Sign in with Facebook
Readers' Hit New Books of the Year (So Far)
Believe it or not, it's time once again for our annual midyear assessment of the year’s most popular books, so far, according to Goodreads members.
As always, these selections are based on the total number of reader reviews and which titles are making their way to members’ Read and Want to Read shelves.
Below, we’ve sorted out the top new books of 2025, in each of the usual categories, in order of popularity. So, for instance, Wild Dark Shore, by Charlotte McConaghy, currently holds the overall top spot in contemporary fiction. Death of the Author, by Nnedi Okorafor, is the most popular book of the year so far in science fiction. Like that.
We’ve followed the same routine for the other usual genre suspects.
This can be an interesting way to see which new books, topics, and themes are resonating with Goodreads’ omnivorous reading community. We’ve got multigenerational family sagas, aquatic romance, snowbound thrillers, grimdark fantasy, historical horror, Jane Austen updates, the occasional MacArthur genius, and even some rather comprehensive gossip.
Click around below to see what’s what, and you can use the Want to Read button to add any interesting leads to your digital shelf.
Readers have taken a definite shine to Charlotte McConaghy’s eco-fiction variant on the mystery-thriller, which follows the fate of a father and his three children at an island seed bank facility. When a mysterious woman washes ashore, dark secrets are revealed. Australian author McConaghy delivers an emotionally charged study in crisis on the micro and macro levels.
The new book from Swedish writer Fredrik Backman starts out with the story of four teenage friends in a lonesome seaside town. By the end, readers have been on a journey that spans the breadth of a country and the passing of 25 long years. Along the way, Backman provides another moving meditation on the human condition, as with previous novels like Anxious People, Beartown, and A Man Called Ove.
Set among the global trauma of the initial COVID-19 pandemic, the new novel from author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie tracks four very different women as they navigate life in America, Nigeria, and various points between. Adichie has earned a worldwide readership with her fiction (Americanah) and nonfiction (We Should All Be Feminists), and she’s unafraid to tackle the really big themes: love, loss, life itself. Readers are feeling this one in their bones.
British author Jojo Moyes (Me Before You) has cultivated a ferociously loyal readership with her deeply felt stories of family, romance, and relationship dynamics. Moyes’ new novel introduces the knotty problems of Lila Kennedy: Her daughters are in trouble, her house is falling apart, and her elderly stepdad is apparently now her new roommate. So, naturally, this is the precise moment when her biological father shows up—after 35 years.
When an elderly widow saves a teenage boy from attempted suicide, two lives are changed forever. That’s the quick gist of this latest novel from author Ocean Vuong (On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous). But just underneath, Vuong delivers a deep-focus study of life on the perimeter of the decaying American dream. And just underneath that, the abiding grace notes of compassion, resilience, and chosen families.
Historical Fiction
Author Taylor Jenkins Reid (Daisy Jones & the Six) is back with Atmosphere, the latest in her trademarked story format of incredibly interesting people in incredibly interesting places. Set at NASA’s Johnson Space Center circa 1984, the new book delivers adventure, romance, intrigue, and one of the first female scientists in space. Early reader reviews and Want to Read shelvings have made this the most popular historical fiction novel on our first-half-of-the-year charts even though the book published on June 3.
This U.S. debut from U.K. author Clare Leslie Hall has the shape of a period drama but the twists and velocity of a murder mystery. Hall uses a dual timeline structure to investigate a sudden death in a small English farming village circa 1968—plus a gentle romance, 13 years earlier. There’s also a grieving mother involved. And a murder trial. And lots of effusive reviews on the review pages.
Author Charmaine Wilkerson generated a tidal wave of critical and popular acclaim with her 2022 debut novel, Black Cake. Her much anticipated follow-up, released in January, is a multigenerational epic concerning an affluent Black family in New England, a childhood tragedy, and a stoneware heirloom of remarkable provenance. Bonus trivia: Wilkerson was born in New York, grew up in Jamaica, and now lives in Italy.
Ryan and Lillian Bright brought too many secrets into their marriage. Their daughter Georgette, now grown, must decide whether there’s a way to repair the damage done. Told from three separate points of view, this heartbreaking story from debut novelist Sarah Damoff chronicles the dissolution and ultimate restoration of a Texas family, even as it explores timeless themes of family, love, and grace.
Historical fiction readers are saying very nice things about this intriguing novel from author Allegra Goodman (Sam), which details a harrowing journey of strength and resilience, circa 1542. Inspired by real-life events, the book follows orphaned French noblewoman Marguerite de la Rocque after her appointed guardian steals her inheritance and strands her on a deserted island off the coast of Canada. Not cool.
The formidable Emily Henry appears to have yet another hit on her hands with this contemporary romance about a gorgeous island retreat, a mysterious heiress, and two would-be biographers competing for the book of the year. Underdog writer Alice Scott hopes to win the gig, but she’ll have to deal with handsome industry legend Hayden Anderson. Things might get sticky. In a good way.
