The Firsts of 2025 Tag

Hello, everyone! I’ve done this tag for the last couple of years (2023, 2024) and always have a lot of fun with it. So, I’m back again to talk about my firsts of 2025. It seemed like the right time since we are approaching the end of the first quarter of the year. This book tag was originally created by Tanya @girlxoxo.

First book read this year

My first book of the year was Flopping in a Winter Wonderland by Jason June. I was still in a Christmas mood and picked this one up at the library. It had a weird setting but was still fun and Christmasy overall.

Book Synopsis 📚

All Aaron wants for Christmas is for his brother Casey to get over his ex, Raquel. He’d prefer not to be at Winter Wonderland, the island north of Alaska that’s home to a year-round Christmas theme park. But Casey loves Christmas, and so, here they are.

All Kris wants for Christmas is for his uncle to move back to Winter Wonderland to be the first gay Santa. And so, he needs to win the Race, his grade’s annual competition to see who can get a guest to fall in love with them first. Winning means a trip to New York, where Kris would be able to plead his case for his uncle to the founder of Winter Wonderland himself.

Then Aaron and Kris flop into each other during a flash mob and Kris agrees to help Aaron with his plan to keep Casey single. Soon, both can’t stop thinking about kissing the other, and it’s not just because of the mistletoe around every corner. Too bad true love isn’t on either of their Christmas lists…

This adorable rom-com from bestselling author Jason June unwraps the healing power of love and the magic of the Christmas season.

First book reviewed

The first book I reviewed this year was The Lotus Empire by Tasha Suri. This was a solid conclusion to the trilogy, but I wanted to see a bit more actual conflict between the two main characters. You can find my full review of this book here!

Book Synopsis 📚

The Lotus Empire brings Tasha Suri’s acclaimed Burning Kingdoms trilogy to a heart–stopping close. As an ancient magic returns to Ahiranya and threatens its very foundations, Empress Malini and priestess Priya will stop at nothing to save their kingdoms—even if it means they must destroy each other.

Malini has claimed her rightful throne as the empress of Parijatdvipa, just as the nameless gods prophesied. Now, in order to gain the support of the priesthood who remain loyal to the fallen emperor, she must consider a terrible Claim her throne and burn in order to seal her legacy—or find another willing to take her place on the pyre.

Priya has survived the deathless waters and now their magic runs in her veins. But a mysterious yaksa with flowering eyes and a mouth of thorns lies beneath the waters. The yaksa promises protection for Ahiranya. But in exchange, she needs a sacrifice. And she’s chosen Priya as the one to offer it.

Two women once entwined by fate now stand against each other. But when an ancient enemy rises to threaten their world, Priya and Malini will find themselves fighting together once more – to prevent their kingdoms, and their futures, from burning to ash.

First book by a debut author

My first book by a debut author this year was A Language of Dragons by S.F. Williamson. This was a great mix of academia, rebellion, and DRAGONS! See all my thoughts here!

Book Synopsis 📚

EVERY ACT OF TRANSLATION REQUIRES SACRIFICE

Welcome to Bletchley Park… with dragons.

London, 1923. Dragons soar through the skies and protests erupt on the streets, but Vivian Featherswallow isn’t worried. She’s going to follow the rules, get an internship studying dragon languages, and make sure her little sister never has to risk growing up Third Class. By midnight, Viv has started a civil war.

With her parents arrested and her sister missing, all the safety Viv has worked for is collapsing around her. So when a lifeline is offered in the form of a mysterious ‘job’, she grabs it. Arriving at Bletchley Park, Viv discovers that she has been recruited as a codebreaker helping the war effort – if she succeeds, she and her family can all go home again. If she doesn’t, they’ll all die.

At first Viv believes that her challenge, of discovering the secrets of a hidden dragon language, is doable. But the more she learns, the more she realises that the bubble she’s grown up in isn’t as safe as she thought, and eventually Viv must What war is she really fighting?

