Reading novels is so back in style after more than a few years of declining interest. Women especially have returned full-force to novels, memoirs, and non-fiction, joining book clubs, scrolling BookTok, and getting super into revitalized genres like contemporary romance, romantasy, and speculative fiction. It is super, super fun and 2024 was a great year.
The team at Scary Mommy is no different. We devoured literally hundreds of books written this year, and those our tastes vary, we came up with all of our very favorites. We’re so excited to share our top books of 2025 with you!
‘The Blueprint’ by Rae Giana Rashad
In the near future, patriarchy and racism have won in a second Civil War in America, and now women are assigned their place in the world based on an algorithm. Here, we meet Solenne, a Black woman who is without agency or choice. Trying to grapple with her unbearable reality, she escapes into writing the biography of her ancestor Henriette, a slave and concubine who lived in the 1800s, and readers begin to see the parallels quickly — as well as how not so very removed present-day America is from its terrible past and dystopian future.
This beautifully written and heartbreaking debut is literary but fast-paced, meditative but urgent. You will not be able to stop thinking about it after reading the last page.
– Sarah Aswell, Scary Mommy Deputy Editor
‘The Women’ by Kristin Hannah
I love pretty much anything Kristin Hannah writes, and I also love books about history. This marries the two: It’s about the female nurses on the frontlines of the Vietnam War. It’s moving and it’s theatrical, and it’s about courage and limits put on you by others. It’s definitely worth a read.
– Kate Auletta, Scary Mommy Editor-in-Chief
‘The God Of The Woods’ by Liz Moore
From the first sentence, I was drawn into The God of the Woods and did not come back out until the very last word. Missing summer campers. A badass female detective (think Mare of Easttown plus Fargo). A creepy, “too perfect” rich family who has so many damn secrets. PLUS a serial killer on the loose after escaping prison!
There is much going on and a lot of different POVs, but Moore does a great job of bringing it all together. This book is lengthy and that can seem daunting for sure, but trust me when I say that you’ll want to devour every last word. So, take your time!
– Katie Garrity, Scary Mommy Editor
‘When The Moon Hatched’ by Sarah A. Parker
I am unapologetically all aboard the romantasy train. When The Moon Hatched has a unique setting and magic system that stands apart from all the faerie books dominating the space, and the ending has me dying for the next installment even though it’s been almost a year since I read it.
– Katie McPherson, Scary Mommy Associate Editor
‘Ambition Monster’ by Jenn Romolini
Ambition Monster felt like a synthesis of so many ideas about work and striving that women have been thinking about for years now, but especially after the pandemic. If we know the pursuit of success for its own sake is a trap, why do we still do it? Romolini knows why. Her memoir about trying — in all the wrong ways — to feel safe and good is so painfully resonant and also deeply lovable and funny.
– Meaghan O’Connell, Scary Mommy Features Editor
‘Greta & Valdin’ by Rebecca K. Reilly
This book’s marketing copy reads: “For fans of Schitt’s Creek and Sally Rooney’s Normal People,” and I think that’s just the perfect way to put it. Set in New Zealand, and following a brother and sister duo, this book is a mix of really beautiful and thoughtful writing mixed with the oddball fun and quickness of a sitcom. It’s moving, laugh-out-loud funny, and adorable. I wanted to stay in the world forever and continue following the characters after the last page.
– Sarah Aswell, Scary Mommy Deputy Editor
‘Slow Dance’ by Rainbow Rowell
Shiloh and Cary were best friends in high school, but they just could never figure out how to be more than that. Now in her 30s, divorced with two kids, Shiloh reunites with Cary at a friend’s wedding, and they fumble through an awkward reencounter, wondering whether what they once shared in the past could ever be something in the present.
