How is 2025 already over? It felt so long and so short all at once. I don’t have words to describe how I’m feeling coming out the other end of such an insane year. So that’s a conversation for a different day. But I do have the words to tell you about what I read in December!
I only read nine books in December. I was reminded that every year I feel like I’ll get tons of reading done in December. But then I get there and I have plans every single night! And when I’m not hosting friends or hanging out with family or going out and chugging eggnog based cocktails, I’m lying on my sofa staring at my Christmas tree without space in my brain to think or read. Post-Christmas is always the sweet spot. That magical week between Christmas and the new year. This year I read four books in five days that week. And I ate about four pounds of cheese that week, too. (I’m not alone, right?)
Other notable trends in my December reading? I usually read about 1/3 non-fiction, 2/3 fiction, but this month I read only fiction. That felt like the right vibe for the holidays. Also, I read and enjoyed three books that I’d describe as literary mysteries. I think this genre mashup works for me because literary fiction is often too slow for me. Often I find that books in that genre focus on prose at the expense of plot. And then mysteries often don’t feel thoughtful or smart enough. But mixing the two … turns out that works for me!
Lastly, I took a new approach to my December reading this year. Usually I am really stubborn and refuse to ever read the books that everyone else is obsessed with. If I didn’t discover it on my own, I don’t want it! And this goes double for celebrity book club picks. But at the end of the year, there were a handful of books that were consistently rated as favorite books by readers whose taste I trust, so I thought I’d better go ahead and read them before the year was over. And that’s how I came to read several of my favorite books of the year all in one week!
I think this is a tradition I’ll continue in years to come. It meant that I really ended the year on a great note. I wasn’t reading anything ‘meh’ or unvetted and it allowed me to keep my reading momentum going during a time of low concentration.
Fiction
Contemporary Fiction
The Heir Apparent by Rebecca Armitage
I’m a huge fan of Royal family-centric fiction. The Royal We is one of my favorite books, and I’ve read it countless times over the years. So I was thrilled to hear about the latest book in that vein, The Heir Apparent.
It’s about a young medical resident living in Australia, Lexi. She suddenly becomes next in line to be Queen when her father and brother, second and third in line to the throne behind her grandmother, the current Queen, die in a freak skiing accident. She’s whisked back to London and must decide whether she’ll rejoin her family and become the heir apparent, or stay in Australia and abandon her family and responsibilities for good.
The Royal We is ultimately a romance. This is contemporary fiction with lots and lots of twists and turns. There were so many plot twists throughout the book, and I didn’t see a single one coming. Love that! And even though many of the characters are loosely based on real-life royals, they still feel fresh, new, and intriguing.
The final major twist that the end of the book centers around didn’t quite work for me. Probably one twist too many and I didn’t totally see what the big deal was. But overall this was one of my most fun reads of 2025. I‘ve already recommended it to several friends. Oh, and it’s great on audio thanks to a fabulous British narrator!
Note: Thank you to Libro.fm and Cardinal for providing me with an Advanced Listening Copy.
The Names by Florence Knapp
The Names is a sliding doors story about two siblings born to a mother in an abusive marriage. The story starts on the day the mother is going to take the newborn son to the registry office to formalize the selection of his name. From there, the story takes place over the next 40+ years and follows what might have happened if she had chosen one of three different names that day: Bear, Julian, or Gordon.
I found the writing fairly ordinary (which is why I saw it as more contemporary fiction than the literary fiction the publisher initially labeled it), but the unique premise will keep you turning the pages.
I will say, domestic violence is at the core of the plot, so the story is heavy and dark throughout. I’m not someone who is usually affected much by that kind of content, but this was a tough read at times.
If your group is up for it, this would make a great book club pick. There’s plenty to discuss!
Ten Thousand Light Years from Okay by Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman
Ten Thousand Light Years from Okay is about a writer and widow who has lived for years with the fear that she manifested her late husband’s death. In her first book, a husband is hit by a car and dies. Then her own husband dies the same way while she is pregnant with their first child.
This leaves her paralyzed with worry that writing another book in which something bad happens might cause harm to someone else in her life. So she tests the theory by writing a ‘happily ever after’ about a woman whose husband (written with many similarities to her late husband) returns to her after a long absence. When that book is published, she can’t believe it when she meets a man just like that character. Does she have the power to change her life through her writing, or is something else going on?
I don’t want to spoil it by divulging too much more, but I’ll say this: the book is truly unique. I’ve never read anything with a plot like it. I couldn’t predict what was going to happen from one page to the next. In a world full of books based on tropes, this one stood out as quirky and different, and I have to applaud the authors for that.
I’d recommend it to readers who just want something weird (in a good way!) and a little genre-bending.
