We have been touched by so many gorgeous novels this year, it’s hard to narrow them down to just a few. In the Contemporary space, we’ve had mega-bestsellers release unforgettable books. From Jennifer Weiner to Emily Henry and a much-awaited release from TJR, our TBR’s are the real winners of 2025.

This year, the winner of the She Reads Best Contemporary of 2025 Award is:

Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

Emily Henry goes full cat-and-mouse on a sun-lit island. Eternal optimist Alice and Pulitzer-polished grump Hayden both want the same prize: to tell the untold life of vanished heiress Margaret Ives. Margaret grants a one-month audition—and doles out different puzzle pieces under an ironclad NDA—so rivals can’t compare notes, only smolder. Alice wants the win, the byline, the family respect; Hayden wants…her gone, maybe. Or not. Sparkling banter, mystery threads and big-heart romance make this a delicious tale about who gets to tell a woman’s story.

Buy the book: Bookshop.org | Amazon

And don’t miss out on the rest of our favorite contemporary reads from 2025!

Show Don’t Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld

In her second story collection, Sittenfeld delivers that friend-who-tells-the-truth vibe with crackling wit and heart. Women renegotiate desire, work and aging in rooms that feel lived in. A post-divorce reunion stings then soothes. A married artist stress-tests the Mike Pence Rule and finds gray areas. These stories are sly, warm and piercing, perfect for group chats and book clubs. You’ll finish one and immediately want to text someone. These stories peel back layers of our inner lives, and are smart, funny and quietly devastating in the best way.

Buy the book: Bookshop.org | Amazon

The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner

Once a glittering pop duo, sisters Cassie and Zoe haven’t spoken in twenty years—until Zoe’s determined teen Cherry decides it’s reunion time. Now fortyish, Zoe juggles suburban mom life in Jersey while Cassie lives off-grid in Alaska, and the truth about that terrible night won’t stay buried. Weiner brings her trademark warmth, wit and bighearted drama to a story about sisterhood, second chances and the messy work of forgiveness. You’ll laugh, tear up and text your sister after the last page.

Buy the book: Bookshop.org | Amazon

My Friends by Fredrik Backman

Backman’s latest is a love letter to friendship and the art that remembers it. In a seaside town, four teens escape bruised homes on an abandoned pier, trading jokes, secrets and tiny rebellions. Decades later, Louisa—an aspiring artist—inherits a mysterious painting of three figures and hits the road to learn who they were and what it cost them to be seen. Expect humor, ache and a quiet, stunning payoff. This read is for women who cherish found family, creative courage and the way one summer can shape a life.

Buy the book: Bookshop.org | Amazon

The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett

Meet PJ Halliday, sixty-something ex–lottery winner who is short on health and purpose until life hands him two newly orphaned kids, his fierce adult daughter and a cat that eerily predicts death. When the chance to reconnect with his high-school crush pops up, they pile into a car for a cross-country quest that turns into a found-family miracle. Darkly funny and big-hearted, this one explores caregiving, second chances and what love asks of us at every age. Readers who adore quirky, tender road novels: buckle up.

Buy the book: Bookshop.org | Amazon

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

On a wind-lashed island near Antarctica, the Salt family guards the world’s largest seed bank—until a stranger, Rowan, washes ashore in a brutal storm. Healing turns to hope, then to suspicion: sabotaged radios, a new grave and secrets on both sides. McConaghy’s gift for fierce nature writing and thorny, tender hearts is on full display. This is survival as love story—found family and the cost of keeping one another safe when the planet itself feels precarious. This read is haunting, breathless and wildly romantic.

Buy the book: Bookshop.org | Amazon

We All Live Here by Jojo Moyes

Jojo Moyes returns with a fresh contemporary about Lila Kennedy, whose life is a beautiful mess: a crumbling house, two unruly daughters, an unexpected live-in stepfather, a career wobble and a love life she’d rather not define. Then the dad who vanished to Hollywood decades ago shows up on her doorstep and everything tilts. What follows is a tender, funny reset about blended families, forgiveness you didn’t think you had and choosing the kind of home that feels true. This read is a must; nobody writes women like Moyes.

Buy the book: Bookshop.org | Amazon

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Taylor Jenkins Reid heads to NASA in the ’80s with Joan Goodwin, a thoughtful physics prof who trades campus life for astronaut training when NASA invites women scientists to the shuttle program. In Houston she finds fierce friends, a once-in-a-lifetime love, and a purpose that pulls harder than gravity. The countdown builds toward a 1984 mission that will test everything. Fast, romantic and exhilarating, Atmosphere is for anyone who’s ever wanted more—career, courage and a sky big enough to hold both love and ambition.

Buy the book: Bookshop.org | Amazon