The 25 most-read and best-loved books first published in 2025, with the numbers behind each one.
The best books first published in 2025, ranked by what readers actually do: how many shelved them, how they rate them, and how many are reading them now. 2025 is complete, so this list updates only when reader numbers move meaningfully.
For the books readers love across all years see the Top 100. For the hottest brand-new releases see Rising.
Dan Brown · 2025
Symbologist Robert Langdon travels to Prague for a groundbreaking lecture by Katherine Solomon, a noetic scientist he has recently begun a relationship with. Her research is on the verge of a discovery that sets the story in motion.
Why it’s here: 300 readers have shelved it on Open Library; its Wikipedia page averaged 25,118 views a month recently.
Best for: Fans of Robert Langdon puzzles and fast-paced thrillers.
R. F. Kuang · 2025
Alice Law has given everything to succeed as a doctoral student in analytical magic at Cambridge, including her energy, time and mental health. The title refers to a hero's descent into the underworld.
Why it’s here: 300 readers have shelved it on Open Library; its Wikipedia page averaged 17,239 views a month recently.
Best for: Readers who like dark academia mixed with fantasy.
Taylor Jenkins Reid · 2025
Taylor Jenkins Reid sets this historical romance in the early 1980s with Joan Goodwin, an astronaut in NASA's Space Shuttle program. Joan tries to balance family life, love and the pressures of her demanding new role.
Why it’s here: 300 readers have shelved it on Open Library; its Wikipedia page averaged 13,490 views a month recently.
Best for: Historical fiction and romance fans curious about the early Space Shuttle era
Rebecca Yarros · 2025
After nearly eighteen months at Basgiath War College, Violet Sorrengail knows the lessons are over and the battle has truly begun. With enemies closing in from outside the walls, she has to decide how far she will go.
Why it’s here: 1,030 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.4 out of 5 (33 ratings); 61 are reading it right now.
Best for: Romantasy readers following the Empyrean series.
Eliezer Yudkowsky · 2025
Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares lay out the dangers they believe artificial superintelligence poses to humanity. The title states their blunt argument: that building superhuman AI would end in catastrophe for everyone.
Why it’s here: 300 readers have shelved it on Open Library; its Wikipedia page averaged 22,034 views a month recently.
Best for: Readers concerned about artificial intelligence risk and its consequences for humanity
Charlotte McConaghy · 2025
Charlotte McConaghy's novel strands a woman named Rowan on Shearwater Island, a remote spot near Antarctica. The island holds a research station with a seed vault. Flatiron Books published the Australian author's 2025 work.
Why it’s here: 300 readers have shelved it on Open Library; its Wikipedia page averaged 15,181 views a month recently.
Best for: Readers drawn to isolated, survival-flavored stories set in remote polar locations
Ezra Klein · 2025
Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson explore why the United States struggles to deliver ambitious projects, from affordable housing to infrastructure and climate change. The nonfiction work became a New York Times Best Seller.
Why it’s here: 300 readers have shelved it on Open Library; its Wikipedia page averaged 8,991 views a month recently.
Best for: Readers curious about why American housing, infrastructure and climate efforts keep stalling
Rick Riordan · 2025
Nico di Angelo and Will Solace head to Camp Jupiter to join Hazel Levesque and sort out a mess the two boys accidentally caused. It is a mythology-based adventure co-written by Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro, following The Sun and the Star.
Why it’s here: 300 readers have shelved it on Open Library; its Wikipedia page averaged 4,867 views a month recently.
Best for: Percy Jackson fans who want more Greco-Roman mythology adventure for middle grade readers
Colleen Hoover · 2025
Morgan and her teenage daughter Clara clash over very different outlooks, until a questionable accident shatters their family. As grief, secrets and resentment grow, each finds comfort in unexpected places while the distance between them widens.
Why it’s here: 966 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.2 out of 5 (18 ratings); 39 are reading it right now.
