Books Read in 2025

 

 

For a while there this year, I was thinking that I kept reading the same kinds of books. There wasn’t much variety going on with my reading routine. And variety is something I crave! I wanted to change things up and add some different books.

 

I had the opportunity to do just that this year when I resumed reviewing books for Reader Views again. This happened after I realized that, you know, I had acted like a real bitch when I threw a fit over the many edits of one review, so I reached out with a long and heartfelt apology for my behavior. Thankfully, they forgave me – and invited me to come back to their team of book reviewers. Of course I said yes! I was thrilled by the opportunity to review books for them again and I haven’t looked back since.

 

It also helped that, this year, I subscribed to a digital subscription with Alien Buddha Press. I receive a digital copy of every book they publish, and it has been A LOT of books received from them this year! That’s definitely a variety of reading material right there. I have been working my way through them all!

 

And speaking of digital subscriptions, my subscription to Written Tales means I have access to download their ebooks for free. So of course I have checked out some of their books and enjoyed reading them as well. I still have some more of their titles on my TBR!

 

I also read the library books my oldest often left at our house (these were books he checked out for the preschool which he teaches at – and I KNOW they are children’s books, but I still read them anyway! I write children’s books, so it’s important that I READ children’s books too).

 

I also received many complimentary review copies of books to read/review from publishers, authors, book review sites, and publicists.

 

Then there were the many books I downloaded or bought or checked out from the library to read for research.  

 

And, of course, nothing brings a variety of reading material to the table like being the only person to read manuscript submissions for a publishing company! This is just one of my jobs at Twisted Dreams Press! Some of the manuscripts I read were published this year, but, silly me, I forgot to list them in the months I read them. (I don’t include manuscripts I have read in this list, because they’re not actual books yet.) So, for this reason, I have included them at the bottom – after the very last book I have read this year.

 

So I certainly got the variety of books to read which I craved!

 

Here is the full list of books I have read this year:

 

 

1. A Venture to Victory: 40 Lessons to Lead a Victorious Life by Shahid Pervaiz

 

2. This Wretched Valley by Jenny Kiefer

 

3. The 365 Day Leader by Dick Daniels

 

4. The Asylum by Matt Dymerski

 

5. Scalpel in the Eye by Jerry Blaze

 

6. The Horror in the Library and Other Stories by Sam Kurd

 

7. The Hidden Diary by Cassandra O'Sullivan Sachar

 

8. You're Going to Die Here by Y.M. Miller

 

9. The Wipe Revenge: A Roll to Die For by C.A. Baynam

 

10. Eaden by Megan Guilliams

 

11. Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry

 

12. Of Teeth and Pine by Desiree Horton

 

13. The Boneman by Mark James Montgomery

 

14. Not the Worst Monster in Town by Chisto Healy and C.A. Baynam

 

15. Trapped Verse by Lindsey Goddard

 

16. Most Likely to Summon Nyhiloteph by Madison McSweeney

 

17. Felones de Se: Poems about Suicide by LindaAnn LoSchiavo

 

18. Stitched Together by Juliet Rose

 

19. You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World Edited by Ada Limón

 

20. Lady, Will You Hear Me?: A True Ghost Story by Susan E. Rogers

 

21. Shaky Pictures of Vanished Faces by D. Matthew Urban

 

22. The Sins of God by Benjamin B. White

 

23. The Lake House Massacre by Chris Bedell

 

24. Nightmare Tide Edited by Andrew Robert and Ben Long

 

25. A Terrible Place and Other Dark Tales by D.L. Winchester

 

26. Aberrations by Matt Dymerski

 

27. Whispers From Beyond: A Showcase of Dark Poetry From the Author's Journey Poetry Workshop

 

28. Seventh Circle by William Becker

 

29. A Mirror of a Past/Present Self: Poems and Tales by Andrew Buckner

 

30. Girl in the Creek by Wendy N. Wagner

 

