It falls to the brilliant but idiosyncratic Neema Kraa to investigate. But as she hunts for a killer, darker forces are gathering.
If Neema succeeds, she could win the throne – whether she wants it or not. But if she fails, she will sentence herself to death – and set in motion a sequence of events that could doom the empire . . .
And there you have my favourite books of the year. What books have you enjoyed this year? Let me know in the comments! 🎄
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