My Favourite Books of 2025

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With only a few days of 2025 remaining, I think it’s safe to post my books of the year list now. I’ve enjoyed putting this post together, going back over the last twelve months and picking out some favourites. This year’s list ended up being longer than I expected and includes a mixture of old and new books from a variety of genres. In no particular order, here they are:

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Buckeye by Patrick Ryan

From my review: “Almost as soon as I started to read I was reminded of Ann Patchett and I’m not suprised to see that other reviewers have made the same comparison…but Patrick Ryan has his own style and a real talent for creating strong, engaging characters…Buckeye is a long book, but family sagas usually are, and although the pace moves slowly at times it’s hard to know what could have been left out.”

Woman in Blue by Douglas Bruton

From my review: “At times, Bruton returns to a theme he also touched on in Blue Postcards: the idea that a painting offers something different to each individual who views it and that the viewers themselves can almost ‘become’ part of the painting…For a short book – a novella at 144 pages – there’s so much packed into it that I’ve probably only scratched the surface in this review. I would recommend Woman in Blue to anyone who loves art, but even if you don’t, there’s still a lot here to enjoy.”

The Lost Passenger by Frances Quinn

From my review: “Frances Quinn’s That Bonesetter Woman was one of my books of the year in 2022 and I didn’t really expect her new one, The Lost Passenger, to live up to it. Well, I’m pleased to say that I thought it was even better…Frances Quinn has a real gift for creating characters the reader can get behind and root for…It’s both fascinating and inspirational to see how Elinor is able to create a whole new life out of the ruins of her old one.”

Strange Pictures by Uketsu

From my review: “Strange Pictures is a strange novel, but it’s also a completely fascinating one…Each of the three stories involves some ‘strange pictures’…I loved the interactive feel, with not just the main drawings but also other sketches, maps and diagrams helping to clarify what’s happening and lead us to the solution.”

The Rush by Beth Lewis

From my review: “I loved this! I’ve never read anything by Beth Lewis before, or even come across her, but this is one of my favourite books of the year so far. It’s set in Canada during the Gold Rush and follows the stories of three very different women whose paths cross in Dawson City in the Klondike…This really is a fascinating book, in so many different ways, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.”

The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas

From my review: “On the front cover, the author Karl Ove Knausgaard describes it as ‘the best Norwegian novel ever’…The Birds is a sad, poignant novel but also has some moments of hope and inspiration and is beautifully written, in a simple, gentle way. I loved it.”

The Midnight Carousel by Fiza Saeed McLynn

From my review: “I loved The Midnight Carousel from the beginning; it’s such an original, unusual story that I was completely captivated by it…The mystery element of the book is not so much a whodunit as a howdunit. How can people be disappearing into thin air while riding the wooden jumping horses?…what I found particularly unsettling is that all through the book I never really knew whether I was reading magical realism or something with a more human explanation.”

Sinners by Elizabeth Fremantle

From my review: “I’ve enjoyed all of her novels, to varying degrees, but I think her latest one, Sinners, is the best so far. It’s the story of the Italian noblewoman, Beatrice Cenci, and is a very dark and powerful read…I love the way Fremantle recreates the feel of late-16th century Italy.”

Four Days’ Wonder by A.A. Milne

From my review: “Four Days’ Wonder is not a book you can take too seriously and Milne clearly didn’t intend it to be. It’s a comic novel, with a similar kind of humour to P.G. Wodehouse or Christie’s Tommy and Tuppence series, where the characters keep getting themselves into ridiculous, farcical situations. The book was published in 1933 and you can see that Milne is parodying various tropes of the Golden Age crime novels that were so popular at that time… Four Days’ Wonder is a lot of fun!”

The Resurrectionist by A. Rae Dunlap

From my review: “I loved this book! As a debut novel it’s very impressive and I’ll certainly be looking out for more by A. Rae Dunlap. From the very first page she captures the formal feel of the 19th century novel and manages to avoid using the sort of inappropriately modern language that could have so easily pulled me out of the historical setting…There are lots of suitably Gothic descriptions of lonely cemeteries, dark alleys and disreputable inns, all forming the backdrop to the trade of body snatching.”