Maybe it’s my personal (and slightly problematic) relationship with nostalgia, but this book pulled at my heart, my stomach, and my head in a way that other books I’ve read lately just haven’t done quite as well. I was compelled. I was right there in it with Shiloh and Cary, rooting for them, understanding and resonating with all of Shiloh’s hesitancies (which, apparently, lots of readers did not love) and all of Cary’s YEARNING (so much yearning!!!).
ALSO: I truly appreciated having a female main character who wasn’t petite and delicate and bony or soooo tiny! Shiloh is described as 5’11”, not thin, with thick hair and eyebrows and arm fuzz. A REAL WOMAN! In her THIRTIES! YAY! As a contemporary romance lover, and as a hopeless romantic nostalgia-driven sap of a human, Slow Dance just hit different — in the best way.
– Katie Garrity, Scary Mommy Editor
‘The Bog Wife’ by Kay Chronister
The Haddesley family has lived in their ancestral home — a sprawling manor in a West Virginia bog — for centuries. Every generation, the eldest son goes into the bog and comes back with a wife, hewn from nature itself. But when it’s time for siblings Eda, Charlie, Wenna, Nora, and Percy to fulfill the ancient compact, no new bog wife emerges, and they must confront their family’s past, including the disappearance of their mother. Creepy but heartfelt, this Appalachian gothic tale is sure to please fans of Shirley Jackson or T. Kingfisher.
– Jamie Kenney, Scary Mommy Senior Writer
‘Margo’s Got Money Problems’ by Rufi Thorpe
You will be hooked on the first page of this book. It’s about a struggling single mother whose ex-pro wrestler father helps her with her OnlyFans account in order for her to make money. Yes, truly. It’s funny, it’s smart, it’s unexpected. You’ll love it.
– Kate Auletta, Scary Mommy Editor-in-Chief
‘All Fours’ by Miranda July
If you’re a middle-aged mom and your group chat wasn’t alight about All Fours at some point this year then you might need a new group chat. I loved it so much I felt genuinely angry at anyone who uttered a word against it, including dear friends. Something about the yearning and humor mixed together — and the narrator’s decision to be so completely guileless and open at a time when the world expects the opposite. It’s a special book.
– Meaghan O’Connell, Scary Mommy Features Editor
‘First Lie Wins’ by Ashley Elston
I love a great mystery/thriller more than most any kind of genre — but I am really picky they have to be really great. And this one is! I had such a fun ride with this book, and loved every page and every twist.
In the first pages, we meet Evie Porter, a young woman who’s very in love and about to move in with her boyfriend Ryan. But what he doesn’t realize is that Evie Porter doesn’t exist and his deep secrets are in danger of being exposed.
I can’t tell you ANY MORE without ruining a lot of good fun, but trust me that this book about a bunch of con people conning each other will have you exclaiming out loud as you finish each chapter. This one moves fast and has a great plot that pulled me through to the last page. I especially love how it was kind of light-hearted and rompy even though it’s also a bit dark and scary – hard to do!
– Sarah Aswell, Scary Mommy Deputy Editor
‘Navola’ by Paolo Bacigalupi
My elevator pitch for this sweeping epic fantasy (the first in a trilogy) is this: “Game of Thrones + The Godfather set in a whimsical stand-in for Renaissance Florence.” Davico is heir to the most powerful merchant family the city has ever known and has grown up in the shadow of his famous forebears and his father, the cunning, ruthless, ambitious yet doting Devonaci. But plots abound and in Navola, nobody is safe from intrigue and betrayal.
– Jamie Kenney, Scary Mommy Senior Writer
‘Hum’ by Helen Phillips
May and her family live in a surveillance-state city ravaged by climate change. The human race is now surrounded by cameras and AI robots called Hums. Hums are programmed to be friendly, with calm, soothing voices. They appear helpful and also serve as an advertisement space, encouraging impulse buying. Hums contain videos of what everyone is doing anywhere, all the time.
