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My Year in Reading ( 2025 version)
Jan. 1st, 2026 02:06 pmI know there was a book reading meme somewhere, but I can't find it so we're going a bit bare bones today. 😅
Total books I picked up to read: 51
Total DNFs: 14
Fave books
Sweep in Peace and One Fell sweep from Ilona Andrews' Innkeeper Chronicles series. They were the ONLY books I gave 5 stars to. Also loved Skyla Dawn Cameron's intense mystery set in the Canadian wilderness The Silent Places.
Biggest Disappointments
* Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll - A roman-a-clef abt the victims and survivors of Ted Bundy's murder spree. This book was lauded everywhere for reasons that I don't get. I still don't know WHO this book is for, LOLsob.
* Murder by Memory by Olivia Wilde - ANOTHER DISSENTING OPINION because the mystery was so weak that I decided to not continue the series. (But I'll continue to give this author a chance.)
Biggest Surprises
* The Wife Deserved It by Darby Kane - A shorter-than-expected novella that I enjoyed so much I'm going to read more books by this author.
* The Silent Places gets a tip of the hat as well cuz it was a good suspense novel that had the best ending I've read in a long while.
Worst books
* Make Room for Love by Darci Liao - Was excited abt a butch Chinese-American lesbian and a transgender Indian-American bisexual woman. But the story veered into a completely separate plotline abt a student union. I'd picked this up for ROMANCE, so the idea of having to sit thru (seemingly) endless chapters abt something else made me hate the whole thing.
* A Court of Deceit and Ruin by Jessaca Willis - Promoted as "a slow-burn sapphic fantasy romance perfect for fans of fairy tale retellings, dark magic, and star-crossed fates" --which turned out to be lies. The book WAS well-written, but this wasn't a romance, there was zero slow burn (again, NOT a romance), and the rest of the description is off. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
* Bitterbound by A.Z. Louise - An alleged "assassin x target romantasy" that had too many plotpoints that weren't quite resolved, a weak-ass romance, and a TERRIBLE ending (given the premise.)
Average rating for the year: 3. No idea how that happened.
Overall thoughts
It was a super strange reading year, NGL. I tried a lot of new-to-me authors (DNF'd a lot of them too, LOLsob) and had a meh reading year. Wished I'd tackled a lot more of my TBR and that I'd done Nonfiction November.
OTOH, I'm participating on two different reading challenges, so I'm going to not mood read as much as I did last year. :P
FICS
Total fics I picked up to read: 222 - I feel like this was lower than other years, huh.
Total DNFs: 103 - Way better than I expected given that there were months where I kept DNF'ing stuff left and right, LOL.
Total wordcount read: 2,126,551 - FTR, I don't feel one way or another abt this number. It's just interesting to know I've read 2.1M words, but there's no self-worth type of attachment from me toward it.
Highest reading month? January --which was 29 fics total. Makes sense to me!
Lowest reading month? April and August -- where I only read 9 fics each. IDK what distracted me in April, but I've got an idea that Summer SADs got to me in August.
Fandom I read the most: BTS. 😋 77 fics with Yoonjin being the ship I read the most (35).
Other fandoms 41 fics total split between Seventeen (multiple ships), TXT (multiple ships), TCGF (Hualian), BTVS (Buffy/Faith, Faith/Other), Shinee (Minho/Key)
Fave fics I read in 2025
* the last person i could ever love by![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p2.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
miraclesofpaul (BTS, Explicit, Omegaverse, endgame ship is Jin/Yoongi, other background ships, 152k total ) - This fic was rollercoaster of LOLs, DRAHMAHZ, and many sweet moments. *Chef's kiss* due to it being a TRUE Enemies-to-Lovers AU.
* Interlude byduets (BTS, Rated Teen, Jin/Yoongi, 2.4k words total) - AU in which BTS never happens, but Yoongi ends up as a famous rapper and Jin is an actor. LOVED THE MIXED MEDIA format.
* You have seven [7] new calendar invites byandlovetoo (Mature, OT7, 5.8k words total) - BTS trying to sync their calendar is all you need to know abt this wonderful chatfic.