Note: Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for providing me with an Advanced Reading Copy.
Mystery/thriller/suspense
The First Time I Saw Him by Laura Dave
The First Time I Saw Him, the sequel to Laura Dave’s propulsive 2021 thriller The Last Thing He Told Me (full review here), is my favorite Dave book to date.
It picks up almost six years after the events of the first book and follows Hannah Hall’s continued quest to keep her stepdaughter safe from the crime family her husband exposed so many years earlier, as well as her quest to finally reunite with her husband, who has been on the run this whole time.
Hannah is a great main character. She’s tough, smart, and resourceful. You’ll be rooting for her with each twist and turn. And there are so many twists and turns! Candidly, I didn’t completely understand all of them, especially the last 15% of the book, but that didn’t stop me from turning the pages faster and faster. The multiple POVs and timelines really worked for me.
This book is compulsive, propelling, and a must-read for fans of the first book or the TV show based on it. Read it now before season two premieres in late February!
Note: Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for providing me with an Advanced Reading Copy.
The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter
The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year is a romance, a classic closed-door mystery, and a holiday book. For me, it was just fine at each of those things, not great at any. That said, I’m a tough critic when it comes to romances and mysteries. And, unlike many readers, I don’t tend to grade on a curve for holiday books.
But I think I’m in the minority there! If you aren’t too picky when it comes to holiday reads, and you enjoy both mysteries and romances, you’ll probably enjoy this book. But if you read it, can you please explain the end to me? Because I’m not sure I understood it at all.
Historical fiction
Meet the Newmans by Jennifer Niven
For fans of The Book Club for Troublesome Women, Meet the Newmans is a book about a real family that serves as the basis for a TV show à la The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.
One day the patriarch, Del, is in a car crash and lands in a coma. His wife Dinah and sons Shep and Guy are left to keep their life and show running without him. With Del gone, Dinah finally has the time and space to process her feelings about her role as a wife and mother. She reads Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, meets a young female reporter who wants more for herself and for women in general, and begins to want more for her life than she had previously considered possible.
It took me until the 30% mark to get into this book. I think that’s largely because it’s marketed as being for fans of Lessons in Chemistry and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. So I kept waiting for some of the lightness or humor or whimsy I associate with those books. After all, the description calls it “funny.” But I’d describe the tone as pretty serious (and a little heavy-handed at times). Once I got used to that, I enjoyed the book much more.
I’d recommend this to historical fiction fans, especially women interested in reading about the journey for female progress and liberation that their ancestors fought in ways both big and small. I also think it’d be a hit for fans of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Leave It to Beaver, etc. It would be a great book club pick with wide appeal for women of all ages and lots of potential for interesting discussion.
Note: Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for providing me with an Advanced Reading Copy.
LITERARY Mysteries
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
Wild Dark Shore, often described as a Climate Mystery, is literary fiction about a family living on a remote island, maintaining the world’s largest seed bank, and a mystery woman who washes ashore in a storm.
The prose is lyrical, descriptive, and interesting, and yet the pace of the plot doesn’t suffer for it. The book is full of twists and turns from beginning to end (perhaps a few too many).
The character development felt a little all over the place and half-baked to me, but I still rated this five stars. The story offers a unique and captivating premise, set in a location described so vividly that you can close your eyes at any point and feel like you’re there with the characters.
Broken Country by Claire Leslie Hall
Broken Country, a multi-timeline historical literary fiction set in the English countryside, is a love story, mystery, and family drama all wrapped into one.
The story follows Beth, her husband Frank (too pure for this earth – unrealistically so), her wild brother-in-law Jimmy, and her first love Gabriel. We jump back and forth in time throughout the book. It begins with Beth in court, watching the trial of one of the three men in her life, but we don’t know who is on trial or for what crime.
The plot moved quickly enough that I never felt tempted to skip ahead. And let me tell you, at no point did I have any idea where it was all headed. Well done!
This book deserves the hype it’s gotten. Well worth a read (even if some of the character motivations are still more than a little confusing to me).
Heartwood by Amity Gaige
Heartwood is the story of missing Appalachian Trail hiker and nurse Valerie, and two women who are looking for her: Bev, a warden leading the search and rescue efforts, and Lena, an online sleuth living in a retirement community several states away who becomes fascinated with the case.
The book is part mystery, as Bev, Lena, and readers try to figure out whether Valerie’s disappearance is an accident or something more sinister. But it’s also very literary in tone and largely focused on mother-daughter relationships. Ugh. It is SO about mother-daughter relationships that at times I felt like I was being hit over the head with that theme.
Still, the story is propulsive, the sense of place is strong, and the characters are intriguing.
I hope you had as good an end to your 2025 reading as I did!
I have a good feeling about our 2026 reading lives!
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