My Top 15 New-to-Me Fiction Reads of 2025

In 2025, I read almost 60 fiction books—roughly a third of my reading for the year. I am choosy about fiction and avoid a lot of the genres that it seems like most women my age are reading (romance, fantasy, romantasy, fantance?). I will tread carefully into some fantasy books if I know they will not be sexually explicit, but it’s sad how hard that is to find these days. And so I generally lean toward authors I’m familiar with or books that have been recommended by people I trust.

I sorted through all the fiction books I read and picked out my top 15. Some of these are four star books and some were five star, but all of them are books I’d recommend (some with trigger warnings attached). These are books I’m still thinking about long after I finished them.

I roughly sorted them into four very uneven categories to help those of you who have certain kinds of books you like or don’t like.

An Old Book

So Big by Edna Ferber

Something I’ve learned over the years is that “Pulitzer-Prize winning” does not always mean I’m going to enjoy the book. Sometimes I have loved Pulitzers. Other times I have found them very inaccessible (maybe I just wasn’t smart enough?). This one won the Pulitzer in the 1925, now more than 100 years ago. Someone I know recommended this to me and I decided to try it. I wrote out the following quote in my quote journal:

For equipment she had youth, curiosity, a steel-strong frame; one brown lady’s cloth, one wine-red cashmere, four hundred and ninety-seven dollars, and a gay, adventuresome spirit that was never to die, though it led her into curious places and she often found, at the end, only a trackless waste from which she had to retract her steps, painfully. But always, to her, red and green cabbages were to be jade and burgundy, chrysoprase and porphyry. Life has no weapons against a woman like that.

If you aren’t someone who usually reads older books, this one is pretty short. I found it a delightful read.

Family Sagas

The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett

If you’re not new here, you’ve already heard me gush about this book. It is one of the funniest books I have ever read, and it was the best fiction book I read last year. A purposeless, clueless older man suddenly finds himself in charge of his dead brother’s two grandkids. The kids have experienced a lot of trauma, and their uncle starts to examine his own life decisions as he tries to take care of them. It is full of dark humor and unexpected twists and also includes a cat who might be able to predict when someone is going to die. I loved every page.

The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo

This book and the following two are, interestingly, all about families that include four sisters. I only realized that as I was writing this post. I guess that was the theme of last year. Somehow, though, they are all different. As I have said before, what I love about a fiction book that takes place in the real world is when people in the book act like real people. This is a long one, but I was sucked in.

Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors

Another book with four sisters, one of whom has just died (this is not a spoiler). This book appears to be a bit of a twist on Little Women, though only in the roughest sense. It takes place in today’s world. This one does have some sexual content, about at the limit of what I will tolerate in a book, so keep that in mind.

Hello, Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

Another book about four sisters! This book made me weep. The relationships between the sisters and the husband of one of the sisters had me torn up in all the best ways. In addition to the characters behaving like real people, it also depicts grief and depression in a way that I rarely see in books.

Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson

I listened to the audiobook, which was narrated by one of my favorite narrators, Marin Ireland (she also narrates Fredrik Backman’s Beartown trilogy). The way she expressed the various personalities of the characters in this book was incredible. The book begins with two people finding out they’re related, and the rest of the book is their journey to find other relatives. It is mostly a bunch of people stuck in a car together trying not to kill each other, and it is hilarious.

So Far Gone by Jess Walter

This book was so good. It is about an almost-hermit who has estranged himself from his family but who suddenly finds himself in charge of his two grandchildren (the premise is surprisingly similar to The Road to Tender Hearts). His daughter is missing and he fears she has gotten involved with a religious/political cult that has holed up in the mountains. Reading this book while knowing that the author did extensive reporting on the Ruby Ridge disaster only adds to the intrigue.

Very Intense

Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore

I’ve found that I’ve enjoyed most of the “Read with Jenna” books that I tried, and I started this one when I didn’t have anything on deck to listen to and I was about to start painting my daughter’s bedroom. The first few chapters of this book were extremely uncomfortable in their description of the crime that sets the stage for the rest of the book. What I liked best about this book was its focus on various women connected to the situation and how they interact with each other. I’m not anti-dude, but I found this to be a rare and refreshing way to tell a story.

In the Woods by Tana French

I had been wanting to read this series for years, because the third book, The Likeness, is always on lists of best crime novels. However, I cannot possibly start a series on the third book, so I read the first book. It was not as much of a page-turner as I expected; it is a slow burn and also focuses on the character development of the detectives instead of only on them solving the crime. While I haven’t read any other books in the series, I hope to at some point.

I wrote down one quote from this book. I stopped me in my tracks when I read it, because I too have had experience with more than one person who was definitely on the spectrum of psychopathy/sociopathy, and ever since, my radar has been remarkably accurate.

“I’ve got good psychopath sensors now. It’s like an allergy: you get exposed once; from then one, you’re supersensitized.”

How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

I loved the author’s first book, Behold the Dreamers, so when I saw she had a new novel I checked it out almost immediately (well—I think I put it on hold and had to wait, but you get the idea). This book takes place in Africa in a fictional region that has been overrun by foreign powers attempting to extract natural resources. This isn’t such a big deal, until children in the village start drying. The audiobook was excellent, because the book is told from several different perspectives, and there are different narrators for each voice.

My Friends by Fredrik Backman

A Man Called Ove was one of the first books I read when I started reading again over a decade ago, and it made me weep. Ever since, I have read everything Fredrik Backman has written. Some people really do not like his style of writing, but it tickles my brain in all the best ways. I wouldn’t say this is my favorite of his books, but it was a good read. I listened to it while working on a puzzle and it was the perfect combination.

Alternate Timelines

All four of these books take place in worlds that are very much like ours—but not quite. You could also call these dystopian, but that’s too strong of a word.

My Documents by Kevin Nguyen

This book riffs off the Japanese internment camps during World War II but examines the life trajectories of members of a Vietnamese family after attacks in the U.S. prompt the government to imprison Vietnamese-Americans. It is a book very much intended to make a political statement about immigration and detention, but I found it a worthwhile read.

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

This book also portrays American citizens being detained by the government, but instead of being based on race, it is based on implants in people’s brains that supposedly predict the likelihood that they will harm someone.

The Compound by Aisling Rawle

I started this book assuming I’d abandon it because the description said it was based loosely on Big Brother. I have never enjoyed the reality shows that seem intent on forcing people to have sex with each other, so I was prepared to stop this one if that’s what it seemed like it was going to be. Instead, this turned out to be a surprise four-star book for me. It does describe a reality show, but the premise of the show and the hints you get about the world outside are not what you would expect. (Also, it had very little sexual content.)

Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

This was another book I randomly started not knowing much about what it was about. It said something about an alien, and I figured it was worth a shot. It is about an alien, kind of, but she’s the only one who knows she’s an alien. It’s more a story about what it’s like to live in a world where your brain and body operate differently from everyone else. It was serious and funny at the same time.

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That’s it for my top fiction reads of 2025. I’d love to know if you’ve read any of these, and also what your favorite fiction books were last year!