Jayne’s Best of 2025 List
Grace & Henry’s Holiday Movie Marathon by Matthew Norman
A sentimental advertising creative and a blunt, no-nonsense bar owner find a second chance at love while binge-watching iconic holiday movies in this poignant and heartwarming romance, from the author of Charm City Rocks and All Together Now.
The new year had barely begun when Grace White and Henry Adler both lost their spouses. Now, nearly a year later, the first holiday season since their “Great and Terrible Sadnesses” approaches. Although their mothers scheme to matchmake the two surviving spouses, it’s clear that neither is ready to date again. Yet no one understands what they are going through better than each other, and a delicate friendship is born.
When Henry sees an ad for a Christmas movie marathon—once an annual tradition for him and his wife—Grace offers to watch some films with him, despite her aversion to a few of his picks. Her two young kids, Ian and Bella, also join in whenever possible—bedtimes permitting, of course.
With each movie, Grace and Henry’s shared grief eases as they start to see a life beyond the sadness. But as they draw closer, other romantic possibilities leave them uncertain about their future together. Is their bond merely the result of loneliness and shared circumstances, or have they found something that’s worth taking a shot at . . . again?
The ending though. Happy sigh. Happy laughter. Happiness and I am like yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. The movies, the family, the mice, the dog, the snow, the neighbor’s face-planting decorative elf, the art, the bar party, the heavy metal Christmas music at The Horse You Came In On, Baltimore, and the relationship are so wonderful and made me smile. A-
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Back After This by Linda Holmes
Cecily Foster loves to make podcasts. She fiercely protects her colleagues, dearly adores her friends, and never misses dinner with her sister. But after a disastrous relationship with a colleague who stole her heart and her ideas, she’s put romantic love on hold.
When the boss who’s disappointed her again and again finally offers her the chance to host her own show, she wants to be thrilled. But there’s a catch—actually, two catches. First, the show will be about Cecily’s dating life. And second, she has to follow the guidance of influencer and newly minted relationship coach Eliza Cassidy, whose relentlessly upbeat attitude seems ready-made for social media, not real life.
Cecily would rather do anything other than put her singledom on display (ugh) or take advice from the internet (UGH). But when her boss hints that doing the show is the only way to protect a friend’s job, she realizes she has no choice.
To make matters more complicated, once she’s committed to twenty blind dates of Eliza’s choosing, Cecily finds herself unable to stop thinking about Will, a photographer she helped to rescue a very big and very lovable lost dog. Even though there are sparks between the two, Will’s own path is uncertain, and Eliza’s skeptical comments about Cecily’s decision-making aren’t helping. On the one hand, Will seems great. But on the other hand . . . don’t they all?
As Cecily struggles to balance the life she truly desires and the one Eliza wants to create for her, she finds herself at a crossroads. Can Cecily sort through all the advice and find a way to do what she loves without losing herself in the process?
Cecily also does some thinking about herself, what she’s allowed people in her life to do and what she won’t allow anymore. Then she and he honestly talk some more, some other threads are wrapped up and we get a HFN/HEA epilogue with a lot about the dog, Buddy. And it’s lovely. A
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Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History by Moudhy Al-Rashid
Humanity’s earliest efforts at recording and drawing meaning from history reveal how lives millennia ago were not so different from our own.
Thousands of years ago, in a part of the world we now call ancient Mesopotamia, people began writing things down for the very first time.
What they left behind, in a vast region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, preserves leaps in human ingenuity, like the earliest depiction of a wheel and the first approximation of pi. But they also capture breathtakingly intimate, raw, and relatable moments, like a dog’s paw prints as it accidentally stepped into fresh clay, or the imprint of a child’s teeth.
In Between Two Rivers, historian Dr. Moudhy Al-Rashid reveals what these ancient people chose to record about their lives, allowing us to brush hands with them millennia later. We find a lullaby to soothe a baby, instructions for exorcising a ghost, countless receipts for beer, and the messy writing of preschoolers. We meet an enslaved person negotiating their freedom, an astronomer tracing the movement of the planets, a princess who may have created the world’s first museum, and a working mother struggling with “the juggle” in 1900 BCE.
Millennia ago, Mesopotamians saw the world’s first cities, the first writing system, early seeds of agriculture, and groundbreaking developments in medicine and astronomy. With breathtaking intimacy and grace, Al-Rashid brings their lives—with all their anxieties, aspirations, and intimacies—vividly close to our own.
