Your summer reading list starts here

These are the books I loved the most in 2025

I’ve always been a reader. Not necessarily high literature. Scrap that. Rarely high literature. I love getting lost in a well-told story. I love falling in love with characters. I love falling in love with characters who fall in love. I love disliking characters. I love a little bit of mystery. I love a laugh. I love a cry. I love finding beauty in the way words have been crafted. And I love being challenged in a good way by books that are not my typical genre of choice.

I felt I needed to start with this disclaimer before sharing with you my top reads for 2025 for fear you may look at my list and wonder about the state of my (reading) mind. My 2025 fave reads include characters that range from complicated everyday people of all ages to witches and an octopus. There are stories that border of fantasy, tales that spotlight a period of time in history and plot lines that brilliantly capture the minuate of the mundane. And bar one, they’re all written by women.

I’ve read or listened to 34 books this year. Of those 34, I’ve shared my fave 19 books on my Instagram and Facebook accounts. If you’re on Goodreads, you can also friend me and follow along HERE.

While I’ve always loved reading, my reading mojo has waxed and waned during different periods of my life. I think that’s normal, even for voracious readers. The single thing over the past few years that’s helped me to put down my phone and pick up my Kindle is being a member of the Birds of a Feather book club. I became a foundation member in 2022 and have rejoined every year. I love the community and author chats, yes, but importantly for me, I love that I’ve read some incredible books I wouldn’t otherwise have read.

Want to join me this year?

Chief Birds Bec Sparrow and Jane Sullivan have kindly given me a discount code to pass on to you if you’d like to join this year. Use the code NIKKI22 to save $22 on a standard membership. You’ll pay $99 instead of $121. Find out more HERE.

For paid subscribers (thank you to everyone who’s signed up!), I’ve shared below why each of the 19 made my best reads list for 2025.