Top Ten Tuesday: My Favorite 2025 Reads

Welcome to my annual roundup of my favorite reads from the past year!  As usual, I am linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl for her Top Ten Tuesday at the start of the new year.  Also, as usual, I'm doing two lists: my top ten favorite new-to-me reads and my top ten favorite rereads.

My Ten Favorite New Reads of 2025

1. Before the King by Heather Kaufman -- Christian fiction, Biblical fiction, marriage of convenience, personal transformation (PG-16)

2. Woman in Shadow by Carrie Stuart Parks -- Christian fiction, suspense, PTSD, murder, forensic linguistics, limb loss (PG-16)

3. The Golden Road by L. M. Montgomery -- classic, coming of age, slice of life, humorous, friendship (G)

4. The Adventures of Elizabeth in Ruegen by Elizabeth von Arnim -- classic, humorous, travel stories, epistolary (G)

5. The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens -- classic, Christmas, family, friendship (PG)

6. The Silent Night by Sarah Beran -- YA, fairy tale retelling, fantasy, Christmas, romance (G)

7. Shadows of the Valley by Britt Howard -- Christian fiction, suspense, fugitive, found family, romance, limb loss, PTSD (PG-13)

8. Of Clockworks and Daggers by Sarah Everest -- Christian fiction, YA, steampunk, fantasy, redemption (PG)

9. A Run at Love by Toni Shiloh -- Christian fiction, contemporary romance, friends-to-more, horse racing (PG) 

10. Hear the Falling Snow by Storm Shultz -- Christian fiction, contemporary romance, Christmas, loss of parent, baking (G)

My Ten Favorite Rereads of 2025

1. The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery -- classic, personal growth, the outdoors, romantic love (PG)

2. Persuasion by Jane Austen -- classic, second-chance romance, friendship (G)

3. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell -- classic, enemies-to-more, he falls first, friendship, class strife, loss of parent (PG)

4. The Lilies of the Field by William E. Barrett -- classic, culture clash, found family (G)

5. The Railway Children by E. Nesbit -- classic, middle-grade, family, slice of life (G)

6. The Ark by Margot Benary-Isbert -- YA, family, Germany post-WWII, animals, farming, growing up, ingenuity (PG)

7. Rowan Farm by Margot Benary-Isbert -- YA, family, Germany post-WWII, coming of age, animals, farming, first romance (PG-10)

8. Eldest by Christopher Paolini -- YA, fantasy, dragons, coming of age, war, friendship, found family (PG-13)

9. Eragon by Christopher Paolini -- YA, fantasy, dragons, friendship, found family (PG-13)

10. The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare -- YA, Christian fiction, Biblical fiction, coming of age, found family (PG-13)

How about you?  What books stood out to you in 2025?

The Oddly Specific Things I Love in Books Tag

The Hopeful Pen tagged me with this last month, and I finally have time to finish filling it out and share!  Thanks for the tag!

The Outline 

1. Link back to who tagged you 

2. Share the Graphic on your blog 

3. Share the Outline on your post 

4. Share a detail you love about the season of summer into fall 

5. List at least 7 random/ specific things YOU love to read about in books, big or small 

6. Tag 7 people who would enjoy taking part/whose answers you are curious to read!

Here we go!

First off, it's no longer summer or fall, but one thing I love about the change of seasons when autumn finally hits here sometime in October is that my creativity takes a big boost!

Now for my seven specific little things I love in a book:

1

Escape from wrongful imprisonment

This sounds terrible, but I LOVE it when a character gets accused of a crime they didn't commit and gets sent to prison for it... and then escapes.  Prison escapes in general are something I love a lot, but when it's from a prison sentence they didn't deserve?  Gimme gimme gimme.

An example: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

2

Band of brothers

If you give me a group of guys who are mostly unrelated but just act like brothers, look after each other like brothers, basically consider each other brothers -- I'm all over it.  

An example: The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

3

Surviving on a deserted island

Stories of having to survive using only what you have around you will always grab me.  I love seeing how ingenious people can be, even fictional people.

A couple examples: The Black Stallion by Walter Farley, The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss

4

Exploring abandoned spaces

I love abandoned spaces in general, and having characters explore or discover one in a book is always going to draw my attention!

