Best Books of 2025

 

I haven't posted on this blog in years, although I have definitely been reading a lot... 

One of my resolutions this year is to spend more time getting back into my hobbies and things that I enjoy - hence why I am returning to my blog! I have missed talking about books on here a lot, although I have still been enjoying reading others' posts, TikTok's and Instagram posts. 

So I thought what better time to return than the beginning of a fresh new year, and with a post on my favourite books that I read in 2025. I managed to read over 100 books in 2025, but only a few of them were 5-star favourites. 

My Favourite Books of 2025: 

I think no one will be surprised, as I am sure this is on a lot of people's favourite books of the year lists. 

I am a huge Hunger Games fan and was waiting patiently for this to be released ever since it was announced. 

I absolutely loved this book. Haymitch was such a perfect character from the series to focus a book on, as when we met him in The Hunger Games, he was a very negative, jaded character who then went on a character arc. But I have always wanted to know how he got to be that person. 

This book gave us the perfect insight into Haymitch - his life before the games, during the games and after the games. I loved reading about his interactions with other characters (Maysilee Donner, my absolute favourite!) and seeing a few cameos of familiar characters or familiar names. 

This book had me hooked - I could not stop reading. Honestly, I think there is so much potential for Suzanne Collins to continue building upon this series, whether it is stories of the characters we already know, like Snow and Haymitch or someone we haven't encountered. 

I think if Suzanne Collins writes anything else in this universe, I will 100% read it. Very much looking forward to the movie!

Lisa Jewell is an author I discovered during my break from blogging, and wow, she is a new favourite author of all time!

None Of This Is True focuses on two women whose lives become incredibly intertangled during the recording of a podcast. 

Craziness ensued, and I could not predict anything that happened. Lisa Jewell writes such readable thrillers with crazy characters and unpredictable endings ... I am still reeling over the ending of this one!

Lisa Jewell is definitely an author I will be reading all of their back catalogue in 2026 .. hopefully!

One of the most talked about and covered up books of 2025! Careless People.

From an ex-employee at Facebook/Meta, Sarah Wynn-Williams dives deep into the horrors that were acceptable at the company during the time she worked there. 

I think everyone had some idea that Facebook/Meta is not a "good" company, but I had to pause so many times while reading this book to recover from the shocking details. 

From harvesting people's data without them knowing and repurposing it, using Myanmar as an experiment on controlling people's perspectives, corrupt government backhanders, sexism at work, and so much more. 

This was an unforgettable book that, if you are at all interested in business or peeking behind the horrible Meta curtain, I urge you to pick it up. 

This novel focuses on our main character, Tricia, who is house hunting with her new husband. While going to a viewing, a snowstorm hits and she and her husband are stranded and must stay in the empty house. The house once belonged to a successful Psychiatrist who disappeared 4 years ago. As Tricia moves through the house, she stumbles upon tape recordings of the psychiatrist's meetings with her patients.

Never Lie by Freida McFadden is the best book by her that I have read so far. She is also one of my new auto-read authors. 

This book had my jaw on the floor. Every twist shocked me; the characters were so well written, and the tape recording transcripts broke up the text and added another layer to the story. This is one of her best books, in my opinion, and I will always recommend this one. 

So those are my favourite books I read in 2025. Let me know if you read any of these, or what your favourite books of 2025 were! Hope 2026 is a brilliant year for us all. 

Review: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Publication Date: May 19th 2020
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Source: Own

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Blurb: 
It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capital, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to out-charm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute.

The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined -- every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute... and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes. 

 Okay so..if you've not heard of this book, you've been living under a rock. (P.s check out my reading vlog for this book on my booktube channel). 

This book is a prequel to the hunger games trilogy, following president snow as a teenager growing up in the capitol in the times of the 10th hunger games. 

Coriolanus Snow in this novel is young, poor and hungry to prove himself so he can then provide for his struggling family. Coriolanus enlists as a mentor in the hunger games in the hopes of achieving a scholarship to university. He is paired up with the District 12 tribute, traveller and singer Lucy Gray Baird. 
Lucy Gray is a louder than life, cunning but charming character. Her positive outlook on life counteracts Coriolanus's negative. Combined with Coriolanus's ambition to succeed in the games with his tribute, he and Lucy work to make her chances the best they can be in the games. 

Although I feel that there was supposed to be some desire for the reader to enjoy the "romance" between Lucy and Coriolanus but I did not. At all. 
The relationship between them begins as a way for Coriolanus to better himself and bring glory back to his family name. Therefore his whole reasoning for their relationship to succeed, is for his gain. Every move in their relationship, is a game of chess to Coriolanus where he must keep moving forward to win. 
The power imbalance in their relationship also made me very uncomfortable throughout the novel. Coriolanus is coming from a position of power, even though he is poor- he is capital poor, not district poor. He also comes from an education and a life of more resources available to him than Lucy could dream of. The power imbalance therefore makes their relationship non-equal. Coriolanus has this albeit invisible upper hand in their relationship. Therefore I could not support the relationship at all. It made me very uneasy. 

A character that I really enjoyed in the novel was Sejanus. He was a great character- the biggest cinnamon roll in the book but also at the same time, he could be a little yikes. Sejanus was definitely that guy who sees all the wrong in the world and wants to be the one to make a change, but ends up going about things in the wrong way. He was definitely the "Gale" of the book - since I know people have been comparing Lucy to Katniss. 

