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The 2025 Fiction Bestsellers

From the South African Fiction bestsellers chart, we bring you the best fiction books of 2025. Tell us how many you’ve read, which are on your to be read lists?


The 2025 Fiction Bestsellers
Deon Meyer

Griessel moet die saak in Idasvallei vat. Die een van die private speurder, vergruis onder die BMW in die motorhuis. Want Cupido ken die slagoffer. Dit was sy boesemvriend. En hy sê dis g’n ongeluk nie. En dan gaan ‘n woonwa op ‘n spogplaas in vlamme op. En die identiteit van die verkoolde liggaam begin die media tot raserny dryf . . .
 

Rebecca Yarros

A STORM IS COMING . . . AND NOT EVERYONE CAN SURVIVE ITS WRATH.

After nearly eighteen months at Basgiath War College, Violet Sorrengail knows there’s no more time for lessons and no more time for uncertainty – the battle has truly begun. With enemies closing in from all corners, they need an army. They need power. And they need to unravel the dark truth about what’s really happening on the continent before it’s too late.

Violet must embark on her most dangerous mission yet and travel beyond the failing wards to seek allies who will stand with Navarre. The trip will push her to the very edge of her power, and the odds of dying are far greater than the hope of success. But Violet will risk everything to save her dragons, her family, and him . . . even if it means keeping a secret so big it could destroy them all.

ARE YOU READY TO BRAVE THE DARK?

Rebecca Yarros

Welcome to the brutal and elite world of Basgiath War College . . .

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general – also known as her tough-as-talons mother – has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away . . . because dragons don’t bond to ‘fragile’ humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter – like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Everyone at Basgiath has an agenda, and every night could be your last. So, sleep with one eye open because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

Paulo Coelho

A global phenomenon, The Alchemist has been read and loved by over 62 million readers, topping bestseller lists in 74 countries worldwide. Now this magical fable is beautifully repackaged in an edition that lovers of Paulo Coelho will want to treasure forever.

Every few decades a book is published that changes the lives of its readers forever. This is such a book – a beautiful parable about learning to listen to your heart, read the omens strewn along life’s path and, above all, follow your dreams.

Santiago, a young shepherd living in the hills of Andalucia, feels that there is more to life than his humble home and his flock. One day he finds the courage to follow his dreams into distant lands, each step galvanised by the knowledge that he is following the right path: his own. The people he meets along the way, the things he sees and the wisdom he learns are life-changing.

With Paulo Coelho’s visionary blend of spirituality, magical realism and folklore, The Alchemist is a story with the power to inspire nations and change people’s lives.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche

Chiamaka is a Nigerian travel writer living in America. Alone in the midst of the pandemic, she recalls her past lovers and grapples with her choices and regrets. Zikora, her best friend, is a lawyer who has been successful at everything until ― betrayed and brokenhearted ― she must turn to the person she thought she needed least. Omelogor, Chiamaka’s bold, outspoken cousin, is a financial powerhouse in Nigeria who begins to question how well she knows herself. And Kadiatou, Chiamaka’s housekeeper, is proudly raising her daughter in America – but faces an unthinkable hardship that threatens all she has worked to achieve.

In Dream Count, Adichie trains her fierce eye on these women in a sparkling, transcendent novel that takes up the very nature of love itself. Is true happiness ever attainable or is it just a fleeting state? And how honest must we be with ourselves in order to love, and to be loved? A trenchant reflection on the choices we make and those made for us, on daughters and mothers, on our interconnected world, Dream Count pulses with emotional urgency and poignant, unflinching observations on the human heart, in language that soars with beauty and power. It confirms Adichie’s status as one of the most exciting and dynamic writers on the literary landscape.

Freida McFadden

“Welcome to the family,” Nina Winchester says as I shake her elegant, manicured hand. I smile politely, gazing around the marble hallway. Working here is my last chance to start fresh. I can pretend to be whoever I like. But I’ll soon learn that the Winchesters’ secrets are far more dangerous than my own…

Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.

I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.

I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out… and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.

But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am.

They don’t know what I’m capable of…

Rebecca Yarros

SECRETS. SACRIFICE. SURVIVAL.

Against all odds, Violet Sorrengail made it through her first year at Basgiath War College, but now, the real training begins. The stakes are higher than ever, and a determination to survive won’t be enough this time.

When a powerful new enemy threatens everything she cares about, including the man she loves, Violet must do whatever it takes to keep their secrets safe. One wrong move could have horrifying consequences – and as the web of lies spun by those in charge starts to unravel, nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.

THE DEADLY SECOND YEAR AT BASGIATH AWAITS

INCLUDES A BRAND-NEW BONUS CHAPTER FROM XADEN’S POINT OF VIEW!

Sarah J. Maas

Feyre is a huntress. And when she sees a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she kills the predator and takes its prey to feed herself and her family.

But the wolf was not what it seemed, and Feyre cannot predict the high price she will have to pay for its death…

Dragged away from her family for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding even more than his piercing green eyes suggest.

As Feyre’s feelings for Tamlin turn from hostility to passion, she learns that the faerie lands are a far more dangerous place than she realized. And Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.
_________________________
Sarah J. Maas’s books have sold millions of copies worldwide and have been translated into 37 languages. Discover the tantalising, sweeping romantic fantasy, soon to be a major TV series, for yourself.

Ana Huang

He has a heart of ice . . . but for her, he’d burn the world.

Alex Volkov is a devil blessed with the face of an angel and cursed with a past he can’t escape.

Driven by a tragedy that has haunted him for most of his life, his ruthless pursuits for success and vengeance leave little room for matters of the heart.

But when he’s forced to look after his best friend’s sister, he starts to feel something in his chest:
A crack.
A melt.
A fire that could end his world as he knew it.

***

Ava Chen is a free spirit trapped by nightmares of a childhood she can’t remember.

But despite her broken past, she’s never stopped seeing the beauty in the world . . . including the heart beneath the icy exterior of a man she shouldn’t want.

Her brother’s best friend.
Her neighbour.
Her saviour and her downfall.

Theirs is a love that was never supposed to happen – but when it does, it unleashes secrets that could destroy them both . . . and everything they hold dear.

Twisted Love is a brother’s best friend/opposites attract romance with a hint of suspense. It’s book one in the Twisted series but can be read as a standalone.

Colleen Hoover

Colleen Hoover brought you the beautiful, unforgettable It Ends With Us – now a major film starring Blake Lively. Now, discover her thriller with a twist that will leave you reeling . . . Verity is a global word-of-mouth hit, with over a million five star reviews from readers.

Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish.

Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity’s notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn’t expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity’s recollection of the night their family was forever altered.

Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents would devastate the already-grieving father. But as Lowen’s feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife’s words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue loving her . . .

Before you start reading, ask yourself: are you ready to stay up all night?

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