The Impossible Thing by Belinda Bauer

From my review: “When this one caught my eye, I decided to give it a try and I’m very pleased that I did. The plot is completely different from any other crime novel I’ve read…This is definitely the first book I’ve read about egg trafficking! It’s an unusual subject for a crime novel, but Bauer builds a story around it that I found completely fascinating and unexpectedly exciting.”

The Black Cabinet by Patricia Wentworth

From my review: “I was impressed by how cleverly Wentworth leads us to suspect first one, then the other, so that I found myself changing my mind several times throughout the book!…I thoroughly enjoyed The Black Cabinet, my only problem being that I couldn’t understand why Chloe didn’t just go straight to the police…I suppose the answer is that there would have been no story otherwise!”

The Mourning Necklace by Kate Foster

From my review: “Maggie Dickson was a real person and the story of her survival is a true one…In The Mourning Necklace, Kate Foster builds a fictional story around this amazing woman and her near-death experience, using her imagination to fill in the gaps around the historical facts…This is a fascinating novel, with some great descriptions of 18th century Musselburgh, Edinburgh and Kelso…I loved it.”

Mother Naked by Glen James Brown

From my review: “The whole novel is written in the form of a monologue delivered by Mother Naked in front of an audience of some of Durham’s most powerful men…Brown also writes in a sort of pseudo-medieval language and I thought this would be distracting at first, but it actually works very well. The combination of the language, the setting and the level of research makes the book feel very authentic and believable. I could easily imagine I was sitting in the hall at Durham Cathedral listening to Mother Naked’s story!”

Seascraper by Benjamin Wood

From my review: “Seascraper is a beautifully written novella and the coastal setting, with fog hanging over the sea and treacherous sinkpits in the sand, is vividly described…This is a quiet, simple story but also a powerful and atmospheric one…I’m so impressed by this book overall, particularly as it’s not one I was planning to read and I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did.”

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Have you read any of these? What are the best books you’ve read in 2025?

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: Looking back at 2025 and forward to 2026!

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I don’t often take part in year-long reading challenges as I prefer to just join in with shorter reading events these days. However, there’s still one that I like to participate in every year – and that is the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader & Baker. Although it’s not really very challenging for me as I read a lot of historical fiction anyway, I do enjoy linking my reviews to the monthly challenge posts, seeing what other participants are reading and discovering new historical fiction novels and bloggers. Marg has also been posting monthly statistics so we can see which books and authors are proving particularly popular.

Before I post the details of the 2026 challenge, I want to look back at what I achieved in 2025.

I had signed up at the ‘Prehistoric’ level, which meant reading 50+ historical fiction novels during the year. I managed to read 57 (which, coincidentally, is exactly the same as last year!) and here they are, with links to my reviews:

1. The Ghosts of Rome by Joseph O’Connor
2. The Queen of Fives by Alex Hay
3. The Resurrectionist by A. Rae Dunlap
4. The Secrets of the Rose by Nicola Cornick
5. Woman in Blue by Douglas Bruton
6. Island Song by Pepsi Demacque-Crockett
7. The Impossible Thing by Belinda Bauer
8. The Lost Passenger by Frances Quinn
9. Clear by Carys Davies
10. Murder at Gulls Nest by Jess Kidd
11. Moonfleet by John Meade Falkner
12. The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry
13. The Queen and the Countess by Anne O’Brien
14. The Eights by Joanna Miller
15. The Hymn to Dionysus by Natasha Pulley
16. Mother Naked by Glen James Brown
17. The Versailles Formula by Nancy Bilyeau
18. The Darkening Globe by Naomi Kelsey
19. The Midnight Carousel by Fiza Saeed McLynn
20. The Woman in the Wallpaper by Lora Jones
21. Cleopatra by Natasha Solomons
22. The Edinburgh Murders by Catriona McPherson
23. Traitor’s Legacy by S.J. Parris
24. The Sirens by Emilia Hart
25. The Cardinal by Alison Weir
26. The Surgeon’s House by Jody Cooksley
27. Love, Sex & Frankenstein by Caroline Lea
28. Before Dorothy by Hazel Gaynor
29. A Schooling in Murder by Andrew Taylor
30. The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis
31. The Rush by Beth Lewis
32. These Wicked Devices by Matthew Plampin
33. The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson
34. The Mourning Necklace by Kate Foster
35. Love & Other Poisons by Lesley McDowell
36. A Case of Life and Limb by Sally Smith
37. The Lily and the Lion by Maurice Druon
38. Sinners by Elizabeth Fremantle
39. The Emerald Shawl by Louise Douglas
40. How to Lose a Lord in Ten Days by Sophie Irwin
41. Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault
42. The Greek House by Dinah Jefferies
43. The House at Devil’s Neck by Tom Mead
44. No Life For a Lady by Hannah Dolby
45. The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell
46. The Portrait Artist by Dani Heywood-Lonsdale
47. The House of Seymour by Joanna Hickson
48. The Elopement by Gill Hornby
49. The Predicament by William Boyd
50. Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon
51. A Ghost Hunter’s Guide to Solving a Murder by F.H. Petford
52. Simon the Coldheart by Georgette Heyer
53. Buckeye by Patrick Ryan
54. The Christmas Clue by Nicola Upson
55. The Twelve Days of Christmas by Susan Stokes-Chapman
56. The Book of Human Skin by Michelle Lovric
57. Venetian Vespers by John Banville

