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Below are the Top Ten Books I read in 2025, with some links to my reviews either here or on The Historical Novel Society website. This is all fiction. I read some wonderful poetry and nonfiction books as well, so I’ll do a Top Ten for those later. This time I couldn’t keep it to ten, so there are actually twelve of my favorite 2025 books below. The majority of them are Indie books that were either published by the author or small presses, and I love that. My wish for 2026 is that readers will seek out Indie books, not just for the lower prices, but for quality writing. I can go on Kindle Unlimited and find so many great books to read that don’t cost me anything above my monthly subscription fee. It is worth the price.

I am not numbering these, as I don’t have a distinct number one. I loved them all, so they aren’t in any order.

My Top Ten

Horse Show by Jess Bowers: A riveting collection of short stories, all featuring horses in some way: See my review on this blog and on The Historical Novel Society Website.

The Ballad of Mary Kearney: See my Review on this blog and on The Historical Novel Society Website.

Finding Naomi: My Review on Amazon. Apparently I haven’t put it on this blog yet so I will do that.

The Weight of Snow and Regret: A story of the last Poor Farm in Vermont. My review on this blog and The Historical Novel Society website.

Wild As The Stars: A Historical Fantasy that combines dance with magic and the 1920s. My Review on The Historical Novel Society website. Another one I didn’t post here so I will do that.

Julia: The exciting life of Julia Child. My review on this blog and The Historical Novel Society website.

Those We Carry: WWII from the perspective of a Dutch resistance fighter and a Canadian soldier: My review on The Historical Novel Society website.

Out of Time: The latest book in Jodi Taylor’s Time Police Series. My review on this blog

When Secrets Bloom: Beautifully written story of a gifted Saxon healer in 15th Century Transylvania. Here is my review on this blog.

The Maestro and Her Protege: Here is the Amazon description. I can’t post the review until it’s published on The Historical Novel Society website in February.

A Bloody Banquet: Book 2 of Stone and Steele Mysteries set in 1930s Hollywood. Here is my review on this blog.

A Fashionably French Murder: This is book three in the An American in Paris mystery series, which features Julia Child as a supporting character. See my review on this blog.

Thank You to That Artsy Reader Girl for hosting Top Ten Tuesday.

Indie Spotlight is my effort to help Indie authors with marketing. If I can help even a little bit, I’m happy to do it. You can help too by sharing this post far and wide. Below is my review of The Kansal Clunker: The Car That Rebuilt Us.

Book Review

Book Description

Neil Kansal had always loved to build things, or take them apart and put them back together, and he had always loved cars.  After getting his license, he was gifted with a car with an automatic transmission, but he shared with his dad, Ruchin, that he wanted to learn to drive a stick.  This led to a great bonding adventure in “Teggy,” an old Acura Integra.  The adventure started when they rebuilt Teggy together, and continued with an over 5000-mile road trip from Weston, Connecticut, to Mt Evans, Colorado. It became a trip that they would always remember and Teggy was “The Car That Rebuilt Us.”

My Thoughts

This is a lovely story of a father and son adventure.  I’m not going to evaluate this like a novel.  It’s a wonderful memoir, with chapters written either by Neil or Ruchin. I enjoyed all the details and facts about the iconic places they visited, as well as the lessons they learned.   I also loved the carefully prepared accounting forms that are included. They detail all expenditures—Mom had set a budget. I liked the fact that they sold items they didn’t use anymore in order to stay under the limit. 

The book is filled with wisdom Neil picked up on the trip, such as:  “It’s okay to start a journey without knowing where you’re going,” and while detours can be annoying,  they could lead to “delightful, once-in-a-lifetime experiences.” And after driving in a storm, which we all hate, we get a reminder that “storms don’t last forever.” These are just a few of the valuable lessons Neil learned that will stay with him because he didn’t just hear the lesson.  He lived it.  He also obviously has great parents who guided him well.

Ruchin details a scary accident that some of their family members had while they were visiting, and he sometimes flashed back to his youth and other trips.

One of the best things I noticed in this book is that during the trip alone together, Neil and Runchin talked.  Nobody was surfing on their phones all day or blasting music for their ears alone.  Runchin told Neil stories from his life, and they talked about Teggy, how she was doing, what maintenance she might need, and what was next on their journey.

I only have one, slightly funny criticism:  They ate at Subway 20 times!  You can get Subway at home!  They might have missed out on some great local food that wouldn’t have cost more than Subway.

Conclusion

This is a fun and heartwarming story of a father and son adventure that readers of all ages will enjoy.  It made me think back to 1982 when I learned to drive a stick and then hit the road. I would recommend this story to anyone of any age who has taken a road trip. You will love it.

About The Authors

Learn more about Neil and Ruchin Kansal on their website: The Kansal Clunker.