So though we are separated from them by (in some cases) over 5,000 years, these are people just like us. They lived, they loved, they cheated on their taxes, sang to their babies, whinged about a day’s work, and loved their dogs. Check out this book and meet them. A
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Pocket Bear by Katherine Applegate
Meet Pocket, created as a good luck charm for soldiers going into battle, whose bravery and loyalty lives on long after the war.
Thimble-born from tip to toe, Pocket Bear remembers every moment of his becoming: the glimmering needle, the silken thread, the tender hands as each careful stitch brought him closer to himself. Born during the throes of WWI, he was designed to fit into the pocket of a soldier’s jacket, eyes sewn a bit higher than normal so that he always gazed upward. That way, glancing at his pocket, a soldier would see an endearing token of love from someone back home, and, hopefully, a good luck charm.
Now, over a century later, Pocket serves as unofficial mayor of Second Chances Home for the Tossed and Treasured, where stuffed toy animals are refurbished and given a fresh opportunity to be loved. He and his best feline friend Zephyrina, known far and wide as “The Cat Burglar,” have seen it all, and then some.
An unforgettable tale of bravery, loyalty, and kindness, Pocket reminds us all that love comes in many forms (sometimes filled with fluff), and that second chances are always possible.
There are some deep issues that are touched on here, but lightly instead of as A Point Being Driven Home. I think the story will explain some things and open children up to discussing others. It shows friendship, endurance, loyalty, perseverance, and reaching deep while being more than you ever planned on. There is right and wrong and how to treat others. And the idea that we all deserve a second chance even if we’re stuffed toys. A
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A Mouthful of Dust (The Singing Hills Cycle Book 6) by Nghi Vo
Hunger makes monsters in this dark new tale in Nghi Vo’s Hugo Award-winning Singing Hills Cycle.
Wandering Cleric Chih of Singing Hills and their hoopoe companion Almost Brilliant come to the river town of Baolin chasing stories of a legendary famine. Amid tales of dishes served to royalty and desserts made of dust, they discover the secrets of what happens when hunger stalks the land and what the powerful will do to hide their crimes.
Trapped in the mansion of a sinister magistrate, Chih and Almost Brilliant must learn what happened in Baolin when the famine came to call, and they must do so quickly…because the things in the shadows are only growing hungrier.
The novellas are standalone stories linked by the Cleric Chih, and may be read in any order.
This is a disturbing little novella and I’ve deliberately chosen quotes that make this clear. It’s beautifully written, evocative, and really creepy. But then the events are ghastly and have been played out countless times through countless famines. In this case, famine isn’t just the weather or war but an actual demon who must be appeased. For much of the story, Cleric Chih does their mandate which in this case involves listening to past trauma and then fights off the nervous feelings the place gives them, before witnessing the horrific resolution. This story which they collect will also contain a bit of them. I love these novellas and as another person says, I don’t want them to end. A-
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The Keeper of the Western Door by Carla Kelly
When Mary Blue Eye travels to Wyoming Territory with her friend to help her settle into her new married life at Fort Laramie, Mary is treated more like a servant than the friend she thought she was. Thankfully, she finds a new friend in Sergeant Blade, though Mary fears that her Seneca Indian heritage will keep a man like Blade from truly caring for her. Soon Mary is tasked with making fourteen calico dresses in two weeks, and Blade turns out to be the best ally she could ever ask for.
Rowan Blade asks Mary about her life and actually listens to her answers. He also notices when she’s being put-upon, stands up for her and protects her. When she needs dressmaking help, well he somehow finds that, too. Their courtship is fairly quick but they see each other under stressful circumstances and I’m sure that by the time Rowan gets the nerve to ask, they know each other and what they’re getting into. A-
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Dear Miss Lake by A. J. Pearce
Plucky wartime advice columnist Emmy Lake discovers that sometimes it takes losing everything to find what we need most.
London, July 1944. After nearly five years of war, the readers of Woman’s Friend magazine are relying on the support of Emmy Lake and her team more than ever. With the city under attack, the magazine staff decamps to the countryside for the summer. Determined to help the women of Britain carry on, Emmy and friends are hard at work finding new ways to inspire resilience.
