Read with Jenna Book Club List 2025

The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus

Author: Emma Knight

Year: 2025

Genre: Fiction

More info: January 2025 Read with Jenna Book Club Pick

Plot

In this debut novel, Pen is trying to uncover her family’s secrets at the Scottish home of Lord Lenox, a famous writer. This coming-of-age story also features Pen’s first love, life at university, and motherhood.

This Is a Love Story

Author: Jessica Soffer

Genre: Fiction

Release Date: February 4, 2025

More info: February 2025 Read with Jenna Book Club Pick

Plot

This literary fiction story looks at 50 years of one couple’s love story. They head to the park for the important moments in their lives—from courting to parenthood to now facing death. Told from various points of view throughout Central Park, this is the love story of Abe and Jane.

Kirsten’s Thoughts

I wanted to like this story because the premise sounded so appealing, but it fell flat in a major way for me. The cadence of reading the first third was repetitive, I didn’t love some of the narrators, and what I thought was going to be a moving story about the ups and downs of a meaningful love, turned out to be a story of a love that maybe wasn’t as meaningful in the end.

I know this is a buzzy book, but I think you can pass on it.

Find this book in: Read with Jenna Book Club List 2025

The Dream Hotel

Author: Laila Lalami

Genre: Sci-Fi

Release Date: March 4, 2025

More info: March 2025 Read with Jenna Book Club Pick

Plot

Laila Lalami is back with a unique story that she could only write. Sara has just landed at the airport when she’s pulled aside and told she’s about to commit a crime. How do they know? The Risk Assessment Administration has analyzed her dreams and they believe she’s going to harm her husband.

Now, she will be kept in a detention center for twenty-one days with other dreams (all women) who are trying to prove their innocence. The premise seems very similar to The School for Good Mothers. So I’m particularly excited Jenna picked this one.

Heartwood

Author: Amity Gage

Genre: Literary Mystery

Release Date: April 1, 2025

More info: April 2025 Read with Jenna Book Club Pick

Plot

Set in the Maine wilderness, 42-year-old hiker Valerie goes missing. Game Warden Beverly is tasked with finding Valerie while 76-year-old Lena is an armchair detective on the case as well. Is Valerie’s disappearance actually an accident?

The Names

Author: Florence Knapp

Year: 2025

Genre: Fiction

More info: May 2025 Read with Jenna Book Club Pick

Spice Rating:💋

Age Range: 18+

Plot

When Cora arrives at the registrar’s office to name her infant son, she is debating between three names: Bear, Julian, and Gordon. Her husband is a well-respected and loved local doctor who is controlling and abusive. He wants his son named after him, Gordon.

When it comes time to choose a name, the story follows three paths that span over 35 years. One path follows the life of Bear, the name Cora’s daughter chooses. The second path follows the life of Julian, the name Cora wants to name her son. The final path follows the life of Gordon.

This book asks if a name can change a life and explores family, abuse, and healing.

Trigger Warnings

Domestic Abuse, murder

Why Jackie loves it

I started this book and could not put it down. The premise is so unique and the book is plotted in such a way that it is very easy to follow each timeline. The way each name changed the outcome of Bear/Julian/Gordon’s life was brilliant. This book is very poignant and powerful. I did mention above but anyone that is triggered by domestic abuse should be aware that it is a prominent aspect of the plot. #Gifted by Penguin Random House

Find this book in: The Best Read with Jenna Books / Best Fiction Books of 2025 / Read with Jenna Book Club List 2025

The Phoenix Pencil Company

Author: Allison King

Genre: Literary Fantasy

Release Date: June 3, 2025

More info: June 2025 Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick

Plot

This multigenerational family saga finds Monica delving into Yun’s past, including her work in Shanghai during WWII at the Phoenix Pencil Company, where workers possessed a magical ability to reforge a pencil’s words. This debut novel explores the ownership of our stories as family secrets are unraveled.

Happy Wife

Author: Meredith Lavender and Kendall Shores

Year: 2025

Genre: Thriller

More info: July 2025 Read with Jenna Book Club Pick

Spice Rating:💋

Age Range: 16+

Plot

At 28, Nora has two jobs: working as a swim instructor at a country club in Winter Park, FL and working as a receptionist. When she meets and marries successful attorney Will Somerset, who happens to be almost 2 decades older than she is, her entire life changes.