Best for: Readers who like emotional family dramas about mothers, daughters and grief
Daniel Kraus · 2025
Daniel Kraus tells this World War I story as one unbroken sentence. A draft dodger turned army private meets an angel on the battlefield. Atria Books published it in July 2025, and it took the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Why it’s here: 300 readers have shelved it on Open Library; its Wikipedia page averaged 24,037 views a month recently.
Best for: Adventurous readers who enjoy experimental style and war-set Pulitzer-winning fiction
Suzanne Collins · 2025
As the fiftieth Hunger Games dawns, the Quarter Quell brings twice as many tributes from the districts. Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy faces the Games that will shape him.
Why it’s here: 892 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.6 out of 5 (26 ratings); 31 are reading it right now.
Best for: Hunger Games fans who want the story behind Haymitch.
James Islington · 2025
James Islington continues his epic fantasy saga with the second installment of The Hierarchy series. It picks up after The Will of the Many, so readers should begin with that earlier volume.
Why it’s here: 300 readers have shelved it on Open Library; its Wikipedia page averaged 9,160 views a month recently.
Best for: Epic fantasy readers who have already finished The Will of the Many
Anthony Horowitz · 2025
Susan Ryeland once again finds herself tangled up in a suspicious death in Anthony Horowitz's latest mystery. It follows Moonflower Murders and is billed as the series finale, though the author has hinted at more.
Why it’s here: 300 readers have shelved it on Open Library; its Wikipedia page averaged 24,111 views a month recently.
Best for: Mystery fans following the Susan Ryeland series who loved Moonflower Murders
Alix E. Harrow · 2025
Alix E. Harrow delivers a fantasy novel told through two narrators who each speak directly to the other in the second person. It was released by Tor in late October 2025.
Why it’s here: 300 readers have shelved it on Open Library; its Wikipedia page averaged 10,935 views a month recently.
Best for: Fantasy readers who enjoy experimental storytelling and unusual narrative voices
Sarah Wynn-Williams · 2025
A former Facebook public policy director offers a sharply critical memoir of the company's inner culture and decisions. She takes aim at its handling of global crises and accuses top executives of harmful workplace conduct.
Why it’s here: 300 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.8 out of 5 (16 ratings); its Wikipedia page averaged 34,814 views a month recently.
Best for: Readers wanting a critical insider account of Facebook's culture and leadership
Florence Knapp · 2025
Florence Knapp makes her debut with this 2025 novel, published in the United Kingdom by Phoenix Books and in the United States by Pamela Dorman. It arrived in May to wide interest.
Why it’s here: 300 readers have shelved it on Open Library; its Wikipedia page averaged 4,909 views a month recently.
Best for: Readers who like to discover fresh debut novelists in contemporary fiction
V. E. Schwab · 2025
V. E. Schwab weaves together the stories of three lesbian vampires from different countries and eras in this dark fantasy. It won the Goodreads Choice Award for Readers' Favorite Fantasy.
Why it’s here: 300 readers have shelved it on Open Library; its Wikipedia page averaged 5,845 views a month recently.
Best for: Dark fantasy fans who want LGBTQ vampire stories spanning different countries and periods
Clare Leslie Hall · 2025
A woman, her farmer husband and her novelist childhood sweetheart are caught in a love triangle that ends in a murder trial. The story moves between the 1950s and the 1960s and was a critical and commercial success.
Why it’s here: 300 readers have shelved it on Open Library; its Wikipedia page averaged 10,189 views a month recently.
Best for: Historical fiction readers who enjoy love triangles and courtroom drama across two decades
Kiran Desai · 2025
Two Indian young people with long-acquainted families meet on a train in India, sparking a romance that unfolds between 1996 and 2002. One is studying in Vermont while the other plans to move to the United States.
Why it’s here: 300 readers have shelved it on Open Library; its Wikipedia page averaged 7,653 views a month recently.
Best for: Readers who enjoy sweeping romances about Indian immigration and the postcolonial world
Rachel Gillig · 2025
Sybil Delling spent nine years in a great cathedral as a Diviner, a foundling girl who receives visions in her dreams, wishing for no dreams at all. Her service is nearly done, and the visions are not finished with her.