31. Perturbations by Sam Calhoun

 

32. Revealing Without Revealing by Michael Pollentine

 

33. Banshee Graveyard by Dan Shrader

 

34. Stories to Take To Your Grave (anthology)

 

35. Heartbeats in Ink: A Poetry Collection by Denise Alicea

 

36. Sirens and Seaweed: Splatter at Sea by Candace Nola

 

37. Haunted: The Sparkly Badger's Anthology

 

38. Soft Armor: Poems for the Wounded and the Growing by Jay Ryan

 

39. Bury Your Gays: Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror Edited by Sofia Ajram

 

40. KINKED EXISTENCE: New & Selected Poems by Christopher Grosso

 

41. BROADCASTING FROM THE END OF THE WORLD: POEMS AND TALES by Andrew Buckner

 

42. Shadows by Night by Zach Ellenberger

 

43. Ruthie by Angie Gibson

 

44. The Home by Judith Sonnet

 

45. Grim Corps: Volume 1 (anthology)

 

46. A Story in Ten Monologues Plus an Epilogue by Alan Castin

 

47. Call Us What We Carry: Poems by Amanda Gorman

 

48. Undead Folk by Katherine Silva

 

49. The Only Safe Place Left is The Dark by Warren Wagner

 

50. This Much Very by Hiram Larew

 

51. If I Wasn't Sacred by Morgan Boyer

 

52. Nemesis by John Arkham

 

53. Midnight Mother by Desiree Horton

 

54. The Broonie and Other Dark Poems by Deborah Sheldon

 

55. Bodily Harm by Deborah Sheldon

 

56. Obsidian by Bryan W. Alaspa

 

57. I Will Be Free by Kelsie E. Stark

 

58. Liberty by John Arkham

 

59. Lupus in Fabula by Briar Ripley Page

 

60. The World Beneath: Splatter at Sea by Chisto Healy

 

61. The Squared Circle Human by Samantha Slaven

 

62. Written Tales Chapbook Volume XV: Echoes of Ink edited by Kevin Saitta

 

63. The Unicorn Herd by Ariana Jade

 

64. Echo by John Arkham

 

65. Say Uncle by Ryan C. Bradley

 

66. Flesh Feast: Guts & Gore by C.A. Baynam

 

67. The Cat's Fortune: A Kaiatah Legend by Marty C. Lee

 

68. Zombie Ducks by Candace Nola

 

69. Cats Wearing Clothes: A Photo Journey Through the Ages (Curious Minds Series) by S.C. Francis

 

70. Florescense by Isabelle Robinson

 

71. Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay

 

72. A Moon-Measure of All Things by Shrutidhora P Mohor

 

73. Somewhere, Someone is Forgetting You by Chrissy Stegman

 

74. The Hurting Kind: Poems by Ada Limón

 

75. Let The Ghosts Sleep by Keller Agre

 

76. God is an Atheist by Benjamin B. White

 

77. The Spurn Quern by Eric Cline

 

78. The Only One Left by Riley Sager

 

79. Jesus is an Infidel by Benjamin B. White

 

80. Hearsay: Anecdotal Evidence in Our Societal Court by Andrew Buckner

 

81. The Beach Day by Ame Dyckman and Mark Teague

 

82. Seed to Sunflower by Lisa M. Herrington

 

83. Young Zoologist: Gray Wolf by Brenna Cassidy

 

84. All Moms by Sarah Kate Ellis and Kristen Ellis-Henderson

 

85. INFINITY: Figuring Out Forever by Sarah C. Campbell

 

86. Frankie's World by Aoife Dooley

 

87. Secrets of Lakeluster House by Diane Scott Lewis

 

88. The Cryptids by Elana Gomel

 

89. Why Didn't You Just Leave? Edited by Julia Rios and Nadia Bulkin

 

90. The Presidents and UFOs: A secret History From FDR to OBAMA by Larry Holcombe

 

