2025 Summer Reading Recap

This summer, I wanted to catch up on my reading. I was 15-20 books behind on my Goodreads reading challenge of 125 books this year, so I was really looking forward to having some uninterrupted time to just read! I was also excited to get through a lot of the new releases and books that had been on my radar for a while but hadn't been able to read during the school year.

I feel that reflecting on a specific time period helps me understand my reading habits better and it's a fun way to mark the end of a season, school year, or vacation. Below are some stats and a few of my favourite reads from this summer!

By the Numbers 📊

from June 4, 2025 to August 12, 2025 (70 days)

📚 Total books read: 30

📖 Total pages read: ~8,825

⭐️ Average rating: 4.14 stars out of 5

📕 7 Physical / 📱 23 eBooks

Top Reads of the Summer 🌟

This summer, I made it a priority to read books that encouraged me to explore new perspectives and learn something new. Whether it was connecting with my own culture, learning about significant historical periods through different styles of writing, or engaging with more contemporary political voices, I wanted to read stories that offered experiences and learnings I couldn't have firsthand. Here are my top eight picks, along with age ratings to help you find the best fit!

P.S. Be on the lookout for a review of Entitled coming early next week!

Biggest Surprises + Disappointments

🤩 Surprise hit: Kane & Abel by Jeffrey Archer |18+ (oops) / ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My parents have been recommending Kane & Abel—one of their all-time favourites—for years, so I was intrigued but honestly had no idea what it was really about. Although I could predict some of the twists early on, it still blew my expectations and now, I'm pretty sure I'll be reading a lot more of Jeffrey Archer's novels!

😕 Letdown: Glorious Rivals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes | 12+ / ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I'd been looking forward to this new installment for over a year, so it was a bummer that I didn't enjoy it as much as I was expecting or wanted to. As I've said so many times before on this blog, The Inheritance Games series has been a long-time favourite of mine, which made this experience even more disappointing. As always, the games were intricate and hard for me to even comprehend how one thinks of these details, and the multiple povs were interesting. Maybe I just read the book at the wrong time, but it ended up feeling like a drag to get through.

As the summer closes out, here are a few new releases I'm looking forward to!

• Fearful by Lauren Roberts (releases September 2nd, 2025)

• Fake Skating by Lynn Painter (releases September 30th, 2025)

• The Same Backward as Forward by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (releases November 4th, 2025)

• A Queen’s Match by Katharine McGee (releases November 4th, 2025)

• Coldwire by Chloe Gong (releases November 4th, 2025)

*all links will redirect you to the book page on Goodreads