Top 5 Books from 2025.. so far

I have not read as much as I wanted to this year. I set myself a goal of reading twenty books at the beginning of January. It's now September and somewhere in between working, being a mom, and my regular life- I managed to read 14 books/audiobooks so far. I actually am quite proud of that number as it's only September.

I'm not going to lie, I DNFed four books that just couldn't keep me engaged this past year. I also joined Fable (finally) and joined a few book clubs so I could: a. keep myself on track with reading, b. have friends that read the same books as me and, c. nerd out with like-minded individuals about the books that I was reading. I suppose b and c are similar.

Anyways, enough of my rambling. Let's just get right into my Top Five Books that I have read this year so far.

5. Your Soul Had A Dream, Your Life is it by Rebecca Campbell

“Stay grounded on your journey and tend your aching heart. Don’t close it over. Focus all on that and everything else will be taken care of.”

"People think that the darkness is the end, but it’s also the beginning. Each of us exist in a constant state of change, growth and transformation. But in order for the rebirth to happen we must find the courage to surrender who we once were to create space for who we are becoming."- Rebecca Campbell

Synopsis

In Your Soul Had a Dream, Your Life Is It, bestselling author Rebecca Campbell shares her personal journey of learning to navigate life’s darkest nights, opening to healing and reconnecting with the spirit of Life. This book will support you to:

• navigate your own dark nights of the soul

• embrace life’s great cycles and initiatory gateways

• understand that healing is always happening

• receive ancestral healing

• be held and supported by the unseen world of spirit that is all around you

• return to the Mystery School of nature

• embrace the ‘Way of the Mystic’ and walk your sacred path

May these pages hold you through the changing seasons of your life. May they invite you to live courageously and say yes to how life is trying to initiate you. Has your soul been scheduled to go deeper than before?

Synopsis taken from Goodreads

I listened to the audiobook back in February and I instantly fell in love with how beautiful this book was. It was even recommended to me by someone else and I had to tell them I had already read it- er well- listened to it. Rebecca Campbell is one of my favourite spiritual writers. I thoroughly enjoy her writing. Another good one by her is : Rise Sister Rise: A Guide to Unleashing the Wise, Wild Woman Within.

4. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

"I am the sky and the power of every storm that has ever been. I am infinite."- Rebecca Yarros

Synopsis

Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders.

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans; they incinerate them. With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant. She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet with every day that passes, the war outside grows deadlier; the kingdom's protective wards are failing; and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Synopsis taken from Goodreads

I LOVED this book and The Emperyan series in it's entirety. Fourth Wing has by far become one of my all-time favourite books. The first was definitely my favourite but Iron Flame and Onyx Storm are not far behind on this list.

3. Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

"They will not use my tears for their entertainment."- Suzanne Collins

Synopsis

When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.

Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.

I love the Hunger Games universe. In fact, the movies are my comfort show. I like to watch them once a year since they all came out. To say I was excited for Haymitch's story was an understatement. And long story short, I cried. Like- a lot. I swear author's love to torment their readers. This novel connected so many dots for me. I cannot wait for the movie to come out next year. By far- the best Hunger Games novel to this date. If you haven't read this one yet, and have been hesitant to, please do. If you're like me and a huge mega fan of the universe, it will complete your heart and bust it open at the same time.

2. The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros

"We are imperfect people made that way by an imperfect world and we don't always get a say in what shapes us." -Rebecca Yarros

Synopsis

"The Last Letter is a haunting, heartbreaking and ultimately inspirational love story.“—InTouch Weekly

Beckett,

If you’re reading this, well, you know the last-letter drill. You made it. I didn’t. Get off the guilt train, because I know if there was any chance you could have saved me, you would have.

I need one thing from you: get out of the army and get to Telluride.

My little sister Ella’s raising the twins alone. She’s too independent and won’t accept help easily, but she has lost our grandmother, our parents, and now me. It’s too much for anyone to endure. It’s not fair.

And here’s the kicker: there’s something else you don’t know that’s tearing her family apart. She’s going to need help.

So if I’m gone, that means I can’t be there for Ella. I can’t help them through this. But you can. So I’m begging you, as my best friend, go take care of my sister, my family.

Please don’t make her go through it alone.

Ryan

I don't typically read romances without a little fantasy. However, I read this one after I read Fourth Wing. I had came across a few posts about this book, and I thought I would give it a chance. Boy was I not disappointed. I never thought a book would make me cry so hard. And the reading slump that I was in after I finished it. 10/10. Highly recommend. It gave me a Nicolas Sparks kind of feel, but with a modern twist. Also, don't finish the book before going to work, I learnt my lesson. I was a mess inside and out the entire day.

1. Direbound by Sabel Sorenson

“Make me your instrument of vengeance. Let my hands act out your every savage, depraved thought. Use me. I’m yours.”- Sabel Sorenson

Synopsis

Only the worthy survive the Bonding Trials. She’ll risk her life—and her heart—to be one of them…

Meryn Cooper has never dreamed of being one of the Bonded, the King’s elite warriors who form mental links with massive, vicious direwolves. She’s made peace with her life scraping by in poverty in the shadows of the castle. But then her younger sister Saela is kidnapped, stolen across the border by the immortal monsters her country has spent centuries fighting.

And Meryn’s world falls apart.

Desperate to cross the front and save her sister, Meryn enlists in the army—only to discover that there are Bonding Trials this year, where all soldiers are forced to risk their lives in an attempt to connect with a direwolf. It’s too late to turn back; Meryn is thrown into the deadly competition against her will.

Now, she’ll need to survive the next four months of training at the castle if she wants a chance of finding Saela. Everything here is a test, from the brutal classes where one mistake means death, to the glittering court parties where every smile hides a knife.

To make things worse, Meryn is bound to a feral direwolf who refuses to communicate. The other trainees would love to spill her common blood. And her gorgeous instructor, Stark Therion, is as malicious as the wolves himself.

Everyone is out to get her—everyone but the dangerously handsome crown prince, Killian Valtiere. But if she loses her heart to him, she may also lose her life.

And the castle is hiding dark secrets…

Fourth Wing meets The Hunger Games in dark action-packed fantasy series, perfect for romantasy fans of A Court of Thorns and Roses , The Serpent & the Wings of Night , When the Moon Hatched and Quicksilver!

Synopsis taken from Goodreads

By FAR the best book that I have read this year. I don't think any book will top the plot twists, and the sheer anger I felt while reading this novel. I loved it- every minute of reading this novel. I even threw my Kindle on the couch because I had enough of the sheer audacity of the characters. It was that freaking good. And for a debut novel, I cannot wait to see what else this author has in store for their fans.

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All in all, it's been a hard year. Lots of tears have been shed in the process and I am not much of a crier anymore. I fully plan on completing my goal and then some. I'm currently rereading Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare and I forgot how much I love the Shadowhunter's universe.

Have you guys read any outstanding novels this year? Or have you read any on my list?

Let me know down in the comments.

Chloe Rose Violet🌹

All photo credits go to Google Images.