Top 10 Favorite Books of 2025 (So Far)

Continuing with this year's trend of being late with posts, today I'm talking about my favorite books of the first half of 2025 😂 This was oddly diffcult and easy to do this year because as I've mentioned many times before, I feel like I've had a terrible reading year so I haven't actually read that many full-length novels. I feel like most of these are 4-star reads, which isn't a bad thing, but it does make me sad that I've read so few 5-star reads this year 😢 I'll let you know which books below were 5-stars for me though.

  

Cold Eternity was a really solid sci-fi horror. It is just a subgenre I cannot get enough of, and I am SO glad Stacey Kade pivoted and decided to write these types of books under a new pen name. It's fun because I LOVED her YA books, and these are obviously nothing like that. Lol. Even though they haven't quite been 5-star books for me, I have really been enjoying them overall.
I gave Full Speed to a Crash Landing 4.5 stars, so not quite there, but almost! And it was SO much fun! I know I said that I love sci-fi horror, but sci-fi in general has been one of my top genres the last couple of years or so, so I'm always on the lookout for new books in the genre to read. And I am so glad I came across this one because I really enjoyed it! It was short and fun with really likable characters!
Dreadful was a really fun fantasy about an evil wizard who lost his memory. High fantasy is a genre I used to not read a lot of, but lately I've really been enjoying what I'm finding! Making up for lost time, I guess 😂

   

The thing I have been reading a lot of this year is manga. They are easy to read, short, and just fun all around. Sakamoto Days is one series I've been consistently reading since the beginning of the year, and I have been really enjoying it! It's about a retired assassin who suddenly finds that there is a bounty on his head. So he and his friend try to outsmart the guys that are after him and try to find out who/why they are doing this. This manga just became an anime on Netflix, so once I'm caught up, I'm definitely going to watch it! Volume 3 of this series is one I gave 5 stars to!
Project Hail Mary was another really solid sci-fi book I ended up giving 4.5 stars to! But I'm sure everyone and their mother has heard of this book at this point 😂 I'm just late to the party. Lol.
Omg and don't even get me started on The Romara Confrontation 😍 The Colonial Explorer Corps series is about, well, exploring and discovering planets, as the name of the series suggests. Lol. You guys know I love action in my books, but this series is a lot more chill and character-driven, and you know what? I don't even mind. I've really been enjoying this series! But the thing I loved about this book in particular is that it was a crossover novel between CEC and the author's other series called Krimson Empire, and I LOVED it! All of Julia Huni's books take place in the same universe, except for Krimson Empire... until now! After she got the rights back to the series, she wanted a way to introduce it to her main universe, and OMG it was SO good! Easiest 5 stars ever! 😆
Another fun sci-fi book I am late to the party for 😆 But I really enjoyed it! I love Murderbot and I am looking forward to seeing what else they get up to in later books!

  

Ah, Spy x Family 😌 Another manga series I love. I think this is the only volume I've read this year because I am unfortunately caught up with the series now 😩 But it's still super fun and I just really love the characters and their little fake family. It's SO cute!
We Used to Live Here is a horror book that was really weird but in the best way possible. It was almost giving me Backrooms vibes? Idk. It was strange, but I liked it!
If Something Happens to Me is a mystery thriller that I thought was done pretty well. I have read one other book by this author and I really loved that one, and this one did not disappoint! I still cannot get over the plot twist at the end of the first part!! The way everything came together... it was SO good!

Let me know what some of your favorite books have been so far this year! 😊