An example: Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright

5

A woman tries to seduce a guy, and he tells her to get lost

Is there anything more wonderful?  And the harder she is trying to get him into bed, the more awesome it is when he refuses.

An example: The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

6

Antagonistic opposites become friends

Friendships in fiction are usually more compelling to me than romances, and when you get two people who don't like each other and are nothing like each other, but then they have to work together and slowly become friends -- so, so good!

An example: Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

7

Amnesia

Why is amnesia such a fun plot point?  I don't even know why I love it, but I do.  Maybe I've just forgotten why?  

An example: The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum

Okay, time to tag seven friends.  I tag:

Along the Brandywine

Boondock Ramblings

Classics Considered

I'm Charles Baker Harris (And I Can Read)

Inkling Corner

The Maidens of Green Gables

Meanwhile, in Rivendell...

Play if you want to!

"A Merry Christmas and Other Christmas Stories" by Louisa May Alcott

What a wholesome and cozy collection of Christmas stories!  Well, stories plus a section from the very beginning of Little Women.  

I thoroughly enjoyed all the stories here -- there wasn't a single one that didn't move me in some way and bring a smile to my face.  I'd read a few of them before, but long ago, so they felt pretty fresh and new to me again. 

The stories included here are:

"A Merry Christmas" -- the March sisters share their Christmas breakfast and find their own joy doubled, then exchange and receive gifts with their own family plus others.

"Kate's Choice" -- a wealthy orphan must decide which of her aunts and uncles she will live with now, and surprises everyone with her choice.

"The Quiet Little Woman" -- a warmhearted orphan is taken in by a family to be their maid-of-all-work, but yearns for their kindness and friendship more than anything.

"Tilly's Christmas" -- a poor child rescues a half-frozen bird and shares kindness and love with those around her, and is rewarded by an unexpected friend.

"What Love Can Do" -- people living in a boarding house with a poor family acquire a fresh understanding of what it means to show love and kindness to others.

"Rosa's Tale" -- an aging horse uses the Christmas gift of speech to tell the story of her life.

"Mrs. Podgers' Teapot" -- a widow learns the truth about her dead husband, a man who lodges at her house, and herself.  Probably my favorite story of all!

Particularly Good Bits:

Half the real beauty, virtue, and romance of the world gets put into humble souls, hidden in plain bodies (p. 117, "Mrs. Podgers' Teapot").

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: G.  Good, wholesome, heartwarming stories.

This has been my 48th book read and reviewed for my fourth Classics Club list.  Looks like I'll be finishing this list and starting another one this winter sometime!

"Southern Snow" by B. R. Goodwin

This is a really enjoyable Christian romcom.  Georgia is a capable and believable modern woman, trying to juggle caring for her aging parents with running the family business and being a good older sister to her siblings, but with little time for her own growth.  Enter Lakeland, the bad boy she almost dated in high school, who may or may not have become a good guy.  Sparks of all sorts fly, of course.

I am not always a fan of dual timeline stories, but that writing device worked very well here.  I liked that we got to see how everything built up and then fell apart between Georgia and Lakeland, but in little pieces here and there, not all info-dumped at once.  

I look forward to reading the other books in the Sugartree series by B. R. Goodwin -- and I'll probably try to read them during the seasons when they take place, like I did with this Christmastime book.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for discussions of drug use, lots of thinking about being attracted to a guy, and some lightly described kisses.

"The Golden Hour" by Carrie Brownell, illustrated by Hannah Hill

I don't often review picture books here, but The Golden Hour by Carrie Brownell is a Christmas picture book, and that has made all the difference.  

This is a lovely story about the wooden angels at Westminster Cathedral in London coming alive for one hour every Christmas night.  They usually spend their hour singing and flying about the cathedral, but one night, one angel sneaks outside and has an encounter with a child... and I can't spoil the rest, I really can't.  The last page gave me goosebumps AND brought tears to my eyes, so yeah, very good stuff here.

The illustrations by Hannah Hill are beautiful without being either too cutesy or too grandiose.  They suit the story perfectly.

