andré's 3 favorite reads in 2025

JA Andrews is a mystery for me! She writes these amazing books in the Keeperverse, The Aenigma Lights is the third trilogy she finished. I love these books from the bottom of my heart. With the first trilogy, she set the bar really high, and I was more than a little surprised when I found out that I liked her second trilogy even better. ‘Oops, I did it again’ is the soundtrack for The Aenimga Lights, because guess what? It’s now my new favorite Andrews-trilogy. Andrewsology? Janilogy? Anyway, her books just keep on getting better and better – and that seems impossible, because from her first book, they are amazing. With The Aenimga Lights I go as far as 'outstanding' - but what will come after that?! Will goodreads have to add stars? Probably! Every time, I am hooked from the very first page, pulled into the story, that I really don’t want to stop reading. Everything feels so real: The characters, the places. That’s immersive for you.

Magic, Maps, and Mischief (MMaM) is a treasure of a book, and it is easily one of my personal top-reads of this year. I don’t know if it’s correct to say that David Green has outdone himself with this book, because really all of his books so far have been nothing but great reads. But MMaMnow holds a special place in my heart.

It is sad that it even need to be mentioned, but looking back at 30+ years of reading fantasy, MMaM is one of the very few books with an obviously neurodivergent main character that I have read (I think there were not more than two handful). And a neurodivergent character that feels real and is not just a caricature. I am in general not a fan of putting/forcing people – real or fictional – into categories. Every person is different, and nobody fits into the same category, there is always only one of each. So, I either like a character or I don’t, it’s that easy. And Greton is an outstanding character, somebody I could connect with, that I felt with from the very beginning. He doesn’t fit in, he pretends to be something/someone he is not just to be accepted, but he really shines when he can finally be just himself. The other characters are wonderful, too, but Greton stands out – and I am more than ready to spend a lot more time with all of them (you hear that, David Green?).

Like I said before, this story takes place in the world the author has already established in his Empire of Ruin-series. But you do not need to have read this to understand this book, it might help with a few things in the beginning, but MMaM works perfectly well as a standalone.
Like always, David Green’s writing is superb, easy to follow and just invites you to read way longer than you intended to. The story is captivating despite the relatively low stakes, I really just wanted to keep reading and did not want to be pulled out of this story – just like Greton with his maps.

MMaM is a heartwarming beacon of light in a world where fantasy (and many other genres) tend to go darker and darker. It was like a warm cup of your favorite hot beverage on a cold winter’s day.
Enjoy it!

If you want a rough picture, The Moment Thief reminded me of ‘The Minority Report’ with a heavy dose of ‘Quantum Leap’ and a generous sprinkle of ‘The Butterfly Effect’. I’d call it science fantasy: a futuristic setting where time travel enables an organization to tweak things in the past so that the present will end up slightly different. On top, one of the main characters can see ghosts and the other two main characters are involved in a murder mystery that keeps you guessing throughout the whole book. In general, there were quite a few plot twists that I didn’t see coming.

This book has A LOT going for it: First and foremost, it has a great and interesting story and on the forefront is the murder mystery the main characters try to solve. The book actually starts out a little slow but picks up the pace rather quickly after the first one or two chapters after the main characters are introduced. Afterwards there are small moments of quiet and introspection between quite a bit of action, so there is definitely not time to get bored. But layered into the story are also other very complex topics, the most obvious being the effects of time travel, how changing even small things can have a very strong impact on the present (so-called ‘ripples’). This leads to philosophical questions: When is it okay to change the past, especially if you don’t know all the possible consequences? Can these changes change who you are? Are you a different person when your memory is different? Another strong motif throughout the story is class supremacy and social hierarchies.
This sounds like a lot, but author Courtney Grace Powers weaves everything seemingly effortlessly into an entertaining story that is a joy to read. Her writing is superb, but it is especially her characters that make The Moment Thief work so well: Charlie, a misfit princess who can see ghosts and fears to have gone crazy; Nash, a time-traveller who tries to do the right thing and honor his famous father ; and Darkly, a genius who constantly has to prove himself because he was born in a low social class. These three very different characters are friends, each one of them is wonderfully written and their chemistry is fantastic.

I haven’t read anything like The Moment Thief, but I strongly recommend to pick it up and give it a shot.