Romance-aisle veteran Ali Hazelwood returns with the story of Stanford platform diver Scarlett Vandermeer, who knows all about jumping into the deep end. But when she meets the new swim team captain, Scarlett may finally be in over her head. Recommended for readers who like extended aquatic metaphors, Deep End details a college fling that drifts into dangerous waters.
If there’s one thing better than a hot veterinarian, it’s a hot veterinarian with a cute kitten. Everyone knows this. Author Abby Jimenez (Just for the Summer) returned to the shelves in April with this story of a perfect date with a perfect guy—and the weird kind of trouble it causes. What do you do after a perfect evening like that? Everything that follows will just ruin the magic? Right?
One of the year’s early surprise sensations, this latest love story from author Layne Fargo (They Never Learn) is a sports romance set in the slippery world of Olympic-level ice dancing. Childhood sweethearts Heath and Katarina had fought their way to the very top when a worldwide scandal destroyed everything. Ten years later, an unauthorized documentary reveals what really happened.
A grand tradition in the mystery genre, the story template known as the snowbound thriller promises twists, turns, and literal chills. Good summer reading. The latest from author and practicing physician Freida McFadden follows the fate of a pregnant woman stranded in a Maine blizzard with a broken ankle. When she accepts help from a mysterious couple, things get so much worse.
The latest thriller from British author Alice Feeney (Rock Paper Scissors) features a baffling disappearance, a tiny Scottish island, and an even more baffling reappearance. Feeney is infamous for her plot twists, and this one has a doozy, according to reader reviews. Tread carefully to avoid spoilers. Bonus points for the book’s tagline: “Wives think their husbands will change but they don’t. Husbands think their wives won’t change but they do.” That stings.
More trouble with spousal dynamics: Author Jeneva Rose continues the story of her 2020 novel, The Perfect Marriage, with this pretty-much-inevitable sequel. As you may have intuited, the book features the further marital adventures of the first book’s MC, attorney Sarah Morgan. After having successfully defended her first husband against murder charges, Sarah discovers her new spouse has been making extremely poor decisions as well.
Readers are enthusiastically embracing this new novel from author Amity Gaige (Sea Wife), which effectively works the literary side of the mystery genre. The setup: When experienced hiker Valerie Gillis goes missing on the Appalachian Trail, game warden Beverly Miller leads the search team into the wilds of Maine. Meanwhile, a septuagenarian bird-watcher in Connecticut makes some startling discoveries online. Using three POVs, Gaige leverages genre traditions to paint detailed character portraits.
Fantasy Novels
Effusive advance reader reviews have helped make the new novel from author V.E. Schwab a big hit already among Goodreads members and their Want to Read shelves. Following up her 2020 novel, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Schwab delivers a sapphic vampire story set in 16th-century Spain. And Victorian-era London. And present-day Boston. Bonus trivia: The author herself has dropped a note in the Community Reviews section of the Goodreads book page.
Author Joe Abercrombie’s First Law series is beloved among hardcore fantasy types, and his new novel lives in the shadowed interstitial places between horror, dark comedy, and grimdark fantasy. The new story introduces holy man Brother Diaz, who has been issued an impossible directive from his bosses in the Sacred City. To pull it off, he’s going to need help from his new congregation—a rogue’s gallery of vampires, necromancers, and werewolves. Good times!
Adventurous science fiction readers will remember Canadian author Amal El-Mohtar, who won the prestigious Hugo/Nebula/Locus award trifecta with 2019’s This Is How You Lose the Time War (cowritten with Max Gladstone). Her lyrical new fantasy novella tells a story of enchanted willows, ancient magical compacts, and the unbreakable bond between sisters Ysabel and Esther Hawthorn.
If you’re looking for a compelling new speculative fiction character, consider Ana Dolabra, the genius-level sleuth introduced in last year’s fantasy/mystery hybrid The Tainted Cup. This follow-up novel expands author Robert Jackson Bennett’s unique fantasy setting, as the formidable Ms. Dolabra encounters a baffling locked-room mystery. Also in play: faction politics, biological modification magic, and colossal sea monsters. Very fun.
Romantasy Novels
In case you’re just back from orbit and/or a coma, Onyx Storm is the third installment of Rebecca Yarros’ hugely popular series The Empyrean, following 2023’s Fourth Wing and Iron Flame. Author Yarros has enjoyed unprecedented success with her flagship franchise, which rides a kind of military-academia vibe crossed with spicy romance and gradually expanding dragon lore.
Author Rachel Gillig (The Shepherd King) takes a gothic approach to the romantasy tradition with this atmospheric novel, which unfolds in misty swirls of dreams and devotion. Sybil Delling is a Diviner, destined since childhood to receive visions from the otherworldly entities known as Omens. When her fellow mystics start to disappear, Sybil teams up with the insolent-but-handsome knight Rodrick and a talking gargoyle.
