firewhiskeyreader

So far I’ve read 31 2025 releases and so I’m here to share my thoughts on where these books fall on my emotional tier ranking scale that is, of course, based on Taylor Swift song lyrics. I picked my tiers based on love songs from Taylor and where they fall on my personal clearly this is the love of her life to putting that person so very in the past. Which means, our top tier is “The Alchemy”, specifically, “Who are we to fight the alchemy?” Because clearly that is the ONE TRUE LOVE song. If you disagree, I’m uninterested in hearing about it, tbh. (Jk, kind of. If you would put a different song ahead of it, please share with me your reasoning, I’m so nosy.) These are the books that I think are in contention for favorites of the year. They’re the books that changed my brain chemistry this year. The second tier is from “So High School” (can you tell I love her and Travis together?), specifically “I feel so high school when I look at you.” I also really loved these books and maybe some of them could be in the top tier on a different day, but basically, they’re great but haven’t fully impacted my brain chemistry throughout the year. Third, we have “Wildest Dreams” with specifically “say you’ll remember me” for the books where I did enjoy them and I will think of them fondly if someone brings it up, but they just don’t quite have the staying power of the other two tiers. And then we have “Tolerate It,” which are books that I probably could have DNF’d without really missing anything, but weren’t bad necessarily, just not for me. And our final tier is “I Forgot That You Existed,” which is a tier of books that I wish I could forget existed. Jk, it has one book that made me viscerally angry and one book that just truly wasn’t for me and probably actually will be forgotten. So, let’s get started!

Who are we to fight the alchemy?

This category is so satisfying to me. I read In a Rush when the Super Bowl was going so poorly, in the sense that the TV had shown me a person I hate more than they showed me Taylor and it was also extremely clear that I wasn’t going to see Taylor and Travis on the field together. So I watched halftime and was happy for the Eagles, but was busy reading In a Rush, which was absolutely fantastic. I love a marriage of convenience. I love a marriage of convenience between childhood friends apparently even more than I knew. So this book has not left me at all and probably never will. Then Deep End by Ali Hazelwood… A controversial book and one that worked for me 110%. I loved everything about it. The criticism of this book just… I mean, sure. I don’t disagree with people really, but also, I love it. Wild and Wrangled was just the cozy cowboy romance vibes that I really needed when it came out. I love Cam and Dusty. I thought their romance was beautiful. Is it the most perfect book I’ve ever read? Maybe not, but the conclusion of a small town series will almost always be beloved by me because I love the friendship groups that exist. Death at a Highland Wedding was BRILLIANT but I need the next book immediately. The romance is advancing!!! Slowly. Slow like molasses, but I need it!!!! (I do have an ARC review posted if you want real thoughts.)

Everything is Tuberculosis is the last 2025 book I read in the appropriate time span and I read it because I was driving to NoVa to be with my best friend who was having a procedure that sounded scary. So my brain wasn’t in the place to read something I normally do, which led me to nonfiction. John Green was the perfect pick. I loved learning about tuberculosis, but did feel the urge to go back to school and get a masters in public health. Am I going to do that? No. I have enough student loans as it stands. Anyway, that takes us through my “The Alchemy” tier!

I feel so high school…

Y’all, this tier is also books that are absolutely EXCELLENT. From Flirting with Disaster (a banger of a contemporary romance inspired by Sweet Home Alabama) all the way through Takes One to Know One by Lissette Decos, these books are really great. I have ARC reviews of Flirting with Disaster, Give Me Butterflies, Earl Crush, Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave, Promise Me Sunshine, My Big Fat Fake Marriage, and Takes One to Know One so I won’t go into detail with these other than to just tell you that I really did love each of these books. Onyx Storm and Rebel Witch are both super hyped follow ups to fantasy series/duets that I loved and would highly recommend, but you also don’t need me to sell you on them because I’m guessing at this point you’ve already decided if you’re reading these series or not.

