Some years I have a hard time even coming up with ten books for my list of favorites. This year, I cut a few out. It’s just my own preference to do ten. I tell people who send their lists that they don’t have to limit it to ten. As Mark Barker said, it’s supposed to be fun! And, I have ten adult books and one children’s picture book on my list of favorite books read this year, not favorite books published in 2025.
Before I kick off the list, I’ll remind you this is a list of my favorites, not a Best Books list. I read a few that appeared on some Best Books list, but they weren’t my favorite books this year. These are ones I still remember, and loved when I read them. If you missed them the first time around, this is a reminder list.
I’ll be running lists from some of our friends on Fridays, beginning on January 9. My list is in the order I read them.
Andrew Welsh-Huggins launched a new series with The Mailman. Mercury Carter is a former postal inspector who takes his job as a deliveryman seriously. When he’s supposed to deliver a package, he won’t let anything or anyone stand in his way. When he witnesses the kidnapping of the woman who was to receive his latest package, he tracks the kidnappers in order to rescue the woman. Carter’s skills are unusual and unexpected in this fun thriller. I can’t wait to read The Delivery in March.
I could have picked from several J.D. Robb or Nora Roberts books this year, but I selected Bonded in Death as my favorite. Lieutenant Eve Dallas’ latest case has a close personal connection and links to a secret organization from the Urban Wars, long before Eve was born. Now, Eve and Roarke have to protect eight people from a killer bent on revenge for the past.
I seldom stay up to finish a book, but Kate Storey’s The Memory Library, a beautiful book about family, misunderstandings, and books, had me in tears at times, and kept me turning pages. Sally Harrison’s daughter, Ella, fled to Australia twenty-one years ago after an argument. They’ve only had short, cold conversations since. When an accident brings Ella home, she discovers she never understood her family’s past. It’s a treasured library and special books that finally bring the family together, and brings them love.
The cover of Rachel Linden’s The Secret of Orange Blossom Cake caught my eye, but I loved the story. It’s a delightful book with a mature character struggling with her fears. There are wonderful characters, and my sister, Linda, and I both wanted to pack for Italy after reading about the Italian setting on Lake Garda, along with all the food. It’s a beautiful story of loss, love, and family. What do we owe family? And, how do we honor and create family? What memories still haunt us?
One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune is a beach read, although I caught it several months later. Alice Everly, a photographer, drops everything to help her grandmother who is suffering from a broken hip and depression. They return to a beloved summer cottage on a lake in Canada. Alice, a shy woman, meets the cottage’s caretaker, who helps her discover the life she missed as a teen. It’s a hot summer book, filled with sexual attraction and the painful past experiences of two needy adults.
I was so pleased when Jenn McKinlay told me the sequel to Witches of Dubious Origin was in her editor’s hands. I wanted a sequel the minute I finished this book featuring a librarian who is learning at the Museum of Literature’s special collection, Books of Dubious Origin (BODO). Zoe Ziakas’ mother and grandmother were witches, but at fourteen she promised her mother she wouldn’t practice witchcraft. Instead, she hid away as a librarian until a grimoire appeared in an enveloped addressed to Zoe, just a month after her mother’s death. Now, circumstances force her to work with powerful witches and mages in order to learn to open and use the book. She has to fight a powerful witch, and fight the dead who are brought back to kill her. Dead bodies, ghouls and ghostly pirates are now just in a day’s work.
The Dentist isn’t my favorite DS Cross thriller by Tim Sullivan, but it’s the book that introduced me to this unusual police detective in a police procedural series that has become a favorite. It isn’t the case in this book that stood out; it was Cross himself, and the team he works with. DS George Cross in on the autism spectrum with Asperger’s syndrome. He’s a complex character, but he’s persistent when he investigates cases. He drives his fellow police, especially his partners and supervisors, nuts, but 97% of his cases result in successful convictions. Cross doesn’t recognize emotions. He has no empathy. He lives by rules and routine, but that leads to success. The book is memorable because of Cross’ character, as well as Sullivan’s development of Cross’ relationship with his co-workers.
