The Best of the Best – Our Favourite books of 2025
So now the reviewing team has revealed their favourite books of 2025, it’s time for us to choose our single, favourite book of the year. Here are our choices – don’t forget to stop by and let us know yours in the comments!
Caz:
Dark Water series by Xanthe Walter
As I explained in my Best of post, the four books in the Dark Water series tell one complete story and it’s impossible to single out just one of them as they make no sense independently! The combination of gripping suspense, complex, well-developed characters, superb world-building and gorgeous romance hooked me in from the get-go and I can’t remember the last time I was on so many tenterhooks awaiting the next book that I was counting down the days. (Thankfully, author Xanthe Walter released them with gaps of only two months in between, otherwise I’d have been tearing my hair out!) It’s not a story that will work for everyone – it’s angsty, it’s violent at times, and it contains some dark themes (although it’s not ‘dark romance’) – but it hit just right for me, and the grip it had on me for about six months during spring/summer 2025 is why I’m making the Dark Water series my favourite book of the year.
Dabney:
The Everlasting by Alix E Harrow
The book that will stay with me most profoundly from this past year is Charlotte McConaghy’s Wild Dark Shore. It is a novel deeply concerned with love, but it is not, finally, a love story—and this is, after all, a site devoted to love stories. For that reason, my choice for best book of the year, one nearly as powerful as Wild Dark Shore, is Alix E. Harrow’s The Everlasting.
The Everlasting is, in part, a story about how we tell and control the stories of our world. In 2025, it feels especially urgent to pay attention to how leaders shape the narratives of the past. But more than that, it is a magnificent love story. Love—true love—is worth fighting for, and Una and Owen must wage war for their relationship and for their nation’s chance at a happy ending.
The Everlasting made me cry. It had me reaching for the people I love. And it reminded me, once again, that love is the greatest gift we are given.
Kayne:
One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune
One Golden Summer is my pick for best book of the year. It has a beautiful lake setting and a bucket list full of adventures. Alice is a burned-out photographer who goes to visit her favorite summer place with her grandma. Charlie is taking care of their cabin and when he sees her bucket list, he asks if he can join in. They jump off cliffs, float in innertubes and go for rides in his boat, but Alice begins to suspect Charlie is hiding something. It’s a perfect summer escape and my favorite book of the year.
Laura:
Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone
An early read in 2025 and one I’m still thinking about – and my favourite book of the year. I’m a sucker for a grief representation that scours my insides and makes me cry. This has all of that, alongside a tender, slow-burn romance between complicated characters in my most favourite romantic setting: New York City.
Lisa:
Anne of Avenue A by Audrey Bellezza and Emily Harding is my pick of the year. Comforting when I needed it to be, it has spice, humor and personality to spare.
Maria Rose:
Promise me Sunshine by Cara Bastone
Good stuff, y’all!
My 5 star books published in 2025:
All Us Murderers by KJ Charles
Hudson River Homicides (Momenti Mori 4) by CS Poe
Viscounts and Villainy (Roaring Twenties Magic 3) by Allie Therin
Reading Between the Lines (Shadowy Solutions 3) by Nicky James
A Breath of Life (Shadowy Solutions 4) by Nicky James
The Shots You Take By Rachel Reid.
The Meaning of You by Jay Hogan
He’s to Die For by Erin Dunn
Cowboy Dreams by Kaje Harper- Really excellent novella.
Paternal Instincts (Valor and Doyle 8) by Nicky James
I enjoyed All Us Murderers, the Nicky James books, and The Shots You Take. There was so much time between the 3rd and 4th books in the Momenti Mori series and the ongoing thread is so complex that I think I need to start the whole series again from the beginning (a long way of saying I have it but haven’t read book 4). The Meaning of You and Cowboy Dreams are also in my TBR and I’m patiently waiting for the e-book for He’s to Die For to come down in price :)
When I read Hudson River Homicides I realized I didn’t have all the characters and connection down as well as I thought. I did get confused about some things. I’m definitely going to do a relisten to all the books before the audio of HRH comes out. I might even take notes!
Cowboy Dreams is a book you can read pretty quickly. Also, Ms. Harper wrote this: THANK YOU – You folks helped me give $4,064.00 to Nova Ukraine in 2025. You folks are awesome! I’ve decided to extend this through 2026 – so now *All royalties from this book through December 2026 will be donated to Nova Ukraine – a 501(c)(3) registered nonprofit organization dedicated to providing humanitarian aid to Ukraine*
I bought Cowboy Dreams last month. Thanks for letting me know I contributed to a good cause!
I’m surprised that there are no comments here so far! I wonder if it’s because we have all been concentrating on recommendations for the upcoming Top 100 poll? I guess that just means more space for me, ha ha! But, for real, this is going to be a long post.
I’m going to cheat a little because for 2025, the best books I read were published a year or so before. I’m putting out recommendations for 3 authors that were new-to-me in 2025. They all published books in 2025 but my favorites were not from that year.
