Reading Year In Review 2025

Like a lot of people I had big hopes and dreams for 2025, and it was, in fact, not all gloom and doom. I had life-changing surgery (this is not hyperbole) to fix a hiatal hernia that made eating anything (spicy chili peppers, plain oatmeal, literally did not matter) an exercise in pain and actual restful sleep impossible, I saw Lemon Drop compete in a major equestrian event, I rang in my 50th with a sisters trip to NYC and then in September my big sister and I played hooky for two weeks in Ireland. My reading though? Let's just say my reading mojo had definitely left the building. And not because of the books (see below) but more me not having the spoons and just being mentally exhausted about everything. My hope for 2026 is to carve out more time for reading (even if it's just a couple of chapters a day!), be kinder to myself, and fully embrace my Cranky Old Lady era with more DNF'ing with impunity.

I only got through 56 books this year. My goal every year is 100, and while I fall short more often than not, 56 is (very likely) my worst showing since I started this blog nearly 23 years ago. Here's how the numbers stacked up:

A Grades = 2

B Grades = 28

C Grades (and low B) = 18

D Grades = 3

DNF = 5

While the numbers are down, I can't really complain about the quality. I'm notoriously stingy with A grades, but any time my B grades are significantly higher than the Meh C grades I take a victory lap. Also, no F grades this year because I was smart enough to DNF and not get sucked into Hate Reading.

So what books stood out for me this past year?  Let's take a look...

Note: These are the best books I read in 2025, regardless of publication year.

Title links will take you to full reviews

What the Wife Knew by Darby Kane (2024) - Contemporary suspense - Local celebrity doctor with hero reputation dies under mysterious circumstances and suspicion immediately falls on his younger second wife who he had only been married to for 100 days. His death throws a wrench in the works for her, not because she loved him, oh no. She blackmailed him into marriage and had big revenge plans. Now she has to figure out who killed him while navigating a viper's nest. The opening chapter of this book is a master class and Kane keeps her foot on the accelerator throughout. She also, god bless, reads the room here - with the nasty vile people getting everything that's coming to them. 

When I Think of You by Myah Ariel (2024) - Contemporary romance - My biggest surprise of the year because this book wasn't even on my radar and I ended up reading it for a work-related program. A dynamite, highly emotional second chance romance about a filmmaker hero born into privilege and the girl who got away, an aspiring producer stuck in a dead end receptionist job. This one ripped my heart out but what stands out for me to this day is how thoughtful and amazing the world-building was in this story. This book couldn't take place anywhere else other than Los Angeles and Ariel nailed it.

The Spy Coast by Tess Gerritsen (2023) - Contemporary suspense - Tiny Purity, Maine has a secret, several of it's residents are retired CIA agents. Maggie Bird is living a quiet life, raising chickens on her small farm, when her past comes back to haunt her in the form of a dead body left in her driveway. Interspersed with flashbacks from Maggie's time in the CIA is the story of the local interim chief of police who immediately suspects something is up with Maggie and her friends.  This follows the recent trend in mystery fiction of Old People Solving Crimes, but Gerritsen avoids the cutesy (praise the Lord). Her characters read like actual former CIA operatives and behave as such. I've been dragging my feet on reading the second book in the series because I'm a nutjob, I need to rectify that in 2026.

Cowboy's Last Stand by Jill Sorenson (2025) - Contemporary romance - Sorenson's first book in several years, and lordy how I missed her. While not romantic suspense (per se), this book features a Sorenson trademark - messy people with messy problems. Hero blows into tiny Last Chance, Texas to take care of some unfinished business he has with the heroine, a widow with a young son. Never mind she doesn't know him from Adam. He's got a Big Secret and almost immediately runs afoul of the local lowlifes, and she's a woman with a lot of responsibilities and vulnerabilities. Honest to goodness passion and tension - oh how I've missed both.

Deception by Gaslight by Kate Belli (2020) - Historical mystery with romantic elements - Wealthy heiress from socially conscious family making her way in Gilded Age New York City as a reporter is looking for her big break running down a story about a Robin Hood-like thief when she meets our hero, Five Points born and bred who inexplicably inherited a fortune from a blue blood. This first book represents the fact that I glommed my way through the entire four book series this past year. It's not without problems, but I got sucked into the world-building and plots to the point where it undeniably cannot be ignored. By all accounts Belli is done with this series, but she's got the chops to go back to historicals if she has the desire to do so.

The Wife Deserved It by Darby Kane (2025) - Contemporary thriller novella - A perfect bon-bon of a thriller. Reid Cavanagh thinks he's the smartest guy in the room, that the divorce his soon-to-be-ex is dragging him through is all her fault, and frankly it's time for her to die. One minor detail? What he thought was the perfect plan runs aground in a hurry and this vile sack of crap soon gets what's coming to him. Again, Kane reading the room in 2025. 

A Deal with the Devil by Alyxandra Harvey (2025) - Historical romance - A morally gray hero soon meets his match in a naughty bookseller heroine determined to save her younger sister from marriage to a vile Lord who has already buried three wives. It's making my honorable mentions for a few reasons, but mostly for the tension and sizzle. I mean, this exchange y'all:

"...I just want you to have everything you need. Let me take care of you.” 

“Why?” 

“Because no one else does,” he said severely. “And because it would be my fucking privilege.”

Rain Shadow by Cheryl St. John (1994) - Historical romance - St. John's debut back in the day that sounds like it should be Problematic AF, but skirts the red flags. White heroine rescued by her adopted Lakota Sioux father when she was a toddler wants to provide a better life for her son and learn more about her past. When a train derailment causes her son to become injured, they're temporarily sidelined and relying on the hospitality of the hero - a widower working the family farm whose never met anyone like the heroine before. 

The Davis Deal by Jennifer Hayward (2025) - Contemporary romance - A single title debut and the second book in a series that started in Harlequin Presents, Hayward gives readers all the glitz, glamor and sizzle of a Presents with a kinder, gentler (yet still Alpha) hero and a dynamite friends-to-lovers trope. Football (soccer), reality TV and plenty of family drama baggage. I lapped this one up.

The Bikini Car Wash by Pamela Morsi (2010) - Contemporary romance - All the small town charm one expects from a Morsi romance while not ignoring the harsh realities of small town economics and busy bodies all up in your damn business. Heroine returns to hometown after her mother dies to help out her father with her developmentally disabled twin sister, but work is hard to find. When she reopens her father's car wash, with a twist, she runs afoul of some of the good townsfolk, but not the hero, who is struggling to keep the family grocery store afloat.

A Murderous Business by Cathy Pegau (2025) - Historical mystery with romantic elements - Lady private investigator but make it early 20th century NYC and Sapphic. Heroine who inherits her family's food packaging business comes into work early one day to discover a cryptic note next to the dead body of her dead father's retired assistant. She needs to tread lightly for a scandal could upend everything, so she hires a female PI keeping her father's investigation business afloat as he slowly descends further into dementia/Alzheimer's. Great characters, great setting, and a mystery that read like a breath of fresh air.

While it was a disappointing year for me in terms of quantity, I really cannot complain about the quality. I discovered some good reads this year and one wonders how many more I would have found if I had managed to find some spoons. Here's hoping my spoons turn up in 2026 because I know there's an embarrassment of riches waiting for me in my TBR.