With her army officer husband Charles posted close to home, and best friend Bunty by her side, Emmy happily throws herself into rural life, juggling children, magazine assignments, and plans for a very important wedding. And then a call comes that means she may finally fulfill her long-held dream of becoming a war correspondent.
But when disaster strikes, Emmy needs her friends, her community, and her readers more than ever. Filled with courage and compassion, a lovable cast of characters, and winning wartime details, Dear Miss Lake is an enormously uplifting testament to the power of friendship and hope.
The optimistic “the war is almost over” feel at the start of the book is definitely tempered fairly soon. As this series hasn’t avoided some characters being lost to war, I held my breath to the end. And while the staff at the magazine are fairly broad minded and accepting, some of the wider public isn’t and of course dealing with the government is always a joy. It was delightful to settle into another, and final (sob) book with these wonderful people. I feel as if I’ve come to know them over the course of four books. Most of them mean well, try hard, and when they stumble, they pick themselves up and keep going with the help of this wonderful found family. I will truly miss them. A-
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The Phallus in Nature by Augusta Reilly
Welcome to Moab, Utah. Home to two national parks, nine varieties of scorpions, and over three hundred search and rescue missions a year, Moab is more than just a great place to suffer a death that will become family folklore – it’s the perfect setting for the tragicomedy that is Matthew Gorman’s life.
Matthew thought his plan was foolproof: use his meager inheritance to build a ‘tiny’ duplex in Moab’s desert outskirts, live and study on one side, rent out the other to tourists, then sit back and watch the money roll in. But when Moab’s oppressive summer heat kicks in, his lodgers – and his fiancé – abandon him for cooler climes. Broke and friendless, he rents out the right half of the duplex to Piper Lawless, the happy-go-lucky author of the bestselling photo collection of all time, The Phallus in Nature.
With the pathologically friendly penis aficionada now an inextricable part of his existence, Matthew’s life becomes entangled with those of his eccentric Tinytown neighbors, including Mormon-turned-hippie, Mahatma Randy, and seven-foot-tall Bruno Axworthy, the reptile dealer who falls madly in love with Piper and imagines Matthew to be his romantic rival. Meanwhile, across the country, Piper’s conservative parents and pretentious brother are having problems of their own – problems that can only be solved by dipping into Piper’s deep pockets. Unbeknownst to Piper – and each other – they are all headed to Moab for a disastrous family reunion. Will Piper and Matthew ever find a way to navigate the never-ending sideshow of neighbors and family that is taking over their lives?
Romance? Oh, yes there’s a good one that slowly develops as Matthew realizes that Piper being in his life (and everyone else’s life in Moab) is what makes things special now. Sure Piper sings and dances at 6am like no one is watching or listening but her genuine excitement about life and people and photographs and animals is infectious. Her joy in doing good for those she loves and even for people she doesn’t know well is a gift to the world. And when it counts, Matthew finds the right words to let her know how much she means to him. I’d take a look at the project they map out but I’d also like to know which one of them ends up as Martha and who gets to be Snoop.
Piper, I think, is going to be a heroine you love or hate. Some readers might think she’s just too special and wonderful but to me she is like a Golden Retriever Puppy who exudes love and friendship to all. Actually my next door neighbor reminds me of Piper as she’s always smiling, always happy to see you, always willing to help so yes, people like this do exist. This book makes me laugh and makes me smile. It’s got enough grit – and swear words – to balance the sweet. I had a blast reading it. A-
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The Retirement Plan by Sue Hincenbergs
THEY’D KILL TO BE WIDOWS.
Three best friends turn to murder to collect on their husbands’ life insurance policies… But the husbands have a plan of their own in this darklyfunny debut that will delight readers from the first laugh to the final twist.
After thirty years of friendship, Pam dreams of her perfect retirement with Nancy, Shalisa, Marlene, and their husbands—until their husbands pool their funds for an investment that goes terribly wrong. Suddenly, their golden years are looking as dreary as their marriages.
But when the women discover their husbands have seven-figure life insurance policies, a new dream forms. And this time, they need a hitman.
Meanwhile, their husbands are working on their own secret retirement scheme and when things begin to go sideways, they fear it’s backfired. The husbands scramble to stay alive…but soon realize they may not be quick enough to outmaneuver their wives.
