The final part of my review of 2025 is looking at the five best books I read last year.
I started 2025 hoping to read 50 books. While I fell just short at 44, there were still plenty of interesting reads in there, across a range of genres.
It’s been hard to pick just five but these are what I’ve narrowed it down to.
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
My guilty pleasure is trashy thriller books and, over the past couple of years, I’ve read several novels by Freida McFadden that I’d place into that category.
I’d never gotten round to The Housemaid but when I heard that it was being turned into a film, I decided to finally give it a chance and I’m glad I did.
Like all of Freida’s books, it’s really twisty, with short chapters that keep you reading. However it was the psychological elements that really kept me invested.
For what it’s worth, I managed to catch the film and thought it was really well done for the most part and it very nearly sneaked into my top films of the year list.
But, without giving anything away, I think that the book handles the final act a lot better.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
This book really charmed me.
A few of my favourite books of all time are Catcher in the Rye, Silver Linings Playbook and Perks of Being a Wallflower – all three share a male protagonist who is either neurodivergent or lives with some kind of mental health disorder.
In a similar fashion, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is narrated by a neurodivergent boy called Christopher and while the writing style took me a while to get used to, I really enjoyed it.
I saw the ‘twists’ coming a mile off but it didn’t really matter.
None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell
Going back to ‘trashy’ thrillers, I’ve also read a few Lisa Jewell novels with very mixed results.
I thought Then She Was Gone was great, albeit very very dark, but I thought I Found You was dreadful.
So I was a little unsure about reading None Of This Is True but I absolutely raced through it.
Once again, it is extremely dark and there were certain aspects of it that left me feeling a bit conflicted, but I think the ending was really well done and I genuinely didn’t see it coming.
I’ve since seen that Lisa Jewell has released a bonus chapter, which removes the intrigue from the ending, which I think is a massive shame as I don’t think that everything always needs wrapping up in a neat little bow in stories like this.
The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman
A very late entry into this list, as I only got the book for Christmas and read it just in time for inclusion.
The fifth book in the Thursday Murder Club series is one of the strongest of the lot, in my opinion.
Although these books are murder mysteries, it really is the characters that set them apart.
Book four (The Last Devil To Die) was the first novel to ever make me cry and Richard Osman has done such a great job with fleshing out the gang that watching them grow older and face some of the challenges that come with that is genuinely emotional.
I just wished that the Thursday Murder Club film that was released earlier this year had the same charm, but I felt it was lacking something (not to mention the ridiculous changed ending).
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
This is one that was recommended to me quite a while ago but the premise of it being narrated by a dog sounded a bit silly and put me off.
It really shouldn’t have done.
The Art of Racing in the Rain is a beautiful book and the story being told through the eyes of a dog has no right working as well as it does.
It sometimes takes me a little time to get through books if they’re not twisty-turny but this was a pleasure to read.
What are the best books you read last year? Let me know in the comments