2025 Goal TBR

In 2024, my biggest goal was to read more of the books I currently own. To no one’s surprise, I did not achieve that goal this year. While most of the books I read were technically books I owned, they were also mostly rereads of favorites from the past couple years.

In an effort to resolve this, I’ve decided that I’m going to make a similar goal 2025, but I’m going to be a bit more specific about what I’m going to read. The books in this list are all books I’ve owned and never read, so I’m hoping to read all of them (or at least make some progress in a couple of these series) in the next year.

The Ranger’s Apprentice series by John Flanagan

The Ranger’s Apprentice follows the story of Will, an orphan boy raised as a Ward of Castle Redmont, after he becomes the apprentice to one of the most well-known Rangers in Araluen. From fighting wars to saving the fiefs from both inside and outside threats, there’s always something going on in Will’s life that I want to read.

This was a childhood favorite series of mine, but I never ended up finishing it because I found out one of my favorite characters ends up dying, and as a twelve year old, that was the absolute last thing that I wanted going on in my life. Now, I just want to know where this ends, and honestly, I’ve loved it just as much as I did when I was 12 so far.

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

I would say that I want to read all of the Narnia books - because I’ve always loved Narnia - but I can’t stand Lewis’ writing style. I don’t know exactly what it is - maybe it’s the third person omniscient POV - but sitting and reading his books takes me forever, so I don’t think that I can commit to reading this whole series next year, but I have at least some faith in my ability to read this book in particular, and if I make it through, I’ll add some of the other books into this list.

Home by Whitney Hanson

Home is a poetry book written by one of my favorite poets on IG. It’s supposed to cover the journey of healing from heartbreak, recapturing your identity, and finding peace in the aftermath of that breakup.

While I’ve never been through a major breakup - at least, not one that led to me being broken-hearted - I do love the themes that this book is supposed to be about, so I can’t wait to read this in 2025.

Small Angels by Lauren Owen

This book is about a small town on the edge of a forest, and if you know anything about the fantasy genre and forests, they’re usually places where dark things hide. This book isn’t an exception to that rule, and while I’ve only ever read the first couple of chapters, I loved everything about it up till that point, and I’m beyond excited to read more of it.

The Shadows Between Us duology by Tricia Levenseller

I have read the first book in this series a few times, and I really did enjoy it. In The Shadows Between Us, we have a power hungry female main character, Alessandra, who wants to win the heart of her country’s king so she can marry him and kill me. We also have the Shadow King, who is another horrible person, and I just love a book where two horrible people are horrible together.

The second book is Alessandra’s sister’s story, where Chrysantha wants nothing more than her husband’s death so she can gain his inheritance. Then, this husband’s supposed grandson comes around trying to claim Chrysantha’s inheritance, and Alessandra starts bragging about becoming queen, and Chrysantha has to deal with both of these things.

If Chrysantha is anything like Alessandra, this is going to be through murder if need be, and I can’t wait to read about it, but first, I need to refresh my memory on the first book.

Her Soul for Revenge by Harley Laroux

Her Soul to Take was an amazing book, and definitely one of my favorite demon romances that I’ve read in my life, and I’m hoping this sequel is just as good. This book follows Juniper, a failed sacrifice from the past, and Zane, a demon who just wants to claim her soul and more than likely also falls in love with her decently quickly.

The first book had a lot of sex, but there was also a lot of plot, which I absolutely loved to see. I can’t wait to get more of the story that was being set up - an ancient god being awoken by sacrifices made to him - and see where else the author goes and what else happens.

Iris Kelly Doesn’t Date by Ashley Herring Blake

Based solely on the description of this book, Iris Kelly very much gives “do it for the plot” vibes in a way that doesn’t scream convenient and create problems. Stevie and Iris start fake dating: Iris in hopes of gaining inspiration for her next book, and Stevie for reasons I don’t know.

I love fake dating, and I love sapphic romances, so I have really high hopes that this won’t be a bad book, but honestly, I haven’t read it yet because I’m scared that it’ll be a disappointment, as tends to be the case with a lot of WLW books I’ve read before.

Spin of Fate by A.A. Vora

Listen, as a girl with religious trauma, I love a book that I’m pretty sure is going to lead into religious trauma, and there is very little in the High Fantasy genre that I think will be more traumatic than this book, based solely off the description.

Of course, some of my favorite YouTubers absolutely loved this book, too, which gives me even more reason to eagerly want to read this book. My only hesitation thus far has been its length, which is just . . . a lot. It’s a really big book, which means it’s a big commitment.

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Hopefully, 2025 is a better year for achieving my goals than 2024 was, but we’ll see how this goes, and I’ll give you guys monthly updates on how my TBR is looking throughout the year.