Sejanus was my favourite character in the entire book. His friendship with Coriolanus, which was begrudgingly accepted by Coriolanus who viewed it as a way to exploit Sejanus's much richer family assets, was actually sweet. You could see Sejanus just wanted to do right, to have a friend and live in a good world. 
Sejanus and Coriolanus was definitely the ship of the book for me...no question. They fit together so well, Sejanus was clearly in love with Coriolanus and especially in the beginning of the book when Sejanus comments that Coriolanus keeps "saving him" and Coriolanus says "I can't help it". 
Tbh, I really wanted Sejanus and Coriolanus to be a couple but hey ho, at least we got to read like 1 sentence about a gay couple...representation I guess? 
Side note: Sejanus's mother- what a fantastic warm character. I loved her. 

This book really did so great in showing us the beginnings and origins of the games as we know them. We see that even though it is the 10th games, there is still a "new" atmosphere around the games as they are still experimenting and trying out new things. I found the capital mentor & tribute dynamic interesting. 
One of the most captivating parts were definitely the scenes with Dr. Gaul as she experiments and tries to find even more evil torture methods for the tributes. She is so creepy and terrifying. 

I really enjoyed the references to the hunger games books, or what we would typically know from those books- like the Katniss flower popping up, familiar names like Heavensbee, Crane etc., 
Also Tigris in the novel was interesting, I never realized she was Snows cousin. 

Although there was so much I enjoyed about the book, I did feel my attention waning at times. Not so much full on boredom, but more just reading through some parts so I could get to a more exciting part if that makes sense? I definitely felt there were exciting scenes, and not so exciting scenes, with some feeling a little dragged out. 

Overall I very much enjoyed this book. If you are a big hunger games fan like I was, then I really think that reading this book will add to your enjoyment of the series and not detract. Really interesting character and political driven novel by such an amazing author. I would absolutely love if someday Suzanne Collins released short stories on each of the tributes we are familiar with, such as Johanna Mason or Finnick Odair on their experiences in the games and the affect on their lives afterwards. 
Check out my reading vlog for The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes on my booktube channel here!

Movie Review: Mockingjay Part 2

So you may or may not know, that The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is one of my favourite book series of all time. It is also the first dystopian series I read.

I also am a big fan of the film adaptations and feel they have been done well. Usually I'm so hesitant about book to movie adaptations because I think all book lovers have felt the pain of having their favourite book turned into an awful movie.

In terms of Mockingjay Part 2, I left the cinema thinking of just how well the movie portrayed the book and stayed so true to the book. I absolutely loved the movie and I think if I had to rank the film series from least favourite to favourite, it would read;

1. The Hunger Games
2. Mockingjay Part 1
3. Catching Fire
4. Mockingjay Part 2

So lets talk a little about what I felt about the movie. 

First off, let me apologise if this review reads as being a little disjointed. I just have too many feels about this movie to organise my thoughts! 

Okay so one of the scenes I really enjoyed because it was so action packed was when the "star squad" aka squad 451 went to the Capital. The scene when they were in that courtyard and the pods went off....oh my god so intense. I loved how they portrayed the pods in the movie.

  I also loved the relationship between Finnick and Peeta in this film, the constant checking he was fine and talking to him and reassuring him. Honestly Finnick is the best kind of person. I also was somewhat sad the film did not fully show the friendship that grows between Johanna and Katniss.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Publisher: Scholastic Press 

Publication Date: January 2008

Blurb: 

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.


Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister’s place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before—and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that will weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

The moment Katniss volunteered to take her sister's place in the games,I realised that she would prove to be a strong female protagonist that i could respect. I really enjoyed Katniss' character as she was a realistic character who handled situations throughout the book maturely and reacted to situations in both a sensible and realistic way. I loved when she let her sweet and caring side shine through her cold and hardened exterior. This can be seen in her relationships with Rue and Peeta.

Peeta Mellark, the boy with the bread! I loved Peeta's character. He is a very moral, open-book, honest and selfless person. In the beginning of the book, i thought "Oh, this well fed baker-boy is not going to last two seconds in the arena!"....Woah, was I wrong! Peeta's cake decorating skills help him to camouflage and blend in to his surroundings in the arena to near invisibility, proving to be his greatest skill. 

I think the moment that made me love Peeta and Katniss's relationship was the night before the games when they are on the rooftop and Peeta says he doesn't think he has a chance in the games & that he wants to show the capitol that he is "more than just a piece in their games."

Haymitch! Although when I first met Haymitch, I thought him to be a drunken idiot , I see him now as a drunken genius! I liked his character a lot, and similar to  Katniss, he also has a soft side under his tough exterior.

Effie was a really fun spontaneous character! I don't know what to think of Gale this far  into the series  but i hope his side of the story is seen in the next book!

The plot of this book was so unique, and I can honestly say I had never read anything like this book before! I had never read a dystopia novel before and can I say what a first! This book had the most gripping plot, chock-a-block with twist and turns , and each chapter more entertaining than the last. This plot made it seem like a movie with so much action and violence, the dialogue was pretty awesome too ! This plot will stay with me and made this book an instant favourite!



Can i just say that I was blown away by the powerful writing of this book. The writing style was something i truly loved about this book and made it an addictive read. Each chapter left you starving for the next. Suzanne Collins really gets into the mindset of each character and makes them so real and vivid. 

Another thing that made this book epic beyond words, was the fact that in the future, the Hunger Games could become a reality if the world doesn't start to work together peacefully. I think that shocked me!
Overall, an immensely powerful and thought provoking, action packed, sprinkled with romance, perfect read that you would be crazy not to pick up!