The best books of 2025

This list is part of the best books of 2025.

Join 1,210 readers and share your 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2025

Book cover of The Wandering Inn

👍 liked this book because...

It felt unique in terms of how the world was explored and expanded on. The series is slow and many of the characters unlikable, but they are all treated as just being 'people'. Every new character, city, culture and plot point presented added another layer of mystery that you want answers to. Sometimes those answers take an incredibly long time to be given but it made the world feel like it has a true history and much more living than most fantasy environments.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Immersion 🥈 Character(s)
  • Writing style

    👍 Liked it
  • Pace

    🐌 It was slow at times

By pirateaba ,

Why should I read it?

31 authors picked The Wandering Inn as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

(This novel is the e-book version of the free web serial. You may read the entire ongoing story at wanderinginn.com free of charge.)

“No killing Goblins.”

So reads the sign outside of The Wandering Inn, a small building run by a young woman named Erin Solstice. She serves pasta with sausage, blue fruit juice, and dead acid flies on request. And she comes from another world. Ours.

It’s a bad day when Erin finds herself transported to a fantastical world and nearly gets eaten by a Dragon. She doesn’t belong in a place where monster attacks are a fact of…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2025

Book cover of Mage Tank

❤️ loved this book because...

One of the most refreshing LitRPG books I've checked out in a long time. Nothing quite stands on the same level of Dungeon Crawler Carl but Mage Tank is one of the few in the genre I've read that feels like it wasn't just a cheap royal road republishing.

I enjoy the genre but am constantly frustrated by the writing style being geared towards serialized publishing. Mage tank doesn't necessarily do anything unique but from the writing quality & style, humor, pacing, world building, core systems and just general feel - it is almost unique in the genre for doing all of them well.

I'm excited to see where the series goes as I haven't gone beyond book 1 but it was one of the larger surprise reads for me in 2025.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Writing 🥈 Character(s)
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Cornman ,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Mage Tank as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A hilarious new Isekai LitRPG adventure perfect for fans of Dungeon Crawler Carl and Full Murderhobo. Conquer ancient dungeons. Get rewarded. Grow stronger.After being killed by a high-velocity tree-hug, Arlo is transported to a new world where those brave and talented enough to conquer ancient Delves are rewarded with incredible power and abilities.Unfortunately for Arlo, there is no tutorial. He is immediately forced to tackle a Delve set to the highest difficulty with a party of adventurers who are not only strangers to him, but strangers to each other as well.Arlo has no armor, no weapons, no knowledge of the…


My 3rd favorite read in 2025

Book cover of Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend

👍 liked this book because...

It feels weird to put it so highly on my favorites list for the year but so much of what I read this year was mediocre. Zero stars was a desperately needed palate cleanser and was a really enjoyable ride. I was a bit worried where the first portion of the book was leaning into 'clever' writing that evoked a scent of Douglas Adams but thankfully it kept to its own lane.

The core mystery wasn't anything unexpected and I did spend much of the book thinking it would have worked better as a groundhog day style time loop (shorten the time scale, get to know the characters deeper and would have allowed some of the earlier humor and absurdity to last throughout the disaster portion) but the descent into class warfare and MLM led authoritarian regime was still entertaining.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Character(s) 🥈 Writing
  • Writing style

    👍 Liked it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By MJ Wassmer ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Worst Vacation Ever―Five Stars, Would Recommend." ― Grady Hendrix, New York Times bestselling author of How to Sell a Haunted House

White Lotus meets Kevin Wilson in this whip-smart social satire about a man who finds himself trapped on an island resort after the sun explodes, and suddenly must choose whether to save himself from the chaos, or help the fellow guests make it off the island alive…

Vacation Checklist: Pack swim trunks. Apply sunscreen. Survive the apocalypse?

Professional underachiever Dan Foster is finally taking a vacation. Sure, his life has been average at best, and yeah, he's never quite…


Book cover of The Wandering Inn
Book cover of Mage Tank
Book cover of Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend

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