So let me tell you about The Fall Risk by Abby Jimenez. It’s a super short story that you can get on Amazon (sorry, I don’t think there’s another option) and it packs a lot of punch to be so short. It’s about a woman who has really had her life turned upside down because of a stalker and she’s sort of forced to get to know her neighbor and, would you believe it? They have incredible chemistry. I think about trees and what I learned in this book more than I probably should considering I’m pretty sure I originally learned the same fact in The Belle and the Beard by Kate Canterbary. But you know, sometimes it takes more than once for something to stick.

Also, I haven’t gushed too much about Wild Side by Elsie Silver yet, so allow me this moment to tell you that despite the fact that this man is a wrestling guy, he’s actually the sweetest, softest man. It was super interesting to read this grief book and then follow it up with Promise Me Sunshine though. So let me say this, if you’re looking for a book that tackles grief with a more light touch than Cara Bastone, I would recommend this one. And then we have Out of the Woods by Hannah Bonam-Young, which I love not just because it’s got a Taylor Swift title. I actually love this book a lot because it is a romance, but it’s also a book that’s really actually about a woman trying to figure out who she is, without losing the man she’s loved since high school. And for her, it feels like there’s not enough room in their relationship to do that. The amazing thing about this book is that it takes two not outdoor people at all, puts them in the outdoors, and fully reminds them why it’s okay to grow and change without having to lose one another. So good!

Say you’ll remember me, standing in a nice dress, staring at the sunset, babe

I have ARC reviews out already for The Favorites, Yin Yang Love Song, I Think They Love You, The King’s Messenger, On Her Terms, The Other March Sisters, and Audre & Bash are Just Friends. An ARC review is forthcoming on Heart Strings, but the tl;dr of that one is that I really liked the book, but ultimately, it did not surpass Morbidly Yours for me and more than that, I ultimately haven’t kept it in the forefront of my brain like I hoped I would. It was a great second chance read and so I devoured it and felt all the things, but then it just didn’t quite have the same staying power as I might have hoped.

So that just leaves us with Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez. I went through all of the emotions reading her newest release and initially, instinctively, declared it a five star read. And then, I sat with it for a day, then a week, and now nearly a month later, I know that’s not accurate. I will always love Jimenez’s writing, but this romance just didn’t quite work for me. So I actually think this tier is the perfect place for the book, not just because they share a lyric/title, but also because I will remember this book. I will just also remember that at the end of the day, it didn’t feel totally like a romance. But also, I wouldn’t turn you away from the book if you wanted to pick it up either!

And you tolerate it…

The stand out of these three is actually Get Lost with You by Sophie Sullivan, which is the most likely to be able to swing up a level, but ultimately, this is the tier that felt the most correct. I do have ARC reviews of both Get Lost with You and Harlem Rhapsody so I won’t talk about them much here. That leaves me instead to talk about Fight by Sloane St. James. My feelings about this book were all over the place. I truly still don’t know that I have really sorted through all of my feelings. I think it’s hard to write a book about a woman who has escaped a cult and then have her fall in love within a couple weeks of having left that place. That said, I think St. James did a pretty good job attempting to do exactly that, but the plot ultimately doesn’t work for me. So that’s why I landed with Tolerate It.

I Forgot That You Existed

I’m going to be short and sweet on this tier. Water Moon fits here because this book has the most stunningly beautiful cover and is so incredibly not for me because this level of whimsical floating through worlds is not something my brain was prepared to wrap itself around and I just ultimately failed to follow it well. And then Last Chance to Save the World actually makes me viscerally angry so I desperately WANT to forget that it existed, but haven’t quite managed it yet. But I will! I’m determined.

Closing Thoughts

Are there any books that you would recommend to me because of my top two tiers? Or any books where you’re like, “I can’t believe you rated this so high/low’? Please feel free to share all of your thoughts with me down below. I hope your reading this past quarter has been fantastic and that it still manages to only go up from here!

xx