Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful end to 2025 and a lovely new year! I’ve read a lot in 2025, reaching 101 books! Which, according to Goodreads, is actually one of my highest reading years ever! The last time I actually read this many books in a year was back in 2018 – which I was my first year of university!
I don’t usually set goals for myself in the new year (aside from reading ones) but after dabbling in different hobbies in 2025, it made me realise I want to set myself some creative goals for 2026.
- Continue working with watercolour paints!
- I picked up watercolour paints as an activity to do during the Summer Hours at work. (which is working extra hours in the week to have Friday afternoon off). I began painting the covers of the books I read and I ended the year having only painted 8 covers. I used a rather small sketchbook which made the painting process less daunting. I too was sucked in by those TikTok ads to buy acrylic marker pens and they’ve surprisingly come in handy for this! It was such a fun and relaxing way to unwind from all the screens I’m looking at constantly during the day for work and also for streaming.
- Return to blogging (FOR REAL THIS TIME I SWEAR)
- On the blog, I’ve only been posting my month rewinds for the last year or so. And it’s made me feel pretty guilty. 2025 was a bit lacking in the creative department. And this blog is where a lot of my creative endeavours first began. I do talk about the books I read on stream (twitch.tv/zaheerah) but I haven’t written a full review in sooo long. I swear my Netgalley TBR will be dealt with this year!
I’m not a goal setter as I find that I don’t end up following them so these two goals seem open enough that I will commit to them rather than abandoning them in the future.
My reading pattern for this year has been pretty consistent! I’ve found that I am much more picky with the books I read since I have less time to do so which means I didn’t dislike many of the books I read this year! (Don’t get me wrong, there was a few books I really, really hated but I don’t want to highlight them ahah) I’ve read a ton of fun books this year, especially webtoons!
W E B T O O N S
(manga, manwha etc)
I’ve decided to put these all under their own umbrella for books since I don’t actually count these towards my reading goal as it’s harder to track. Webtoons are often ongoing works that can span over a couple of years depending on the work. If I were to include my webtoons, I think my reading count would’ve definitely been bumped up to at least 200!
A fun one-shot BL romance about a driving instructor falling in love with a strange but polite older student of his. I saw this on Netgalley earlier this year and I loved how cute the cover is! It’s so cute! I’m sad it’s a one-shot, I deserved a full 20 episodes with backstory and side stories and all the stories about these two.
A beautiful urban fantasy comic set in a fictional world inspired by 90s Middle East and Central Asia. Zach receives a misdial call which leads to an undeniable connection with the mysterious Zhen. A beautiful queer YA romance that features a hilarious and diverse cast with a fun blend of magical realism and drama. BUUZA!! was originally self-published but I had the chance to meet the author at MCM Comic Con last year where they told me that it is now set to publish traditionally June 2026. You can read the current story for free on Webtoon now!
Sung Joo-Hyuck is a modern day doctor who soon learn he’s about to die when he is reborn into Kim Tae-Pyeong, a 19th Century young man whose family moved from Joseon-era Korea to the English countryside. There, he once again trains to become a doctor but he’s not prepared to face the harsh realities of London’s medical world.
I am so grateful this is updated weekly because I read through all the current chapter so quickly I ended up staying up till 4am. I quite literally heard the birds on my roof before I noticed the time. This is such a fun comedic webtoon, with a touch of tense drama but it does mainly keep to the hilarious moments that Tae-Pyeong goes through.
Ethan is a tired cyborg soldier who is sent to a peaceful planet, newly settled, and meets Mikhail, a gentle botanist, who is greatly interested in the newest security for their compound.
YES THIS IS A CYBROG/HUMAN ROMANCE. DON’T JUDGE, IT’S VERY GOOD! Again, I am once cursed to find a beautiful manga where it’s only a one-shot. This story is surprisingly very well done! From characterisation to world-building, there was so much potential but even in this one-shot, the story is so fun and action-packed!
