Top 9 Books of Spring 2025

Book Talks

I can’t talk about books without shouting out my reading companions though, and if you were here last spring, you know how excited I was to get these fur balls. I consider y’all their aunties and (g)uncles, and I will always assume you want the updates.

We have had our boys for 1 year now! I can’t believe how big they are. They are still silly little babies and sweet cuddly babies. Each is naughty in his own way. Frances (black and white) desperately wants to dye his fur and be pink! He puts his favorite toy in their water dish where the dye bleeds into the water and then his fur. Listen, I’m not taking his favorite toy away. It took almost a year for him to play independently.

Onto the books! I have read 33 books this spring. 9 of them really stood out. I also DNF’d about 8 books this spring. So there were some high highs and low lows.

NOTE: All of these links are to bookshop.org, and they are affiliate links. I have given up the Amazon affiliate links trying to do better politically and socially. I want to encourage you to check out these books from your local library! I listened to every single one of these books on Libby. All 33 books, except one, were read with my ears for FREE. Reading doesn’t need to be expensive.

I read two books by Marjan Kamali this spring. The Lion Women of Tehran and Together Tea. Both are 5 stars. I did prefer The Lion Women of Tehran, but they are both amazing, and I would recommend them for historical fiction lovers. Both take place in Iran. Both have strong female main characters. Both talk of tradition vs. modernization. These books (and The Stationary Shop) are beautiful windows into another country, culture, and experiences.

The Four Winds was my first ever Kristin Hannah book. My partner’s sister said she’d been reading a lot of Kristin Hannah, and since she also hates Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, I figured I’d check out Kristin Hannah. Honestly, I was blown away. This book takes place during The Great Depression and Dust Bowl years in Texas. Worthless man ruins a young girl’s reputation. She gets thrown into a marriage she prays will be good. She learns to persevere after being a spoiled house cat essentially. Admittedly, it’s a little long, but it made me want to read more of Kristin Hannah’s work. I also liked that this took place during a time I haven’t really read about before. If you’re a crier, get your tissues and electrolytes ready. If you’re like me and have a heart made of ice, expect to feel and maybe have misty eyes.

There is a distinct lack of characters of color, and there is that feeling of white feminism where they’re trying to equate being a Texan in CA with racism. That is my critique, but that also seems to be who she is as a writer. Acknowledging that critique, I found this book really well done. TW: DV, poverty, misogyny

Unprotected by Billy Porter. Yes. No words. Just read it. One of my favorite memoirs I’ve read this year. Get your tissues ready, especially if you’re a crier. Again, if you’re like me, you’ll probably process it through your GI tract and tension in your neck and shoulders. We may not cry, but we feel. TW: racism, homophobia, abuse, CSA, AIDS epidemic, medical trauma.

Fire Keeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley. I actually read the sequel last fall not realizing it was a sequel. I prefer this first one. Y’all. This is a masterpiece. It’s indigenous YAL. There’s romance, intrigue, tradition, family, and mystery. I feel like the less you know going in, the better. I would have this in as HS classroom for sure. TWs: ODs, SA, generational trauma, racism

I’ve caught up on this duology: Lucha of the Night Forest and Lucha of the Forgotten Spring. I actually really loved the second one even more than the first, which is odd for me, but this duology is amazing. It has horrible reviews on Goodreads, and I can’t figure out why the vendetta against this author.

It’s a YA fantasy with Latinx characters. The FMC has a lot of trauma, as we expect, and she is off on a quest to save her town, mother, and sister from the forgetting drug. She meets a cute patootie girl, runs into gods and goddesses, and has to fight through even more trauma! Of course, it’s FANTASY! Anyway, amazing. 10/10. The second book is beautiful. The conversations about autonomy especially in the context of addiction is something I’ve yet to see. It’s so beautifully done, and the dignity with which the author gives this drug-addicted village is unlike I’ve seen before. Another I would add to a HS library.

I know I’m late to the game on this one, but WHOA! Educated by Tara Westover had me putting it on timeout multiple times. Immediately the TWs: severe DV, SA, gaslighting like I’ve never heard, religious/cult trauma, white supremacy/racism, and misogyny.

This is a memoir of this woman’s experience growing up in an extremist Mormon cult. No school, no drs, no seatbelts. Y’all. The physical trauma, emotional trauma, mental trauma? Unmatched. This book made me ill at times, and I couldn’t look away because what do you mean this is happening in this modern age? Truly. One thing that pissed me off is that this woman never once called CPS/DHS on her family to help save her dozens of nieces and nephews from living this absolutely deranged life. She ended the cycle herself by leaving and becoming educated, but she never said a word about helping the babies and children she left behind. Idk how one can do that knowing the literal hell they’ll go through.

A Grandmother Begins the Story by Michelle Porter is unlike anything I’ve ever read. It’s the first book that has brought me to real tears: big, hot, wet tears since Under the Whispering Door in 2023. I told you, I’m not much of a crier. The same reason in each of these books made me cry, and I’m not even a dog person! But I looked at my cats, and I cried even harder.

A Grandmother Begins the Story is an indigenous story from the Métis tribe. This book has 7-8 perspectives. The timeline is all current, but the planes of existence bounce from earth to the spirit world to the bisons. This is a processing of deep, deep grief especially in maternal lines. This book is perspective changing.

TWs: grief, suicide, alcoholism, abandonment, adoption

The Rose Arbor by Rhys Bowen was my candy, junk food favorite read. I read it with my EYES, and that’s how you know it was good. I was able to get through it with my eyes. It’s a mystery. It’s amateur sleuthing. It takes place in England both during WWII and the 1960s. Y’all, this entire thing is my catnip. I love a good cozy mystery. I love WWII mysteries (Idk why!!! I’m OBSESSED though), and my mom’s Anglophile tendencies have worn off in the form of WWII mysteries. I can’t explain why.

At any rate, this was a really great read. It was junk food in the middle of all the heavier books I read this spring. I really and truly loved it. I would recommend it to anyone who loves a cozy mystery.

You may have noticed that even if I really like a book, I am still going to have critiques. A five star read for me doesn’t mean absolute perfection. It really is this book made an impact, and I would absolutely recommend it to others. The horrors of this true story, of this lived experience will stay with me for a long, long time.

What have YOU been reading? Have you read any of these? Let me know below. Leave some recs!!!

Wishing you well this week! May your life offer what you need in this moment.

With love,

Aventurine ✨

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