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Now, here are the rules for the 2026 challenge, taken from Marg’s blog:

Any sub-genre of historical fiction is accepted (Historical Romance, Historical Mystery, Historical Fantasy, Young Adult, History/Non-Fiction, etc.)

During the following 12 months you can choose one of the different reading levels:

20th Century Reader – 2 books
Victorian Reader – 5 books
Renaissance Reader – 10 books
Medieval – 15 books
Ancient History – 25 books
Prehistoric – 50+ books

You can sign up for the challenge here. I will be aiming for Prehistoric again in 2026.

Let me know if you’re planning to take part too!

Merry Christmas!

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Just a quick post to wish a Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it – and for those who don’t, I hope you have a lovely day anyway!

Thank you to everyone who has read, liked or commented on my reviews throughout the year. It’s very much appreciated! Have a great Christmas and I’ll be back soon with one or two more posts before the end of the month.

Venetian Vespers by John Banville

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So far my experience of John Banville’s writing has been limited to Prague Nights, one of his mystery novels published under the pseudonym Benjamin Black. I’ve been meaning to try more of his books and when I saw this one, I was immediately drawn to it by the title and the beautiful cover (I love a Venetian setting).

Venetian Vespers is set at the turn of the 20th century and begins with writer Evelyn Dolman and his wife Laura on their way to Venice for a belated honeymoon – the reason for the delay is that Laura’s father died just after their marriage. Evelyn had been expecting Laura to inherit her father’s fortune, but due to some sort of conflict that Evelyn doesn’t fully understand, his father-in-law left everything to his other daughter instead. This is disappointing for Evelyn – but then, their whole marriage has been a disappointment so far and isn’t showing any signs of improving.

On their first night in Venice, Evelyn meets Frederick FitzHerbert, a man who claims to have been at school with him, although Evelyn can’t remember him at all. He doesn’t like to admit this, though, so falls into conversation with Freddie and is introduced to his beautiful sister, Francesca. Returning drunk to the palazzo near St Mark’s Square where he and Laura are staying, Evelyn behaves so badly towards his wife that when he wakes up in the morning she has disappeared. Despite feeling ashamed of himself, he makes no real attempt to find Laura, too distracted by thoughts of Francesca. But are Francesca and her brother really who they say they are and what do they want with Evelyn?

It’s obvious to the reader from early on that the FitzHerberts are con artists of some sort, but what we don’t know is what they’re hoping to achieve or why they’ve picked Evelyn as their target. We also don’t know what has happened to Laura, so there’s plenty of tension and mystery. However, the whole novel is narrated by Evelyn from a point in the future, which means there’s lots of foreshadowing and comments like “looking back, I can see” and “If I’d known then what I know now” and I found this a bit annoying. Also, all the foreshadowing and hinting meant I spent most of the book waiting for something dramatic to happen and when it eventually did, very late in the book, I felt slightly let down.

The book is beautifully written, though! Banville uses language appropriate to the period, with every word and phrase carefully chosen so that you could almost imagine it was written in an earlier time. It’s also extremely atmospheric. I love Venice but have only been there in the summer, in hot, sunny weather; Evelyn is there in the winter and the Venice he describes is a gloomy, sinister, forbidding place – “that place of glancing lights, distorting reflections, looming shadows”. It’s the perfect backdrop for the unpleasant, unlikeable characters (even our narrator is an awful person).

