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The Best Books of 2025…So Far: Live!

Writer: Greg BarlinGreg Barlin

Technically, it’s all the books, including the best, the worst, and everything in between. Below you’ll find a running tally of the books that I have reviewed this year, updated and reranked after each book I finish throughout the year.

 
Dirtbag Queen cover

#1 - Dirtbag Queen

by Andy Corren ★★★★★

Sparked by a viral obituary, this unlikeliest of memoirs introduces us to the crazy Corren family and their larger-than-life mother.


 
Onyx Storm cover

#2 - Onyx Storm

by Rebecca Yarros ★★★★★

The most anticipated book of 2025 mostly delivers, as author Yarros continues the Empyrean series and Violet Sorrengail's evolution.



 
Dead Money cover

#3 - Dead Money

by Jakob Kerr ★★★★★

Kerr's mature and tightly-plotted debut follows the murder investigation of the founder of a fictitious tech company in San Francisco.

 
Foster cover

#4 - Foster

by Claire Keegan ★★★★★

A quick 50-page read, the story of a young girl who is delivered by her father to stay with a family in a neighboring town in Ireland.


 
Kills Well With Others cover

#5 - Kills Well With Others

by Deanna Raybourn ★★★★☆

Author Raybourn runs it back with everyone's favorite female assassins in their 60s, in a sequel that's just as good as the original.


 
Among the Bros cover

#6 - Among the Bros

by Max Marshall ★★★★☆

An exposé on a fraternity-led Xanax trafficking ring, focused on Greek life and the pervasiveness of benzodiazepine use at colleges.


 
Among the Bros cover

#7 - The Warbler

by Sarah Beth Durst ★★★★☆

A woman tries to break a curse which causes the women in her family to transform into a tree forever if they stay in a place too long.



 
Deadly Animals cover

#8 - Summer Romance

by Marie Tierney ★★★☆☆

A 38-year-old nearly-divorced mother of three starts a summer fling with a dashing, slightly younger man. Can it last?



 
Deadly Animals cover

#9 - This Book Will Bury Me

by Ashley Winstead ★★★☆☆

A novel about true-crime aficionados that uses the recent University of Idaho murders as its source material, an ill-conceived choice.

 
Deadly Animals cover

#10 - Deadly Animals

by Marie Tierney ★★★☆☆

Set in 1981, a 14-year-old girl—whose hobbies happen to include studying roadkill—helps police investigate several murders in England.


 
The River is Waiting cover

#11 - The River Is Waiting

by Wally Lamb ★★★☆☆

Exploring addiction, incarceration, and the impact of tragedy on a family, the story follows a father serving a 3-year sentence.


 
The River is Waiting cover

#12 - The Fourth Consort

by Edward Ashton ★★★☆☆

A colonizer from Earth is stuck on an alien planet and must unravel the internal politics of the local species while trying to survive.


 
A Psalm for the Wild-Built cover

#13 - A Psalm for the Wild-Built

by Becky Chambers ★★☆☆☆

A menopausal mother narrates her family's week at the beach on Cape Cod—their 20th in a row—while musing on the changes life brings.

 
Sandwich cover

#14 - Sandwich

by Catherine Newman ★★☆☆☆

A menopausal mother narrates her family's week at the beach on Cape Cod—their 20th in a row—while musing on the changes life brings.


 
 
 

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