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In case you missed it, last week, we looked back at The Most Read Books on Goodreads in 2024. If you haven’t seen it yet, get your guesses ready for the top five before clicking and see how many you can predict! It’ll be interesting to see how many of those continue to be popular in 2025 and how many will drop off in the new year.
But before we can start tabulating the popular reads of 2025, we have to take stock of last month of 2024. Christmas-themed reads made up a big chunk of the top 50 most read books on Goodreads in December, including The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter, The Christmas Tree Farm by Laurie Gilmore, and—in the first time I’ve seen a classic make this list—A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
As usual, the most popular books on Goodreads don’t include many authors of color. Approximately 98% of the authors with books on the top 50 list are white. It’s frankly infuriating that this is still so bad, especially when there are so many incredible books by authors of color published every year. Meanwhile, multiple short Christmas romance stories with abysmal average ratings made it onto this list. I’ve included a couple of excellent books by BIPOC authors that came out in December at the end of this list, but if you’d like recommendations in your inbox every week, sign up for Book Riot’s In Reading Color newsletter!
#5:
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
The second book in the Empyrean series has been dipping in and out of the top five all year, but it made it back to the number five spot in December, possibly in anticipation for the January release of the third book, Onyx Storm. This one was read by over 71,000 Goodreads users last month, with a 4.4 average rating.
#4:
The Boyfriend by Freida McFadden
Despite the title, The Boyfriend was the only non-romance title in the top five in December (if we’re counting romantasy as romance). Even with the surge of holiday romance reading, that hasn’t stopped people from picking up the newest from the queen of thrillers, though it lost some ground from November. It had almost 81,000 readers on Goodreads, with a 4.0 average rating.
#3:
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
This romantasy series about a dragon-riding academy is one of the most popular in the genre, which explains how it has two of the top five spots! Fourth Wing was read by almost 89,000 users in December and it has a 4.6 average rating with over two million total ratings.
#2:
How My Neighbor Stole Christmas by Meghan Quinn
Unlike the other Christmas romance in the top five, this is a full-length novel, from the author of the Cane Brothers romance series, among others. It came out in October and has plenty of How the Grinch Stole Christmas references, as you may have been able to guess from the title and cover! It was read by almost 93,000 Goodreads users in December, with a 3.7 average rating.
#1:
Cruel Winter with You by Ali Hazelwood
The top spot for the month goes to a Christmas romance short story. Ali Hazelwood is best known for her STEM romances, like The Love Hypothesis. This new 73-page holiday romance story came out November 12th. In it, Jamie gets snowed in with her brother’s best friend, Marc—who also happens to have grown up to be a tech billionaire. This one had over 105,000 readers this in December, with a 3.7 average rating. (The other stories in this series have significantly lower average ratings.)
Two New Books Out in December You Should Know About
Unfortunately, the most read books on Goodreads tend not to be diverse by any definition of the word. So, here are a couple of new books out last month that deserve wider readership.
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Potawatomi author Robin Wall Kimmerer made her name with Braiding Sweetgrass, the bestselling book full of stunning nature writing that ruminates on the wisdom human beings can learn from the natural world. Now, Kimmerer is back with The Serviceberry, a book that examines what the land gives to humankind and how we should be more than willing to give back in return. —Kendra Winchester
Sister Snake by Amanda Lee Koe
I loved this literary speculative story about two sisters who began their lives together as snakes in Tang Dynasty China. Now, they couldn’t be more different: Su is a conservative politician’s wife in Singapore while Emerald scrapes by as a queer sugar baby living in New York City with an artist friend. It’s a beautiful and bruising story about racism, assimilation, and the complexities of found family. —Danika Ellis
If you’re looking for more buzzy books, check out The Bestselling Books of the Week, According to All the Lists.
Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.
