2025 Goodreads Choice Awards | Winners, Books & more

The book world’s version of Oscar is finally here with the 17th annual, 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards by Goodreads ! Here is everything you need to know…

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What is The Goodreads Choice Awards About ?

The Goodreads Choice Awards is a book community based award with an annual, reader voted award where millions of Goodreads users select the all time books of the year. This is unlike other traditional awards that are determined by experts and thus this one is determined by the readers.

Each year, Goodreads asks people to choose their favorite book from popular books in such categories as Fiction, Romance, Fantasy, YA and Nonfiction – and the nominees and the winners are chosen after many rounds by the voter. The winners are announced in December and usually become huge bestsellers.

It is simply the largest people’s choice book award, which points out what readers truly loved the most during the year.

About The 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards

With 7,516,397 votes cast across 15 genres for 300 nominated titles on Goodreads we finally have the winners for 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards. And honestly? This year’s winners and the nominated books are all equally iconic. From the queen of Rom com Emily Henry’s to the best crime and thriller authors Freida McFadden and personal favorite Holly Jackson, to even John Green’s non fiction. It truly had it all. So Lets dive into the winner and the nominated books and hopefully you can find your next or favorite book too.

1. Fiction – My Friends by Fredrik Backman

The books for the 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards are categorized from Fiction and this year’s winner is My Friends by Fredrik Backman with 167,509 votes where Backman hits again! It follows a teen friend group who develop a strong bond in the summer of their lives on a remote pier.

25 years later, a young upcoming artist by name Louisa comes to be the unlikely owner of a strange painting of those same teens. She finds a tale of love, loss, rebellion and the healing strength of connection as she journeys to find out the truth of the artwork. It is a overwhelming, humorous and heartfelt story of friendship, art, loss and how the people in our lives have changed our lives in one way or another.

Other nominated books in the category are –

• Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
• The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
• The Names by Florence Knapp
• The Academy by Elin Hilderbrand
• These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean
• We All Live Here by Jojo Moyes
• The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
• The River Is Waiting by Wally Lamb
• The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan
• Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite
• Heart the Lover by Lily King
• Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
• What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
• A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar
• The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
• People Like Us by Jason Mott
• Life, and Death, and Giants by Ron Rindo

2. Historical Fiction – Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

TJR has the historical fiction in chokehold as always. With over 254,774 votes this book won the Historical. Atmosphere is the story of one Joan Goodwin, a brilliant and introverted physics professor, whose life is transformed when she is chosen to be a member of the first selection group of female astronauts to go to the moon in the 1980s.

Joan finds much to love in the new friends who form mutual deep relationships in the diverse and talented crew she trains with a mix of true Taylor style romance and a renewed interest in Earth-life. This novel is a fast-paced and emotional work, a mixture of space exploration and a strong narrative of self discovery, sacrifice, and forbidden love.

Other nominated books in the category are –

• Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
• The First Witch of Boston by Andrea Catalano
• The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick
• The Secret Book Society by Madeline Martin 
• The Amalfi Curse by Sarah Penner
• Isola by Allegra Goodman
• Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson
• The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis
• Strangers in Time by David Baldacci
• The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau by Kristin Harmel
• The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff
• The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis
• Buckeye by Patrick Ryan
• Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine
• Homeseeking by Karissa Chen
• The Lilac People by Milo Todd
• What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown 
• The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes by Chanel Cleeton
• Amity by Nathan Harris 

3. Mystery & Thriller – Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson

Miss Good girls guide to murder aka Holly Jackson said, “Yes, I still Own this genre for the Goodreads Choice Awards” Every year she comes up with the most unique plots and so there is no doubt this genre is reserved for her. That being said, she wrote a book about a girl who solved her own murder because she will be dying in a week.

Jet Mason finds out that after a violent Halloween attack she has a fatal head injury that only gives her seven days to live before the aneurysm kills her. Defiant in finding out who may have attempted to kill her, Jet goes back to her dysfunctional Vermont family where all of them her family members, her former lover, even the police appear to be suspicious or of no use.

