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 A Sorceress Comes to Call

Leanbh Pearson ❤️ loved this book because...

Loved the characters who were all very different and the dark humour within the events occurring. The plot and story style was interesting with an unreliable narrator combined with some magical realism. The pace was constant but could feel slow at times but escalated towards the end with mysteries uncovered, character secrets revealed and a plan developed to conquer the sorceress in their midst.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Character(s) 🥈 Story/Plot
  • Writing style

    👍 Liked it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By T. Kingfisher ,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked A Sorceress Comes to Call as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes A Sorceress Comes to Call―a dark reimagining of the Brothers Grimm's "The Goose Girl," rife with secrets, murder, and forbidden magic.

*The hardcover edition features a foil stamp on the casing and custom endpapers illustrated by the author.*

Cordelia knows her mother is . . . unusual. Their house doesn’t have any doors between rooms―there are no secrets in this house―and her mother doesn't allow Cordelia to have a single friend. Unless you count Falada, her mother's beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2025

Book cover of A Haunting on the Hill

Leanbh Pearson ❤️ loved this book because...

Loved a bold revisit to Shirley Jackson’s Hill House. The writing was fantastic at immersing me within the unease of the house, the clash between characters and Hand’s brilliant capture of the undefinable spaces of Hill House that echoed Jackson’s but retained their own originality. A great psychological horror with all the gothic trappings but a modern setting.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Writing 🥈 Outlook
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Elizabeth Hand ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked A Haunting on the Hill as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE FIRST AUTHORISED FOLLOW-UP NOVEL TO THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE

'A fitting - and frightening - homage to The Haunting of Hill House ' NEW YORK TIMES
'Full of totemic menace and a heart-in-mouth, can't-look-away frisson' BRIDGET COLLINS
'Beautifully creepy. Welcome back to Hill House' ALIX E. HARROW
'Like Hill House itself, this accomplished tribute stands alone: disturbing and unforgettable' GUARDIAN
'A Haunting on the Hill captures the essence of the original whilst offering something brand new' CARLY REAGON

**Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and Harper's Bazaar**

______

Whatever walks…


My 3rd favorite read in 2025

Book cover of The Crimson Road

Leanbh Pearson ❤️ loved this book because...

Great gothic fantasy with a fresh take on the vampiric folklore. These are real, dangerous vampires with humanity as a resource. A wonderful proactive female protagonist who is genuine and original. A dangerous quest, pursued by the far reach of a dark enemy. A beautifully crafted gothic fantasy enriched with folklore and an epic fantasy adventure like no other.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Immersion 🥈 Originality
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By A.G. Slatter ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Crimson Road as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A captivating dark gothic fantasy set in the same universe as the award-winning author's All The Murmuring Bones, The Path of Thorns and The Briar Book of the Dead. A tale of vampires, assassins, ancient witches and broken promises, perfect for readers of Alix E. Harrow, Hannah Whitten and Alexis Henderson.


Violet Zennor has had a peculiar upbringing. Training as a fighter in underground arenas, honing her skills against the worst scum, murderers and thieves her father could pit her against, she has learned to be ruthless. To kill.


Until the day Hedrek Zennor dies. Violet thinks she's free -…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

Bluebells

By Leanbh Pearson ,

Book cover of Bluebells

What is my book about?

The War to End All Wars . . . and the world.

What if the world changed with the Great War? What if the future we know never occurred? It's 1917 and in the aftermath of war, a dystopian visage of climate altered by biochemical warfare, populations decimated by a virus and governments collapsed. In the isolated town of Berrima, Australia, Anna Baylon waits for her older brother, Peter - enlisted in the war years before, to return.

When all hope of Peter's return seems abandoned, the arrival of a stranger on her doorstep changes everything. Nicolas, claiming to be Peter's lover sent to safely bring Anna to Sydney where he's recovering from war wounds. But Nicolas is as mysterious as he is charming. So Anna embarks on a journey to discover Peter's fate but the entanglements of duty, love and desire may be her undoing. Or is the greater danger not be Nicolas's vampiric nature but the darkness within him? Soon Anna's fortitude is tested when faced with Nicolas's hidden truth. When mind and lives are shattered, can she forgive him?

In The Devil's Garden, a trilogy of alternate history, gothic horror and dark romance in a world as tangled and twisted as heartbreaking and wondrous.

Book cover of A Sorceress Comes to Call
Book cover of A Haunting on the Hill
Book cover of The Crimson Road

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