Let’s check in on how I’ve been doing on my 2025 Reading Goals!

Read more than one book from Olivie Blake. OK, so I’m failing at this goal so far. I haven’t finished any Olivie Blake books this year, though not for lack of trying; I did start Masters of Death at one point, but just wasn’t vibing with it, so I’m not sure if/when I’ll pick it back up. But! I did read the first short story from Januaries, her collection, and I do plan to continue. I have not given up on this goal; I’ve just been doing poorly so far.

Read more romantasy. Here’s a goal I’ve been crushing. I’ve finished 7 romantasy books so far this year, and really loved several of them. I’m even in the middle of another as I write this. This is a good thing, since I have about a zillion romantasy on my TBR.

Read more dark academia. Another utter failure. I’ve read zero dark academia so far this year; I honestly forgot about this goal. I’ll try to remedy this in the second half of 2025.

Read at least 5 short story collections. OK, not great, but not completely abysmal. I’ve finished 1 short story collection so far this year:

Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to my expectations, and I think that’s contributed to me not finishing any others so far. I did, however,  read two standalone short stories last month, one of which was 5 stars:

And, as I said before, I started Olivie Blake’s collection also, which I intend to finish when my mood-reading brain will let me.

Complete the 2025 Book of the Month reading challenge: I need to finish 15 BOTM titles for this, and so far I’m at 6/15, which is almost halfway. Not bad!

I’m also really excited about so many of the other BOTM titles that would potentially count for this year’s challenge, and at the moment I’m determined to finish.

Read more diversely. I’m doing a better job of keeping track of this goal than I have in past years; so far, 17 out of the 49 books I’ve read so far this year have been written by BIPOC authors, or 35%. Also, 26/49, or 53%, of my reads have been LGBTQIA+ reads.

Also, just a fun fact: 21/49, or 43%, of my reads were from new-to-me authors; this is another new stat I’m tracking.

And now let’s check in with some reading challenges:

Top 10 TBR for 2025: 6/10

I’m on track! Technically, I finished 5 of these reads:

And I DNF’d one:

5-star ratings: 3/6

25 in 25 Challenge: 8/25

I’m a bit behind on this challenge; I definitely thought I’d be farther at the halfway point. However, I’m currently reading 2 more from this list, and I’m going to try to step things up in general.