Jet is left alone with just her childhood friend Billy to depend on and is racing against time as her body is worsening and she is determined to find her own murderer before it is too late.

Other nominated books in the category are –

• The Tenant by Freida McFadden
• The Impossible Fortune (Thursday Murder Club, #5) by Richard Osman
• Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney 
• The Perfect Divorce (Perfect, #2) by Jeneva Rose 
• Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (On a Dead Man) (Vera Wong, #2) by Jesse Q. Sutanto
• King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby
• The Secret of Secrets (Robert Langdon, #6) by Dan Brown
• Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell
• We Are All Guilty Here (North Falls, #1) by Karin Slaughter
• The Crash by Freida McFadden 
• The Missing Half by Ashley Flowers 
• The Intruder by Freida McFadden 
• Heartwood by Amity Gaige
• The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark
• Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister 
• You Killed Me First by John Marrs 
• Forget Me Not by Stacy Willingham
• Gone Before Goodbye by Reese Witherspoon
• The Widow by John Grisham 

4. Romance – Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

If Emily Henry releases a book, it’s automatically considered as the best book and the winner of the genre in the Goodreads Choice Award for every year. Because the queen of booktoks romance genre, Miss Emily Henry never disappoints and serves us with the best ones every single time.

This book follows Two authors, cheerful, optimistic Alice Scott and wrathful Pulitzer-winner Hayden Anderson who go to Little Crescent Island to write the life story of the reclusive and dissolute heiress Margaret Ives.

They are called to stay with Margaret on a month-long trial and they are only given bits of her meandering life story as there is an undisputed tension between them. Due to the increasing level of rivalry and secrets, Alice and Hayden have to deal with the mystery, competition, and a slow-burning relationship, which may make this biography a love story- or something to be much more complex. We get a classic Emily Henry Rivals to lovers with a hint of Taylor Swift’s The Great American Dynasty.

Other nominated books in the category are –

• Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez
• One Golden Summer (Barry’s Bay, #2) by Carley Fortune
• Deep End by Ali Hazelwood
• The Favorites by Layne Fargo
• Rewind It Back (Windy City, #5) by Liz Tomforde
• First-Time Caller (Heartstrings, #1) by B.K. Borison
• Scythe & Sparrow (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #3) by Brynne Weaver
• Wild Side (Rose Hill, #3) by Elsie Silver
• King of Envy (Kings of Sin, #5) by Ana Huang
• Problematic Summer Romance (Not in Love, #2) by Ali Hazelwood
• The Gingerbread Bakery (Dream Harbor, #5) by Laurie Gilmore
• Can’t Get Enough (Skyland, #3) by Kennedy Ryan
• If It Makes You Happy by Julie Olivia
• Till Summer Do Us Part by Meghan Quinn
• Tourist Season (The Seasons of Carnage Trilogy, #1) by Brynne Weaver
• Beg, Borrow, or Steal (When in Rome, #3) by Sarah Adams
• Story of My Life (Story Lake, #1) by Lucy Score
• Spiral (Off the Ice, #2) by Bal Khabra
• Love Arranged (Lakefront Billionaires, #3)by Lauren Asher

5. Romantasy – Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros

Onyx storm is 3rd book in the Empyrean Series by Rebecca Yarros. is a romantasy book series set in military war college entwining with the darkness of an elite academic.

Following eighteen months of bloody combat at Basgiath, Violet Sorrengail gets her greatest challenge in her life with enemies at the door and the war intensifying. Being forced to abandon Navarre to find new allies, she has to rely on her wits, independence and braveness of her dragons and keep a very dangerous secret that can break all that she is in love with. Violet will have to find out the truth, -as it is just the only thing that will help her save her world.