Firefighter Taeyang meets his ex-boyfriend Jiwan after he goes viral on the job and is asked to join a TV show about his work. Except Jiwan isn’t ready to bring back old memories so Taeyang asks for seven dates to reintroduce the two again and this time, Taeyang is determined to not lose him once more.
This is the same author of The Dirtiest High which was one of my favourite webtoons from last year. They’ve returned again once more with another banger of a webtoon. I feel like webtoons are either not longer enough or drags on too much but Chaeryeok writes with such a good balance and creates such fun and memorable characters! Seven Sundays was so cute and I loved every moment of it.
B O O K S
One of my reading goals for this year was to re-read the entirety of the Morganville Vampires series. This was my first YA series I had ever read as a child. I was around 9 years old when my sister first introduced me to this series and I can’t believe it has been almost 18 years I first picked this up. I mentioned before that 2025 was a really low creative year for me and I decided to re-read Morganville because it was the first series that motivated as a teen to get creative and start writing. I wanted to look back on the series that started it all as I go into 2026 and think about what I want to do with my own writing work.
And I’m so glad I did because oh BOY did I forget so much about this series. I had truly forgotten how unhinged this series was! One thing that made me laugh was realising that the entire series takes place within 2.5 years? I remember being 9-years-old and thinking Claire was such a cool, older girl. (She’s 16 at the start of the series! That is A CHILD!) To think she went from not knowing that vampires exists to basically becoming one of the reasons that the town is still running all before turning 18 is such a funny idea to me now reading it again in 2025.
Re-reading it now, as much I loved the series, I do think 15-books might have been too much for the series. I noticed now with fresh eyes that the story repeats itself a lot with some books could easily have merged with others. (especially the first 4 books) I do also think the story continuing beyond the destruction of the Draugs, who were touted as the vampire’s final enemy made the final battle against lose all momentum. I do wish I did this re-read in 2026 because I noticed that Glass Houses, the first book, was actually published in 2006! I am definitely thinking of doing an anniversary post for the series closer to the time!
And here are some other books I loved this year!
A Language of Dragons | Dungeon Crawler Carl | A Lonely Broadcast | My Other Heart | What You Are Looking for is in the Library
Aaaaaaand drum roll please (and if you watch my streams this shall be no surprise to you) my favourite book of 2025 is……
A Hex for Hunger by Alistair Reeves
After five centuries, a loyal guard returns from the dead without the king he once served—and loved—to find the world and his place within it much changed.
Ambrose aka the Grim Wolf of Belgrave spent his life striving to be a hero—until he died a villain in the name of the medieval witch king he was passionately devoted to. Now, after hundreds of years, he’s back from the dead without his beloved king. And the vow he once swore has him obligated to Emery Vale, a necromancer-in-training, who’s tasked him with murdering his rival and nemesis.
But Ambrose has other plans. He hopes to bring the ruler of his kingdom—and his heart—back from the grave so they can finally enjoy the love they’d once yearned for. All he has to do first is kill one other Emery . . .
The more time Ambrose spends with his new master though, the more his hunger for Emery’s blood is turning into a hunger for Emery. And as he continues to search for a way to resurrect the witch king, he might just discover their connection wasn’t all that it seemed.
If Alistair Reeves has no fans, I am simply dead. That’s it. I am so thankful for the TikTok algorithm for bringing me Alistair’s content last year where I found A Spell for Heartsickness! In the space of a month, I finished the book and then met him at MCM Comic Con where I got to tell him how excited I was for his newest book! This book was SO much fun and brilliant and emotional and all the words needed to describe an amazing book! Don’t be surprised if the third and final book of the Rune Tithe series, An Elixir for Wanderlust, is my top book next year.
And that’s it for my reading recap for 2025! Thanks for getting this far on this mammoth of a post! I appreciate you all sticking with me for this long and I hope you all have a wonderful reading year in 2026! ❤️
as told by zaheerah 