Matthew Norman’s novel, Grace & Henry’s Holiday Movie Marathon, wasn’t at all what I expected. I expected a story in which the two main characters watched holiday movies, and discussed them. There was a little of that, but this story of two grieving people was better than I expected. Grace White and Henry Adler both lost their spouses in January. Grace was left with two children, ten-year-old Ian and six-year-old Bella. Henry spends way too much time at his parents’ until the two are “Mommed”, set up by their mothers. It’s a rough year for two people who lost spouses they loved. But, they slowly work their way through grief, with the help of family, friends at work, a dog, and a funny mouse situation. There’s humor int he book, and rebounding grief. It’s an unexpected pleasure to read about two people making it through a year, one movie at a time.
Romantasy was a hot genre in 2025, a combination of romance and fantasy. Amy Rose Bennett kicks off the first book in her Parasol Academy series with The Nanny’s Handbook for Magic and Managing Difficult Dukes. The book is a sexy, romantic novel featuring two characters with problems. There’s a little mystery as someone is trying to sabotage the Duke of St. Lawrence’s clocks and house. Mrs. Emmeline Chase, a widow, is a recent graduate of the Parasol Academy, who takes on the job as nanny for the three wards of Xavier Mason, the Duke of St. Lawrence. The characters are intriguing. Emmeline tries to follow the Academy’s rules for a proper nanny, but it’s difficult when she’s attracted to her boss. Xavier Mason is obviously on the autism spectrum. He hates to be touched, hates for his clothes to be wet, can’t read people well. But, he’s much more at ease and comfortable with Emmeline, and finds himself falling in love with her. A little magic. Quite a bit of sexual attraction. A spicy story. And, a group of people trying to put together a close found family.
I seldom comment about the writing in novels because I tend to read for character, but Paula Munier’s mysteries are one of the few exceptions. In The Snow Lies Deep, the seventh Mercy Carr mystery, Munier describes a Vermont Christmas with poetic, magical turns of phrase. It’s a suspenseful book, with nostalgic, rustic descriptions of the town of Northshire and Grackle Tree Farm. Mercy and Troy, and all of their extended family, are celebrating the first Christmas for their daughter, Felicity. That means everyone is enjoying the wonder of winter through the eyes of a toddler, including Northshire’s Solstice Soiree, twelve days of eating, drinking and making merry that begins with the winter solstice. Then Santa Claus is murdered, and Mercy’s mother begs her to investigate. The Snow Lies Deep is a beautifully written descriptive story that captures the picturesque Vermont winter and Christmas celebrations.
My children’s book on the list is one that I bought for myself as well as for children in the family. There’s something about Kate DiCamillo’s Orris and Timble books that speaks to my heart. The current one, Orris and Timble: Lost and Found is a story of friendship, being lost, and finding your way home. Carmen Mok’s illustrations just add to the heartfelt, beautiful story. Take the endpapers. The opening ones show Orris, the rat, sitting by himself with the moon in the background. The final endpapers show Timble, the owl, flying toward the moon.
These are my favorite books of the year; books that touched my heart or my emotions for one reason or another. Don’t forget to watch for other lists from our friends, coming on Fridays, beginning Jan. 9 with Jeff Meyerson’s list.
A good list! Everybody liked The Mailman but me!
I just sent my list in.
Thank you, Glen. That’s okay. It wouldn’t be fun if we all liked the same books.
I really enjoyed reading through your comments on this list, Lesa. You’ve mentioned many (all?) of these books during the year as you’ve read them, and as a result, I’ve bought and read several of them, although I haven’t read them all yet. It’s great to see which ones stood out as your favorites! Thank you.
Thank you, Kim. I enjoyed going back and remembering the books I read to pick out my favorites. It’s not always easy.
Great list. As you’ll see next week, THE MAILMAN is on my list, as is THE DENTIST. I know Jackie You can would have J. D. Robb on her list, and probably Carley Fortune as well, should she do a list. Even though I read the Paula Munier after I sent in my list, and even though it probably wouldn’t quite have made the cut, I liked it a lot too. It would be easy to be cloying with dogs and cute babies, but she never is. And there are a couple of other things I haven’t read that do seem interesting to me,
Thank you, Jeff! I’m looking forward to sharing your list with everyone next week. You and Jackie will be safely ensconced in Florida, although the weather there wasn’t much better than here this past week! I think a few of those titles might have been on Jackie’s list.
Every day, Jackie keeps telling me the Florida weather – 77! 80! whatever. They are have a “cool down” this week to the 60s, but it should be mid-to-upper 70s when we arrive. I can’t remember the last time we had such a prolonged period of cold weather here in November and December combined, without at least one break. The only breaks (like yesterday) have been one day at a time. At least (fingers crossed) we haven’t had a lot of you-know-what.
