If your 2025 goal is to read more or get back into the habit, then you’ll need some inspiration. Consuming list after list of new releases can be overwhelming, which is why Metro has compiled a collection of books we fell in love with in 2024, regardless of when they were published.
Some are classics we read for the first time that proved to be well worth the hype, others are books recommended to us by friends, family or TikTok, and a couple are book club picks that we thought we’d hate – but loved. As Metro’s resident bookworm and lifestyle reporter, many of the recommendations come from me, but dotted throughout are the books that other staff members couldn’t help but share with you too.
So, whether you love romance, dystopia, fantasy, memoirs or anything else, we guarantee we’ve got your first read of 2025 right here…. This short read is a brilliantly insightful memoir that is so painfully accurate when it comes to the struggles of having sex as a single woman. Kitty sets out to document her year of casual sex, covering the high highs and lowest of lows. If you're a woman, it'll make you feel seen. It was a Metro Staff Book Club pick that I will recommend to anyone I meet.
If you're on BookTok you'll be familiar with this one, but Rebecca Yarros is the next Sarah J Maas in the fantasy world. This is the second instalment of her Empyrean series (following the smash hit Fourth Wing), which follows Violet Sorrengail's second year at Basgiath War College involving dragons, rebellion, love and spice. It'll leave you on the mother of all cliff hangers but worry not because the third instalment – Onyx Storm – drops on January 21, 2025.