Although I couldn’t quite manage to love this book, I enjoyed it more than the other one I read by Banville and was captivated by the haunting portrayal of Venice and the tense, unsettling atmosphere. An ideal read for cold, dark evenings.

Thanks to Faber & Faber for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.

The Book of Human Skin by Michelle Lovric – #DoorstoppersInDecember

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I loved Michelle Lovric’s The True and Splendid History of the Harristown Sisters – it was one of my books of the year in 2014, the year it was published – and I’ve always intended to read more of her work. I finally picked up her 2010 novel, The Book of Human Skin, in the summer, but when I saw how long it was (512 pages) I decided to save it for Laura’s Doorstoppers in December event instead!

I didn’t love this book quite as much as Harristown Sisters, but it’s still a fascinating story. Set in Venice and Peru around the turn of the 19th century, it has five very different narrators. The character around whom everything else revolves is Marcella Fasan, a young woman from an aristocratic Venetian family. From birth, Marcella has been the subject of her brother’s hatred and envy – being twelve years older, Minguillo has always expected to be the sole heir to the family fortune and he resents the arrival of a baby sister who poses a threat to his inheritance.

As the years go by, Minguillo’s treatment of Marcella becomes increasingly cruel and brutal, until her friends decide it’s time to intervene. One of these is Gianni, a servant in the Fasan household. Minguillo believes him to be stupid and illiterate, but this is far from the truth and Gianni uses Minguillo’s misconceptions to his advantage. There’s also Santo Aldobrandini, a young surgeon who develops his skills treating the wounded in Napoleon’s army before making his way to Venice where he falls in love with Marcella. When he hears of what Marcella has suffered at her brother’s hands he’s determined to do whatever he can to rescue her.

The perspective switches between these four characters – and a fifth I haven’t mentioned yet – as they take turns to tell the story. The strongest and most unusual narrative voice is Gianni’s; although he’s far more intelligent than Minguillo assumes and has learned to read and write, his grasp of the written language is still not very good and he spells words phonetically or uses the wrong word in place of the right one. I found this annoying and distracting at first, but eventually got used to it – and it does result in some amusing spelling mistakes, such as hair for heir, aunts for ants or storks for stalks. Minguillo’s narration is also very distinctive due to him being so malicious, spiteful and sadistic. Despite this, as a storyteller he’s clever and charming, which makes his parts of the novel very compelling as well as horribly disturbing.

The fifth narrator is Sor Loreta, a nun at the convent of Santa Catalina in Arequipa, Peru. Sor Loreta is a religious fanatic, convinced that she has been chosen by God and that she is on the path to sainthood. She despises anyone who stands in her way or tries to reason with her – and this includes the prioress, who believes Sor Loreta is deluded and insane. This storyline seems very separate from the others, particularly as it’s taking place in a completely different country, but they do all come together in the end!

You may be wondering about the title of the novel. Well, one of Minguillo’s interests is collecting books bound in human skin. Gruesome as it may sound, there really was a demand for these books, which peaked in the 19th century, and it’s not surprising that a character as wicked and cold-blooded as Minguillo would be drawn to a hobby like this.

Finally, I need to mention the historical note at the back of the book. It’s so long it’s practically a whole non-fiction book in its own right! Lovric tells us which characters were fictional and which were based on real people, before going into a lot of depth on various historical aspects of the book, particularly the history of Venetian and Peruvian nuns and what it was like to live in a convent. It’s much more detailed than you would usually expect an author’s note to be and it was very interesting to read.

As it turns out, this was the perfect time for me to read this book because a sequel, The Puffin, has recently been announced for publication in 2026. I was also interested to learn that one of the characters in the book, the painter Cecilia Cornaro, is the subject of one of Lovric’s earlier novels, Carnevale, so I’ll have to look for that one as well.

Alice by Elizabeth Eliot – #DeanStreetDecember25

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My second book for this year’s Dean Street Press December (hosted by Liz of Adventures in Reading, Running and Working from Home) is Alice, Elizabeth Eliot’s first novel, originally published in 1949. Eliot is a new author for me but I’ve heard good things about her books from other bloggers.