Here is the reading order :

1. Fourth Wing (The Empyrean #1) – May 2, 2023
2. Iron Flame (The Empyrean #2) – November 7, 2023
3. Onyx Storm (The Empyrean #3) – January 21, 2025
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5. Untitled

Other nominated books in the category are –

• Alchemised by SenLinYu
• The Knight and the Moth (The Stonewater Kingdom, #1) by Rachel Gillig
• Mate (Bride, #2) by Ali Hazelwood
• Shield of Sparrows (Shield of Sparrows, #1) by Devney Perry
• A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna
• Accomplice to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain, #3) by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
• Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales (Emily Wilde, #3) by Heather Fawcett
• Enchantra (Wicked Games, #2) by Kaylie Smith
• Wild Reverence by Rebecca Ross
• The Songbird & the Heart of Stone (Crowns of Nyaxia, #3) by Carissa Broadbent
• Dire Bound (The Wolves of Ruin, #1) by Sable Sorensen
• The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy (Dearly Beloathed, #1) by Brigitte Knightley
• Bonds of Hercules (Villains of Lore, #2) by Jasmine Mas
• Rose in Chains (The Evermore Trilogy, #1) by Julie Soto
• Immortal by Sue Lynn Tan
• On Wings of Blood (Bloodwing Academy, #1) by Briar Boleyn
• The Wrath of the Fallen (Gods & Monsters, #4) by Amber V. Nicole
• Our Vicious Oaths by N.E. Davenport

6. Fantasy – Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab

Dark, spooky, whimsical with the perfect excellence.

V. E. Schwab gives us a century-spanning, genre-shattering novel of hunger, love, and rage. After Maria in 1532, Charlotte in 1827, and Alice in 2019. The book takes the lives of three women and intertwines them in an intergenerational tale of desire, rebellion, and freedom seeking, demonstrating the reverberation of decisions. It is a strong story of eternal life, revenge and human spirit.

Other nominated books in the category are –

• Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
• Wind and Truth (The Stormlight Archive, #5) by Brandon Sanderson
• Alchemy of Secrets (Alchemy of Secrets, #1) by Stephanie Garber
• The Sirens by Emilia Hart
• The Strength of the Few (Hierarchy, #2) by James Islington
• The Devils (The Devils, #1) by Joe Abercrombie
• Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao
• The Raven Scholar (Eternal Path Trilogy, #1) by Antonia Hodgson
• The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
• Brigands & Breadknives (Legends & Lattes, #2) by Travis Baldree
• A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan, #2) by Robert Jackson Bennett
• Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher
• A Resistance of Witches by Morgan Ryan
• The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
• King Sorrow by Joe Hill
• Thief of Night (The Charlatan Duology, #2) by Holly Black
• Red City (The New Alchemists, #1) by Marie Lu
• The Society of Unknowable Objects by Gareth Brown
• The Incandescent by Emily Tesh

7. Science Fiction – The Compound by Aisling Rawle

A massive win for the sci fi genre with The Compound.
In this book, Lily takes part in a reality TV show with a high-stakes on a remote desert compound, where the winner of the show will get luxury prizes among the nineteen competing contestants.

The harder the game becomes, the stronger the relationships, the more Lily has to deal with manipulation, danger, and temptation, since it is not only about the game, but about survival.

Other nominated books in the category are –

• The Book of Lost Hours by Hayley Gelfuso
• The Poppy Fields by Nikki Erlick
• Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
• The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
• Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove
• When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi
• Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
• I Think We’ve Been Here Before by Suzy Krause
• Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky
• These Memories Do Not Belong to Us by Yiming Ma
• The Memory Collectors by Dete Meserve
• The Merge by Grace Walker
• Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto
• Local Heavens by K.M. Fajardo
• The Shattering Peace (Old Man’s War, #7) by John Scalzi
• The Once and Future Me by Melissa Pace
• Saltcrop by Yume Kitasei
• Dissolution by Nicholas Binge
• Luminous by Silvia Park

8. Horror – Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

When the book has the holy trinity of horror – creepy, campy and chaos this is bound to win. Witchcraft to Wayward Girls is a story of a fifteen-year-old, Fern who is taken to the repressive Wellwood Home in 1970 Florida where a pregnant teenager is enclosed and kept at a place under the control of adults.

