Need a new book to read? Add these books to read to your book list and be prepared to be blown away by adventure, current events, and action. There’s something for everyone on this constantly updated list of book recommendations!
Want to save this Idea?
Enter your email below and we’ll send this idea straight to your inbox (plus you’ll receive tons of fun weekly ideas from us!)
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been an avid reader. It’s one of the major reasons I decided to major in English at college (reading was my kind of homework) and one reasons I ran a book review blog for a long time.
Reading has always given me a way to escape from the real life stress and jump into another world that I can watch from a distance without having to be truly involved.
I used to read so much that my mom would literally ground me from reading. It’s a habit that’s stuck and I still read way more than any other hobby.
I used to be a huge fan of buying actual books but once I started traveling, I realized carrying a book or five in my bag just wasn’t practical, so I’m now an electronic reader all the way, although I still love the feel of a good book.
2025 Book list
This year I went through tons of lists on Facebook to create my must-read list for the year. I’ve already read a handful of these – the others are ones that other people have said are their top books for the year!
Since I see people regularly ask what book they should read next, I thought it might be helpful to put together a book list for people who need a new book to check out!
Tip!
Bookmark this post and come back to it if you ever need new books to read. It’ll be constantly updated with more books to read as I read ones on this list and others that I absolutely love this year!
I tried to include a little bit of everything (other than non-fiction) since my reading tastes are eclectic so I hope you can find something you love!
Thrillers
These are the books designed to keep you turning pages and hyped with anticipation. They’re called thrillers for a reason – they’ll thrill you!
The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth
Fern Castle works at her local library. She has dinner with her twin sister Rose three nights a week. She visits her mother regularly. She has a routine set because disrupting her routine can be dangerous. When she realizes that her sister can’t have a baby, Fern decides she’ll have a baby for her but finding a father shakes the foundations of her life and brings up dark secrets from the past. This was a quick read for me because I wanted to know how it would end and definitely thought-provoking.
Check it out!
Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter
Two sisters who couldn’t be more different from one another – a glamorous trophy wife of an Atlanta millionaire and a single mom struggling to make ends meet – reconnect to try and find the truth behind the shared loss of their sister twenty years ago. This one is full of twists, turns, and a ton of thrill.
Check it out!
Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera
What is you thought you murdered your best friend and everyone else thought you did too? It’s been years since that horrible night, a night Lucy can’t remember anything about, and she has since moved to LA to start a new life. But now the hit true crime podcast has decided to investigate the murder for their podcast’s second season and Lucy is forced to return back to that night to help solve the murder, even if she did it.
Check it out!
All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whittaker
1975 is a time of change in America and in a small town in Missouri, girls are disappearing. When the daughter of a wealthy family is targeted, Patch, a local boy, saves the girl but leaves heartache in his wake. This is a combination of a missing person mystery, a serial killer thriller, a love story, and more.
This is definitely one of the books I’m most looking forward to reading. Only a few more weeks until it’s my turn!
Check it out!
This is definitely one of the books I’m most looking forward to reading. Only a few more weeks until it’s my turn!
First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston
I’ll give you another book description on this one so I don’t accidentally give anything away! Evie Porter has everything a nice Southern girl could want – a doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence, a tight group of friends. The only catch – Evie Porter doesn’t exist.
Evie doesn’t know her mark’s true identify, but she knows this job isn’t like the others. Ryan’s gotten under her skin, but Evie can’t afford to make mistakes, especially after what happened last time!
Check it out!
Evie doesn’t know her mark’s true identify, but she knows this job isn’t like the others. Ryan’s gotten under her skin, but Evie can’t afford to make mistakes, especially after what happened last time!
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
A thrilling drama that follows the search for a thirteen-year-old girl who went missing from her bunk at summer camp, a camp that her family owns. This isn’t the first time one of their children has disappeared, her brother vanished 14 years ago, never to be found.
As the search begins, characters chase down secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community they work in as they try to save Barbara so her fate isn’t like her brothers.
Check it out!
As the search begins, characters chase down secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community they work in as they try to save Barbara so her fate isn’t like her brothers.
I Let You Go by Claire Mcintosh
The novel follows Jenna Gray, a mom who moves to a remote cottage to try and get over losing her child to a tragic car accident, and the pair of police offers who are trying to find the criminal in the hit and run accident. Said to be similar to A Girl on the Train and Gone Girl, this thriller follows their attempts to catch the suspect in this twist-filled story.
Check it out!
Historical Fiction Books
These books are all take place during historical events. Some are based on true stories, others take liberties with the history of the times. But they all share a sense of history.
The Women by Kristin Hannah
If you haven’t read a Kristin Hannah book, this is a great one to start with. It follows women during the Vietnam War and is written in a way that I felt like I was there. I know this was one of the top books of 2024 so you may have read this one already but if not, pick it up now.
Check it out!