This dark romance from author Kaylie Smith is part of her Wicked Games series, featuring fantasy settings and deadly competitions. When Genevieve Grimm accepts an invitation to a baroque Italian palace, she gets entangled with a handsome rich boy and his family’s homicidal games. Author Smith is clearly having a lot of fun tweaking standard romance novel tropes into new fantastical variations.
Devney Perry, who has previously focused on contemporary romances, makes her romantasy debut with this twisty and sizzling tale. This hit new novel offers up slow-burn enemies-to-lovers and princess-to-warrior action within a realm cursed with monsters. And you'll be hearing lots more about this book in the future: A film adaptation is currently in development with Amazon MGM Studios.
In this much anticipated third installment of her Emily Wilde series, Canadian author Heather Fawcett presents the further adventures of a brilliant folklore scholar whose studies lead to the secret heart of Faerie. It seems that the dauntless Ms. Wilde is now queen of said realm, which means a whole new set of interdimensional headaches. Also, her fiancé’s vicious stepmother keeps trying to kill her. Awkward.
Acclaimed Nigerian American author Nnedi Okorafor has won multiple industry awards for her innovative contributions to speculative fiction—the beloved Binti series, for instance, and the cultural aesthetic known as Africanfuturism. Her new book pulls off some interesting metafiction maneuvers. The premise: A well-known science fiction author starts work on a new novel—concerning AI and human extinction—when the book begins to alter reality itself. Uh-oh.
Let’s be frank: Science fiction stories in the last few years have been pretty grim. We need a break. Maybe that’s why readers have embraced this latest novel from industry vet John Scalzi, which joins a noble tradition of satirical absurdism in science fiction. Scalzi’s what-if scenario poses a serious/not-serious question: What would happen if the moon were literally replaced by an equivalent orb of cheese?
Celebrated Moroccan American author Laila Lalami (The Other Americans) returned to shelves in March with this fascinating left turn into literary speculative fiction. The Dream Hotel imagines a near-future surveillance state where tech corporations and the justice system have annexed our dream lives. Lalami’s future-tense novel asks some difficult questions about the trajectory of our current technologies.
While caring for her elderly husband, Maggie Webb meets a mysterious stranger who poses a disturbing question: What if your husband isn’t losing his memories? What if they’re being stolen? And what if you could get them back? U.K. techno-thriller specialist Nicholas Binge (Ascension) tells the story of a woman who uncovers a mystery…hidden in the memories of her husband’s mind. And readers are loving it.
Horror Novels
Author Grady Hendrix has cultivated a loyal readership over the years with his innovative variations on classic genre templates: the slasher, the vampire infestation, the haunted house story. His latest features a group home for teenage mothers circa 1970 and that old horror story nugget—the eldritch tome of occult secrets. Horror fans can tell you: 1970s witchcraft is the best kind of witchcraft.
This new historical horror novel from modern master
Stephen Graham Jones (The Only Good Indians) provides a new take on vampire mythology, as told from the Native American perspective. Set on and around a 1912 Blackfeet reservation, the story features a series of confessional visits to a Lutheran priest by an immortal entity forever seeking justice. Not coincidentally, the book also revisits an appalling real-world massacre from frontier history.
Stephen Graham Jones (The Only Good Indians) provides a new take on vampire mythology, as told from the Native American perspective. Set on and around a 1912 Blackfeet reservation, the story features a series of confessional visits to a Lutheran priest by an immortal entity forever seeking justice. Not coincidentally, the book also revisits an appalling real-world massacre from frontier history.
Sometimes the worst horror stories come straight from the news headlines: Taking place during the COVID-19 epidemic in New York City, this gritty and subversive novel is set amid the real-world violence against Asians during the initial lockdowns. Author Kylie Lee Baker (The Keeper of the Night) introduces a crime scene cleaner who suspects that, behind the bigotry, something else is out there hunting in the season of the hungry ghosts.
Author Nat Cassidy (Mary) is both a devoted student and a skilled practitioner of horror as a literary mode—he writes scary stories for the stage as well. His new book features a young actress and a five-year-old boy on the run from Something Awful. Readers are praising the book’s powerful emotional resonance, which folds real-world fears and anxieties into the chase-story horror template.
Young Adult Novels
The latest installment in Suzanne Collins’ epic Hunger Games series flashes readers back in time to the morning of the 50th annual Hunger Games. The book focuses on a familiar fellow by the name of Haymitch Abernathy, as a teenager, back before the Capitol broke him. For those keeping track, Sunrise on the Reaping is technically the second prequel novel to the original trilogy (after 2020’s The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes).
