Full of heart, humour, suspense, reflection and told with boldness, these are the fiction books from Aotearoa that hit the top spot on 2025's bestseller lists. You might just find your next read, or a perfect gift for a loved one this Christmas... check our some of our reviews and interviews below to help you decide!

Reviews

• The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone by Gareth and Louise Ward

• Kāwai: Tree of Nourishment by Monty Soutar

• Star Gazers by Duncan Sarkies

• The Secrets of Maiden's Cove by Erin Palmisano

• See How They Fall by Rachel Paris

• The Vanishing Place by Zoe Rankin

• The Bookshop Detectives 2: Tea and Cake and Death by Gareth and Louise Ward

• The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey

• Good Things Come and Go by Josie Shapiro

Interviews

• The Last Living Cannibal by Airana Ngarewa

• Julia Eichardt: a Life of Grit and Grace by Lauren Roche

• The American Boys by Olivia Spooner