In May’s home, she and her family retreat into electronic “wooms”, and children wear AI bunnies attached to their wrists. When May gets a big payout after undergoing experimental surgery that alters her face, she takes her family to the Botanical Garden, a walled-off piece of the city with animals, waterfalls, and forests. She insists her family leave their phones and Bunnies at home, but when things take a scary turn and her children’s lives are threatened, May’s entire life is at stake.
A commentary on our dying planet, the scary dangers of artificial intelligence and our screen addictions, and the raw savagery of motherhood, Hum is a dystopian thriller in the creepiest, most unsettling way. It’s not a nail-biting, heart-racing kind of thriller, but more of an eery, tension that will make you want to keep reading for hours. I truly loved this wild ride of a book!
– Katie Garrity, Scary Mommy Editor
‘The Rom-Commers’ by Katherine Center
I’m a big romantic comedy fan, so it was no surprise that I loved this book about two writers — one a wannabe screenwriter, the other a prolific Hollywood talent — trying to write a romantic comedy together and falling in love in the process. It’s sweet, it’s funny, it’s the perfect book to pick up in any season. Someone please pick up the rights to adapt this to a movie!
– Kate Auletta, Scary Mommy Editor-in-Chief
‘An Honest Woman’ by Charlotte Shane
Charlotte Shane has been one of my favorite writers and thinkers since before she even had a Tumblr. In An Honest Woman she writes about sex work but also the deeply human and loving encounters she’s had with men — the way she longed to be seen by them, and the ways she saw right through with them — in a way that feels reverent and precious.
– Meaghan O’Connell, Scary Mommy Features Editor
‘Beautyland’ by Marie-Helene Bertino
In my opinion this is the book that didn’t get nearly enough recognition this year. It’s a sort of sci-fi coming-of-age story about a very odd person. Adina Giorno was born into a normal family, and seems like a normal girl. But she possesses a very clear knowledge that she’s from another planet — and when she’s a little girl, she figures out how to communicate with her alien people via fax machine (I knew they were good for something).
Why is Adina on Earth, and what is she supposed to do with her life? More importantly, at least for the reader, is she crazy, or is she really out of this world?
This is such a beautiful, heart-wrenching read about a special person who is uniquely positioned to observe our humanity.
– Sarah Aswell, Scary Mommy Deputy Editor
‘The Garden’ by Clare Beams
It’s the late 1940s. After suffering numerous miscarriages and pregnant yet again, Irene travels to the Berkshires to a medical facility at the cutting edge of fertility treatments in a desperate attempt to carry her child to term. But it isn’t long before the dark nature of this mansion — and the questionable methods of the attending physicians — come to light. Spooky and dreadful, this was nevertheless incredibly entertaining and thought-provoking.
– Jamie Kenney, Scary Mommy Senior Writer
‘Under Your Spell’ by Laura Wood
This book quietly came out this summer and I wish it got more attention when it did. An out of work academic finds herself working for the hottest musician in the world (think Harry Styles) while navigating her not-so-great history with the music industry: Her father is one of the iconic rock stars of the world (think Mick Jagger, many children and wives and all). It’s got such heart, the descriptions of the northern England setting make you feel like you’re spending summer by the sea, and you just know the payoff for the two main characters falling madly in love will be worth the wait.
– Kate Auletta, Scary Mommy Editor-in-Chief
‘Adam & Evie’s Matchmaking Tour’ by Nora Ngyuen
If you’re a fan of Emily Henry and Abby Jimenez, I beg you not to sleep on Nora Nguyen (@noranguyenwrites) and her latest book, Adam & Evie’s Matchmaking Tour. I love a good sweet romance where a man is written by a woman (THE BEST KIND OF MAN), and Adam & Evie’s delivered! This book had some serious spicy scenes but also tender moments that balance the whole story out. Plus, who doesn’t love a good old-fashioned “grumpy/sunshine” trope? Themes of cultural identity, family expectations within those cultures, grief, and parent/adult-child dynamics flush out the book in a way that is totally relatable.