* Stacks bytender_tenderly (Explicit, RM/V, 9.8k words total) - A librarian AU of win with one-sided rivals-to-lovers, heheh.
* Growing Toward The Sun byNevaeh - Non-Idol AU abt the ups and downs of queer life in Seoul. I loved the balance of angst and fluff.
* Break Thru Everything byaceaceaceace - (Rated Teen, established Minho/Key, 11.5k words total) SHINee's Key starts to organize with other queer idols to come out as a collective. Loved everything abt it (including the mentions of other idols who did come out too.)
* Sediment bybelledamn (BTVS, Mature, Buffy/Faith, 27k words total) - A perfect Noir AU in which Buffy's a PI, Faith's a sex worker, and they have a hella complicated relationship. I liked the way the author integrated other characters into the story.
Total books I picked up to read: 51
Total DNFs: 14
Fave books
Sweep in Peace and One Fell sweep from Ilona Andrews' Innkeeper Chronicles series. They were the ONLY books I gave 5 stars to. Also loved Skyla Dawn Cameron's intense mystery set in the Canadian wilderness The Silent Places.
Biggest Disappointments
* Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll - A roman-a-clef abt the victims and survivors of Ted Bundy's murder spree. This book was lauded everywhere for reasons that I don't get. I still don't know WHO this book is for, LOLsob.
* Murder by Memory by Olivia Wilde - ANOTHER DISSENTING OPINION because the mystery was so weak that I decided to not continue the series. (But I'll continue to give this author a chance.)
Biggest Surprises
* The Wife Deserved It by Darby Kane - A shorter-than-expected novella that I enjoyed so much I'm going to read more books by this author.
* The Silent Places gets a tip of the hat as well cuz it was a good suspense novel that had the best ending I've read in a long while.
Worst books
* Make Room for Love by Darci Liao - Was excited abt a butch Chinese-American lesbian and a transgender Indian-American bisexual woman. But the story veered into a completely separate plotline abt a student union. I'd picked this up for ROMANCE, so the idea of having to sit thru (seemingly) endless chapters abt something else made me hate the whole thing.
* A Court of Deceit and Ruin by Jessaca Willis - Promoted as "a slow-burn sapphic fantasy romance perfect for fans of fairy tale retellings, dark magic, and star-crossed fates" --which turned out to be lies. The book WAS well-written, but this wasn't a romance, there was zero slow burn (again, NOT a romance), and the rest of the description is off. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
* Bitterbound by A.Z. Louise - An alleged "assassin x target romantasy" that had too many plotpoints that weren't quite resolved, a weak-ass romance, and a TERRIBLE ending (given the premise.)
Average rating for the year: 3. No idea how that happened.
Overall thoughts
It was a super strange reading year, NGL. I tried a lot of new-to-me authors (DNF'd a lot of them too, LOLsob) and had a meh reading year. Wished I'd tackled a lot more of my TBR and that I'd done Nonfiction November.
OTOH, I'm participating on two different reading challenges, so I'm going to not mood read as much as I did last year. :P
FICS
Total fics I picked up to read: 222 - I feel like this was lower than other years, huh.
Total DNFs: 103 - Way better than I expected given that there were months where I kept DNF'ing stuff left and right, LOL.
Total wordcount read: 2,126,551 - FTR, I don't feel one way or another abt this number. It's just interesting to know I've read 2.1M words, but there's no self-worth type of attachment from me toward it.
Highest reading month? January --which was 29 fics total. Makes sense to me!
Lowest reading month? April and August -- where I only read 9 fics each. IDK what distracted me in April, but I've got an idea that Summer SADs got to me in August.
Fandom I read the most: BTS. 😋 77 fics with Yoonjin being the ship I read the most (35).
Other fandoms 41 fics total split between Seventeen (multiple ships), TXT (multiple ships), TCGF (Hualian), BTVS (Buffy/Faith, Faith/Other), Shinee (Minho/Key)
Fave fics I read in 2025
* the last person i could ever love by
* Interlude by
* You have seven [7] new calendar invites by
* Stacks by
* Growing Toward The Sun by
* Break Thru Everything by
* Sediment by