This is too long to read to young children -- probably best for kids around 5 and up.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: G.  Absolutely wholesome and perfect for kids.

"The Cricket on the Hearth" by Charles Dickens

I can't believe I'd never read this before!  Somehow, I thought it was about a literal cricket sitting on a hearth, telling us stories about the people he's met and things he's experienced.  It is not about that AT ALL.  

I mean, there's a cricket in the story that does chirp near a hearth.  But it's not a talking or sentient cricket.  It's kind of a symbol of contentment and coziness in your own home and among your own family members.  I'm so glad this was one pick for this year's #DickensDecember readings over on Instagram, because I absolutely delighted in this book.

This book is actually about a sweet and cheerful young wife, her older and devoted husband, and some of their friends.  A shadow of suspicion falls over their happy home for a while, and I devoured the last couple chapters of this book in great worry over what was going to happen.

SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH.  One of the things I liked best were some cool parallels to the Biblical account of Mary and Joseph.  A young and sweet wife, an older husband who suddenly suspects things are not right with his marriage, his plan for a quiet and private separation, and a sudden revelation of unknown facts that makes everything okay again.

I am not always the biggest fan of Charles Dickens, but this is going on my list (with A Christmas Carol and A Tale of Two Cities) of Dickens books I truly and thoroughly enjoy!

Particularly Good Bits:

But let us be genteel, or die! (p. 74)  (I am guessing that Amy March's line "Let us be elegant, or die" in Little Women by Louisa May Alcott is an allusion to this line, since the March sisters are such fans of Dickens.)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for some allusions to suspected marital unfaithfulness.  No cussing, smut, or violence.

This has been my 47th book read and reviewed for my fourth Classics Club list.

"Hear the Falling Snow" by Storm Shultz

I read Hear the Falling Snow by Storm Shultz in tiny little nibbles over the course of three weeks.  The plot involves a lot of delicious Christmas baking, and the book as a whole felt like some kind of rich and comforting and nourishing food -- like homemade chicken soup or something.

The main character, Adeline, is grieving for her mother.  Her sisters pay for her to go to a month-long Christmas baking seminar-and-retreat at a fancy mansion.  The baking classes are taught by a celebrity chef.  There's an assortment of quirky and lovely side characters also taking the classes.  And there's a handsome, sweet, single groundskeeper named Luke who seems like a perfect match for Adeline.

If only he wasn't planning to move to Turkey to become a missionary.  In January.

But if there weren't any problems to overcome, there'd be no plot, right?

One of the things that made this a perfect book for me to read this particular year is that Adeline is a ballet dancer.  She performed professionally for years, and now she teaches ballet.  There are references all through the book too The Nutcracker... and my teenage ballerina was in her own first production of The Nutcracker this year!  So that felt especially timely.

Also, I love to bake.  There are recipes at the end of the book, and I am totally going to try some of them!

Also, both Adeline and Luke genuinely enjoyed snow, and I love snow myself, so that made me like them both a lot.

I love how Storm Shultz always writes characters that feel like I could meet them myself somewhere, like they're real people living in the real world.  They're not just relatable, they're realistic in their ordinariness.  Their problems feel normal and real and understandable.  

Finally, since I am still grieving my dad's death a little over a year ago, Adeline's storyline held extra poignancy for me.

Particularly Good Bits:

This is the worst part about grieving.  Grief hits you smack in the face anytime, anywhere.  It doesn't matter if you're eating heavenly bread or if you're driving down the road.  Grief does not care.

Why are you flirting?  You just had an existential crisis in the bathroom!  Stop flirting!

Here I am at forty-one, still needing Dad for advice and guidance.  Then again, any good dad will always be needed -- no matter the age of his children.

"Oh, and what did Mom always say?"
"Wash your nose and stay away from raccoons?"
"No, the other thing."  Lissy snickers.

I smile because I know exactly what she's talking about.  "God is good.  No matter what."

I don't want to be the person who sits around and misses the life she could have had.  I want to be the person who gives a toast about how she sees hope for the future, loves her present, and doesn't regret the past.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  G.  Good, clean, wholesome.  No smut, only semi-described kisses.  No violence, no gore, no cussing.