The time has finally come to declare the best books of 2025! From fantasy picks that set BookTok on fire to quiet, unexpected books that we held close, these are the very best reads from the year. And one book stood out above the rest. After tallying over 17,000 votes, not only do we have our favorites in each category, but one particular book was chosen as the She Reads favorite!
This year, the Best Book of 2025 Award goes to:
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, we get another historical fantasy novel about immortality. But this time, it’s vampires! Set on three timelines, we follow a centuries-long story featuring three women with a thirst for freedom, revenge and answers.
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Alchemised by SenLinYu
In a novel that had BookTok absolutely melting down, SenLinYu builds their own world beyond their fanfic story Manacled. Helena was once a powerful alchemist, but now she’s a prisoner. Stripped of her powers and her memories, she must face a necromancer or risk losing herself entirely.
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Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
From the adored author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo comes another unforgettable tale of a powerful woman. Joan was living a content life as a professor of physics, always obsessed with the stars, when she gets the opportunity to fly a space mission with NASA. Set in the 80s, this story follows the crew as they prepare for take off and Joan as she falls in love with a captivating aeronautical engineer, Vanessa.
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Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
Beth’s quiet life with her husband Frank is upended with a single gunshot. When her brother in law shoots the neighbor’s dog that was going after their sheep, she discovers it belongs to Gabriel, the man she once loved. As she falls back into his world, the buried secrets that kept her life peaceful begin to unravel.
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King of Ashes by S.A. Crosby
When Roman returns home after his father’s car accident, he has to face the reality of what his family has become. The crash was no accident, his brother Dante is involved with dangerous criminals, and his sister Neveah is struggling to hold it all together. Offering his financial skills up as a means to cover his brother, Roman is quickly reminded what real gangsters are like. As he seeps deeper into that underworld to save his family, Neveah tries to solve the mystery of their mother’s death.
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My Friends by Fredrik Backman
One of the most famous paintings features three figures in the corner of the masterpiece that most don’t even notice. But when this precious work of art falls into Louisa’s hands she’s determined to find out who they are. Twenty-five years earlier, three teens escape difficult home lives by escaping to a pier to share secrets, laugh and grown. Soon, the two distinct stories will converge.
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Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
Unless you’re living under a rock, it was almost impossible to miss the third book in Rebecca Yarros’ dragon-riding series, The Empyrean. After an epic battle, Violet and Xaden know they can’t stay in Basgiath much longer. They have to go searching for answers if they are going to win. Journeying beyond the wards, they seek magic, truth and survival while facing some of their most brutal battles yet.
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The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
This quiet novel was an unexpected hit that the online world was loving this year. Sybil has an accomplished happy life. A mother, grandmother, wife, lawyer, divorcee, she’s spent her years writing letters to just about everyone she knows. Including letters that were never sent and would never be read. But when a set of letters forces her to face the hardest period of her life, she discovers there’s a need to dive deeper and possibly forgive.
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The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
In this Oprah’s Book Club pick, Hai is nineteen, standing on the edge of a bridge ready to jump when a woman stops him. An elderly widow suffering from dementia is his saving grace. Becoming her caretaker, Hai begins to rebuild his love for himself and his family through a bond with the woman who saved his life, forging a connection that changes everything.
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The Favorites by Layne Fargo
Katrina Shaw and Heath Rocha were an unlikely duo who took the Olympic skating world by storm. That is, until a shocking event brings their sensational careers to an end. Now it’s ten years after the incident and a documentary is coming that claims to tell the “real story”. Kat wants nothing to do with it, but she wants someone else telling her story even less. So now the truth about the past is coming out and it’s even wilder than anyone has guessed.
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The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb
Both a #1 New York Times bestseller and an Oprah’s Book Club pick, The River is Waiting swept readers away this year. Corby’s suffering some of the most difficult hardships in life—new parenthood, job loss, and a hidden addiction. When his struggles culminate in a life altering event, he’s sent to prison where he experiences the cruelest side of humanity as well as small acts of kindness. As he serves his time and makes meaningful connections, he’s left to wonder if what has been done can ever be forgiven.
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Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
The Salts live on a small island near Antarctica, serving as caretakers for the world’s largest seed bank. The isolation has taken its toll, but when Rowan washes ashore, it almost seems like an answer to their loneliness. The woman, however, is keeping secrets and it seems the head of the family, Dominic, has some of his own as well. In a book that people could not stop raving about in 2025, a storm of secrets threatens the possibility for a new life.
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