Inspirational Skai: Day 6 | Five Fall Favorites 2025: Favorites of 2025

Welcome for the final time! (Of Fall Favorites 2025. I would love to have everyone continue to come back. I'll mention some of the other projects I have in the works at end of this blog. Also yesterday, we had rain all-day, and it finally felt like Fall!) Today is bittersweet as we come to the most fun day of the week. The day when all of the free books are available! Do check out the other bloggers, and the hosts sites for all the freebies. I'll throw a book bracket down at the bottom that people are welcome to save and use, but I unfortunately don't have any free books to offer, at least not yet. All of my available stories can be found for free on this blog. I love to write, and welcome any feedback, (beyond that I need to proofread more carefully. I already know that.) Let's get to the best of 2025!

I got very excited thinking about today's picks. While I have a few other favorite reads of this year that I've already shared, these are just too good to not share. My most read genres of mystery and romance are here, as well as some genres that I am started to read more often, such as thrillers. I do have one lone fantasy book, I'll explain later why I read something outside of my usual. For now, all you need to know is that I loved it. The suspense is killing me (but not literally), so maybe I should end this intro so we can get into the final five favorites of 2025.

1. Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano

Finlay Donovan is discussing her next mystery novel with her literary agent in a Panera when she's overheard and mistaken for a contract killer. Then a wealthy woman pays Finlay to kill her husband, and she poses as her own ex-husband's new fiancé to follow her target into a bar. Upon seeing the man slip a drug into an unsuspecting young woman's glass, she switches it with his glass. After he passes out, she puts him into her minivan to takes him to his wife, but when she stops by her place, the garage door gets closed with the engine running. Feeling responsible for the man's death, she recruits her children's babysitter, Vero to help bury his body on her ex's farm. She knows that she didn't close the garage and leave the car running, but she'll have to find the real killer before anyone can find the body to avoid being arrested herself.

This is my newest favorite series! Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano is perhaps the most Nancy Drew like adult mystery series that I have read so far. If Nancy Drew were a struggling author and single mother of two, Finlay Donovan would be an all grown up Nancy Drew. She's an armature detective who mysteries and murders find her, even when she doesn't want them. Because I've been rereading the old Nancy Drew books, I've noticed that while Nancy is always trying to help others, she skirts the law quite often, even though she doesn't want to. She's willing to do what it takes to solve the mystery. Finlay Donovan is the exact same way. Constantly torn between doing the right, lawful thing and solving the mystery to protect herself and her family. Also, like Nancy often dressed up during her cases, Finlay and Vero are always wearing disguises and pretending to be other people to get to the bottom of these mysteries.

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Read the full review on Instagram

2. Geekerella by Ashley Poston

Elle is spending the summer working at food truck and avoiding her stepsisters and their snobby friends. If only she could also avoid the excessive demands of her evil step-monster—stepmother. When the movie remake of her late father's favorite tv show is announced, it's announced that the lead, Prince Carmindor is to be played by Darien Freedman, a young star from a teeny bobber soap opera. She knows he will ruin the franchise and takes to her little blog to tell the world, at least her handful of readers. Darien is an actor disillusioned by pressures of Hollywood and price of fame, but playing his favorite character in the movie remake is still a dream come true. More than anything he wants to please the fans. When Elle's blog goes viral, Darien decides he definitely won't be doing any fan conventions, especially not ExcelsiCon. Looking for someone with the power to take him off the con's guest roster, he finds a contact number online for ExcelsiCon's founder, Elle's late father. He contacts Elle instead and they start to bond over texts about sci-fi and family problems, but neither can tell the other who they really are.

I finished this book earlier this month, so another book held this slot until about week and a half ago. Ever since seeing Hillery Duff and Chad Michael Murray in A Cinderella Story as a girl, I'm a sucker for modern fairytale retellings. Poston writes one of the best. It's got all the right character elements of a Cinderella story and so masterfully weaves a split narrative together. Additionally, it appeals to my geek heart with characters that are obsessed with sci-fi shows and fan conventions. The details on this fictional show and movie remake, wholeheartedly makes me want to read or see this fantasy world's story too. I now have a crush on Prince Carmindor and absolutely want to a geek charming of my very own, and if he happened to be a movie star, I think I'd be okay with that. 😉 Elle and Darien's inability to take control of their own lives at times annoyed me, but I think it's because it makes them so relatable. I would highly recommend Geekerlla by Ashley Poston for anyone who loves a modern Cinderella story.

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3. Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

After her brother is missing in action fighting the war between Enva and Dacre, Iris drops out of school and takes a job as a typist for Oath Gazette to care for her mother. Roman has his future laid out in front of him by his influential father. He's to work for Oath Gazette, become a columnist so he can spread his father's propaganda, and marry the daughter of a wealthy man that he doesn't even know. At Oath Gazette, Iris and Roman have competed for each typing assignment, when a columnist position opens, they intend to compete for the job, but then Iris's mother dies. Suddenly, Iris knows her heart isn't in Oath, it's missing in action on the frontlines. She takes a job as a war correspondent to find her brother. When Roman learns how much his father is profiting from the war, he can't stay and follows Iris to the frontlines. Living in constant danger and seeing the true cost of war, they learn what is most import to them.

