Feature: Favorite Reads of 2025

Well it is that time of year, when readers share their favorite reads of the year, and even though both Christy and I haven’t read as much as we have in other years, we still want to share with you the books we enjoyed most! Favorites are just that, personal opinions, because something made us feel a certain way, is in fact our definition of what we choose to be on our favorites list.

Kelly & Christy’s Shared Favorite Reads of 2025

1. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab: Sapphic vampires. Also V.E. Schwab.
2. Sunrise on The Reaping by Suzanne Collins: We are never going to forgive Suzanne.
3. The Favorites by Layne Fargo: Also, best audiobook, full cast.
4. All Fired Up by M.K. England: Fire maker + Firefighter = Fire.
5. Exquisite Things by Abdi Nazemian: This is unsurprisingly amazing and everyone needs to read it.
6. Dan in Green Gables: A Graphic Novel Modern Retelling by Rey Terciero: The update we didn’t know we needed.

Christy’s Favorite Reads of 2025

My reading this year leaned heavily toward immersive, emotionally charged fiction, with a clear pull toward dark, tense, and thought-provoking stories that still made room for humor, hope, and heart (shocking, I know). I read 103 books as of 12/26 (most of them fiction but I did get a few NF in there!) and continue to pick up fast-to-medium paced reads under 300 pages, mostly audiobooks which is how I continue to fit reading into my busy life. Horror, YA, fantasy by way of vampires, romance, and queer stories dominated my TBR, with a typical showing from authors who blend genre with social commentary and emotional depth. Here are the ones that have stuck with me!

• I Think They Love You by Julian Winters: Julian Winters is a cinnamon roll and so is this book. I am so excited to read its companion in the new year!
• The Corruption of Hollis Brown by K. Ancru: Horror? Thriller? Paranormal? Everything. And it’s queer as heck. If you liked The Dead Romantics but wished it leaned more horror, this is for you.
• Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White: What can I say about this book other than it is perfect? It is heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time? The contemporary cousin of Sunrise on the Reaping. Haymitch, you and Miles would have gotten along.
• Bloom by Delilah S. Dawson: Cannibal sapphic cozy horror. You’re welcome.
• You Belong Here by Sara Phoebe Miller & Morgan Beem: The depth of this story combined with the art has just sat with me since I picked it up.
• Better the Devil by Erik J. Brown: Every twist in this book had me turning the pages faster than I could read them. Put it on your winter TBR!
• Thirsty by Lucy Lehane: Queer vampires. That’s it.
• A Hexcellent Chance to Fall in Love by Ann Rose: This was everything my 90s fall movie heart needed (and more).
• Acquired Taste by Chad McLeod Chapman: Small bites (ha) of stories with all of the teeth (badumtis) of Chad’s unique horror storytelling. I was horrofied and enraptured the whole time.
• Sisters in the Wind by Angeline Boulley: So much of this book has just stuck with me and I can’t recommend it enough.
• Absolutely Everything: A Graphic Novel by Damian Alexander: Put Damian’s graphic novels on every school library shelf. His words, and his art, are meant for people to see themselves in his characters. This one is no exception!

Kelly’s Favorite Reads of 2025

I set a low reading goal for 2025 -just 52 books, hoping I would read a book a week. I had a lot going on at the end of 2024 through 2025 medically, the big C, and I knew my mind might not be fit for reading. I did find myself pretty on track all year, and throw in a few novellas and boom I have cleared my goal and kept going (not by much- as of 12/28 – I have completed 60)! According to Storygraph – I read mostly emotional, lighthearted, funny, and hopeful books – mostly LGBTQIA+, Romance, and Young Adult. 77% audiobooks, 15% digital, and 8% print totaling 3,368 pages and 439 hours! Here’s to 2026!

• Holy Terrors (Little Thieves #3) by Margaret Owen – I mean Margaret is definitely my brand of weird and fantastical stories. Love this trilogy and I barely read fantasy anymore, but I will lay down all the contemporary for whatever Margaret writes!
• The Raven Boys: The Graphic Novel by Sas Milledge, Stephanie Williams, and Maggie Stiefvater – I love the weirdness of TRB and I think the GN did an amazing job at getting to the most important parts of the story.
• Roll for Love by M.K. England – fun, nerdy, and finding your place in the group.
• The Broposal by Sonora Reyes – This is a new adult read when long term friends become…fake married to lovers.
• Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk by Kathleen Hanna – Bikini Kill was such an inspirational band for me in the 90s, and Le Tigre became the replacement. When BK reunited I literally cried happy tears in the venue watching them all belt out the old hits. Of course I was going to read Kathleen’s memoir.
• Such Great Heights: The Complete Cultural History of the Indie Rock Experience by Chris DeVille – I am very much into indie rock from the 90s & early 00s and this book hits those early times and brings it all the way to the current. I felt seen, and scene, and then lost in time.
• Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle – my first Tingle book, and I loved it so much, I went back and read all of their thrillers this year, except the newest release hoping for my library hold to come in 2026!
• The Free People’s Village by Sim Kern – this is a futuristic radical read, that can really mess you up, and also give you a tiny bit of hope along the way.
• When Love Gives You Lemons by Steven Salvatore – okay this book was just so FUNNY, like I was cracking up and there’s good breaking the 4th wall. There is also second chances gay love in Italy!