Who's ready for year three of my One Woman Book Club? When I started this in 2023, the goal was to tackle the books that have been patiently waiting on my TBR list the longest amount of time. On my Kindle alone, I have more than 250 samples right now - some of which date all the way back to 2019! This year's list doesn't have a book that goes back quite that far, but we get close with a contender from 2020.

Last year's book club was rocking along smoothly until we hit the fall and my personal life kind of crashed. It was just one thing after another and pretty soon two months had passed in which I barely read anything at all. However, unlike in 2023 when I did not get caught up on the book club picks I had missed, this year I used my Christmas Break to do so.

As with the previous two years, this year's picks are all fiction. This year there's a bit more of a magical focus -- that is my favorite genre after all. Last year I had lots of historical fiction, a few of which were really deep and somber. Don't worry - there's historical fiction on this year's list as well, not to mention romantic comedy, mystery, and straight-up comedy. I hope you'll join me in reading our way through 2025!

This book is supposed to be like a combination of The Echo of Old Books and The Lost Apothecary, the January picks of the 2024 and 2023 book clubs respectively. I really enjoyed starting the year with those books, so I figured I would continue the tradition this year! This book is about three strangers: Opaline, Martha, and Henry. None have been the main characters of their own stories, but that all changes when they discover The Lost Bookshop in Dublin and are transported into a world of wonder.

Of course February's pick has to be a love story, and this Pretty Woman-esque tale feels right up my alley. Lottie and Huxley meet by pure chance, but it's not exactly a "meet cute" like you see in the movies. Lottie is on the prowl for a rich husband, and Huxley is trying to worm his way out of a business deal gone wrong. The two strike up a deal - Lottie moves into Huxley's mansion and pretends to be his fiancé. Nothing could go wrong, right? Except she falls for the lie.

March brings us our first magic-laced tale which is also a mystery. Lizzy Moon is the last of the Moon family of healers, but she wants nothing to do with her family's legacy. When her grandmother, Althea, dies, Lizzy returns home where she must face the tragedy that still hangs over her family: the unsolved murders of two young girls and the accusations that followed her grandmother to her grave. Soon, Lizzy's plans to sell the farm and return to New York fade. She finds her grandmother's journal that's designed to help Lizzy embrace her own special gifts, and after reconnecting with a man who believes her grandmother was innocent, Lizzy decides to clear Althea's name.

Magic and history collide in this story about the infamous Guy Fawkes, or more specifically, his son, Thomas. In this reiteration of Fawkes' plot to end religious persecution, the people of London are ruled by the color powers and the Stone Plague. Thomas hopes to bond with a gray mask so he can remove the stone that has invaded his body and will ultimately kill him, but when the day of his test arrives, Guy doesn't even show up. Thomas tracks down his father to demand a mask but discovers Guy has other plans: kill the king. In order to save his own life, Thomas must join forces with his father.

PTA president Kira Grant has been accused of poisoning another parent - one of her closest friends, no less - at the fifth grade graduation party. The evidence against her? The toxic flower growing in her backyard and a penchant for being malicious. Defense attorney Allison is determined to uncover the truth and advance her career to new heights. Who knew joining the PTA would be so deadly?

Kit's sister Josie was killed fifteen years ago in a terrorist attack. At least, that's what Kit has always believed until she saw a woman who looks just like Josie in the background of live coverage of a club fire in New Zealand. So Kit heads to New Zealand to uncover the truth. Along the way, she must face memories of their past: days spent together on the beach, a lost teen boy who became part of their family, and a trauma that's haunted the sisters their entire lives.

This historic fiction is set in 1947 Havana, Cuba. Patricio has fled Spain to find a better life on the island. He lands a job at the famous El Encanto, a luxurious department store, where he meets and falls in love with the wife of notorious mobster, Cesar Valdes. It's a suicidal romance, but anything feels possible in El Encanto.

It's a bit embarrassing how long I've let this book by one of my favorite authors sit on my TBR list. The Paper Magician is one of my favorite series, so I've got big hopes for this one! Gentry and her siblings have been abandoned to the inhospitable West by their father who's gone to California hoping to strike it rich in the gold rush. Already struggling to survive, Gentry accepts the help of a stranger when a series of strange natural disasters begins wreaking havoc on their land. Winn can not only see the magic but also control it, but his unpredictable powers don't seem to be working, and soon Gentry will have to make a choice to save her family.

This book gives me Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy vibes, so it definitely will not be for everyone, but by this point in the year, I know I'll need a light-hearted, funny read, and I think this fits the bill. After multiple crises and insurmountable debt, the leaders of Earth have sold the planet. At first, everything seems great. Who wouldn't be excited about all their debt being wiped clean? Toby and his two new roommates are on their way to a celebration when they run into a professor who reveals the truth: Earth is on the chopping block.

October deserves something witchy, and this book promises to deliver a mix of Hocus Pocus and Practical Magic with The Salem Witch Trials. Two hundred years ago in the town of Sparrow, three sisters were sentenced to death for witchery. Now, each summer the witches return, stealing the bodies of three girls to seek their revenge - luring boys into the harbor to their deaths. This year, there's a new boy in town with no idea what's going on, and local Penny may be the only one who can save him.

When Kerry MacGregor returns home to North Carolina after two years of attending college in New York, her family's land is among the last pieces needed to complete the Biltmore Estate. But that's not all that threatens to change Kerry's fate. Outsiders are descending on the area, including a Sicilian fugitive, a story-chasing reporter, a scandal-tainted debutante, and a resentment-stoking conservationist.