Happy New Year’s Day, Bookwyrms! We are coming up on The Bookwyrm’s two-year anniversary, and to celebrate, you all helped me reach an incredible milestone: we reached 100 followers! Furthermore, I was a top 25% reviewer on Goodreads, which is pretty cool. While I didn’t post as many reviews this year as I had hoped, there are some really exciting things coming up this year. Thank you to everyone who has stuck with me and this blog for so long. 2026 is going to be SO MUCH FUN!
As always, I wanted to hop on and tell you some of my favorite reads this year! Let’s jump in!
Top 5 Books

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party—or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.
So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, muddle Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.
But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones—the most elusive of all faeries—lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all—her own heart.
Divine Rivals
When two young rival journalists find love through a magical connection, they must face the depths of hell, in a war among gods, to seal their fate forever. After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again. But eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow just wants to hold her family together. Her mother is suffering from addiction and her brother is missing from the front lines. Her best bet is to win the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette.
To combat her worries, Iris writes letters to her brother and slips them beneath her wardrobe door, where they vanish―into the hands of Roman Kitt, her cold and handsome rival at the paper. When he anonymously writes Iris back, the two of them forge a connection that will follow Iris all the way to the front lines of battle: for her brother, the fate of mankind, and love.


Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan
Royce Melborn, a skilled thief, and his mercenary partner, Hadrian Blackwater, make a profitable living carrying out dangerous assignments for conspiring nobles-until they are hired to pilfer a famed sword. What appears to be just a simple job finds them framed for the murder of the king and trapped in a conspiracy that uncovers a plot far greater than the mere overthrow of a tiny kingdom.
Can a self-serving thief and an idealistic swordsman survive long enough to unravel the first part of an ancient mystery that has toppled kings and destroyed empires?
And so begins the first tale of treachery and adventure, sword fighting and magic, myth and legend.
The Thirteenth Child by Erin A. Craig
Hazel Trépas has always known she wasn’t like the rest of her siblings. A thirteenth child, promised away to one of the gods, she spends her childhood waiting for her godfather—Merrick, the Dreaded End—to arrive. When he does, he lays out exactly how he’s planned Hazel’s future. She will become a great healer, known throughout the kingdom for her precision and skill. To aid her endeavors, Merrick blesses Hazel with a gift, the ability to instantly deduce the exact cure needed to treat the sick.
But all gifts come with a price. Hazel can see when Death has claimed a patient—when all hope is gone—and is tasked to end their suffering, permanently. Haunted by the ghosts of those she’s killed, Hazel longs to run. But destiny brings her to the royal court, where she meets Leo, a rakish prince with a disdain for everything and everyone. And it’s where Hazel faces her biggest dilemma yet—to save the life of a king marked to die. Hazel knows what she is meant to do and knows what her heart is urging her toward, but what will happen if she goes against the will of Death?


Caverens by Marie Kneeland
In this action-packed dramedy perfect for fans of Indiana Jones and The Mummy, an unlikely archeology team must delve deep into the Incan caverns to find what they’re looking for… and maybe even what they need.
It’s the early 1950s, and archeologist Laura Hennings is determined to make her mark in a male-dominated field. She’s searching the jungles of Peru for the ancient Legacy Tablet… but she might find more than she bargained for. After all, she’s never led an expedition team like this before. Stuck with a ditzy movie star, a determined reporter, a sexist corporate man with his disillusioned son, and a clutzy assistant, Laura has to push past their differences to find the Legacy Tablet. Things get even more complicated when her old rival Doctor Everest Quinn shows up… and even he has secrets to be discovered.
As always, narrowing down all the books I read in the past year to a top 5 list is extraordinarily difficult. After all, in 2025 I read 52 books and over 16.4k pages. It’s a lot to pick from! Considering that staggering number, I also select five honorable mentions. They are all amazing, too!
Honorable Mentions