An epic, sweeping fantasy with an incredible Dark Academia setting, a clandestine, slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance, and an unputdownable story, filled with twists and turns, betrayals and secret identities, A Language of Dragons is the unmissable debut of 2025, from an extraordinary new voice.

First book by a new-to-me author

My first book in 2025 by a new-to-me author was Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland. This was a fun story about a group of people who don’t trust each other coming together to try to overthrow a terrible ruler. There was lots of scheming, and the characters had a fun dynamic. It just didn’t have tons of depth.

Book Synopsis 📚

It’s the season for treason…

The king of Yusan must die.

The five most dangerous liars in the land have been mysteriously summoned to work together for a single objective: to kill the God King Joon.

He has it coming. Under his merciless immortal hand, the nobles flourish, while the poor and innocent are imprisoned, ruined…or sold.

And now each of the five blades will come for him. Each has tasted bitterness―from the hired hitman seeking atonement, a lovely assassin who seeks freedom, or even the prince banished for his cruel crimes. None can resist the sweet, icy lure of vengeance.

They can agree on murder.

They can agree on treachery.

But for these five killers―each versed in deception, lies, and betrayal―it’s not enough to forge an alliance. To survive, they’ll have to find a way to trust each other…but only one can take the crown.

Let the best liar win.

First book that slayed me

Stranger Skies by Pascale Lacelle was the first book that slayed me this year. This sequel blew me away with how much it added to the world-building. I loved the addition of the time travel element, and the characters learned so much in this book. See all my thoughts here!

Book Synopsis 📚

Ninth House meets The Hazel Wood in this riveting sequel to the New York Times bestselling dark academia fantasy Curious Tides, following Emory, Baz, Romie, and Kai on their desperate quests through space and time!

Opening locked doors has a price—even for those who hold a key. After going through the door that called to them both in dreams, Emory and Romie find themselves in the same verdant world written of in Song of the Drowned Gods, albeit a twisted, rotting version of it. A sinister force has awoken with their arrival, intent on destruction as it spills across realms, and now Emory and Romie must stop it before it reaches their own shores.

Meanwhile, Baz and Kai are desperate to follow their friends through the door to other worlds, but a mishap pulls them back in time instead—where they come face to face with Cornus Clover himself, famed author of Song of the Drowned Gods. Stuck together in the past, they must navigate a very different Aldryn as they unravel the school’s darkest secrets.

Across time and worlds, Emory, Romie, Baz, and Kai find their fates eerily interwoven with the heroes from Clover’s book. But when stories can’t be trusted, friendships are put to the test, and deadly enemies are not always as they seem, they must decide who gets to be a hero—and who is desperate enough to see themselves become a villain.

First book that I wished I could get back the time I spent reading it

Heavenly Tyrant was easily my least favorite book of the year so far. I was super curious to see where this story would go next after how Iron Widow ended. This book took all the things I enjoyed about its predecessor and threw them out the window. The story was bloated and boring. I don’t think I’ll be continuing the series. See all my thoughts in my review.

Book Synopsis 📚

After suffering devastating loss and making drastic decisions, Zetian finds herself at the seat of power in Huaxia. But she has also learned that her world is not as it seems, and revelations about an enemy more daunting than Zetian imagined forces her to share power with a dangerous man she cannot simply depose. Despite having vastly different ideas about how they must deconstruct the corrupt and misogynist system that plagues their country, Zetian must join this man in a dance of truth and lies and perform their roles to perfection in order to take down their common enemy, who seeks to control them as puppets while dangling one of Zetian’s loved ones as a hostage.

With political unrest and perilous forces aiming to undermine Zetian at every turn, can she enact positive changes as a fair and just ruler? Or will she be forced to rely on fear and violence and succumb to her darker instincts in her quest for vengeance?

Welp. There you have it! My firsts of 2025. I’m not going to tag anyone specific in this one, but I’d love to read the answers of others. So, consider yourself tagged. 😁

4 thoughts on “The Firsts of 2025 Tag

  1. I like doing this tag too and have it on my list for next week. Language of Dragons was my first book by a debut author this year too.

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