The first time the girls are empowered is when Fern finds a mysterious book of witchcraft and the power it promises- but in a place where someone can only be empowered by paying with her life, the newly acquired power can be used to its fullest potential and terrifying results.

Other nominated books in the category are –

• Never Flinch (Holly Gibney, #4) by Stephen King
• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
• The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• Play Nice by Rachel Harrison
• Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker
• Hungerstone by Kat Dunn
• We Love You, Bunny (Bunny, #2) by Mona Awad
• The Possession of Alba Díaz by Isabel Cañas
• The Lamb by Lucy Rose
• When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy
• You Weren’t Meant to Be Human by Andrew Joseph White
• Blood on Her Tongue by Johanna van Veen
• The Haunting of Paynes Hollow by Kelley Armstrong
• Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle
• How Bad Things Can Get by Darcy Coates
• Immaculate Conception by Ling Ling Huang
• What Hunger by Catherine Dang
• Coffin Moon by Keith Rosson
• Breathe In, Bleed Out by Brian McAuley

9. Debut Novel – Alchemised by SenLinYu

The most talked about book even before it was released which also happens to be inspired by Harry Potter fandom favorite ship, Dramoine!

Alchemised is a debut dark fantasy romance novel that follows a promising Alchemist and healer Helena Marino. After the brutal war in the kingdom of Paladia, she wakes up as a prisoner and of her own fractured memories. Having lost the Resistance, Paladia is now a part of guild families and necromancers who rule legions of the undead. Helena must be merely an unknown healer, yet there are unexplainable lapses in her memory implying that there is something hidden in her that can redefine what the war left behind.

Helena is set on the mission of uncovering her long lost past, and thus she is sold to the High Reeve, a cold-blooded necromancer whose crumbling mansion is her prison and her war field. When espionage, loss of memory, and perverse games with power are weaving her in a web, Helena has to choose whether to survive by holding to the remaining pieces of her old self or by digging to her dangerous secrets which lie within her mind.

Other nominated books in the category are –

• The Names by Florence Knapp
• The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
• The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff
• When the Tides Held the Moon by Venessa Vida Kelley
• A Resistance of Witches by Morgan Ryan
• The Irish Goodbye by Heather Aimee O’Neill
• Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine
• Homeseeking by Karissa Chen
• The Lilac People by Milo Todd
• Finding Grace by Loretta Rothschild
• Aftertaste by Daria Lavelle
• A Family Matter by Claire Lynch
• Loved One by Aisha Muharrar
• Woodworking by Emily St. James
• The Witch’s Orchard by Archer Sullivan
• The Eights by Joanna Miller
• The Merge by Grace Walker
• Dominion by Addie E. Citchens
• The Original Daughter by Jemimah Wei

10. Audiobook – Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros

Onyx Storm took over with such a big storm that it won two categories in the Goodreads Choice Awards this year!

Other nominated books in the category are –

• Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Harry Potter #1) by J.K. Rowling
• Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
• My Friends by Fredrik Backman
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Tourist Season (The Seasons of Carnage Trilogy #1) by Brynne Weaver
• The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins
• Alchemised by SenLinYu
• Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
• 107 Days by Kamala Harris
• The Devils (The Devils, #1) by Joe Abercrombie
• Nobody’s Girl by Virginia Roberts Giuffre
• The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
• King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby
• We Are All Guilty Here (North Falls, #1) by Karin Slaughter
• Sister Wife by Christine Brown Woolley
• Awake: A Memoir by Jen Hatmaker
• Matriarch: A Memoir by Tina Knowles

And that’s all for the Goodreads Choice Awards 2025. Congrats to the winners and nominated books in every categories!! Each and every one of them are equally good and can’t wait to slowly read them all. Also loved making the first Goodreads Choice Awards content, it was truly a great experience as I got to explore different books from different genre and get to know more about them. Looking forward to more good books and especially for Goodreads Choice Awards 2026!!