91. The Howling Between Worlds by E.M. Otero

 

92. Written Tales Chapbook Volume X: Nature's Embrace: A Symphony of Voices, Edited by Kevin Saitta

 

93. The Price of Insanity by Z. Martin

 

94. Ten Days in a Mad-House by Nellie Bly

 

95. Captain's Kismet by Jeremy Nathan Marks

 

96. We Never Left by Matthew Hollis Damon

 

97. Cannibalistic Lonesome by Carietta Dorsch

 

98. I Felonites: First Letter to the Felonites by Benjamin B. White

 

99. Astronaut of Loss, Poems by Em Townsend

 

100. Gathered Here Today: An open casket of art and poetry (anthology) Edited by Kelley York and Kala Godin

 

101. The Hole in Your Life: Grief and Bereavement by Bob Rich, Ph.D.

 

102. Blood of My Pen: A collection of dark poetry by Amanda Ruzsa

 

103. Blood Point by Alexander Lane

 

104. Blood of My pen: A Collection of Dark Poetry, Volume 2, by Amanda Ruzsa

 

105. Oakaville by Cody Shrum

 

106. The Goth's Guide to Summer: A Seasonal Survival Manual for Creatures of the Night by Lauren Cole

 

107. Dastardly Damsels (anthology) edited by Susie Lockhart

 

108. HOWL: A Shapeshifting Anthology edited by Kelley York, Lauren Woods and Sarah Sanny

 

109. Waves Take Your Bones (Children of the Sea and Sky, Book One) by Athena Giles

 

110. Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy by Crawford Kilian

 

111. The Bye-Bye Man And Other Strange-but-True Tales by Robert Damon Schneck

 

112. Ultraterrestrial Contact: A Paranormal Investigator's Explorations into the Hidden Abduction Epidemic by Philip J. Imbrogno

 

113. The Elevator Game by Z Martin

 

114. As the Ink Birds Split the Sunset by Amelia Averis

 

115. And All the Little Soldiers Fall in Line: Poems and Tales by Andrew Buckner

 

116. Dark Vengeance by Jerry Blaze

 

117. What Kind of Name is Lolly, Anyway? by Lucy Brighton

 

118. Mantle Lake: A Collection of Photography and Poetry by Linda M. Crate

 

119. Jeani Rector's Advice on Writing

 

120. There Will Be Other Summers by Tegan Anderson

 

121. Frame Story by Domenic Migliore

 

122. The Last Night in Amsterdam by Melanie Atkinson

 

123. Harvest of Eyes by Clifton Wilcox

 

124. Tell Me How It Ends: A Horror Collection by Desiree Horton

 

125. Mail-Order-Monsters: Crash Course by Silvia Acevedo

 

126. Horton's Halloween Hauntings: 14 Tales of Halloween edited by Chisto Healy

 

127. The Profitable Author: 1,001 Ways to Build a Business You Love Around Your Books by Sharon Woodhouse

 

128. Aftermath by Madi Huffman

 

129. Walk On by Nan Evenson

 

130. Wicked Things: A Collection of Halloween Horror by Amanda Ruzsa

 

131. The Rot That Binds Us by Amanda Ruzsa

 

132. A Boy and His D.O.G., Book One: Raining Robots by Jordan Hines, with Jerri Hines

 

133. Semiosis by Sue Burke

 

134. Hauntings: A Collection of Short Horror Stories by S.E. Howard

 

135. Writing Monsters: How to Craft Believably Terrifying Creatures to Enhance Your Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction by Philip Athans

 

138. I, Monster by Clifton Wilcox

 

139. Cancer Courts My Mother by LindaAnn LoSchiavo

 

140. The White Ball by Angie Gibson

 

141. Eight Intentions for Self-Healing: A Practical Guide for Reclaiming Your Personal Power by Carolyn Pitts

 

142. My Side of the World and Other Tales of Death: A Collection by Beka Wueste

 

