BookTok has become very popular in the last few years. This is one thing to absolutely go on social media for. Booktokers recommend new and old releases and give their reviews on their recent reads. Below are checklists for you to check off from the year to make sure you kept up with the trends!
Trigger Warning: It Ends With Us involves a story involving domestic violence. Please use caution when reading the book or viewing the movie.
Dark Romance
For those with reading tastes a little darker than others, see what you can cross off on this dark romance checklist. We listen, and we don’t judge, right? Let people enjoy whatever books they enjoy!
Haunting Adeline is a two-book series, followed up by Hunting Adeline. H.D. Carlton has created a world where a woman falls in love with her stalker. This book intends to horrify you and also make you glad you picked it up. The perfect time to have read this? Spooky season. Check.
Zodiac Academy is a lengthy series with 12 books in total. These are set in a fae world, a world that’s very popular, with the romantasy genre ramping up in recent years. They are written by two sisters — Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti — and explore paranormal romances that will keep you hooked throughout the entire story. Technically, only the first one is listed on this checklist, so it still counts if you haven’t read all 12.
Tear-Jerkers
Crying over a book is a sign of a great author. To invoke that kind of emotion out of a story is not something everyone can do. Let’s applaud each author who made us cry in 2024 and add them to our recommendation lists.
It Ends With Us was made into a movie in 2024, invoking tears in theatres across the world. Colleen Hoover has created an entire fanbase over young adult romance dramas and has succeeded. Have you read this one? Tread lightly as there are sensitive topics in here.
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes was also made into a movie back in 2016. Following the journey of a caretaker striving to make her patient see how good life can be, this was another emotional storyline. You still have time to check this one off your list for the year!
Hockey Romance
Romance tropes are plentiful and vast. Hockey Romance is just one sub-genre of romance that readers go wild for. If you’ve never been to a hockey game in real life, I’m sure all fans of this genre would agree that you should.
Authors like Elle Kennedy and Elsie Silver write novels that follow a group of friends or family and their relationships. In The Deal, the main character, Hannah Wells, has to tutor the captain of the hockey team, Garrett Graham. Will they put aside their annoyances and help each other, or will they end up realizing they’re both what the other needs? In Powerless, two long-time friends, Sloane and Jasper — hockey heartthrob — take a road trip to get away from life. With all the time alone, will they be pushed together and cross that line of friendship?
Make sure Elsie Silver gets ticked off your list because her next novel, Wild Side, comes out next year! Pre-order now and get geared up for a mysterious romance where both characters are keeping secrets. Also, pre-order Elle Kennedy’s new book, The Charlie Method, which explores another hockey romance. We can’t get enough!
Young Adult Fantasy
Young adult fantasy caters to the younger audience with magical elements. No dark romance here, but there may still be some cute couples! Get out your reading list from this year and see if you can successfully claim any — or all — of these fun reads.
Did you brave the complex world of Throne of Glass this year? Did you re-read Twilight and remember if you’re Team Edward or Team Jacob? Even if you aren’t able to check them off this year’s list, there’s always next year. New Year’s resolution?
Romantasy
This year was a big year for the romantasy genre. Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros blew up on BookTok, introducing lots of readers to their books. While these books may not have come out in 2024, it felt like they did from all the attention they received. Will this genre continue to be popular in 2025, or will a different genre gain the top spot in the BookTok world?
Fourth Wing and Iron Flame are soon to be followed up by Onyx Storm, available now for pre-order. Fans were left on the edge of their seats after Iron Flame, wondering what would happen to their beloved main characters. Can’t wait to see what Rebecca Yarros has cooked up for the third book? Click here to get your copy, as long as you’ve checked off Fourth Wing on your list!
A Court of Thorns and Roses is just one of Sarah J. Maas’s romantasy series. Throne of Glass and Crescent City belong to her honor as well. There are many conversations, along with controversy, on these novels. Which order should you read them in? Which ones are objectively the best reads? Those answers vary depending on who you talk to, but to Maas, the attention and popularity she’s received should be a win in itself.
Fantasy
Fantasy — a genre in which authors create entirely fictional worlds that have magical and supernatural elements. This genre allows readers to escape reality and immerse themselves completely in a fae universe.
Again, Sarah J. Maas took the world by storm with her release of the third Crescent City book, House of Flame and Shadow. Did you finish off the series and have your own controversial opinion? There’s quite a lot of back and forth on it, but one thing is for sure — SJM is doing something right.
Shadow and Bone, a trilogy by Leigh Bardugo, has been published for a while. But it was picked up for two seasons on TV, so that’s got to mean something, right? If you enjoyed the adventurous world of Ravka, with its human flesh-eating monsters and Alina trying to save the day, check this off your list before year-end!
Make reading fun by giving yourself reading checklists like these — it’s like a reward! Whether you completed one genre checklist or all of them, you did great. Keep up the good work in the new year.
Check out what we predict to be the next bookish trends in 2025.
Interested in more fantasy book recommendations? Check out our bookshelf curated for you!
