You voted for this one in droves! Lots of you loved The Names by Florence Knapp and it’s no surprise why. After the birth of her newborn son, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, to register his birth. When choosing her son’s name, Cora is faced with the ultimate decision; stick to the long-standing family tradition and name her son after her controlling husband, Gordon, or choose something entirely unique. Spanning 35 years, what follows are three alternate lives for three different names and how a single name can change the course of your life. A phenomenal debut with a hugely creative premise, this is one of those books you’ll be recommending from the rooftops!

Who can resist this gorgeous cover?! Sybil Van Antwerp, a retired attorney, has spent her whole life writing letters and life isn’t much different at 73. She starts each morning by writing letters to people she knows; her best friend, her brother – and people she doesn’t; authors of books . Whilst most letters make it to the post, there’s one letter which she writes often but never sends. When Sybil receives letters from someone in her past, it forces her to begin a journey of healing as she returns to a particularly painful part of her life. A beautiful tale of how the art of writing can connect us with people we may never meet and the power of words has the ability to change us in profound ways.  

Ahh, Taylor Jenkins Reid does it again! We were beyond excited to hear about her latest novel last year, and it seems you all were too! Another historical fiction (looks like everyone was loving a bit of historical fiction last year!), Atmosphere takes us back to a 1980s America. Joan Goodwin, a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University, has always dreamed of space for as long as she can remember. After seeing an ad for women to join NASA’s space shuttle programme, Joan jumps at the chance and is soon selected from thousands of applicants. As she befriends her fellow astronauts whilst they prepare for their first flight, Joan finds love in the most unexpected of places but on their mission, it doesn’t take long for everything to change. If you love a fast-paced book that’ll keep you wanting just one more page, this is the book for you!  

Next up on your best books of 2025 is Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall. This love story meets thriller is set in the English countryside where Beth and Frank live a quiet life as farmers. Still recovering from a family tragedy years before, their lives are turned instantly upside down when Frank’s brother shoots a dog belonging to Gabriel Wolfe, Beth’s first love who has returned to the village with his son, Leo. As Beth and Gabriel’s lives become intertwined once more and the past is brought into the present, tensions arise in the village and both Beth and Frank find themselves making impossible decisions that will alter the rest for their lives. This is one of those books I wish we could read again for the first time!  

And last but certainly not least on our list of your best books of 2025 is Katabasis by R.F. Kuang. Yellowface made the list of your best books of 2023 so we weren’t surprised to see you all loved Kuang’s latest novel! You could say Alice Law is ambitious; she dreams to be the brightest mind in her field of Magick and her ticket there is through a recommendation from Professor Jacob Grimes, the greatest magician in the world. The small problem of him dying won’t stop her, or her rival, Peter, in their pursuit of their dreams as they journey to Hell to save their professor’s soul. A complete masterpiece!