25 in 2025

Hey all, Sam here.

It’s the 25th of December, so why not have a post today? Merry Christmas to those who celebrate today, and a Happy Holidays in general because there are so many different holidays at this time of year.

I’ve seen a lot of posts across social media talking about the 25 books folks are hoping to read in 2025. There’s a lot of great books out already, and even more coming next year. I will do an anticipated releases post soon (which will probably only cover the first half of the year), so I’m not going to include any 2025 releases in my version of the 25 in ’25 list.

Instead I challenged myself to find 25 books that I already own that I want to read in the upcoming year. 2024 was a decent year of reading for me, but I did have a few reading slump-y months, so I didn’t complete as many as I would have wanted for the year.

I’m starting this list off with: Rain of Shadows and Endings by Melissa K. Roehrich, Piercing the Veil by Steven A. Guglich, Unworthy by J.A. Vodvarka, Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons by Quenby Olson, and A Fallen Sword by Kaven Hirning.

I have so many books on my shelves that I’ve been wanting to read and just haven’t gotten around to yet, so I’m going to try to make catching up on my backlog a priority for 2025…even though I know that this list of 25 books barely even scratches the surface of all the books I own and still need to read.

But this grouping of books are some of the indie published books I’ve picked up in the last year and want to read. I’m actually surprised that I haven’t started this series by Melissa K. Roerich, after completely loving and devouring her first series at the end of last year/beginning of this year. Steven A. Guglich is a friend of a friend and they talk about his book a lot, so I need to read it. Basically I can say the same thing about all of these books, so let’s just move on.

Then I have: North is the Night by Emily Rath, Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger, The Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoa, Swordcrossed by Freya Marske, and Infinity Alchemist by Kacen Callender.

I’m hoping this book by Emily Rath will be one I read early in the year, while it’s still firmly winter here in the Midwest US. But I’ve kept putting off reading the rest of these books for too long, so hopefully I can get out of my reading slump and read all of these sooner rather than later.

For the next batch there’s: Vanished by Nicole McKeon, Caraway of the Sea by Madeline Burget, Saints of Storm and Sorrow by Gabriella Buba, The Curse of Saints by Kate Dramis, and Foul Days by Genoveva Dimova.

This grouping has a couple more indie published books, and then a few more books that came out in the last year or so that I’ve been meaning to read and just haven’t. I hate how frequently I can say that about so many books, but there are so many great authors writing and releasing so many books, and I just can’t keep up with all of them while also working full-time and trying to write my own stories and dealing with all the other trappings of life.

Next up, I have: The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste, Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman, Where the Dark Stands Still by A.B. Poranek, The Road of Bones by Demi Winters, and Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang.

Even more books that I really just hope to be able to read sooner rather than later. A few of these are also some larger books, but I’m hoping they’re as good as they sound and I read them quickly. I’d love to start 2025 with a whole lot of awesome reads.

Finally, there’s: The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White, Masquerade by O.O. Sangoyome, House of Frank by Kay Sinclaire, The Tidings of Misfits by Jordan Dugdall, and Good Game, Gamer Girl by Reina Zoric.

This final batch also signaled the move from physical books to digital ones, because I started buying a lot more digital books in the last couple months due to wanting to support a bunch of authors but also needing to be careful with my money.

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All right, there you have it…25 of my owned books that I’m hoping to read in 2025. I’ll try to get my anticipated releases post up before the end of the year, but this is the busy time at work, so I don’t know how easily I’ll be able to get the post written up.

Thanks for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.