The book flipped and twisted more than an Olympic diver from the ten meter platform. Would the dive end in a splashless finish or a belly flop? I could guess at a few things but even getting those correct still left me unsure about major events. Some shit goes down and hard truths must be faced and examined. Remember morally gray. Is this a realistic book? Nah. Or at least I hope not. Some plot things go a little sideways by the end but it’s entertaining as heck and hard to believe that it’s a debut effort. My enjoyment is worth the grade. I look forward to more to come. A-
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The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree by India Hayford
Genevieve Charbonneau talks to ghosts and has a special relationship with rattlesnakes. In her travels, she’s wandered throughout the South, escaping a mental hospital in Alabama, working for a Louisiana circus, and dancing at a hoochy-kootch in Texas. Now for the first time in a decade, she’s allowed her winding path to bring her to the site of her grandmother’s Arkansas farmhouse, a place hallowed in her memory.
She intends only to visit briefly – to pay respects to her buried loved ones and leave. But a chance meeting with a haunted young Vietnam vet reconnects her with the remnants of a family she thought long gone, and their union becomes a catalyst for change and salvation. An abused woman and her daughters develop the courage to fight back, a ghost finds the path away from life, and a sanctimonious predator becomes the prey. In the process, Genevieve must choose between her longing for meaningful connection after years as an outsider and her equally excruciating impulse to run.
Written by a naturalist and set on the land where her family roots stretch back two centuries, The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree is a haunting story about letting go and the things we leave behind, the power of names, and the ties that bind. It is both harrowing and triumphant, a visceral Southern debut as otherworldly and beautiful as it is unflinching and wry.
The characters are complex and well rounded. The issues are all too real. Here the abuse is mainly from fundamentalist religion but that’s not the only way such horrors can enter the world. The writing is fluid and engaging and I love how the reader is allowed to pick up on clues about what is to come without being hit over the head with them multiple times. The ending is happy but it’s an earned happy rather than a sudden and unearned smoothing over of the pain that came before. I strongly suggest that potential readers look at the trigger and content warnings before diving in but I’m delighted that I decided to try it. A-
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Upon a Starlit Tide by Kell Woods
Saint-Malo, Brittany, 1758. To Lucinde Leon, the youngest daughter of a wealthy French shipowner, the high walls of Saint-Malo are more hindrance than haven.
While her sisters are busy trying to secure advantageous marriages, Luce spends her days secretly being taught to sail by Samuel, her best friend—and an English smuggler. Only he understands how the waves call to her. Then one stormy morning, Luce rescues a drowning man from the sea.
Immediately drawn in by the stranger’s charm, Luce is plunged into a world of glittering balls and faerie magic, seduction and brutality. Secrets that have long been lost in the shadowy depths of the ocean begin to rise to the surface, but as Luce wrestles with warring desires, she finds that her own power is growing brighter and brighter, shining like a sea-glass slipper.
Or the scales of a sea-maid’s tail.
There are a few villains for Luce to contend with. One I spotted early on but one snuck up on me. I wrestled with my feelings but I think Luce and one other handled things well in terms of what was done and allowed to be done. This is often an issue for me. Villains who have done truly horrendous things need to answer for those but should a heroic figure – for their own humanity – try and keep a villain from dying in order for said villain to face legal justice, stand back and do nothing, or dish out a well earned comeuppance? The way the comeuppance is delivered is one of the things that I guessed about and yes, what a satisfying way this occurred.
Finally the grand finale arrives and it’s a wowzer. Luce has to make another choice. What will she do when faced with what has happened and been done to her? Which feelings will she act on? I was again satisfied with her decisions which is a good thing because of actual history which is used to effect. But wait, there’s more! Luce has one final thing on her to-do list. Will she or won’t she, I wondered. As another reviewer mentions, thank goodness for the epilogue. It delighted me down to my toes and back up again. For me this is an A- book but fair warning that the writing style might not suit so read a sample.
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The King’s Messenger by Susanna Kearsley
It is the year 1613, and King James is sending his messenger Andrew Logan into Scotland with secret orders to arrest Sir David Moray, close friend and advisor of the late Prince Henry. Secrets are second nature to Andrew, who must hide his Second Sight to stay alive. Joined by a court scrivener and the scrivener’s spirited daughter Phoebe, Andrew slowly untangles the true purpose of his mission—to frame Sir David for Prince Henry’s murder. But Andrew is unwilling to betray an innocent man.
