12 Feel-Good Books To Start Off Your 2025 TBR On A Happy Note

Two high school best friends, Shiloh and Cary, reconnect at a mutual friend’s wedding. They always seemed like they could be more, and now that Shiloh is divorced with two kids, both wonder if their charged past could become something now. It’s a great read if you love a glimpse into all the yearning and hesitancy around love when you’re in your 30s and a little tender from past hurts but hopeful for the future.

The premise of this book doesn’t sound uplifting at first, but you can hardly find a list of feel-good books without this title recommended somewhere in it. Tova’s husband passes away, and in order to keep busy and fill her lonely nights, she works the night shift mopping floors at Sowell Bay Aquarium. She knows it’ll help her cope, something she has become practiced at since her son disappeared on a boating trip thirty years ago.

In her new job, she befriends Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus who sees the humans around him as captors. But he develops an unlikely friendship with Tova, and he takes it upon himself to solve the mystery of her son’s disappearance from his tank.

If you’ve never read it, now’s the time. Anne of Green Gables is the story of 11-year-old Anne, an orphan who remains determined and positive despite her early years. Brother and sister Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert requested a boy, but when Anne arrives on their doorstep, she’ll kickstart a period of growth for all three of them and the entire town of Avonlea.

You’ll follow Anne’s adventures as she tests out all the life lessons and moral truths for herself, sometimes learning her lesson and sometimes not. It’s endearing, a balm for the soul sort of read, and you’ll understand its timeless appeal long before you close the back cover.

Librarian Nina Redmond has a special knack for pairing people with their perfect book, and it brings her immense joy. So when she loses her job in the city, she decides to change everything. She moves to a quiet village and buys a van, filling it with tomes and bringing her mobile bookshop right to her neighbors. She’ll help her landlord deliver a baby lamb, meet a poetry-loving conductor, and so much more.

Mika Moon hides her magic, steering clear of other witches so they can’t sense her power. Except online, where she posts videos “pretending” to be a witch and performing feats of magic. That’s what brings an unexpected message to her doorstep, pleading with her to come at once to the mysterious Nowhere House, where three young witches are in need of a teacher. She goes and quickly gets tangled up in the lives of her three charges, as well as all the other inhabitants of the house, including its standoffish librarian, Jamie.

Ove is often called “the neighbor from hell,” thanks to his smile-less face and curmudgeonly attitude. So when a chatty young couple and their two exuberant daughters move in next door and flatten his mailbox in the process, an unlikely new bond is forged that’ll change the neighborhood forever. This book is often recommended for its charm and feel-good vibes, and the author has many more titles in the same vein.

This book has been on so many “best of” lists, and it should be top of your TBR heading into the new year. Carrie Soto is the best tennis player in history at the time of her retirement, having shattered every record and taken home 20 Grand Slam titles. When an up-and-coming player shatters her record, Carrie decides six years later to return to the court, with her tennis star father Javier resuming his role as her coach too. It’ll involve training with Bowe Huntley, the tennis legend Carrie has a bit of a history with. Will she reclaim her legend status?

The Kiss Quotient stars Stella Lane, a brilliant mathematician on the autism spectrum, who is generally repulsed by tongue kissing and lacking in dating experience. She decides to hire an escort to get some professional help, which is how she meets Michael Phan, who agrees to help her check off all the firsts she wants to learn about. Their arrangement begins to feel real before long, and the appreciation both characters have for each other still sticks with me even though it’s been years since reading it. Also, the meeting-the-family scenes are just the best.

Most fiction involving robots involves them infiltrating our minds or taking over the world. In Becky Chambers’ story, the robots of Panga gained self-awareness centuries before the story starts, at which point they put down their tools and migrated as one into the wilderness. They’re now nothing more than urban legend.

Then, one returns one day, upending the life of a tea monk. It’s there to honor an age-old promise and can’t leave until “What do people need?” is answered. The only trouble is that the answer changes every time you ask it of someone new, so the pair will have to ask it… a lot. This book is a meditation on what really matters to the human soul.

Gay Uncle Patrick, aka Gup, loves having his niece and nephew for visits in Palm Springs and spending time with them when he comes home to Connecticut. But then Maisie and Grant’s mother passes away, and Patrick’s brother is in a crisis of his own, meaning Gup has to step up and care for the kids. The Guncle is a heartfelt story of family, love, and patience, told through the coming together of an unlikely parent figure and the kids he has always loved — and now understands in new ways.

Legends & Lattes bills itself as a high-fantasy, low-stakes story, so it’s perfect for fans of the genre who could use a break from war, angry gods, and all the usual conflicts that drive fantasy stories. A veteran of many battles, Viv the orc wants to put down her sword and pick up her barista tools, opening the first coffee shop in the city of Thune. See what manner of creatures become customers, friends, and rivals as you read. The third installment in this universe comes out in November 2025, so now’s a great time to dive in.

For fans of the fake engagement arrangement trope, here’s a feel-good romance you’ll love sinking into. Lexi is a struggling waitress whose family is deeply mired in grief after her father’s passing. Will Grand is heir to a huge fortune and is in charge of his family company’s upcoming merger. As they prop up their fake engagement for the press, picking apples and prepping for Halloween, will they realize that though their arrangement is all for the cameras, the feelings are real?