The Spectacular by Fiona Davis
This New York Times Best Seller follows Marion Brooks as she dances as part of the Rockettes in New York City in the 1950s. The city is being terrorized by the Big Apple Bomber (the historical event that makes this historical fiction) and the book just flies by as you follow Marion, her family, and the dancers around her. This was one of the books that I still remember from when I read it last year. I loved it!
Check it out!
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
I’m putting this in the historical fiction category because it’s written as a novel, but it’s based on the true story and memories of the characters in the book. In April 1942, Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew, is forcibly transported to the concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. When his captors discover that he speaks several languages, he is put to work as a Tätowierer (the German word for tattooist), tasked with permanently marking his fellow prisoners. The book follows his journey over the next 2 1/2 years while living in Auschwitz.
Check it out!
The Lost Girls of Paris
It’s a mornin in 1946 and Grace Healey finds an abandoned suitcase tucked beneath a bench. Inside are a dozen photographs of different women who Grace soon learns are women sent to occupied Europe to aid the resistance and never returned home. Grace sets out to find out the truth behind the women in a story inspired by true events.
Check it out!
The Girls by Emma Cline
It’s summer of 1960 and Evie is a lonely and thoughtful teenager who gets intrigued by a group of girls in the park. Evie is drawn into the circle of girls who turn out to be part of an exciting cult set in the hills and led by one charismatic man. Evie’s obsession with the girls continues until she moves closer to unthinkable violence, and making a life-changing mistake.
Check it out!
Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelley
Two women in different worlds living their lives right before WWII. Caroline is New York socialite just looking for love and Kasia is a Polish teenager who is quickly seeing her carefree childhood fall apart in front of her very eyes. And Herta is an ambitious young German doctor trying to get out of her desolate life. When Hitler invades Poland in 1939 and sets its sights on France, these three women’s lives are set on a collision path.
Check it out!
General Fiction Books
These books are the ones that don’t necessarily have a genre – they’re just books that come highly recommended and make you think.
The Wedding People by Alison Espach
I loved this book. I’m not sure what it was about it, but I loved it and it really made me think. I can’t really describe it without giving things away, so I’m just going to share the description from the book itself. Or paraphrased version.
It’s a beautiful day when Phoebe Stone arrives at the Grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, no bag in sight, alone. She’s immediately mistaken for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest in the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and possible disaster except Phoebe. This book follows these two women and the other wedding people as their paths wind together, forever changing each other’s lives.
Check it out!
It’s a beautiful day when Phoebe Stone arrives at the Grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, no bag in sight, alone. She’s immediately mistaken for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest in the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and possible disaster except Phoebe. This book follows these two women and the other wedding people as their paths wind together, forever changing each other’s lives.
A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler
Valerie is raising her bright and talented biracial son Xavier in a tight-knit neighborhood in North Carolina and things are looking bright as he prepares for college in the fall. Then the Whitmans – a family with money and a secretly troubled teenage daughter – move next door and build an outlandish home.
These two families quickly find themselves fighting over everything starting with an oak tree and a blossoming romance between the teens. Can they figure out a way to be good neighbors?
Check it out!
These two families quickly find themselves fighting over everything starting with an oak tree and a blossoming romance between the teens. Can they figure out a way to be good neighbors?
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
This is another one that Amazon summarizes it well enough for me to just share their description. Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books – each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is and another tells the story of the other life you could have lived if you made a different choice. In this book, Nora faces the decision of whether she wants to travel to the Midnight Library to see the other options she may have for her life.
Check it out!
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
Two girls are bound together by one thing – their father – but they don’t know about each other or their father’s other life until they find out their father has died in a plane crash. When it seems like they’ve lost everything, they find out about each other – worlds away yet intertwined forever.
Check it out!
Beach Reads & Romance
While these books would be good to read by the pool or beach, they’re also great for reading at home or during the day. Love stories, stories that make you think, and books that might also fit on this romantic comedy books list!
Archer’s Voice by Mia Sheridan
This story follows a woman as she escapes a nightmarish past to escape to a small town in Maine with only one goal – feel safe again. It’s there she meets Archer Hale who lives in his own strange, isolated, and silent world. He communicates to no one and hasn’t since he was involved in a tragedy of his own. I read this book quickly and it a beautifully written story about looking back surfaces to find out who people really are and healing together.
Check it out!
The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros
A haunting, heartbreaking, and inspirational love story. Beckett’s best friend dies in the army and the last letter he receives from his friend tells him to get out of the army and go help his little sister Ella who is raising twins alone. The book follows their story and it’s one full of twists that I didn’t see coming and one that I read in a single night.
I’m a huge Rebecca Yarros fan after reading the Fourth Wing series and this book proved to me that she’s as good of a contemporary writer as she is fantasy! Read Fourth Wing if you haven’t read that yet and like books like Divergent!
Check it out!
I’m a huge Rebecca Yarros fan after reading the Fourth Wing series and this book proved to me that she’s as good of a contemporary writer as she is fantasy! Read Fourth Wing if you haven’t read that yet and like books like Divergent!