Phoebe Westaway dislikes Andrew, and their history makes it hard for her to trust him. But as their journey draws them deeper into the dark web of court intrigue, Phoebe begins to suspect that she might have more need of the King’s Messenger and his unusual gifts than she could ever have foreseen.
As the travelers get closer to London, opinions and loyalties have shifted. Phoebe learns a secret her father has held for years. But the King is the one who issued Andrew’s orders and he must be obeyed – not because Andrew agrees with what looks to be Sir David’s ultimate fate, being made to “fall in his sword” to cover up the deeds of others, but rather that a king in general, and King James in particular, is not to be messed with. But then a possibility opens up which harks back to something that we’ve already seen in action. Sometimes it is what you know that counts.
I think that this is a “still waters run deep” novel. It has romantic love, intrigue, danger, family love, politics, and history. I stayed up late to read just one more chapter and then settled myself down the next day to discover what would happen next. One of the best things I can say about this book is that it is written in a way that makes me want to know more. The wait for another Kearsley novel is long but the reward is great. A-
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What a great list. I agree with you about the titles I’ve read — GRACE AND HENRY, THE PHALLUS IN NATURE and BACK AFTER THIS. Thanks for the reminders of books I’ve really enjoyed, as well as others to explore. THE RETIREMENT PLAN has just arrived from the library.
I can’t, however, even get past the cover of POCKET BEAR without tears. Katherine Applegate nearly broke me with THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN, et al., and yet, I so want to read ODDER and WILLOWDENE. Save me from myself.
Happy 2026?
I wanted to get Between Two Rivers after you first reviewed it, but got distracted after waiting for better price. I think I will get it now. Thank you.
@Darlynne: I’m so happy you’ve liked the ones you’ve read and hope that this caries through with THE RETIREMENT PLAN.
Yeah, I hear you about Applegate’s books. I still haven’t worked up the courage to try any more of her books yet.
Yes, definitely Happy 2026!
@Sirius: I hope you will enjoy it. Dr. Al Rashid is passionate about her subject and makes it come alive.
I enjoyed Back After This as much as you did, Jayne. Dear Miss Lake is available in KU, but as much as I enjoyed the first, I’ll need to brace myself to complete the series. Three titles are going onto my future reading list because none are at the library, not even the non-fiction Between Two Rivers. Taxes go up and library budgets go down. What’s up with that, anyway?
Thanks for sharing your list, Jayne. I certainly enjoyed The Phallus in Nature after seeing your review.
I want to read Every.Single.One.of.These.Books. If only the TBR mountain in my apartment wasn’t so mountainous. Someday, maybe, I’ll have reduced the mountain to a molehill – but when I read reviews like this and then immediately go to the library website to put as many as possible on hold, I have my doubts.
@Jayne: Sometimes I forget that I can place non fiction books on hold in the library too :). I am number one on two copies YAY. Thank you again and of course the whole list is awesome, but yeah my TBR is humongous so I hesitate to even place a hold on more books, although The King’s Messenger sounds SO GOOD too.
@LML: I’ve noticed my library is getting fewer digital books and they posted a message on their website about how the company they get print books from has gone out of business so they’re having to shift to another company. Sigh …
@Kareni: I can’t wait to see what Reilly writes next.
@Sirius: Managing a library hold list is tricky. Will a book become available when you’ve got time to read it? Can you reshuffle your reading to fit it in? Or does it have to go back on the wait list? ☺
@Susan/DC: Nah, you’ve got to read faster or it will never be a molehill. Best you can do is maintain the status quo and keep the mountain from growing.
Thank you for rec-ing the first Emmy Lake book. I read all 4 books and thoroughly enjoyed them, especially as the series continued and the character development deepened. Other 4+ star books I would not have known about without DA included Grace & Henry’s Holiday Movie Marathon, and Upon a Starlit Tide.
@SusanS: You’re welcome. I’m happy to hear that you enjoyed all of these.
@Jayne: So true, I just looked and I have four books as available soon in my holds, of course they will all come up at the same time :)
Yep, really enjoyed Back After This. I reread several of my favorite scenes the other night and laughed a lot.
Great list! I have read some of these but not many others, will check them out!