The best books of 2025

This list is part of the best books of 2025.

Join 1,211 readers and share your 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2025

Book cover of I Know How This Ends

❤️ loved this book because...

This had me hooked from the first page and didn't let me go (I read it in 2 days). The plot moved along at exactly the right pace for me, so that I never got bored or wanted to stop reading; quite a feat for this length of book. I also never giggled so much through a book, there were so many funny lines, without it ever feeling like a comedy or taking away from the, at the heart, very emotional story. In fact, the last ~15 or so percent I shed tears several times 🙈.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Emotions 🥈 Story/Plot
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Holly Smale ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked I Know How This Ends as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

If you could see your future, how would you live now?

'Utterly joyous' Prima

'Irresistibly charming, heartbreakingly hopeful, and downright hilarious' Catherine Walsh

'Fabulously original' The Sun

Margot Wayward is in manically gleeful self-destruct mode. Following the implosion of a ten-year relationship, she's wilfully derailing her successful career, joyfully taking down men on dating apps, and living in total chaos.

Until one day, when Margot has a vision of herself with a man she's never met before. She doesn't believe in fate. But when Margot meets single-dad Henry, the vision comes true: exactly as she'd foreseen it.

As her future…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2025

Book cover of The Compound

❤️ loved this book because...

Such a fun, engaging read, I was never bored, and especially the first half was so addictive, I just gobbled it up! Set exclusively at an isolated reality TV compound, this is really a story about the characters and their dynamics. The competition element of the show created the high stakes that always kept the tension and kept the story evolving, and changing the interpersonal dynamics as more and more people leave the compound. Characters, writing, and plot were all on point for me 👌.

  • Loved Most

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

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Aisling Rawle ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

** A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK **

'Relentlessly gripping' ABIGAIL DEAN

'Menace-dipped' THE TIMES

'Thrilling and haunting' NEW YORK TIMES

'Lord of the Flies meets Love Island' LOUISE O'NEILL

'Gripping and propulsive' TORREY PETERS

'THIS is the book to read this summer' CECELIA AHERN

'Brilliant' DAILY MIRROR

'Written with total verve and delight' STYLIST

You wake up in a compound in the middle of the desert, with nine other women.

All of you are young, beautiful, and keen to escape the catastrophe of the outside world.

Cameras broadcast your every move to millions of reality TV fans.

Soon,…


My 3rd favorite read in 2025

Book cover of The Persians

❤️ loved this book because...

At the beginning of the novel, I wasn't sure these characters were people I could relate to, super rich and each with faults, some more severe than others, but soon I cared about each one of these women and didn't want to put the book down. I have never annotated a book, but for this one I really mourned having a library copy and not being able to write in it; some observations and thoughts on the page were just perfect. Elizabeth story also really got me, such a complicated character, but her arc broke my heart, stomped around on it for a bit, and then duct-taped it back together.

(There are a lot of mentions of body image and thin culture, proceed with caution if you're struggling with it.)

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Character(s) 🥈 Writing
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Sanam Mahloudji ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Shortlisted for The Women's Prize • Named a Most Anticipated Book by Electric Literature, Publishers Weekly, The BBC, Daily Mail (London), and more

A darkly funny, life-affirming “joy of a debut novel” (David Mitchell) that follows five women from three generations of a once illustrious Iranian family as their lives are turned upside down.

The women of the Valiat family are in crisis. Elizabeth, the regal matriarch, remained in Tehran despite the revolution and only has Niaz, her Islamic law–breaking granddaughter for company. In America, Elizabeth's daughters, the flamboyantly high-flying Shirin and frustrated housewife Seema, are wondering if their new…


Book cover of I Know How This Ends
Book cover of The Compound
Book cover of The Persians

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