Favorite Books of 2025

Posted on by Red-Haired Ash Reads

2025 is finally over, which means its time to talk about what my favorite books of the year were. Like usual, I cannot pick just 10 since I read so many books in a year, so I am just listing my top favorites by genre and linking my reviews. Also sometimes a whole series ends up on my favorites list, so some of these will just be a full series. So here were my favorite books of the year.

Paranormal Romance

As you have probably noticed by now, paranormal romance is my favorite genre and so there are quite a lot of books in this category. To start with, the series that I loved.

The Villainous Things series by C. Rochelle was such a fantastic surprises for me this year. I had owned the first book for years and keep seeing so many people rave about it, and so I finally picked it up. I ended up binged this series, and the spin off series too. This is a queer superhero and villains series that features a lot of steamy scenes and a lot of kinks. I loved all the characters in this and this fantastic world of supes and supe politics.

The Spooky Boys series by Fae Quin was also another surprise for me. I knew nothing about this series before reading it. I just got a free copy of the prequel one day and just jumped right into reading it. I ended up loving it and then binged the whole series over a week. Well outside of King of Hollywood which I just read recently since I didn’t realize it was part of the series. This is a queer series featuring MM, various paranormal creatures, and overcoming emotional trauma. I was hooked and couldn’t put these down.

The Passing Through Cafe series by Nik Knight is a fantastic queer series all about found family, love, and acceptance. I really loved all the unique and fantastic characters within this series and the found family aspect that was at this cafe. But as you can see here the second book is not featured because it was not my favorite and you can read my review on why, but I still think this is a great series.

Here are a few other paranormal romances that I loved this year that were not full series.

Urban Fantasy

Urban Fantasy is probably my second favorite genre to read, but this year I ended up not loving a lot of the ones I read. Here are the three that I loved, and they are all by some of my favorite authors, so it doesn’t surprise me.

Sci-Fi Romance

Sci-Fi romance is a genre that I love but go through spells of reading. This year I ended up reading a lot of sci-fi and loving a good chunk of what I read.

The Villains in Space series by C. Rochelle, is the spin-off series to the Villainous Things series (see above) and features one couple as they go on intergalactic adventures, fall heavily in love, and take down corrupt governments. Like the Villainous Things series, I was hooked to this series and ended up binging it within a few days. I am very glad I decided to read this authors books after both of these series were finished because they were so good and addicting. FYI though this is a series that would probably better read after reading the other series though because the first books starts after book 4 in the main series and references what is happening in that series.

The Galactic Bonds series by Jennifer Estep is one of my favorite sci-fi romances with enemies to lovers, psychic abilities, and fighting against corrupt leaders. Two new books for the series came out this year and they were both fantastic. I really can’t get enough of Vesper and Kyrian! Every time a new book comes out I end up rereading this series becuase I just love this world and characters.

The Cowboy Colony Mail-Order Brides series by Ursa Dax was on my list last year and here it is again because all four books that came out this year were fantastic. I really love this series and these alien prisoners who just want to find love. It features an alien penial colony, mail-order brides, beautiful romances, and great dialogue.

Here are a few more sci-fi romances that I ended up loving this year. Etta Pierce released a new Intersolar Union book and a novella set in the future of that universe. Anna Hackett released a spin-off series for her Hell Squad series and I really enjoyed the first book, Jameson.

Contemporary Romance

Contemporary romance is a genre I go through long stretches without reading. I did ended up reading more contemporary this year than I did last year, but still wasn’t a lot. Surprisingly though, almost all of it was enjoyable.

Like most people in the romance community, I have seen so much about Heated Rivalry and the Game Changer series over the past few weeks. I have owned the first book in this series for a few years now so I figured I would see what the hype is all about. I have enjoyed the whole series so far, but I will admit Ilya and Shane are not my favorites, which feels controversial to say with all the hype around them. I do still have the last book in the series to read, which is also their book, so we will see if my feelings for them change after I read it, which I will be in early January.

Here are a few more contemporary romances that made it on the list! I am not surprised that both of these are repeat authors from previous years either.

Graphics

My plan this year was to try and read 100 graphics, but that didn’t happen. I still read almost 70 but didn’t reach my goal due to being a mood reader and struggling mentally this year, especially after the house fire.

As soon as I saw the cover for this manga I knew I needed to read it. Tokyo Fears Rhapsody by Akira Sugito features a world of Fears (demons), who feed off the fear of humans. But our protagonist, Hachiro, is a Fear who refuses to scare humans and actually wants to protect them from Fears. This was just a fascinating world, with wonderful mixture of action, horror, and humor. I really can’t wait for more volumes to release of this.

Here are more graphics that I ended up loving this year. I did read almost the whole Solo Leveling series this year (minus the first three) but I didn’t review them on my blog this time, only on Goodreads and Storygraph, so check out my ratings/reviews there.

Nonfiction

This year was another year of nonfictions for me. I read over fifty nonfiction books and almost all of them were amazing. So needless to say, I have quite a few nonfiction favorites this year.

And we have come to the end of my favorite books of 2025! I hope you enjoyed this and found some new books to add to your TBR. Have you read any of these? If so, what were your thoughts on these books? Also, feel free to leave any recommendations for series or nonfiction books you think I should check out.

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