My 5 star reads of 2025

I publish my rating scale in my weekly newsletter so you all are aware that 5 stars for me is a book that I truly love. But I could love it for a wide variety of reasons. It could be that the characters or the story might resonate with me at a particular season in my life; the writing might sing to me and ignite something inside me that was simmering and just waiting to be recognized; or the plot may just capture my heart in a way that I can’t forget and I need to keep thinking about over and over. No matter the reason, I am relatively free with sprinkling out stars in my ratings.

Of the 332 books I read in 2025, I gave 5 star ratings to the following 41 books, and I’ve bolded my favorite 10 books that I read this year:

1. If You Only Knew, by Kristan Higgins

2. Pack Up The Moon, by Kristan Higgins

3. Pretty Mess, by Lily Morton (MM)

4. Bump Start, by Eve Holmes (MM)

5. Darling, by Scarlett Drake (MM)

6. I Thought of You, by Jewel E. Ann

7. Smoky Mountain Dreams, by Leta Blake (MM)

8. Becoming Us, by Alex Cross (MM)

9. Now That You Mention In, by Kristan Higgins

10. The Summer Getaway, by Susan Mallery

11. Sweat, by Jonah Yorke (MM)

12. We Could Be So Good, by Cat Sebastian (MM)

13. The Rom-Commers, by Katherine Center

14. Never Let Me Go, by Lyla Dane (MM)

15. The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon

16. The Fall, by Tal Bauer (MM)

17. Life and Other Inconveniences, by Kristan Higgins

18. Pictures of You, by Emma Grey

19. The Things We Do For Love, by Kristin Hannah

20. Long Way Home, by Nicky James (MM)

21. One Italian Summer, by Rebecca Serle

22. We Begin At the End, by Chris Whitaker

23. When We Ignite, by Alex Cross (MM)

24. One Golden Summer, by Carley Fortune

25. In Five Years, by Rebecca Serle

26. When Life Happened, by Jewel E. Ann

27. The Conditions of Will, by Jessa Hastings

28. Out of the Clear Blue Sky, by Kristan Higgins

29. Unbreak Me, by Jesse H. Reign (MM)

30. Romeo Falling, by Jesse H. Reign (MM)

31. Between Sisters, by Kristin Hannah

32. Oleander, by Scarlett Drake (**bonus points for stellar audio version) (MM)

33. Dip Out, by Eve Holmes (MM)

34. Make Me Fall, by Riley Nash (MM)

35. Hold Me Under, by Riley Nash (MM)

36. Limerance, by Scarlett Drake (MM)

37. Promise Me Sunshine, by Cara Bastone

38. Good Luck With Than, by Kristan Higgins

39. How To Walk Away, by Katherine Center

40. Kulti, by Mariana Zapata

41. Happiness for Beginners, by Katherine Center

Looking over this list now, I see I have some clear patterns. First of all, Kristan Higgins is a clear favorite author of mine. Her writing always sparks something in me. Her characters are so relatable and her writing is absolutely perfect. I’ve loved every book of hers that I’ve read. The other major takeaway from that list is that 18 of those 41 books are MM romance books. Honestly, that’s not as many as I thought there might be, frankly. But that probably did encompass more than 50% of my reading this year, so I guess it’s not that surprising that several of those books would find there way to the top of my year-end list.

It’s funny to look back on 2025 and the way the year started for me as a reader. I was an avid MM romance reader coming into the year, but quite shy about letting people know about it because it felt odd as a straight woman to be reading that genre of romance. I had a lot of trouble even putting into words why that genre resonated with me. Tori would ask me why I liked it and the only thing I kept saying was that I loved reading about these damaged men and seeing their beautiful redemption stories. Well, 2025 was certainly the year for MM romance redemption, wasn’t it? Heated Rivalry brought this out of the woodwork and blasted it into the mainstream and into everyone’s living rooms and it’s become a really interesting topic of conversation suddenly. And people all over social media are talking about this very point now: why do women like this genre? And I’ve seen so many talking points about it, all of which are valid. But the one that sticks with me the most is probably the one that made me veer off from MF romance books in the first place. And that is that seeing these two men do all the work themselves, without women having to do any of the emotional labor for them to fall in love, is so healing. Being able to be nothing but a spectator, as a reader or a viewer, and not being able to insert yourself into the story in any way is really cathartic - there’s no opportunity for comparison, or for sense of rejection, or for reason to feel less than. The story only brings joy. And that, in a nutshell, is why this genre sticks with me. It’s so pure and offers literally nothing that takes away from me as a woman. What’s not to like?

So Happy 2026 to everyone!