Five Must-Reads from the first third of 2025!

I have had a pretty spectacular reading year so far in 2025. I have already finished 22 books, and most of them have been at least 4 stars. For this post today, I am detailing my 5-star Fiction reads for the first third of 2025.

1

Onyx Storm

By Rebecca Yarros

This is Book 3 of the Empyrian (Fourth Wing) series. Here is a recap of the basics: Violet is a dragon rider that wields lightning, and is in her second year at Basgiath War College. The last book ended with quite the plot twist that I can't describe because #spoilers. This book picks up where that incident left off and is filled with its own twists, turns, and devastating losses. The only rough part of this book is the ending-and the next book doesn't come out for over a year. Boo! Just a gentle reminder that I typically loathe books about dragons, but I absolutely LOVE this series, if you can ignore the open door scenes and language. This gets a 5/5 on the language scale.

2

Is She Really Going Out With Him? By Sophie Cousens

This book is so cute! Anna is a recently divorced mom of two kids. She is also a journalist. The magazine she works for is being bought out and to keep her job she has to freshen up her column. She ends up doing a dating column with her rival journalist, Will, who she can't stand. As a twist her kids get to pick who she chooses for her date each week. It has somewhat of a predictable storyline but it is so swoony without having to name any body parts! This gets a 2/5 language rating.

3

Good Dirt

By Charmaine Wilkerson

This book is fantastic! This author is so unique. (She also wrote another one of my favorites: Black Cake). She does such a fantastic job of weaving a story together that also gives a glimpse into another culture. At the very beginning of the book, tragedy strikes the Freeman family. A home robbery goes terribly wrong and Ebby's 15 year old brother is murdered. The story flashes between this event, and also present day when Ebby is left at the altar. Throughout the book we follow Ebby and her story, her parents, and her ancestors who were enslaved people and potters. There is a very important jar they made that is shattered during the murder of Ebby's brother, and throughout the book we follow the jar's story as well. This is a super unique and moving story. It gets a 1 out of 5 language rating.

4

Tom Lake

By Ann Patchett

This book takes place in 2020 on a farm in Michigan. Lara's 3 grown daughters are on the farm to ride out the pandemic and help their parents pick cherries. While they pick cherries they beg Lara to tell them the story of how she used to be an actress and date a famous actor. The story flips back and forth between current day and the story of when she was younger, at a theatre called Tom Lake. The premise sounds boring, but it is so good! This author's writing is beautiful!

5

I Hope this Finds you Well

By Natalie Sue

If you are a fan of "The Office", you would enjoy this one! Jolene is a disgruntled employee of "Supershops" who gets caught sending emails with secret "white text" at the bottom of them. She has been in the habit of adding white text at the bottom of the emails with her true opinions of the person she is sending it to. She is then required to do a mandatory HR course and learn to "get along with others". Between Jolene's mother and Persian culture, a cutesy relationship with the HR guy, fun "officey" type vibes, and much more-this one is fantastic. It does score a 5 out of 5 on the language rating.

Bonus

Veronica Ruiz Breaks the Bank

By Elle Cosimano

This is book 3.5 in the Finlay Donavan series, and it is fantastic! If you haven't checked out that series yet, the entire premise is that Finlay is mystery novel writer who becomes an accidental assassin. In this book, we learn the backstory of Finlay's sidekick, Vero. This book shows us how Vero and Finlay meet. I loved this side of Vero, and now I definitely want to know about her now, whereas before I didn't care about her side of things too much. Definitely check it (and the others) out.

I hope the rest of my reading year is just as great as the first third! If you have any recommendations for me, be sure to let me know! Happy Reading!

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