Although the title of the novel is Alice, the narrator is actually Margaret Boswell, Alice’s best friend. They meet at boarding school in the 1920s and their friendship continues as they begin their adult lives. Both girls come from wealthy, privileged backgrounds, but Margaret’s family life seems quite a lonely one – she’s an only child and her mother, who is divorced, has little time for her daughter. Margaret lives mainly with her grandmother and is envious of Alice, who has two siblings.

As the two girls emerge from their sheltered childhoods, Margaret begins to discover that Alice is actually very insecure and unhappy. Alice falls into several disastrous romantic relationships, including a marriage to a man she barely knows, is betrayed by her older sister and attempts suicide. All of this is seen from Margaret’s perspective, but it’s very much Alice’s story (Margaret’s own marriage, for example, is only mentioned very briefly, in passing).

Alice is an interesting portrayal of what life was like between the two world wars for women of Alice and Margaret’s class. Eliot shows how, despite their expensive boarding schools and finishing schools, they are still unprepared for the realities of adulthood and she explores the lack of opportunities, beyond marriage, that are open to them. Both women eventually find some level of independence, with Alice deciding to become an actress and Margaret going to college to learn typing, but Alice, at least, still doesn’t feel satisfied and other characters observe that she seems ‘afraid of life’.

I’ve probably made this book sound bleak, but although it is a bit dark in places, it’s also funny and entertaining. This is largely down to the writing style, I think – Margaret tells the story in a very matter-of-fact way, even when describing something dramatic, and she comes across as quite naive and artless, which makes the overall tone feel amusing and less emotional than it could have been. The blurb draws comparisons with Barbara Comyns and Rachel Ferguson so if you’ve read either of those authors, that may give you an idea of what to expect.

There are another three Elizabeth Eliot novels available from Dean Street Press: Henry, Mrs. Martell, and Cecil. Based on how much I enjoyed this book, I’ll definitely have to consider reading the others!

The Inn Closes for Christmas & Other Dark Tales by Cledwyn Hughes

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Cledwyn Hughes is a completely new author for me – in fact, I had never heard of him until I spotted this new edition of his work on NetGalley recently. Hughes (not to be confused with the Labour politician of the same name) is a Welsh author of short stories – over 250 of them, apparently – novels, children’s books and nonfiction books about Wales. This new collection from John Murray Press includes his 1947 novella, The Inn Closes for Christmas, and several other, much shorter stories.

The Inn Closes for Christmas is a bizarre, macabre story. It begins at Christmas with a bank manager in the town of Welton sitting down to open a file containing a bundle of papers. The man who left it to him – the dentist, Mr Sterrill – has asked him to read through these papers every Christmas for as long as he should live. First, the bank manager examines some newspaper cuttings relating to the death, inquest and funeral of the dentist’s wife. Finally, he turns to the longest document in the file – a document written by Mr Sterrill himself.

The dentist starts by describing his marriage to his wife, Doreen, and giving an account of the car accident in which she lost one of her legs. Faced with spending the rest of her life with a missing limb, Doreen is delighted when she is provided with a prosthetic replacement. Her husband, however, is not pleased at all. He hates the way his wife looks at her artificial leg, the way she speaks so fondly of it and keeps it beside her in bed at night. In other words, he’s jealous of it. So when Doreen dies from what seems to be an infected abscess, Sterrill looks forward to getting rid of the leg at last. The only problem is, the leg doesn’t want to go…

This is such a strange story – I wonder what made Cledwyn Hughes think of it! I can’t say any more about the plot without spoiling it, but it really is one of the most unusual stories I’ve read. The way Hughes describes the mental deterioration of the narrator as he becomes more and more obsessed with the leg and consumed by guilt and fear reminded me of some of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories. It’s quite creepy in places, but also with an undercurrent of dark humour which made it both entertaining and unsettling.

Despite the title, this is definitely not a festive Christmas tale and could be read at any time of year. The US title was originally He Dared Not Look Behind which is probably more appropriate (you’ll understand why once you’ve read the story). This new edition includes six other stories by Hughes which I found too short to be very satisfying and I felt that they were only there to make the book feel a bit more substantial. The title novella alone makes it worth reading, though, and it’s not one I’ll forget in a hurry!

Thanks to John Murray Press/Baskerville for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.