2025 reading wrapped: part 2
careful, spoilers ahead!
the second part of my 2025 reading results, not so many stories left, but still, enough of them to look through!
🎼the little prince by antoine de saint-exupéry | 1943
month: august
my rating: 5/5
my all time favorite, the first classics book that i have read as a child and keep re-reading years later. didn’t plan to read it that summer, but got a special edition from a friend of mine. simply love it for the lessons it teaches people – responsibility is important, you cannot abandon something or someone that you took under your power.
also, i always thought that it shows the duality of wealth and the way that it rules human cognition. most of the people somehow cannot see wealth and responsibility separately. and one more thing to mention is the nature, the planet of the little prince is rich in trees and that one rose, but other things that the story incorporates like sands and stars, the animals were … don’t know how to explained, but i would say that they are essential part of the book.
🎼check&mate by ali hazelwood | 2023
month: august
my rating: 5/5
i have posted my review as soon as i finished it back in august and my opinion hasn’t changed a bit. it was the only modern romantic novel and not a fantasy which doesn’t happen often in here. The story was set in the world of chess which is an all the time interest for me as some other topics, it covers relationship of people from the same field however with the different background.
ali’s books are great pieces of writing in my opinion even though i read only check&mate and love hypothesis, but the sense of humor, the language and style are so awesome, don’t think that i will ever regret reading her books.
mallory and nolan were great, they had troubles that people of their age usually encounter – the unclear vision of future, entering adult life and romantic/platonic relationship. most of my thought were already explained earlier, honestly, nothing more to add, wish to see an adaptation one day.
🎼bred in the bone by cassandra clare from better in black | 2025
month: november
my rating: 5/5
as soon as i received the better in black file i wasted no time to go and read the stories on my favorite couples. bred in the bone is a story about julian and emma encountering someone unexpected – emma of thule.
not going to lie, during the period of the dark artifices i wasn’t a fan of julian and emma’s couple since the half of lord of shadows, i was much more interested in kristina&mark&kieran loveline. i understood my mistake years later – julian and emma were actually dope, that is why i loved coming back to the secrets of blackthorn hall and bred in the bone was no exception.
have plenty things to say on this one beginning with the title - the second i took it in i got goosebumps, literally and i was intrigued how the story conveyed it. The obstacles in the relationship that emma and julian faced were an example to show that doesn’t matter how long you are together and how well you know each other you might have second-thoughts and doubts because of your own vision and personality. meeting emma of thule, seeing julian calling real emma sweetheart – i missed it, greatly and whole-heartedly, felt nostalgia and strong desire to go and re-read lady midnight.
🎼the time of two by cassandra clare from better in black | 2025
month: november
my rating: 5/5
that one was about clace, really missed old couples of the tmi and tid, i was happy to see them. i even was a bit shocked by the choice of clary and jace because we see them almost everywhere and we know that we will see them in twp, but never mind. that one tells about their preparation for the wedding and the story of maryse and her brother - max.
the topic of the shadowhunters who decided to turn away from the world is some kind of a secret and to see the reasons behind these decisions is interesting. i loved to see jace and clary finding out about max, the story of his life and the hardship of his decisions.
the time of two does not relate to jace and clary only as a title, it is also related to maryse and max – one day the time will set them again, together, to reunite, to pick up on everything that was lost and that way, the time of two will come again. their relationship was described by cassie as trustworthy enough at least before the circle, i would love to see the further development of their background.
🎼too wise to love by cassandra clare from better in black | 2025
month: november
my rating: 4.5/5
god damn, never expected, but always wanted. about thirteen years ago, when I read tmi, it was really interesting, how the relationship between sebastian and the seelie queen started, what it led to and how it finished. the two of them are antagonists of the story, however, sebastian represents a bigger evil and the seelie queen felt fear along with the attraction at some point.
from the side of sebastian it was an option that looked clary-like, so no questions. the love, if it can be called so, was based on the personal benefit and nothing more – the goal of queen was to get an heir, hoping that sebastian will stay, however, she was the one to make a mistake and really fell in love. sebastian has never seen her as equal or as betrothed, he used her, again, for the personal benefit, so when he died the suffering came to ash.
there, i want to talk about the title, too wise to love is not only about the queen and sebastian as a romantic couple, but also about ash and nene as a platonic couple or mother-son dynamics. it contains a lesson – one should be wise to not love blindly; love blinded queen’s eyes and she didn’t realize her situation sooner and love blinded nene, as she forgot her role and took everything too personally.
🎼city of broken hearts by cassandra clare from better in black | 2025
month: november
my rating: 4.5/5
The title and the sense of nostalgia are so strong i just can’t. was waiting for that one so much because sizzy’s story in tmi had a complicated ending. i know that they had some further development in tsa but we haven’t seen a lot of them since the announcement of the marriage. i thought that it will be something more like going to disneyland, confessing love and finding demons, but hey, that was far better than any of the expectation that i had.
The story of simon and isabelle show the moment of a crisis that people somehow might go through at some points of their relationship and it features the demoness ajatara, introduced in the other story. izzy still possesses this aura of a coldblooded person and simon has his shyness on, that way to see the struggle because of the curse was sad as it hinted on some kind of crisis that occurred. really adored how cassie tried to show different stages that we can go through in relationship that are already established.
🎼the beautiful ajatara by cassandra clare from better in black | 2025
month: november
my rating: 3/5
the most anticipated and the least liked story, unfortunately. don’t want to judge too much because i am not cassie and none of us, except of her, are. for sure, she sees better how to develop the story, but the beautiful ajatara became my personal disappointment. as far as i know, before publishing, fandom thought that the story will feature james and corldelia’s exchange of second runes, instead we got another relationship, or marriage, crisis.
cordelia feels like she is stuck and being stolen by the ajatara, she has only chance which is james, who has to save her and not only. his mission was to show that stability isn’t bad – it is actually a very good thing which keeps you at bay when facing troubles. why lucy became the storyteller for it no one understands and knows, but okay. can’t tell much, just, didn’t expect it to be that way.
🎼lady chatterley’s lover by d.h. lawrence | 1928
month: december
my rating: 1.5/5
finished it on the december 30th, felt like the last second disappointment. had big hopes on it, wanted to read it for many years, but never thought that i would regret it that much.
the story is about connie, young lady chatterley, a wife of an upper-class baronet clifford, who was paralysed after the war. i didn’t like the language, hated the repetetion without reasoning, hated mellors. gosh, oliver was such a nothing, honestly saying. if the author had put more efforts into the story and emotional part of it, rather than trying to tell in each and every line that sex and money are all that people have on mind, it could have been better.
at some point, i got a glimpse of idea of social class inequity, which was good, like the contrast between upper- and lower-class, okay, nice. everything else was shitty – the character being sex-obsessed or sex-focused only, poorly written outside of it, connie wanting love, not realizing she meant sex by love, oliver was a nasty man, mrs. bolton was a rat. nothing good, just plenty of bad memories, poorly written comparisons and euphemisms, hadn’t hated the book that much since kafka on the shore.
to conclude everything, 2025 gave in total 21 stories, some were good, some were average, but i would say that it was worth it. each and every book leaves its blueprint on our lives and that, in my opinion, leads to some changes in our worldview.