Why it’s here: 300 readers have shelved it on Open Library; its Wikipedia page averaged 6,512 views a month recently.
Best for: Readers who like gothic, atmospheric fantasy.
Nnedi Okorafor · 2025
Nnedi Okorafor's 2025 Africanfuturist novel centers on Zelunjo Onyenezi-Onyedele, a Nigerian American writer who finds critical success with a science fiction book called Rusted Robots. Critics have praised its treatment of authorship, artificial intelligence, disability, and diasporic identity.
Why it’s here: 300 readers have shelved it on Open Library; its Wikipedia page averaged 3,871 views a month recently.
Best for: Readers who like Africanfuturist stories about writing, AI, disability, and diasporic identity
Alice Feeney · 2025
Alice Feeney's 2025 psychological thriller follows Grady Green, a once-successful author who withdraws to a remote Scottish island after his wife Abby disappears. There he meets a woman who looks exactly like Abby, and strange events begin to unsettle him.
Why it’s here: 300 readers have shelved it on Open Library; its Wikipedia page averaged 5,681 views a month recently.
Best for: Psychological thriller fans who enjoy remote settings and a missing wife mystery
Ocean Vuong · 2025
Ocean Vuong, a Vietnamese American writer, released this novel in 2025 after announcing it in April 2024. It came out on May 13, with Penguin Press releasing it in the United States and Jonathan Cape publishing it in the United Kingdom.
Why it’s here: 300 readers have shelved it on Open Library; its Wikipedia page averaged 4,516 views a month recently.
Best for: Readers following new novels from Vietnamese American writer Ocean Vuong
Philip Pullman · 2025
Philip Pullman's fantasy is the third Book of Dust volume and the last book about Lyra Silvertongue. Published on 23 October 2025, it picks up directly after The Secret Commonwealth, which came out in 2019.
Why it’s here: 300 readers have shelved it on Open Library; its Wikipedia page averaged 5,901 views a month recently.
Best for: Readers who have followed The Book of Dust and want Lyra's final story
Holly Jackson · 2025
Holly Jackson's 2025 mystery thriller marks her first novel written for adults. It earned a Goodreads Choice Award in the Readers' Favorite Mystery & Thriller category.
Why it’s here: 300 readers have shelved it on Open Library; its Wikipedia page averaged 4,860 views a month recently.
Best for: Mystery thriller fans curious about Jackson's first adult novel
Other years: 2025 · 2024 · 2023 · 2022 · 2021 · 2020 · 2019 · 2018 · 2017 · 2016 · 2015 · 2014 · 2013 · 2012 · 2011 · 2010 · 2009 · 2008 · 2007 · 2006 · 2005 · 2004 · 2003 · 2002 · 2001 · 2000 · 1999 · 1998 · 1997 · 1996 · 1995 · 1994 · 1993 · 1992 · 1991 · 1990 · All years
We start with every book first published in 2025 on Open Library, then keep the ones with real evidence behind them: at least 300 readers and at least 3 editions, with a cover, in English. 30 books cleared that bar for 2025, and the 25 below scored highest. No author appears more than twice. We publish a year only when at least 15 books clear the bar, so no list is thin.
| Signal | Weight | What it captures |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 45% | How many readers have shelved the book on Open Library (want to read, reading, or read). |
| Reader love | 20% | Average reader rating, adjusted so a handful of ratings cannot inflate it. |
| Being read right now | 15% | How many Open Library readers are in the middle of it. |
| Attention | 20% | Wikipedia page views for the book, which matter most for recent years where reader data is still building. |
Each signal is scored from 0 to 100 against the other 2025 books and blended with the weights above. The “why it’s here” line on each book is built from its real numbers. Descriptions are paraphrased from real source text.
This list reflects reading interest on public data, not quality, sales or awards, and it can be affected by data gaps. Open Library counts grow over time, so older books have had longer to gather readers; every book on this page is compared only against books from the same year.
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