When Will suddenly disappears the day after the birthday bash Nora throws for him, suspicion falls on her. Why didn’t she report his absence immediately? With Will’s business partner, ex-wife, and the police all seemingly out to get her, Nora will have to use her instincts.

Why Jackie likes it

This was a fun, if not predictable, book. It was an easy read that didn’t have too many twists and turns to make it overly complicated. I liked Nora and her best friend as characters as well.

Find this book in: Read with Jenna Book Club List 2025

My Other Heart

Author: Emma Nahami Strenner

Genre: Fiction

Release Date: August 5, 2025

More info: August 2025 Read with Jenna Book Club Pick

Plot

In the summer of 1998, Mimi Truang’s toddler disappears at the Philadelphia airport on her way home to Vietnam. Now, 17 years later, Kit and Sabrina are discussing going abroad to reconnect with their roots before heading to college. Kit has the support of her white adoptive parents to head to Japan to connect with her culture, while Sabrina wishes to do the same in China, but money is tight for her single mom. Instead, Sabrina forms a connection with Mimi, who has finally saved up enough to come back to Philadelphia in search of her daughter.

Buckeye: A Novel

Author: Patrick Ryan

Year: 2025

Genre: Historical Fiction

More info: September 2025 Read with Jenna Book Club Pick

Spice Rating:💋

Age Range: 18+

Plot

This is an epic family saga in the Midwest that binds two families together. The story spans from WWII to the late 20th century. An encounter between Cal Jenkins, a man unable to go to war, and Margaret Salt brings two families together for decades to come. We see the families through the post-war boom through the 90s as the secrets of Cal and Margaret’s decision leaves a lasting impact on their families.

Trigger Warnings

Racism, Homophobia, War

Why Kirsten likes it

I wanted to love this story, but I ultimately found the characters to be rather flat. I connected the most with Felix’s character arc, but other characters – especially the women – really felt one dimensional to me. The story was different enough to keep me reading, but I liked this one – I didn’t love it. #gifted by PRH Audio

Find this book in: Read With Jenna Book Club 2025

The Irish Goodbye: A Novel

Author: Heather Aimee O’Neill

Year: 2025

Genre: Fiction

More info: October 2025 Read with Jenna pick

Spice Rating:💋

Age Range: 16+

Plot

Set over the course of Thanksgiving weekend, this debut novel tackles the tricky topic of the impact suicide has on a family. Cait, Alice, and Maggie Ryan are back under one roof for the first time in a while as they descend on their parents’ old Victorian home.

Each sister is struggling with something in their personal life – being Queer in a Catholic family, divorce, and an unexpected bump in an otherwise strong marriage. But they are also all dealing with the lasting effects of their brother, Topher’s, decision to end his own life.

Trigger Warnings

Suicide

Why Kirsten loves it

Filled with heart and grace, it was wonderful to see this family address their issues and strengthen their relationships with one another in the process. Each character shows wonderful growth, and the depth of feelings so delicately handled made this novel a triumphant debut. #gifted by Macmillan Audio

Find this book in: Read with Jenna Book Club List 2025 / Family Drama

Cursed Daughters

Author: Oyinkan Braithwaite

Year: 2025

Genre: Fiction

More info: November 2025 Read With Jenna Book Club Pick

Spice Rating:💋

Age Range: 18+

Plot

For generations, the women of the Falodun family have believed they are living under a curse set on them by the first wife of their ancestor. In the present day, Eniiyi is the latest descendant living with the superstitions in the family home. Born the same day as her mother’s cousin was buried, some of the women in her family think she is Monife reincarnated.

But Eniiyi wants to be her own woman, free from Monife’s shadow, out from under the 2 generations of women she’s living with, and without the curse of being unlucky in love. When she falls for the man that she rescues from drowning, she goes in search of answers to get all that she wants.

Trigger Warnings

Abortion, Miscarriage, Death, Suicide

Why Kirsten loves it

After My Sister, The Serial Killer, I will forever read anything that Braithwaite writes, and this story about a family curse does not disappoint. I felt for each generation of women as they dealt with the superstitions in their own way. I loved the multiple timelines and narrators as each gave such depth to the story.

And that ending! Loved it! Braithwaite truly writes scenes that are so vivid in your imagination that they stay with you long after the final page has been turned.

Find this book in: Read with Jenna Book Club List 2025