One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London
Bea Schumacher is a stylish plus-size fashion blogger with amazing friends, a devoted family, and legions of Instagram followers. She’s also a huge fan of the hit reality show Main Squeeze but hates the lack of body diversity on the show. Just as she’s sworn off dating forever, she’s invited to be the next star on the show with one condition – she can’t actually fall in love. This book has beach read (or spring break read) written all over it!
Check it out!
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle
Dannie’s planning has paid off. She lands the job, accepts her boyfriend’s marriage proposal, and feels like she has everything together. But when she wakes up the next morning, she’s in a different apartment and married to a very different man. She spends one hour five years in the future before waking up again in her own home, but it’s an hour she cannot shake.
Check it out!
Husbands by Holly Gramazio
When Lauren returns home to her flat in London late one night, she’s greeted at the door by her husband Michael. There’s only one problem – she’s not married and she’s never seen this man before in her life but according to her friends and photos on her phone, they’ve been together for years.
Then Michael goes to the attic and disappears only to be replaced by a new man and a new life slightly reforms around her. The book deals with the question how do you know you’ve taken the right path and can just enjoy where your life is instead of always trying for a better version?
Check it out!
Then Michael goes to the attic and disappears only to be replaced by a new man and a new life slightly reforms around her. The book deals with the question how do you know you’ve taken the right path and can just enjoy where your life is instead of always trying for a better version?
Swear on This Life by Renee Carlino
A warm and witty novel about a struggling writer who must come to grips with her past, present, and future after she discovers that she’s the inspiration for a pseudonymously published bestselling novel.
Check it out!
Just for The Summer by Abby Jimenez
This is another one of those books that I absolutely loved. It’s the story of a travel nurse who moves around with her best friend all the time. They take turns choosing locations to go, work for a few months, then move again. When Emma finds a guy complaining about having a dating curse that she has too – they choose their next traveling assignment in Minnesota to go date the guy and hopefully help them both break the curse.If you wrote this book off because it seems like a silly beach read romance, don’t. While the synopsis may seem like fluff, there is so much more depth to this book, which is why Abby Jimenez is becoming one of my favorite romance writers. She writes romance but also writes about the real stuff in life – anxiety, depression, and other struggles that are plaguing so many of us right now. Definitely give this one a chance even if you’re not normally into fluffy romance.
Check it out!
Young Adult Books
Young adult books sometimes hit the hardest as the messages tend to be plain and straight to the point. From young adult dystopian books to books about teens trying to find their way in life, these books to read are really ones for any age.
Caraval by Stephanie Garber
Two sisters live on a tiny island with their powerful and cruel father. One day Scarlett gets an invitation for her and her sister to see a once-a-year magical show called Caraval, but they’ll have to leave their home for the first time ever. With Scarlett’s arranged marriage just around the corner, the girls leave and join the show only to find out that this year’s show is actually all about them. Caraval is an elaborate performance full of fantasy, magic, and games but with a deadly consequence if Scarlett doesn’t win.
Check it out!
The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer
Okay, let me just say first off that I loved this book. It swept me away with its magic and games, and I wish it had been longer. The book follows Lucy Hart, a 26 year old teacher’s aide, as she goes on an adventure on the magical Clock Island – the main setting of the most popular children’s book series by Jack Masterson. The chance to win could give everything Lucy wants in life but losing means her life could change forever.
Check it out!
The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Avery is just a student trying to survive high school and get a scholarship so she can better her life. But her life changes when a billionaire dies and leaves Avery his fortune for reasons no one can figure out. To receive her inheritance, she has to move into his mansion full of puzzles, twists, and secret passages – and his grandsons. This book is full of games, twists, and lots of family dynamics!
Check it out!
Heartless by Marissa Meyer
The story of the queen of hearts before she became the queen of hearts. Catherine is a baker and a favorite of the unmarried King of Hearts, but she meets and secretly falls in love with the court joker.
Check it out!
The Problem with Forever by Jennifer Armentrout
After years of homeschooling, Mallory is back at public school for her senior year and having to deal with scars and people from her past. Mallory must make the choice between staying silent and speaking out, and I for one can’t wait to see what she chooses.
Check it out!
Powerless by Lauren Roberts
This young adult fantasy is perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas (if you know, you know) and follows the forbidden romance between a powerful prince and an ordinary girl as they try to survive the kingdom’s laws pitting them against each other. It sounds like a modern fantasy version of Romeo and Juliet, and I can’t wait until it finally comes up on my Libby!
Check it out!
Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum
Jessie is a junior at a new ultra-intimidating high school and lost. A mysterious “friend” named somebody/nobody sends her an email and offers to help her navigate her way through the new school.
Check it out!
Want More Fun Ideas?
Want more fun ideas like this one? Enter your first name and email address in the form below to join the Play Party Plan community! You’ll receive weekly recipes, party ideas, games, and more directly to your inbox!
Leave a Reply