The first is Jess K. Hardy, whose Bluebird Basin series is M/F contemporary (she also has a M/F sci-fi romance series that I have yet to read). My favorite book was Lips Like Sugar, which is billed as a Gen X romance (the title is a New Wave song from the 80s by Echo and the Bunnymen). The book takes place in a ski town in Montana and features a baker named Mira who is a single mom of a teenager and also cares for her mother, who is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Circumstances bring about a little fake dating with a friend of a friend named Cole, who is an ex-drummer from a rock band, and then they eventually fall in love. Their banter is SO GOOD. It’s not common to see romances with older protagonists, especially those dealing with the sandwich issues of middle-age (responsibilities for both your children and your parents). The first book in the series (Come As You Are) is also a Gen X book but the protagonists in the 3rd (Wish You Were Here, published in 2025) are in their 20s. This is a fantastic series.
The second author is J.J. Mulder, who writes M/M contemporary. She has 2 series, both sports romance (hockey) – Offsides features NHL players and SCU Hockey takes place in college. The sports aspect is more prominent in Offsides but neither is very sports heavy. My favorite in the Offsides series is Between the Pipes (book 3, from 2024), featuring goalie Anthony and college hockey coach Nico (it leads into the SCU Hockey series). Nico is partially blind due to a hockey injury and very grumpy (that’s my catnip). The book has one of my favorite microtropes, which is when one character gets sick and the other takes care of them. My favorite in the SCU Hockey series is Save the Game (book 2, from 2024), which features Max (a hockey player) and Luke (a baseball player). Max was the victim of sexual assault a year before the books starts and then meets sunshiny Luke, a campus flirt who falls hard for Max. The book ends a little abruptly but I was OK with it as you see more of Max and Luke in the next books and their story feels more complete. Book 3 (On the Edge) in this series is from 2025 and is excellent too.
The third author is C. Travis Rice, which is the name author Christopher Rice (son of Anne Rice) uses for his M/M contemporary romance series called Sapphire Cove. This is an interesting series in that they take place in modern times but have this big, bombastic, dramatic feel of romances written in the 70s or TV shows from the 80s like Dynasty. Sapphire Cove is a luxury beachfront hotel in Southern California (Orange County) and the books feature the people who work there. The first book was published in 2022 and the fourth in 2024 with a MMM novella in 2025. I liked the first book (Sapphire Sunset) the best, which is a second chance romance featuring the hotel’s owner/manager Connor and ex-Marine Logan, who now works security for the hotel. If you are looking for nitty, gritty realism, these aren’t the books for you but if you want something wild and dramatic (and very steamy), you would like these.
If anyone has read from these authors or picks up one of their books based on my recommendation, please let me know if you like them too!
I read and really enjoyed the first two books of J.J. Mulder’s SCU Hoickey series. the second one is my favorite so far, too. I started the third book, but really didn’t like Atlas and felt the author missed the boat with Henry. He’s supposedly fluent in several languiages but doesn’t know English well after 3 or 4 years in college here? Doesn’t make any sense to me. I also read the first in her Offsides seeries and it was sweet. I might try the next one.
I felt Henry spoke English well but in a much more formal way because it wasn’t his first language. I could roll with it. Atlas was a really prickly porcupine – he was so guarded. But he redeemed himself in the end, I promise! Their book had a really good epilogue scene. The author is starting a new series this year that seems completely unrelated and not sports romance. The first book is called Finest Kind of Fate and looks like it features a lobsterman and an artist (takes place in a fishing town on the east coast).
I may give the book a second chance. Did you like the 4th book in the SCU series?
I liked the entire series! Book 4 (One-Touch Pass) features Nate and Marcos. Marcos is Max’s roommate from Save the Game and Nate is Atlas’ roommate from On the Edge. If you didn’t like Atlas, you may not like Marcos as he is also prickly. However, I love to see a prickly/grumpy man softened. Nate is a delight. One thing about One-Touch Pass is that the timeline overlaps the 2 previous books and there are a lot of interactions between all of these characters (expected since they are roommate sets). I don’t think One-Touch Pass is a good standalone. Book 5 (The Last Buzzer) has a main character who is asexual and the book is actually “no spice” but the emotional connection is really good and the story is sweet. It was a nice ending to the series.
I will try Mulder & Rice and let you know, thanks Manjari!
It may take a while, I do not know when I will get to hockey romance again, there is a lot around and I have some favorites like Ari Baran and LA Witt still unread.
I hope you like them! I haven’t tried Ari Baran yet but I have a couple in my TBR, bought when the e-books went on sale. I’ll have to get to them this year!
I like the way the author describes the emotions. And how the author is good at having people who are not a mess, who manage their lives, but are still somewhere very vulnerable and how they manage to access this in a building relationship together.
I am often impatient with characters who are ” hot messes” and who do not function in their life. Some authors do that well, but in many cases, I feel that we end up with two people who are propping each other up, I prefer people who can stand themselves, and are still happier together.
When I read what I wrote, I think that it is mostly a matter of personal taste for how you like your characters to be and to be described. So, I just say: I hope that you enjoy!