Welcome to the Love Bytes Reviewers’ Best of 2025
Another year has passed in which books have brought all of us a much-needed escape and sense of comfort. Our Love Bytes team reviewed approximately 1,000 LGBTQ+ books in 2025, from contemporary romance to fantasy, paranormal, historical, adventure, mystery, comedy, and everything in between. Each day for the next weeks, we will feature one of our reviewers’ top picks from books and audiobooks published in 2025. These lists highlight how diverse our tastes in reading are, and offer something for everyone. With thousands of fantastic new books each year, written by hundreds of creative and talented authors, it’s so difficult to narrow our lists down. We all have many favorite authors not featured here and wish we could acknowledge them all.
“Ro’s” favorites
King of Halloween – Ellen Mint Buy link
I am the queen of holiday stories – I read them voraciously. This one made me so happy because Halloween doesn’t usually have sweet, funny stories (and I’m not a fan of horror). From the caramel apples to the sheep movie, Adam and Raj made me smile.
Short Stack 3 – Lily Morton Buy link
Lily Morton is one of my favorites, and getting to revisit the characters was magical for me. These are short glimpses into the couples we learn to love in their books, with five new shorts that made me happy.
Hashtag Holidate – Lucy Lennox Buy link
Again, love the holiday stories! This one had a twist in that Adrian is a social media influencer who plans 12 amazing dates, and Maddox is the one who does them with him. It was cute, and funny (the tree that nearly kills Adrian!) and very holidate.
Promised Secret – Rye Cox Buy link
Friends to lovers but with a complication of ending up stepbrothers. I liked the obliviousness of it, the pining, and I loved both Danny and Clay, clueness to the max. We get to see Ryan and Jones from book 2, and Ryker and Sam from book 1 of the series, which made this even better
Marriage Policy – Riley Hart Buy link
This is part of the Jilted Exes Club series, and it’s my favorite. Friends to lovers who only realize what’s going on because of insurance. Eric calling Donovan his “insurance daddy” made me laugh. The other members of the Jilted Exes are here and we still all hate Malcolm.
Home Heart Hooves – Becca Jackson Buy link
First in the Beaker Brothers Ranch series, everything about this story made me want to visit this ranch, if not live there. Everyone here is so lovely, especially Dean and Preson (the MC of this one). They are all so supportive of each other “bestest brother of the gays” while not losing their snark.
Short Stack Audio – Lily Morton & Joel Leslie Buy Link
