Our Favorite Fiction Books of 2025

Kristin Koval’s stunning debut, Penitence, opens with a shocking murder that upends the lives of Angie and David. With nowhere else to turn, Angie brings in Martine Dumont, a lawyer and the mother of Angie’s first love, Julian. As the mystery unfolds, Angie must confront her complicated and unresolved feelings for her former lover. Fans of complex page-turners are in for a treat as Koval’s narrative leaps nimbly across time and between rural Colorado and New York City to produce a stunning study of grief, family, and forgiveness.

How far would you go to secure the house of your dreams? A darkly funny debut set in today’s wildly competitive housing market, Marisa Kashino’s Best Offer Wins is a sharp satire of ambition, class, and real estate madness. The book follows publicist Margo Miyake on a desperate and increasingly dangerous quest to escape her cramped apartment and secure a home for her and her husband. Kashino’s new narrative is so captivating that Hulu recently optioned it! You’ll want to pick it up before the streaming debut.

We loved Notes on Infinity by new writer Austin Taylor, which follows two Harvard students who drop out of school to start a miracle antiaging drug company. After meeting in organic chemistry and joining a prestigious on-campus lab together, Zoe and Zach figure out how to create a potentially groundbreaking antiaging drug. Everything is going great for the two wunderkinds and their pharmaceutical start-up — until they face accusations that threaten to destroy everything they’ve built. 

In What Happened to the McCrays, bestselling author Tracey Lange weaves a poignant story about the complexities of family. The novel centers on Kevin McCray, who returns to the life and town he once abandoned to care for his ailing father. But when he takes over as coach for the local middle school hockey team, Kyle begins to wonder if he should embrace the community he once pushed away and strive to mend his frayed relationships.

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Susan Choi’s wonderful novel Flashlight reckons with immigration and family trauma in the years after ten-year-old Louisa’s father, a Korean émigré, disappears from a coastal Japanese town. As Louisa and her American mother return to the U.S., they must deal with the aftermath as they try to uncover what really happened. 

The newest serial killer thriller from Alex North does not disappoint! Fans of North’s previous work — and anyone who enjoys a dark and atmospheric crime mystery — should check out The Man Made of Smoke. The novel follows Dan Garvie, a criminal profiler trying to solve the mysterious death of his own father. As Garvie delves deeper into the baffling case, he starts to unravel a connection between his father and a childhood trauma that he has never been able to shake.  

Body-acceptance advocate Katie Sturino’s debut, Sunny Side Up, was an Oprah pick for best summer reads and is a great choice for fans of smart and fun romantic comedies. This is a story about starting over in your mid-30s that offers some much-needed plus-size representation in the rom-com genre. You’ll lose yourself in a world of designer clothes and New York dreams as you follow Sunny Greene’s journey from frustrated divorcee to fabulously confident dating diva. 

You don’t want to miss out on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s first novel since her stunning debut, Americanah. Dream Count tells the story of four interconnected women living in the U.S. and Nigeria who are grappling with the tough choices life has thrown their way. Adichie’s new narrative wrestles with issues of immigration, ambition, family, belonging, and the nature of love and happiness. 

This isn’t Marisa Kanter’s first novel, but it is her first adult fiction novel after a successful career writing beloved YA books. We adored this story of best friends turned spouses with a twist. Friends with Benefits tells the story of childhood best friends who decide to get married for financial stability but soon discover that long-dormant feelings start to bubble to the surface. Can they keep their marriage platonic...or are things about to get even more complicated? 

A finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction, Palaver is a moving and often funny story of both biological and found family told across time and place. When a mother arrives on her son’s doorstep in Tokyo for Christmas, ten years after their last meeting, they’re forced to repair their estranged relationship as they explore the meaning of home, memory, and family. Bryan Washington’s book is a perfect pick if you’re looking for a story that captures both family and the spirit of togetherness in all its complexity. 

In a year dominated by headlines about artificial intelligence, former tech researcher Fred Lunzer brings us a timely debut about the nature of human connection in the age of AI. Sike follows Adrian, who’s feeling lost after his last failed relationship, as he decides to try out a new AI therapy app designed to guide users toward personal happiness. But when Adrian falls for Maquie, a venture capitalist who refuses to download the popular app, they both must grapple with the messy relationship between love, technology, and connection. 

TV crime drama screenwriter Kevin Wade — of Blue Bloods fame — brings his sharp eye for suspense, plot, and character to his debut novel, Johnny Careless. The gripping crime novel follows Jeep Mullane, a police chief who returns to his hometown to investigate the death of his childhood friend. Wade’s police procedural is both a fast-paced thriller and an exploration of class and grief as Jeep navigates family secrets, corrupt local politics, and the loss of a once-close friend. 

An instant New York Times bestseller and finalist for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, poet Ocean Vuong’s brilliant second novel, The Emperor of Gladness, features the unlikely friendship of hopeless 19-year-old Hai and Grazine, an elderly widow suffering from dementia. After Hai takes on caretaking duties for Grazina, they develop a bond that changes both of them and their communities forever. You don’t want to miss this beautiful and thought-provoking work from one of the literary world’s finest minds. 

A much-needed warning as we stand on the precipice of worsening climate change, A Guardian and a Thief combines artful prose with the pacing of a thriller. Megha Majumdar’s second novel follows Ma and Boomba in near-future Kolkata as they both desperately try to escape the oncoming climate catastrophe. As poignant as it is harrowing, this novel is one you won’t be able to put down until its perfect conclusion.

While not a 2025 book per se, John Vercher’s critically acclaimed debut has been given an updated release this year and is definitely worth checking out. If you loved Vercher’s acclaimed Devil Is Fine, you’re sure to lose yourself in this story of a biracial man who spends the first 22 years of his life passing for white until a violent act by his best friend forces him to confront his past and his identity.