143. Buzzy Bear: Space Rocket by Benji Davies

 

144. There's No Place Like Space by Tish Rabe

 

145. i am the daughter of experience by raphina finn curran

 

146. Dinos in Space by Ashley Matthews

 

147. Kitty Explores the Solar System by Willow Bright

 

148. Mommy's Boy: How My Doggie Soulmate's Love Rescued Me by Jennifer Huston Schaeffer

 

149. Her Infernal Name & Other Nightmares by Robert P. Ottone

 

150. The Legacy of the Lost Witch by N Cooper

 

151. Whole, Not Perfect: Empowering Stories as Tools for Anyone Ready to Reinvent and Reclaim Themselves by Laura G. Patac

 

152. OMFG, BEES! by Matt Kracht

 

153. Please, Do Not Tap on the Glass by M. Kelly Peach

 

154. Fabulous Health: A Simple Plan To Get Well And Stay Well by Terri Chrisman

 

155. Space Cat by Doug Cushman

 

156. Pete the Cat and the Space Chase by Kimberley and James Dean

 

157. Professor Astro Cat's Frontiers of Space by Dr. Dominic Wellman

 

158. Whispers in the Dancing Wind by Angela van Breemen

 

159. There's Something Wrong with Aunty Beth by Mark Towse

 

160. Tides of Resilience: Beyond the Wave by John Bromfield

 

161. The Haven Horror by Hokunani Sorci

 

 

162. Self-Worth: The Path to Happiness by Jonathan J. Woolverton

 

163. Exposition & World's Fairs: In the Beginning by Bob McGlincy

 

164. Founding Courage: Courage and Character in the United States of America by Kirk Ward Robinson

 

165. Turn Your Back on the Shore: The Surf Poetry Collection by Scott Rosin

 

166. Email Marketing for Authors: Grow an Email List that Actually Sells Books by Dale L. Roberts

 

167. Adventures of a Chess Girl: Into the Depths of the Chess World and Back Again by Katie Kormanik

 

168. The Alive 5: The story of a boy who stuttered by Mark W. Dean

 

169. We'll Always Be Here: An Anthology of LGBTQ+ Horror edited by James G. Carlson

 

170. Santa Claws: A Christmas Tail for Cats by Denise Alicea

 

171. Gremword by Winston Xu

 

172. Enduring the Sickness: Four Works Concerning Isolation, Society, And Surviving the Ailments That Have Been Cast Upon Us by Andrew Buckner

 

173. Your Guide to Climate Action: How to Move Beyond Your Footprint and Make a BIG Impact by Ryan Hagen

 

174. Ghost Writer by Arjay Lewis

 

175. Come With Me by C.A. Baynam

 

176. Vigil: Poems by Ellen Lord

 

177. You Are a Strategist: Use No-BS OKRs to Get Big Things Done by Sara Lobkovich

 

178. Analog Synthesis: Poems by Christopher Fried

 

179. The Bug Collector by Wrath James White

 

And here are the Twisted Dreams Press books that I read that I FORGOT to add! (Whoops!)

 

180. Cauldhame by Bill Davidson

 

181. Death in the Cards by Susan E. Rogers

 

182. Dark Harvest: Terrifying Tales from the Poisoned Planet: A Fundraising Anthology Presented by Twisted Dreams Press edited by Jennifer Horgan

 

183. The New Adventures of Horror Clown: The Life and Good Times of a Serial Killer by Otto DeFay

 

184. Arthropleura Attack! by J. Rocky Colavito

 

185. Monster Monday edited by Dawn Wilson (hey, that's me!)

 

186. The One-in-the-Noose by Susan E. Rogers

 

187. I Just Called to Say You Killed Me by J. Rocky Colavito

 

188. Dreadful Seasons by Kurt Newton

 

189. Redhead Town: Dystopian/Vampire Novella by Deborah Sheldon

 

190. Vampire Verses by LindaAn LoSchiavo