Also, Việt Nam is now at the top of my travel bucket list! This one made me tear up, bite my lip, and squeal with delight. Just a lovely love story!
– Katie Garrity, Scary Mommy Editor
‘The Husbands’ by Holly Gramzio
This is the most fun premise ever: what if every time your husband went into the attic, he came out as a totally different man? This is the completely wild thing that is happening to Lauren, totally out of the blue. She’s now left with a very big problem: what does she do? She could keep switching husbands forever, or she could find one she really likes and settle down. But how do you ever decide when you don’t know who will come out next?
I love that this book felt fun and rompy, but also had really serious questions to ask about love, partnership, and marriage. It’s a wild ride, but it’s also a really great fantasy book, with a little romance mixed in.
– Sarah Aswell, Scary Mommy Deputy Editor
‘Selling the Dream: The Billion-Dollar Industry Bankrupting Americans’ by Jane Marie
If you’ve ever gotten a Facebook message from a girl you were barely friends with in high school saying “Hey girl! It’s been so long! I have a great opportunity for you…” — or sent one — then this book is for you. Jane Marie dissects the disingenuous promises of the multi-level marketing industry and thoughtfully explores why so many people find themselves at the bottom of the pyramid.
– Jamie Kenney, Scary Mommy Senior Writer
‘The Night Guest’ by Hildur Knútsdóttir
‘The Night Guest’ by Hildur Knútsdóttir is a creepy, off-putting, strange, and quick read that had me grabbing for my book every free moment I got. Iðunn goes to a doctor to try and figure out why she’s so exhausted all the time. With little help from anyone, she eventually buys a step-counting watch. One night, Iðunn falls asleep with the watch on and wakes up to find she’s walked over 40,000 steps in the night. Where did she go? What did she do while she was sleeping and why is she so bruised up and sore?
I loved this book for a myriad of reasons including the short chapters (like…one sentence!) and dark undertones. The ending had me immediately FLYING to Reddit to see if anyone else had thoughts.
– Katie Garrity, Scary Mommy Editor
‘The Lion Women of Terhan’ by Marjan Kamali
When two unlikely friends meet each other during their girlhoods in Iran, nothing can stop these two beautiful, smart “lionesses” — except, perhaps, the tumultuous, sometimes dangerous patriarchy in which they are raised.
I loved this rich, thoughtful, fast-moving story, and devoured it in just a couple of days. I was completely drawn into the girls’ friendship and lives, and rooted for both to overcome. I also just loved learning about Iranian culture and history — and like the very best historical fiction, I felt like I learned a lot almost accidentally, through the story. This felt like a dual coming-of-age story unlike others I’ve read.
– Sarah Aswell, Scary Mommy Deputy Editor
‘The Most’ by Jessica Anthony
Coming in at just 144 pages, The Most by Jessica Anthony is a novella about a 1950s housewife who decides to take a dip in the apartment complex pool and… not come out. The writing! The metaphors! The imagery! The main character is messy and complex but…I felt for her, deeply. You need to know going in that The Most is definitely more of a character-driven story AKA “not much happens” and yet so much does. The Most is longlisted for the 2024 National Book Award in Fiction and rightfully so.
– Katie Garrity, Scary Mommy Editor
‘The Wedding People’ by Alison Espach
This book starts out awfully dark for a book that could be considered a romance or a comedy. In the opening pages, we meet Phoebe, who is planning on killing herself later that day. She’s endured a painful divorce, an infertility battle, and finally, the loss of her cat, which seems to be the last straw. The only foil in her plan? The fancy hotel she’s chosen to overdose in is filled with wedding guests and she’s soon dragged into the six-day party somewhat against her will. Within days, she’s deep into the family drama — and she’s feeling a little less numb with each hors d’oeuvre and social event. And then there’s the mystery guy she meets in the hot tub.
