2025 Year in Review

by Donna Huber

Can you believe we are at the end of 2025? This year seemed to pass at a normal pace for me, not too fast and not too slow. I personally read a lot this year. Susan, MK, and I reviewed a lot of books. If I'm counting right, we did 377 posts - not all of these were reviews, but many of them contained multiple books reviewed. Whether you are a new reader of Girl Who Reads or maybe you missed a few posts along the way, I've rounded up our most popular reviews and other posts of 2025.

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Most Viewed Reviews

#10 Dead Money by Jakob Kerr  - MK thought this book was amazing. Be sure to check out her full review.

#9 Queen of Shadows and Ruin by Nisha J. Tuli - MK called it a fun ride. Check out her full review.

#8 The Witch Who Trades with Death by C. M. Alongi - MK said this story really grabbed her. Check out her review.

#7 The Secret Book Society by Madeline Martin - While this book is set during a time period I don't particularly like, I really liked the characters. Check out my review.

#6 Parents Weekend by Alex Finlay - This is the first book Susan has read by Alex Finlay but it made her want to dig into his extensive backlist. Read her review.

#5 The Palace at the End of the Sea by Simon Tolkien - MK was impressed with the amount of research that when into this novel. Read her full review.

#4 What She Saw by Mary Burton - Susan didn't want to put this book down. Read her review.

#3 The Irish Goodbye by Heather Aimee O'Neill - Susan found this debut novel to be better than she had hoped. Check out her review.

#2 Dying to Meet You by Sarina Bowen - If you are looking for a twisty thriller, then this is the book for you. Check out Susan's review.

#1 The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick - If you are looking to do a buddy read or have a book club, then this would be a great book to read with others. Read my review.

I always wonder when I put this list together if some of the books make the top 10 because it has just been on the blog longer. But that's not always the case. Book #4 was published in November. Book #10 was published in January. For fun I did look to see if any books from December 2024 would have made the list. 3 posts would have made the list based on number of views, but only one post was a review - my review of two books in Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan series that featured a new Ryan. 

Did you read any of these books because of our reviews? I would love to know which ones.

Discussions, Lists & Features

While we did review a ton of books, we also talked about books in more general ways, created lists for specific genres or holidays, and featured that caught our eyes and thought you would enjoy.

We just wrapped up our 25 Days of Christmas Reading, which included reviews of holiday books, some free ebooks, a deep dive into How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

I did my annual Holiday Buying Guide, which is a list of books I rated 5 stars. 

We put together a list of 9 books to read for Hispanic Heritage Month.

I listed the books that my Mystery Book Club are/will read. We've read the first 3 books so far and the rest we will read over the next several months. I also shared what my Post-Apocalyptic Book club was/is reading. If I included now review posts in the most viewed top 10, this post would have just narrowly been out of the top 10 as the 11th most view post.

Did you participate in the Goodreads Challenges? We put together our recommendations for several of the lists to help narrow down the choices: Faves Bookmark, Era Explorer Bookmark (the 6th most view post), Armchair Explorer Bookmark, Heritage Reads Bookmark, and Lightning Round. Did you find these lists helpful?

For me, Juneteenth is a new holiday so I went looking for books to read for Juneteenth.

A number of Facebook book groups I'm in was asking for audiobooks for roadtrips this summer. I listened to a lot of audiobooks this year (probably more than half of the 180+ books I've read this year). I put together a list of 11 audiobooks that I really enjoyed.

I put together a list of biographies, memoirs, and other writings about past U.S. Presidents for Presidents Day.

We celebrated the 14th anniversary of Girl Who Reads!

Are you setting a reading goal for 2026? I shared my thoughts on setting reading goals that are still applicable this year. This is the most viewed post of 2025 - probably because I recently reshared i

Susan kicked off our year by discussing books she was looking forward to in 2025.

First and Last Reviews

While Susan did our first post of 2025, I wrote our first review of 2025. It was actually 5 books reviews as it was a Review Round Up.

I published our last review of 2025 yesterday. It was Susan's review of Some Bright Nowhere by Ann Packer.

Happy New Year!

Thank you for reading Girl Who Reads this year. I hope you were able to find some great books to read (I would love to know which books you picked up because we featured them). 

Your views and Amazon purchases (when made through one of our affiliate links) financially support this site. Thank you for supporting us. 

I look forward to chatting about books with you in 2026! 

Please consider leaving a comment with what you loved (or didn't love) about the blog this year. I increased the font size due to reader feedback and I'm considering a site redesign in 2026 so I would really appreciate the feedback.

Donna Huber is an avid reader and natural encourager. She is the founder of Girl Who Reads and the author of how-to marketing book Secrets to a Successful Blog Tour.

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