Overall, my impression is that this is a World War I novel, that the author realized wouldn't have been period accurate for a girl to be on the frontlines, so Ross changed it to a fantasy novel. The magical typewriter is the only magical element that has a strong impact on the first book in this duology. There is so much set up before this story truly gets into the action of the plot, but none of it is wasted. That expert writing is why this is one of my favorite reads of 2025. I picked this title up as part of a 12 Recommendations From 12 Friends Challenge this year. It's fantasy/romantasy. So, it's definitely not one I would usually read, but as I was looking it up, it was a well-loved YA book. I decided to give it a chance. For the first portion, I was bored as the story was slowing building the world and laying the foundation for the action later. I listened to it as an audiobook, and I was so confused after the first few chapters when the narrator went from having a female narrator to having a male narrator, but his smooth British accent kept me intrigued long enough for the story to get good. Before the book was over, I was hooked by Iris and Roman's love story. The way they were so devoted and caring toward each other. This reminds me that I need to read the second book still, because that ending was brutal. I was crying, but I won't say anymore.

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4. Hearts Overboard by Becky Dean

When Savannah's boyfriend calls her boring and dumps her on the final day of school, she has no idea how she's going to cope with the unexpected changes to her summer plan. At least she's got a week, while she's on an Alaskan cruise with her parents to figure something out. If only her school nemesis, Tanner wasn't going to be there, too, but it's for her mother's job and his mother works at the same company, so they are stuck with each other. Their parents ask them to get along for the week, and since the two of them are (somehow) the only teenagers on the boat, they end up spending a lot of time together. Tanner even offers to help her use the excitement of the cruse, to show her ex-boyfriend that she can be fun. As they embark on this adventure together, she learns that Tanner might not be as annoying as he seems.

This is just the sweetest, cleanest, contemporary romance I have read all year. Contemporary romance is one of my favorite genres and I am always looking for a fun clean one. Hearts Overboard by Becky Dean has a sprinkling of action, as Tanner and Savannah have Alaskan adventures and misadventures which only adds to their enemies-to-lovers plot. So many times, I was laughing out loud while I was eating my lunch at work. Actually, annoying Tanner proves to be a really nice guy, and Savannah gets out of over comfort zone as she feels safe with him. Savannah reads like she may be autistic, being obsessed with her routine and uncomfortable with anything that's different, however it is never mentioned. When I say this book was clean, there only an occasional byword of language, and the only physical interactions between the main characters were the occasional unromantic hand holding, and a couple kisses. Besides a bear attack, there's no other content that I would caution readers. It's the perfect romance for a clean read, I would say it's safe even for younger teens.

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5. The Never Game by Jeffery Deaver

When a young woman, Sophie is abducted, her father hires a reward seeker and expert tracker, Colter Shaw. Shaw was raised in the wilderness and trained by his father as a survivalist. Skills which he now uses to find missing people. Tracking down Sophie leads Shaw to a bigger mystery, a madman imitating a video game villain, The Gray Man. In the video games players are stranded in a remote location and challenged to escape or die with dignity. Shaw's quest leads him to investigate video game makers, professional game streamers and obsessed fans living in their parents' basement. When another person is taken, it's a race against the clock to find a madman and save the next victim.

Over the past few years, I've gotten into reading thrillers, and this year I've read a few different adult thrillers. However, they often have unreliable and unlikeable main characters. This one is different. Colter Shaw is one of the kindest MMC's I've read. Always helping people, he gets paid in finder's rewards, but he never takes anything more. Also, he helps others along the way because it's the right thing to do, even when it's the hard choice. One thing that confuses me about this series is that the first book about a wilderness expert is in the concrete jungle and about video games. It doesn't make sense. There was never a dull moment, as he's hunting a killer racing the clock to find kidnap victims. I loved that this story started at the most exciting moment and then started over at the beginning. More thrillers need to start with a climatic and exciting moment. It may have also helped my enjoyment that this novel inspired the show, Tracker starring Justin Hartly. Hartley's best known for This Is Us, but he played the Green Arrow in Smallville before that. I will happily watch Oliver Queen in another action show.

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Conclusion

I reread last year's final conclusion before starting to write this one. Yet again, this list reflects my yearly reading habits, but when I compare it to last year's final five, I also see how my reading has changed. I'm reading more adult novels and thrillers this year. The 12 Recommendations from 12 Friends challenge has also pulled me out of my comfort zone. I read both Finlay Donvan and Divine Rivals for that. Somethings still haven't changed. I love a good, clean romance, or an exciting mystery I'm a sucker for a book that's inspired a TV show. And I will always talk about book crushes, probably more readily than real crushes.

Thank you to everyone for reading Fall Five Favorites this week. I am honored that you would take time out your busy reading schedule to read my bookish ramblings. Looking forward to some of the projects that I have in the work: I have a 300+ page first draft of a novel I wrote that I'm reading, so I can write a second draft. You can read the original opening for that on my blog here, although those characters are almost unrecognizable from the ones I have now. Other writings I'm looking to share include a huge backlog of fanfiction; I only have one published now. You can read it on Fanfiction.net by clicking here. Next Monday is also the final Monday of the month, which means I will be writing a Love Your Library post. You can check out August's post here. Finally, join me on Instagram in October for a third year of October Mysteries and Thrillers. Additionally, if you read about my 12 Recommendations from 12 Friends books and thought that would be a neat challenge to join, I will be putting together an Instagram engagement group for 2026, comment on this IG post if you'd like to join.

I'll close this blog and challenge by once again thanking our gracious hosts, Kate from Once Upon an Ordinary, and Rebekah of Read Another Page for putting this all together. I would also like to thank all the bloggers and authors who are offering their stories and monetary support to this blogging challenge's giveaway and final day freebies. I would like to commend the other bloggers who have been sharing their own favorites and thank them for being so supportive this week. I have been reading what of their blogs I can, and will continue to read the other blogs, until I've seen everyone's. Until we blog again!

What are your favorite reads of 2025?