While this book should definitely have a trigger warning for suicide, depression, and fertility struggles, I loved the contrast between dark and light in this book, and appreciated how the author handled everything with thoughtfulness and even some humor. And as the wedding week wears on, I loved falling in love with all the characters, flaws and all. A fast, fun read that also has some meat to it.
– Sarah Aswell, Scary Mommy Deputy Editor
‘The Third Gilmore Girl’ by Kelly Bishop
Kelly Bishop is an actual legend. Truly. Her story begins way, way way before she nailed her audition for Emily Gilmore. She’s a Tony award-winning, ballet dancer, and animal-loving, women’s rights advocate who worked her way up in the industry during a time when women were always ten steps behind. From her role in the OBC of A Chorus Line (with a song quite literally based on her life) to playing Jennifer Grey’s mom in Dirty Dancing, to her iconic role as Emily Gilmore, Bishop reflects on her extraordinary life and looks toward the future with The Third Gilmore Girl. She shares some of her most memorable anecdotes including some toxic relationships and incredibly hard life lessons. Bishop’s memoir is honest and funny and just what I needed as I go through my yearly Gilmore Girls rewatch. I laughed. I sobbed. I loved it!
– Katie Garrity, Scary Mommy Editor
‘Funny Story’ by Emily Henry
Emily Henry is, in my mind, one of the top rom-com writers of our day, and she continues to hit books out of the park with Funny Story. The story finds us meeting roommates Daphne and Miles — who share a sad thing in common. Both of their exes left them… to marry each other. Now, the polar opposites are depressed and struggling to move on, at least until they hatch an idea to pretend to date.
Yes, as you can see, there are so many romance tropes at work here, but Henry manages to make them all feel fresh and new, especially with her razor-sharp and super-fun dialogue. I will read everything she writes for as long as she’s writing!
– Sarah Aswell, Scary Mommy Deputy Editor
‘James’ by Percival Everett
You’ve likely heard of this book, which has made it on just about every Best Books of 2024 list, not to mention won some awards along the way. The premise is brilliant — a retelling of Huck Finn from Jim’s perspective — and then author Percival Everette absolutely nails the execution. It’s moving, incredibly written, and has a twist I did not see coming at all.
– Sarah Aswell, Scary Mommy Deputy Editor
‘Great Expectations’ by Vinson Cunningham
This novel opens in the earliest days of what would become Obama’s presidential campaign. Our charming, hapless narrator stumbles into a fundraising job and almost by accident, finds himself an observer to history being made, and on some level he knows it. The promise of voyeurism and Cunningham’s insight-ridden prose drew me in, but the unexpected hilarity and sexiness of the narrator’s side quests won me over.
– Meaghan O’Connell, Scary Mommy Features Editor
‘Intermezzo’ by Sally Rooney
I will read Sally Rooney’s grocery list and declare it a classic, I am such a huge fan. But I swear to you that her latest novel, Intermezzo, is one of the best books of the year. It follows two very different brothers who are navigating the death of their fathers in very different ways. Peter is a high-powered lawyer with a long string of girlfriends — as well as a single love of his life that he can’t be with for a tragic reason. Ivan is a failed chess champion who is trying to adapt to being an adult on the Autism spectrum. Both are just trying to love and grieve and survive in a complicated world.
Rooney’s huge strength is interior writing, and this book is a beautiful study of how we live, love, and think.
– Sarah Aswell, Scary Mommy Deputy Editor
‘Be Ready When The Luck Happens’ by Ina Garten
If you worship at the food church of Ina Garten, you just have to read this, her first memoir. I love learning about her beginnings (did you know she worked on nuclear policy at the White House before turning to cooking?), how Barefoot Contessa started, and all of her personal philosophies about life and food. Of course, her billion-year romance with her partner Jeffery is always lovely. This is a great one to catch on audio, too, as Ina reads it herself.
– Sarah Aswell, Scary Mommy Deputy Editor
This article was originally published on scarymommy.com.