Stolen Magic
Camille Peters

Wings of Starlight
Allison Saft

The Stolen Heir
Holly Black

The Magician of Tiger Castle
Louis Sachar

The Ballad of Never After
Stephanie Garber
Beyond my Top 5 and Honorable mentions, I also have individual awards for books (like best Indie Publication and Best Worldbuilding. You can read those awards here. You can definitely anticipate reviews of all of these books in the coming year. Some of them have already been posted, so you should go check those out! I’m anticipating 2026 as well, especially because I have a long, long, long TBR with some pretty exciting books on it.
Top 5 Most Anticipated Reads of 2026
Isles of the Emberdark by Brandon Sanderson
All his life, Sixth of the Dusk has been a traditional trapper of Aviar―the supernatural birds his people bond with―on the deadly island of Patji. Then one fateful night he propels his people into a race to modernize before they can be conquered by the Ones Above, invaders from the stars who want to exploit the Aviar. But it’s a race they’re losing, and Dusk fears his people will lose themselves in the effort. When a chance comes to sail into the expanse of the emberdark beyond a mystical portal, Dusk sets off to find his people’s salvation with only a canoe, his birds, and all the grit and canniness of a Patji trapper.
Elsewhere in the emberdark is a young dragon chained in human form: Starling of the starship Dynamic. She and her ragtag crew of exiles are deep in debt and on the brink of losing their freedom. So when she finds an ancient map to a hidden portal between the emberdark and the physical realm, she seizes the chance at a lucrative discovery.
These unlikely allies might just be the solution to each other’s crises. In their search for independence, Dusk and Starling face perilous bargains, poisonous politics, and the destructive echo of a dead god.
Forbidden Mountain by Brandon Mull
Every Anoran child dreams of the day they will enter the sacred bonding hut and match with a guardian—a spiritual guide who grants magically enhanced abilities. A lucky few will bond with Advocates, who promise greatness and glory. Others will be tempted by forbidden offers from the Accursed—dangerous spirits who bring nothing but destruction and a penalty of death to any Anoran who chooses them. But when Mako discovers that the worst of these agents of chaos has returned to spread an ancient evil through the empire, he faces an unthinkable choice: Will he bond with one of the Accursed to gain the power to stop another?
Liar in the Hollow Court by Bethany Atazadeh
A standalone enemies-to-lovers fae fantasy—except she’s the only one who thinks they’re enemies. With the high-stakes intrigue of The Cruel Prince, the cozy found-family banter of F.R.I.E.N.D.S., and the no-spice romantic tension of Pride and Prejudice.
Brynn never believed in fairytales—until one stole her mother. Everyone says she ran off, but Brynn saw the truth. Her mother was taken by something not quite human. When her father and sisters vanish next, dragged into the winter woods by the same strange creatures, Brynn follows and falls head over heels into the Hollow Court: an underground fae kingdom rife with dangerous bargains. In a realm where fae can’t lie, Brynn’s human ability to do just that becomes her greatest weapon. It gives her leverage when dealing with Soren—a handsome, unreadable fae who offers help in exchange for the power of her words. But there’s always a cost. The more she bargains, the more tangled everything becomes.
When a mysterious fae prince provides Brynn with a shortcut to the truth, she must decide who to trust as the veil between worlds begins to close.
The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden
Anne of Brittany was a child when her realm was invaded, her home besieged, and her royal father driven to his death. Now her treasury is empty, her land occupied by her enemies, and she is ordered, under threat of renewed war, to become queen of her conquerors and marry the King of France. This marriage means her country’s annexation. But Anne promised her father that Brittany would never be conquered.
Defiantly, she betroths herself in secret to France’s greatest enemy. But in a world where courts may spy on each other by magic, there is only one way to solemnize this illicit union. Anne takes her court deep into a legendary forest, where the court diviners’ skill cannot reach. The world thinks they are only a hunting party, coursing after unicorns. But that is a lie, a trick, a feint. No one in living memory has seen a unicorn. All Anne wants is this secret wedding, which is her only hope of salvation.
But when against all hope a unicorn appears and a stranger out of legend stumbles from the trees and falls at her feet, Anne is plunged into a world of enchantment where a doomed sovereign might find the power to change her own and her country’s destiny—or be lost in the shadows forever.
The Escape Game by Marissa Meyers and Tamara Moss
Six months ago, season four of The Escape Game ended in horror when contestant Alicia Angelos was found murdered on set. Now season five is underway, and new contestants are ready to put their skills to the test solving the show’s trickiest escape rooms. There’s Adi, the cryptographer; Carter, the math whiz; Beck, the wannabe game master; and . . . Sierra Angelos, the girl who got away with her sister’s murder. Or so everyone believes. But Sierra’s not just here to win. She’s here for justice.
When the contestants begin uncovering clues that hint at the identity of Alicia’s true killer, it becomes clear that the stakes aren’t high in this competition, they’re deadly. If these teens want to win—and survive—the game, they must solve the biggest mystery of all: who killed Alicia Angelos?
This past year was certainly a difficult one. Lots happened, so much it almost felt like several years compiled into one! Despite this, so many cool things happened last year in my world. 2026 will have a difficult time topping 2025, but I believe it can (especially here, on The Bookwyrm Blog). Cool things are coming, y’all!
Here’s to a 2026 of rest, relaxation, and really cool things!
Marie


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