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 House of Broken Bricks

Judith Cutler ❤️ loved this book because...

A simply excellent first novel. I can't wait for the next.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Originality 🥈 Immersion
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Fiona Williams ,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The House of Broken Bricks as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'An almanac for the heart.'
EVIE WOODS, author of The Lost Bookshop

'Haunting prose that cracks the English pastoral novel and lets the darkness in. A pleasure to read.'
SARAH MOSS, author of Ghost Wall

'A clever, heartbreaking, heartwarming depiction of family love, grief and the possibility of hope.'
JO BROWNING WROE, author of A Terrible Kindness

'Poignant and unexpected . . . brave and subtle.'
EMMA HEALEY, author of Elizabeth is Missing

'Wonderful . . . brave in its deep truths about loss and love.'
INGRID PERSAUD, author of Love After Love

Ain't nothing wrong with being broken. Nothing…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2025

Book cover of Murder on the Great Northern Railway

Judith Cutler ❤️ loved this book because...

Reader, I married him. The author, that is...

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Story/Plot 🥈 Immersion
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Edward Marston ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Murder on the Great Northern Railway as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

April, 1867. A train departs King's Cross station bound for Lincoln. Among the passengers is a man attired in the garb of one in high ecclesiastical office. He is accompanied by a brawny man carefully carrying a large leather bag, who ensures that they are not joined by any other travellers in their first-class compartment.

Back at Scotland Yard that evening, Detective Inspector Colbeck is alerted to news of a brutal murder and robbery on the train. The urgent request for help from the Bishop of Lincoln states that a man has been shot dead and something of great value,…


My 3rd favorite read in 2025

Book cover of The House at Devil's Neck

Judith Cutler ❤️ loved this book because...

It's a wonderful, complicated - sometimes mind-boggling! - pastiche of Golden Age crime.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Story/Plot 🥈 Outlook
  • Writing style

    👍 Liked it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Tom Mead ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The House at Devil's Neck as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

LIKE LOCKED-ROOM MYSTERIES? YOU'LL LOVE TOM MEAD'S JOSEPH SPECTOR SERIES!

This gripping locked-room mystery sees Joseph Spector investigate his most sinister case yet: murderous machinations at a haunted manor house.

A former First World War field hospital, the spooky old mansion at Devil's Neck attracts spirit-seekers from far and wide.

Illusionist-turned-sleuth Joseph Spector knows the house of old. With stories spreading of a phantom soldier making mischief, he joins a party of visitors in search of the truth.

But the house, located on a lonely causeway, is quickly cut off by floods. The stranded visitors are soon being killed off…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

The Faintest of Tickles: A new anthology of cricket writing

By Ben Macintyre , Judith Cutler , Paul Stewart , Jonathan Margolis , John Corcut , Bud Craig , Jessica Davis , Geoffrey Dean , Robert Deighton , Isabelle Duncan , Laura E. Goodin , Pete Langman , M. J. Mallon , Sean O'Leary , Ann Parker , Alex Pearl , David Pearl , Hugh Salmon , Sarah Traynor , David Whittle , Peter Wise , David Alan Woods

Book cover of The Faintest of Tickles: A new anthology of cricket writing

What is my book about?

This eclectic collection of short stories, reminiscences, essays, and poems will appeal to anyone with a soft spot for the noblest of summer games. Besides being entertained and amused by this compilation, the reader will discover some interesting and little-known cricketing facts such as Adolf Hitler’s view of the game.

Book cover of The House of Broken Bricks
Book cover of Murder on the Great Northern Railway
Book cover of The House at Devil's Neck

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