Purchase Link

Buy on Amazon

Before You Go

If you read the book, be sure to leave a book review on Amazon and/or wherever you purchase books. Reviews are so important to Indie authors because Amazon will promote a book depending on how many reviews it has. Also, please remember to share this post with all your social media followers so this book gets as much exposure as possible. I hope you enjoy The Kansal Clunker: The Car That Rebuilt Us.

Three ebooks in the Your Words Collection by Louise Bélanger are FREE, and one (Your Words Your World) is only .99! FREE CHRISTIAN POETRY WITH BEAUTIFUL PHOTOGRAPHS. Find out more about the books by clicking on my reviews, or on the link to the collection on Amazon. #ChristianPoetry #Poetry #Photography

Links to My Reviews

Your Words

Your Words Your World

Your Words Your Heart

Your Words Your Love

Purchase Links

Your Words Collection

Merry Christmas! Hope you are happy, healthy, and safe.

Christmas update

Merry Christmas, and have a wonderful holiday season! What are you all having for Christmas dinner? I made a lasagna! Why not? We had turkey at Thanksgiving.

I decided on mini apple pies for dessert. If you like Walker’s Shortbread, they also make mini mince pies, and I found some at Fresh Market in Johnson City when we had to go out there a couple of weeks ago. I know mince pie is not for everyone.

I hope you all had a wonderful year and that next year will be blessed.

If you get to take time off, enjoy! If you are working, may your load be light and your pay plentiful.

I just finished a new Christmas book by Debbie Macomber. My review is coming today. My traditional Jodi Taylor Christmas story just arrived on my Kindle so I’ll be reading that today.

As we speak, I’m attempting (once again) to make orange rolls for breakfast. I’m trying for a homemade version that is not full of chemicals like the Pillsbury ones. It looks like I might be successful this time. We’ll see. It’s sometimes a lot of trial and error for me. I have had to practice a lot sometimes to get it right, especially on old-fashioned fudge, which took years to get right, and I’m still working on pie crust.

When Doug gets up we’ll open presents and hopefully have delicious orange rolls. (Fingers crossed).

As an aside, If anyone would like to follow the Facebook page for Bonnie Reads and Writes, the link is here. I haven’t built up many followers there. I will also follow you back.

How are you spending the holiday today?

ANOTHER UPDATE: The orange rolls turned out great! Best I’ve ever made.

Weekly Update

Christmas is coming! I can’t believe how fast this year has gone. I will be thinking about my favorite books of the year for the next two weeks for those end-of-year updates. Today I wrapped a bunch of presents, with the help of Opie the cat. Doug tried to get the dachshunds to pose for a Christmas picture and was unsuccessful. I managed to catch a shot of Opie, however.

I have to show you our cat-proof tree. We tried to put up our usual artificial tree, and it wasn’t long before Opie was climbing it. So Doug made this beautiful Opie-proof tree for us to enjoy. At least he hasn’t tried to climb it yet!

Last Week on the Blog (Two Weeks Before Christmas)

Last Week I updated the Review Requests policy and did an article about Scams Against Indie Authors. I didn’t get any reviews posted. I have been busy with my Reviews Editor role for The Historical Novel Society so I’ve been working on that, plus reviewing books for them too, but I will get back to my regular posting soon. But now to focus on Christmas!

Next Week on the blog (One Week Before Christmas)

I’m going to review at least one Christmas book and get some Indie Spotlights up. Hang in there, Indie authors. I hope to be caught up by March.

Book Haul

In the Spirit of French Murder is the fourth book in the “An American in Paris” mysteries, with supporting character Julia Child. I loved the other three and was happy to get this one on Netgalley, even past the publishing date! I am excited to read it.

I don’t have this one yet, but every single year since the beginning, Jodi Taylor has written a Christmas novella for her readers, sold it for 99 cents, and released it on Christmas Day. This year is no exception, and I just preordered it. It has become a Christmas tradition for me to read my Jodi Taylor Christmas novella in the morning as soon as I get up (I’m usually an early riser). Since she’s now a big-time bestseller, you would think she would raise the price, but she hasn’t. That’s one of the reasons she’s my favorite author.

Other Christmas Traditions We Enjoy

Our church gives all the members gift bags, and soon we will be meeting to fill them up and hand them out. Our contribution to the bags this year: Terry’s chocolate oranges, our favorite. This year, our church has been collecting food for the Living Waters food bank in Cherokee, and I love that we are helping people get the food they need.

Doug and I have a tradition with presents that we’ve done as long as I can recall. Each gift to each other is labeled From: somebody famous or infamous who is a clue to what’s inside. I have gifts waiting for me from Mike Tyson and Paul Hollywood, among others. I’m sure the one from Paul Hollywood has to do with baking, but I have no idea what the Mike Tyson clue is. Doug’s gifts from me range in givers from Jesus to Liam Neeson. It’s fun to figure out the clues.

What are your Christmas traditions?