My Top Five Books of 2025

As I don't think I'm going to get any more reading time in before 11:59 pm on 31 December, I thought it was a good time to put together my annual recap of all the books I read in 2025 — and pick out my five favourites. I thought I'd beat last year's total of 123, but tapered off towards the end, reaching a total of 103 books.

1. This Is Fine by Poorna Bell

This Is Fine centres around Padma, who begins to build a new life and find unexpected happiness after spending the summer shacked up with her teenage niece. A moving and keenly observed story about love and loss, family and fulfilment, This Is Fine was the second book I read this year and it stayed with me until December.

2. The Appeal by Janice Hallett

 I love whodunnits and epistolary novels so Janice Hallett's series are right up my street. Two law students have been assigned to review an already completed murder case that took place among the theatre troupe in a small town. They, like we, have access to WhatsApps, emails and all sorts of other documents that should be sufficient to solve the crime. I enjoyed the deceit and backstabbing of the messages as much as the mystery.

3. Who Wants To Live Forever by Hanna Thomas Uose

I am slightly biased because I was in the same class at school as Hanna but her début novel is as thought-provoking and imaginative as it is poignant. Set between the recent past and near future, Who Wants To Live Forever asks us to imagine a world where healthful life extension drugs are available — but only one half of a couple wants to sign up.

4. The Favorites by Layne Fargo

It's Wuthering Heights meets I, Tonya in Layne Fargo's intense love story about obsession, ambition and the price of success in the world of elite figure skating. Katarina and Heath go from childhood sweethearts to ice dancing champions before rivalries and their turbulent romance risk destroying everything. Years later, a new documentary is throwing them back into the public eye and threatening to expose long-buried secrets.

5. This Motherless Land by Nikki May

The second reimagining of a 19th century novel to make my top five, This Motherless Land transports Mansfield Park to 1980s and 1990s Lagos and Taunton. This coming-of-age story is a richly portrayed family saga about identity, resilience and what it means to belong. I loved May's début, Wahala, too and can't wait to watch the forthcoming BBC TV adaptation.

Five more books I enjoyed, which didn't quite make my top 5 this year:

• The Last Truths We Told by Holly Watt
• One of Us by Elizabeth Day
• The Inheritance by Trisha Sakhlecha
• Park Avenue by Renée Ahdieh
• Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell

My full 2025 reading list

1. The Lake of Lost Girls — Katherine Greene
2. This Is Fine — Poorna Bell
3. Truth Truth Lie — Claire McGowan
4. No Place to Run — Mark Edwards
5. The Housemaid Is Watching — Freida McFadden
6. Her Deadly Game — Robert Dugoni
7. The Woman in the Cabin — Becca Day
8. The House on Rye Lane — Susan Allott
9. The Hollows — Mark Edwards
10. In Five Years — Rebecca Serle
11. The Verifiers — Jane Pek
12. The Note — Alafair Burke
13. Beautiful Ugly — Alice Feeney
14. The Inheritance — Trisha Sakhlecha
15. The Business Trip — Jessie Garcia
16. The Favorites — Layne Fargo
17. Vantage Point — Sara Sligar
18. Ink Ribbon Red — Alex Pavesi
19. The Examiner — Janice Hallett
20. Let Me In — Claire McGowan
21. The Last Truths We Told — Holly Watt
22. The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey — Astrid Dahl
23. Making a Killing — Cara Hunter
24. Famous Last Words — Gillian McAllister
25. Trust Issues — Elizabeth McCullough Keenan & Greg Wands 
26. A Killing Cold — Kate Alice Marshall
27. This Motherless Land — Nikki May
28. Head Cases — John McMahon
29. The Curfew — T.M. Logan
30. We Are Watching — Alison Gaylin
31. The Woman in Room 13 — Leah Konen
32. The Proof of My Innocence — Jonathan Coe
33. Close Your Eyes and Count to 10 — Lisa Unger
34. You Are Fatally Invited — Ande Pliego
35. The Appeal — Janice Hallett
36. Deep Fear — Rachel Lynch
37. Saltwater — Katy Hays
38. Piglet — Lottie Hazell
39. The Rivals — Jane Pek
40. The Perfect Marriage — Jeneva Rose
41. A Girl Like Us — Anna Sophia McLoughlin
42. The Death of Us — Abigail Dean
43. Deep Cuts — Holly Brickley
44. Every Move You Make — C.L. Taylor
45. The Trial — Jo Spain
46. The Perfect Divorce — Jeneva Rose
47. The Safari — Jaclyn Goldis
48. Parents Weekend — Alex Finlay
49. Marble Hall Murders — Anthony Horowitz
50. The Missing Half — Ashley Flowers
51. Three Days in June — Anne Tyler
52. Living with Limerence — Tom Bellamy
53. The Surf House — Lucy Clarke
54. The Bachelorette Party — Camilla Sten
55. Park Avenue — Renée Ahdieh
56. Other People’s Houses — Clare Mackintosh
57. The Cliff Hanger — Emily Freud
58. The Night She Dies — Sarah Clarke
59. Death at the White Hart — Chris Chibnall
60. Table for One — Emma Gannon
61. The Original Daughter — Jemimah Wei
62. Maine Characters — Hannah Orenstein
63. Everyone Is Lying to You — Jo Piazza
64. Don’t Let Him in — Lisa Jewell
65. The Other Passenger — Louise Candlish
66. Kill Your Darlings — Peter Swanson
67. The Woman in Suite 11 — Ruth Ware
68. The Secret Room — Jane Casey
69. She Didn’t See It Coming — Shari Lapena
70. Our Last Resort — Clémence Michallon
71. Not Quite Dead Yet — Holly Jackson
72. So Good To See You — Francesca Hornak
73. A Novel Murder — E.C. Nevin
74. Death of an Englishman — Anna Beer
75. The Last Resort — Ali Lowe
76. Where There Was Fire — John Manuel Arias
77. No One Saw a Thing — Andrea Mara
78. Pity Party — Daisy Buchanan
79. The Beach Holiday — Nina Manning
80. Last Seen — J.T. Ellison
81. The Hallmarked Man — Robert Galbraith
82. Favourite Daughter — Morgan Dick
83. Room 706 — Ellie Levenson
84. The Trivia Night — Ali Lowe
85. Don’t Open Your Eyes — Liv Constantine
86. The School Run — Ali Lowe
87. We Are All Guilty Here — Karin Slaughter
88. The Twyford Code — Janice Hallett
89. The Killer Question — Janice Hallett
90. The Academy — Elin Hilderbrand & Shelby Cunningham
91. The Ex — Alafair Burke
92. The Chamber — Will Dean
93. One of Us — Elizabeth Day
94. A Trial in Three Acts — Guy Morpuss
95. All Her Fault — Andrea Mara
96. The Secret of Secrets — Dan Brown
97. What the Wife Knew — Lia Middleton
98. Gifted and Talented — Olivie Blake
99. Hot Desk — Laura Dickerman
100. The 6:40 to Montreal — Eva Jurczyk
101. Long Way Down — Lisa Kusel
102. Who Wants To Live Forever — Hanna Thomas Uose
103. El Dorado Drive — Megan Abbott

Read my other 2025 round-ups: Top travel experiences, specialty coffee and food favourites.