I drove back to Canal Winchester today in snow. Not fun. I hope your trip to Florida doesn’t involve any of that white stuff. The further south I went, the better it was, but it took over 1 1/2 hours to get out of it, Jeff.
Great list Lesa. I’ve actually found four of them on our library catalogue so I’m going to add them to my saved list. I wish they’d get at least one Tim Sullivan – he seems to have passed them by so far.
I’m just back from visiting the wonderful Garden Futures exhibition at the Dundee V & A. I thought about buying the related book until I discovered it cost £50 (sale price!) so I’m just hoping our library decides to buy that.
That’s terrific, Rosemary, that some of the books are in your library. I wish they’d get Tim Sullivan, too. After all, he’s British, not American! But, I hope you enjoy the ones you do get to pick up.
Ouch! $50 is a lot.
Jackie liked the sound of that Witches book, and in turn she recommends Darynda Jones’s Betwixt and Between series, with witches, ghosts, humor and romance, the perfect combination. There are four books, starting with BETWIXT.
Tell Jackie thank you! I just downloaded Betwixt for free on Kindle Unlimited!
I have a copy of The Nanny’s Handbook for Managing Difficult Dukes but I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet. I did enjoy Orris and Timble.
Sandy, When the time is right, I hope you enjoy The Nanny’s Handbook. It was just fun.
I like your list Lesa! Of the ten I’ve read three of them (Orris, Nanny, and Dentist), and I have another three but haven’t read them yet (Orange Blossom, Grace and Henry, Witches). Of those six, three I discovered on my own and three from you.
I think I might get ‘The Mailman’. And since I’ve read the first Paula Munier one, I’ll continue that series.
(Just a couple of days ago I was at the bookstore and was choosing between The Memory Library and The Forgotten Book Club and ended up choosing the book club one because the other one sounded too sad! I’ll likely read it anyway at some point.)
Thank you, Lindy! Yes, The Memory Library is sad. The ending is sad, but perfect for the book. In the end, it was a warm, comforting book. But, I think you have to be ready for it.
Thank you, Lesa! I have read six (!) of those on your list, and have one more out from the library right now. One of the six will be on my list as well, which I am working on as we speak.
Thank you, Lesa. I’ve read three of your titles. I have the orange blossom cake one on reserve. Not sure why I didn’t pick up the Jen McKinlay one. I usually read all of her books.
Sharon, The Jenn McKinlay one is a departure for her. That might be why you didn’t pick it up.
Margie, There are people waiting to see your list. Donna asked me about it on Sunday. She looks forward to what you and Kaye are reading because they’re similar to her reading taste. No hurry, though. There are three scheduled right now.
Jackie gave me her list to post:
Ali Hazelwood, Bride
J. D. Robb, Bonded In Death
J. R. Ward, Lover Forbidden
Shelly Laurenston, To Kill a Badger
Abby Jimenez, Part Of Your World
Christine Feehan, Thunder Game
Darynda Jones, First Grave On the Left
Nora Roberts, Mind Games
Emily Henry, Great Big Beautiful Life
Ashley Poston, A Novel Love Story
Tell Jackie I said thank you! We both picked Bonded in Death over the art one. I need to read the Emily Henry and the Ashley Poston; maybe First Grave on the Left. Thanks!
Great List, I added the ones that I really wanted but didn’t win to my wishlist.
Thank you, Carol. Good luck with your Wish List!
I love your list. We enjoyed, as usual, many of the same books. My stand-out for the year is The Correspondent by Virginia Evans.
As I love your list, Kaye, knowing that you only finish them if you enjoyed them. I love epistolary novels just as you do, but The Correspondent didn’t stand out for me as much as Jenn’s book did.
so funny how it is, and always will be, different books for different folks. Like you said to Glen. “That’s okay. It wouldn’t be fun if we all liked the same books.”
I just sent you my list of favorites.
Thank you, Kaye! I love your list, and I know other readers will as well.
I have read two books, BONDED IN DEATH and THE DENTIST on your list and very much enjoyed both.
I love that my discovery this year was Tim Sullivan, Kevin. He’s terrific.
There are so many books that it is easy to miss some great ones. Thanks for highlighting these. Sounds like some great choices.
And sorry I’m just now reading this. It’s like the holidays completely threw me off.