
Top 5 books of 2025… so far!!
Hello friends!! Welcome to Top 5 Tuesday!! This week’s topic is a freebie!! And I am doing top 5 books of 2025… so far!!
This topic was a staple of the last few year’s prompts, but in 2025 apparently I wasn’t feeling it when I did the topics. It might have had something to do with the first SEVEN WEEKS being staple topics, and then the last SEVEN WEEKS being the same. Seeing it listed in a coloured spreadsheet like that is highly confronting, let me tell you!
Anyway, now that I’ve moved on from that fear, I’m bringing it back. But just for me. Although you’re welcome to do it too!!
Surprisingly, for me, my top 5 are actually mostly books that were recommended to me, either in my 12 in 12 chart, or some other recs that came in and I slipped onto my 25 in 25 challenge. I mean, the really surprising thing for me is that I’ve actually read more of my 12 in 12 books at this point in the year than I have in any other year by the end. Which is also kind of terrifying.
But, to my great satisfaction and amazement, I am truly delighted to announce that I am actually halfway through my 12 in 12 books as at the end of June. Or I likely will be tomorrow (25 June) because I’m about 70 pages from the end of my 6th book.
Trust me, no one is more shocked than me by this. Maybe calling my post 2025 reading challenges that I WILL complete actually sorted out my mental state on them. More than I was joking about in the post. Did I reverse psychologise myself?!
What else… there was something I was going to say…? Oh! Rereads don’t count (for me). Because obvs I’m not going to reread it if it’s a book that I didn’t love. These are new-to-me books in 2025.
Anyway, without any further ado, let’s go see my top 5 books of 2025… so far!!
For anyone that needs to know, each T5T post’s InLinkz is open for TWO WEEKS so you still have a week to drop your links in. So sorry for any inconveniences. Hoping to get this sorted ASAP!! (And definitely before I go overseas for 6 weeks in Sep/Oct!!)

InLinkz reminder
A reminder to everyone before we begin. We’re using InLinkz! What this means is you will be in charge of linking your own posts here! Rather than me scouring the web (or my spreadsheet) for them. I will be posting ahead of everyone because of *timezones*. So, it should be easy for everyone to drop links for your posts.
Upcoming topics
The Top 5 Tuesday July-September 2025 topics are out now!! But because of blog posting limits that I don’t have time to fix yet (sorry!!), you can see them on my Google Sheets account thingy. In fact, you can see the topics for the whole of 2025 here!! The date format is DD/MM/YY, and topics are listed by month. You can even click on tabs for previous years and check out past topics too!!
Top 5 Tuesday was created by Shanah @ Bionic Book Worm, and is now being hosted here @ Meeghan reads.

top 5 books of 2025… so far!!
Iron Flame — Rebecca Yarros

Loveboat Reunion — Abigail Hing Wen
Sophie Ha and Xavier Yeh have what some would call a tumultuous past.
It’s a classic tale of girl-meets-boy, boy-meets-other-girl, heart-gets-broken, revenge-is-plotted, everything-blows-up. Spectacularly.
At least they’re friends now. They’ve left the drama behind them back in Taipei — at their summer program, Loveboat — forever.
Now fall is here, and it’s time to focus on what really matters. Sophie is determined to be the best student Dartmouth’s ever had. Forget finding the right guy to make her dreams come true — Sophie is going to make her future happen for herself. Xavier, on the other hand, just wants to stay under his overbearing father’s radar, collect his trust fund when he turns eighteen, and concentrate on what makes him happy, for the first time ever.
But the world doesn’t seem to want Sophie and Xavier to succeed. Sophie’s computer science professor thinks her first major project is too feminine. Xavier’s father gives him an ultimatum: finish high school or be cut off from his inheritance.
Then Sophie and Xavier find themselves on a wild, nonstop Loveboat reunion, hatching a joint plan to take control of their futures. Can they succeed together… or are they destined to combust?

Lights Out — Navessa Allen

Trauma nurse Alyssa Cappellucci doesn’t need any more kinks. She likes the one she’s landed on just fine. To her, nothing could top the masked men she follows online. Unless one of those men was shirtless, heavily tattooed, and waiting for her in her bedroom. She dreams about being hunted by one in particular, of him chasing her down and doing deliciously dark things to her willing body. She never could have guessed that by sending one drunken text, those dreams would become her new reality.
Joshua Hammond has an infamous father — the kind of man that true-crime podcasts love talking about. Josh has spent his life avoiding the limelight, but his online persona is another story. At night, he posts masked thirst traps for his millions of fans to drool over, but one follower has caught his eye — Aly. After reading a comment begging him to break into her house wearing a mask, he decides to take her up on her offer.
Together, Aly and Josh live out their darkest fantasies, unaware that Aly has captured the attention of someone else. Someone with far more sinister intentions than a little light stalking. As Josh turns from predator to protector and the stakes heighten, he must ask himself how far he’s willing to go for the woman he’s obsessed with.
Slave to Sensation — Nalini Singh
In a world that denies emotions, where the ruling Psy punish any sign of desire, Sascha Duncan must conceal the feelings that brand her as flawed. To reveal them would be to sentence herself to the horror of ‘rehabilitation’ — the complete psychic erasure of her personality…
Both human and animal, Lucas Hunter is a Changeling hungry for the very sensations the Psy disdain.
After centuries of uneasy co-existence, these two races are now on the verge of war over the brutal murder of several Changeling women. Lucas is determined to find the Psy killer who butchered his packmate, and Sascha is his ticket into their closely guarded society.
But he soon discovers that this ice-cold Psy is very capable of passion — and that the animal in him is fascinated by her.
Caught between their conflicting worlds, Lucas and Sascha must remain bound to their identities — or sacrifice everything for a taste of darkest temptation…

Broken Bonds — J. Bree

After the death of my mother and her Bonded, I was relieved to find my own Bonds.
I was sure everything would be okay if I had them.
It wasn’t.
The fate of our people is in my hands and I know we’re better off if I’m alone.
After five years on the run, I’m caught and dragged back to face the men I ran away from.
I thought I was doing the right thing. Now, I’m not so sure.
North, Nox, Gryphon, Atlas, and Gabe may never forgive me but one thing is for sure.
I won’t ever forgive myself.

PARTICIPANTS
What are your top 5 books of 2025… so far?



8 Comments
Sophie @BewareOfTheReader
Broken Bonds was so good!
meeghan
I’m so close to finishing book 5 and then just 1 more to go!! ARGHHHH!! 🥰
Marianne @ Let's Read
Nice that you could finish so many TBR books. I like the idea of doing this subject at the end of June/beginning of July. Since I missed it last week, I have now written it and added it to your 1st July linkup. But here is my post:
https://momobookblog.blogspot.com/2025/07/top-5-tuesday-top-5-books-of-2025-so-far.html
meeghan
I will definitely add it back in for the 2026 topics!!
Marianne @ Let's Read
Great!
dbsguidetothegalaxy
Oh yes, Love Taipei or whatever the series name is has a movie/series coming or already out on Netflix? That sounds… so vague, I’m sorry 😂
meeghan
Yes they do!! And I want to watch it!! But I also want to finish the trilogy first. The second book was so good though!! 💕
mistysbookspace
I’ve read and loved three of the books you mentioned.