Hi and welcome to this first Top Ten Tuesday post of 2026! Even though the year has been six days old by now, we can’t officially ring in the new year with our new resolutions et cetera before listing our 2025 favourites. So, that’s exactly what I’m doing today! I’ll make this a whole 2025 wrap up post. Instead of 10 books, because that’s just not enough, I will do the same I did last year and curate my favourites list by picking one for each month. It’s a tough job, but it’s less of a “kill your darlings” thing than whenever I only make room for 10 books. I’ve started drafting this post already back in October, so I could pick my favourite books for the first months of the year and only had to add the additional ones later. I therefore didn’t have to think about drafting this post amidst all the holiday and new year chaos. Okay, I’m yapping too much once again, let’s take a look at my favourite books of 2025!
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
January
When looking back on January, the first month of the year was quite mixed reading wise. I had some good reads, some surprises, but also some emergency rereads to do. Onyx Storm got published, but I found myself not remembering one single bit of the previous books in this series. Oh well. This aforementioned book is not my monthly favourite, because A) I didn’t finish it before the end of January and B) my opinions on this book are still very conflicted. The spot for my monthly favourite is a tie between my first read of the year and a book that has been on my TBR for seven years, but I finally chose Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett in the end. This was my first read of the year and the audiobook captivated me from start to finish. I finished a good portion of this story within one day, but the last bit took me a bit longer. In my monthly wrap up, I wrote that I had a nasty head cold, so that would be the reason.
February
Compared to January, the shortest month of the year wasn’t particularly a good reading month. It took me long to finish a book and most of the books aren’t too memorable. I was slogging through Onyx Storm at snail’s pace and this caused some kind of reading slump for me. I have to pick a favourite however, and that book was pretty surprising considering it’s a Booktok romantasy hype. I’m talking about Spark of the Everflame by Penn Cole. I read the sequel this year as well and I have to admit that this didn’t give me that magic spark its predecessor did. It was just the quick and easy romantasy I needed at that point. The audiobook was an easy listen too.
March
This month was quite difficult for me. I got a stomach bug that didn’t leave me alone till well into April. It left and kept on returning. Thankfully, spring sprung early this year and I therefore was able to sit on the balcony with a book several times. This is pretty rare in March! This reflects back on my reading, because I read a total of 12 books, the most in the year so far. However, I ended up putting 2 of them aside. The other ratings for this month weren’t too great either, but there are three books I absolutely enjoyed. And just one of them stood out. Of course, that one is Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins, a book many people – including myself – were eagerly awaiting. This author still didn’t disappoint, even after returning to this universe she created nearly two decades ago!
April
Another beautiful month regarding the weather and the ability to sit outside with a book, because I did that a lot in April. However, the books themselves were not too great. I had to test Kobo Plus, so I reread several old favourites. They still remain my favourite, but to claim these my monthly favourites would be too easy. Most new books were just 3-star reads however. I also had another DNF. If I had to pick one standout for April, it’s a book that hasn’t been translated to English. It’s originally French (I read the Dutch edition). It’s called Tout le bleu du ciel and is written by Mélissa da Costa.
May
We have had a pretty good year when it comes to the possibility of sitting and reading outside in the sun, as May was no exception. Some colder days though, but that’s spring. I went to London this month but still managed to read a good amount of books. Most of them were just satisfying, not much else. I had one huge disappointment, but most books were again 3 stars. However, there is one exception to this rule. Caught Up by Liz Tomforde stood out for me this month, which was well-expected, even though the main couple wasn’t my favourite.
June
This was another month where I managed to read a lot of books outside in the sun but wasn’t too fond of many of these. They were summeresque and mostly okay. There were surprises, pleasant and unpleasant alike. However, there were two books that stood out to me, so it’s a tie between The Rule Book by Sarah Adams and Play Along by Liz Tomforde. If I really have to pick one, I would say Play Along by Liz Tomforde as this romance explores some heavier topics and captures just a little more character growth than the other one.
July
Another pretty average month in terms of books. Nearly all books got 3 stars or lower, I even had one DNF. There are two books that stood out for me this month and one of them only got 3.5 stars. But it is one of the better books I read this year. However, my monthly favourite has been sitting on my TBR for years and I really scolded at myself for not picking this up sooner. My very alternating past reading experiences with books by this author made me hold back a bit. The book I’m referring to and pick for my favourite for July is The Pearl that Broke its Shell by Nadia Hashimi. This book made me feel all the emotions: sadness, anger, but also hope. If you want to read a book with lots of deeper layers, I strongly recommend this one.
August
Oh well, and here we are. At the hardest month to pick a favourite book for, because I encountered a, for these days, rare phenomenon. I read 2 5-star reads and that’s really uncommon in this day and age. I even read those back-to-back! I was expecting to add a third to this list, but that didn’t work out the way I’d hoped. Anyway, the rest of the books I read this month were okay, some better than others. I unfortunately had to DNF Katabasis by R.F. Kuang, an occurrence I had foreseen though. When it comes to my favourite, it’s a real tie between Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid and The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston. I therefore blindly picked one and that’s the first of these two. I won’t say too much about it, because that might give away too much.
September
The first weeks of the month were still pretty summeresque and I was on my summer break. I was away for a week, and had the best weather of the entire month, even 30 degrees Celsius on the weekend. It was therefore possible to go to the beach even. My reading slowed down a bit, because I didn’t really feel the urge to pick up a book. I therefore opted for some easy Dutch non-fiction audiobooks, alongside fiction. These were fine. When looking into my fiction picks, there are three books that stood out to me. When the Fireflies Dance by Aisha Hassan, The Most Secret Memory of Men by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr and The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi. Out of these three I have to pick one favourite and that will be The Most Secret Memory of Men by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, even though The Death of Vivek Oji comes pretty close. This book is strongly unrecommended for people who are less experienced readers, because it’s challenging in terms of storytelling.
October
And here we are, the month were it all went downhill… I’m known for slumping good and hard in October and November, but stubbornly I hoped this would have been a different story in 2025. Nope, not this time. This month I only finished 4(!!!) books, can you believe it?! And I barely enjoyed any of them. They were 3 stars at best. However, I have one book that stood out to me, and funny enough it’s a memoir, a genre I barely read and definitely don’t rate. However, amidst all my slumpiness, I read Finding My Way by Malala Yousafzai and finished it in one day. This hasn’t occurred to me in a long, long time! So if I really have to pick a favourite, I think I have to go with this book.
November
Compared to October, my reading sped up in quantity. However, it’s hard to pick a favourite book of the month since the quality wasn’t that great. From the 8 books I read in November, I can hardy remember one as none of them stuck out. I know what book surprised me, but picking a favourite is just so hard. I think I just have to go with This Could Be Us by Kennedy Ryan, as this is the best of the bunch.
December
The final month of the year and my reading unexpectedly slowed down again. I read 5 books and they were quite mediocre or underwhelming. Except for one… I already mentioned in last week’s post about books that surprised me, but For Whom the Belle Tolls by Jaysea Lynn is – besides the most surprising book of the month – my favourite book of December. It’s quite unexpected as this is a Booktok hype and I often do not enjoy these too much.
These are my 2025 favourites. And now it’s up to you! What are your most favourite books you’ve read in 2025?