Author Kristen Ciccarelli’s 2024 YA romantasy, Heartless Heart, earned a GCA nomination with its story of a witch, a witch hunter, and an unlikely slow-boil romance. Goodreads members are clearly enjoying this sequel novel, too. Rune and Gideon have an insanely complicated relationship, but they’re going to have to work it out if they want to save the Republic.
One of the season’s most anticipated YA releases, Fearless is the concluding volume of Lauren Roberts’ popular fantasy-romance series, The Powerless Trilogy. Paedyn Gray and Kai Azer return to the Kingdom of Ilya, closing the circle on Roberts’ sprawling adventure of Elites and Ordinaries, tribulations and Trials, loyalty and love. Bonus trivia: There’s a TV series on the way.
North Carolina author Tracy Deonn has found both critical and popular success with her Legendborn Cycle, which does loads of interesting new things with fantasy tropes and Arthurian legend. Readers are feeling pretty good about this third installment in the series, which finds our heroine Bree Matthews stuck in a shady bargain with the Shadow King. Note to self: Never cut a deal with anyone named the Shadow King.
The truly awful story of the Franke family child abuse case has been relentlessly covered in various media over the last few years. With her new book, eldest child Shari Franke tells the story of what really went on behind the closed doors and web cameras of her mother’s home. Franke’s book exposes the dark side of internet influencer culture and cultish life-coaching programs.
Part candid memoir, part startling exposé, Careless People charts one woman’s experience deep in the operating center of the global corporate behemoth known as Facebook. Author Sarah Wynn-Williams, who spent years with the company, describes a broken corporate culture where executives carelessly wield dangerous levels of power over global communication and politics.
One of the year’s most impressive word-of-mouth success stories, Amy Griffin’s The Tell recounts the author’s experience with repressed childhood memories and the nascent field of psychedelic therapy. Griffin uses her personal history to explore larger questions about family, trust, memory, and societal expectations. If it seems like everyone is talking about this book, that’s because they are.
When author and journalist Geraldine Brooks lost her husband in 2019, she felt unable to properly grieve amid the bustle of our relentless fast-forward culture. So Brooks booked a flight to a remote Australian island and spent some time writing about the topic of loss. A Pulitzer Prize winner for her 2005 novel, March, Brooks takes a global approach by including details and insights on grieving traditions from around the world.
History & Biography
Among medical professionals, tuberculosis is an especially tragic affliction in that it is, statistically, the world’s deadliest curable disease. Sorting through centuries of scientific, medical, and social history, author John Green asks the obvious question: Why are so many people still dying from this disease? Along the way, Green makes some bleak observations about injustice and inequity in global healthcare.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens—a.k.a. Mark Twain—was arguably America’s first true worldwide celebrity. Historians have been mining his story for more than 100 years, but the really interesting stuff takes some extra digging. Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer Ron Chernow (Alexander Hamilton) provides the bigger picture by parsing thousands—literally thousands—of letters, journals, and unpublished manuscripts.
The assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy is deeply embedded in the American psyche—it’s part of our national mythology. But did you know there was another assassination plot? This historical investigation from Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch (The Lincoln Conspiracy) uncovers new details about a second assassination attempt that took place just before JFK’s inauguration.
Rare book dealer Rebecca Romney sets a daunting challenge for herself with this unique nonfiction title. She not only researches the various women writers who inspired the great Jane Austen, but she sets out to collect physical copies of these once-famous books, which have essentially disappeared from the Western literary canon. Along the way, she wonders aloud about who decides what books survive in our culture.
General Nonfiction
Billed as a “heartsick breakup letter,” this powerful memoir from veteran journalist Omar El Akkad is both a reckoning with and an indictment of the Western world’s imperial legacy. El Akkad details his own experience as an immigrant to North America and his subsequent disillusionment with the so-called rules-based order of the Western powers—particularly when it comes to minority communities.
From the makers of the popular Normal Gossip podcast, You Didn't Hear This From Me is a collection of observations on the topic of gossip itself. Author Kelsey McKinney attempts to define gossip and indeed to study it as a mode of human communication. But it’s not all cerebral—you can safely expect plenty of humor, tons of pop culture, and perhaps even a morsel or two of something salacious.
With No More Tears, New York Times investigative journalist Gardiner Harris delivers a damning exposé of one of America’s oldest and biggest companies—the pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson. The bottom line, according to Harris’ investigation: J&J’s carefully cultivated image obscures decades of corruption, deceit, and dangerous corporate practices. Readers are really feeling this one—check out the lively discussion in the ratings and reviews section.
It’s no secret that we’re facing multiple deeply entrenched problems worldwide: ecological, political, technological, and sociological. This hugely ambitious book from professional thinkers Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson dares to imagine potential solutions. According to the authors, we’re going to have to think differently and think big. It gets complicated, but Klein and Thompson are famously good at explaining things.
