2025 Reading Challenges ~ 2nd Quarter Update

Happy Monday y’all! I cannot believe we are halfway through the year already. 2025 is flying by! It continues to be the best reading year I’ve had in several years. I’m averaging 10 books a month and have read 59 books so far this year. I didn’t read as much in June with us closing the clinic, but I expect to pick up the pace again in July. Check out my progress below.

The 2025 Audiobook Challenge is hosted by Caffeinated Reviewer & That’s What I’m Talking About. For this challenge, you simply have to listen to audiobooks. You can still join this challenge here. My original goal for this year is Marathoner (50+ audiobooks) with the goal of listening to one audiobook a week, and I am killing it 🙌 During the second quarter of 2025, I’ve listened to 10 audiobooks bringing my total to 27 audiobooks so far. Here are the books I listened to:

1. Wings of Starlight by Allison Saft
2. Steel’s Edge by Ilona Andrews
3. Clean Sweep by Ilona Andrews
4. Cruel is the Light by Sophie Clark
5. Crown of Midnight by Sarah J Maas
6. Belladonna by Adalyn Grace
7. Lore by Alexandra Bracken
8. Sweep in Peace by Ilona Andrews
9. All Systems Red by Martha Wells
10. Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

The 2025 Beat the Backlist Reading Challenge was started by Austine Decker in 2017 and is now hosted on its own site, Beat the Backlist. This challenge is all about reading your backlist, anything published before the current year counts. You can still sign up for the challenge here. My goal for this challenge is to read 50 books from my backlist with at least half of those meeting the challenge prompts which you can see here. I’ve quit keeping track of the prompts, so now I’m just focusing on reading books from my backlist. So far I’ve read 10 books during the second quarter from my backlist bringing my total to 27 for the year. Here are the books I read:

1. Steel’s Edge by Ilona Andrews
2. Defy the Fates by Claudia Gray
3. Clean Sweep by Ilona Andrews
4. Crown of Midnight by Sarah J Maas
5. Belladonna by Adalyn Grace
6. Lore by Alexandra Bracken
7. Sweep in Peace by Ilona Andrews
8. Happily Ever Ninja by Penny Reid
9. All Systems Red by Martha Wells
10. Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

The 2025 Cover Lovers Reading Challenge is hosted by Susan @ Bloggin’ Bout Books. For this challenge, you are to read books with a cover that matches one of the 50 prompts. You can still sign up here. My goal for this challenge is Level Three (21-30 books). This one isn’t as easy as I originally thought it would be to pull books from my TBR that fit the prompts. So….I’m dropping this challenge.

The 2025 Library Love Challenge is hosted by Angel’s Book Nook & Books of My Heart. The point of this challenge is to read more books from the library with a minimum of 12 books for the year. You can still sign up here. I set the goal of reading at least 2 books per month from the library or 24 books for the year. So far, I’ve read 6 books this quarter bringing my total to 14. Here are the books I’ve read so far:

1. Wings of Starlight by Allison Saft
2. Steel’s Edge by Ilona Andrews
3. Defy the Fates by Claudia Gray
4. Clean Sweep by Ilona Andrews
5. Sweep in Peace by Ilona Andrews
6. Steel’s Edge by Ilona Andrews

The 2025 Fantasy/Sci-Fi Reading Challenge is hosted by Rachel @ Fantasy and Sci-Fi Fanatics. For this challenge, there is a prompt for each month to read a specific trope/setting in those genres. My goal is to read at least one book that fits the theme each month. Here are the books I read this quarter:

• April: Lore by Alexandra Bracken
• May: Belladonna by Adalyn Grace
• June: All Systems Red by Martha Wells (I DNFed Dark Eden by Chris Beckett)

Here are the books I’m planning to read during the third quarter:

• July (a fantasy/sci-fi with pirates): I’m torn between three choices for this one–The Lost Legends by Cait Marie (reread), Immortal Plunder by Kelly St. Clair, or Fly with the Arrow by Sarah K.L. Wilson
• August (a dystopian book): Red Rising by Pierce Brown or Dust by Hugh Howey
• September (school-based fantasy/sci-fi book): The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake or Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

The 2025 New Release Reading Challenge has a new home this year at The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review Blog. This challenge is all about reading those new releases, anything published during the new year counts. You can still sign up here. This year my goal is New Release Pro (31-60 books). During the 2nd quarter of 2025, I’ve read 14 new releases bringing my total for the year to 29. Here are the books I read:

1. The Gods Time Forgot by Kelsie Sheridan Gonzalez
2. Wings of Starlight by Allison Saft
3. The Floating World by Axie Oh
4. Love to Hate You by Marina Adair
5. His Face is the Sun by Michelle Jabès Corpora
6. Thorns of a Crown by M. Lynn, Melissa A. Craven
7. The Love Haters by Katherine Center
8. Cruel is the Light by Sophie Clark
9. Titan of the Stars by E.K. Johnston
10. The Other Side of Now by Paige Harbison
11. Worth Fighting For by Jesse Q. Sutanto
12. Shield of Sparrows by Devney Perry
13. Heir of Storms by Lauryn Hamilton Murray
14. Fated to the Frost King by Elle Madison & Robin D. Mahle

The 2025 NetGalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge is hosted by Socrates Book Reviews. This challenge is for all reviewers out there that may be behind (like me) on reading those arcs or just want to improve their NetGalley percentage. You can still sign up here. My goal was to raise my NetGalley percentage by 5 points by mid-year. I didn’t quite meet that. I have raised my percentage by 3 points so far.

My goal is to still raise it by 5 points by the end of the year. To do this, I currently need to read a minimum of 17 books AND any books I receive between now and the end of the year. With that in mind, I’m going to raise my goal for 2025 to Gold (50 books). During this quarter, I’ve read 11 books, posted 3 backlog reviews, and DNF’ed 1 for a total of 15 NetGalley books bringing my total to 29 for the year. Here are the books I read during this quarter:

1. The Gods Time Forgot by Kelsie Sheridan Gonzalez
2. The Floating World by Axie Oh
3. Love to Hate You by Marina Adair
4. His Face is the Sun by Michelle Jabès Corpora
5. The Love Haters by Katherine Center
6. Cruel is the Light by Sophie Clark
7. Titan of the Stars by E.K. Johnston
8. Lore by Alexandra Bracken
9. The Other Side of Now by Paige Harbison
10. Worth Fighting For by Jesse Q. Sutanto
11. Heir of Storms by Lauryn Hamilton Murray

Backlog Reviews:

1. The Break-Up Pact by Emma Lord
2. The Monstrous Kind by Lydia Gregovic
3. Role Playing by Cathy Yardley

DNFed:

1. Game by Barry Lyga

Your Turn! Are you participating in any reading challenges this year? How are you doing so far? Share below

Related Posts