Reading Challenges

Choose Your Own Adventure: Year in Aeldia 2025 Reading Challenge

Dini @ dinipandareads15 Comments

We’re back with another year of Adventures in Aeldia! This year-long reading challenge is part of the Orilium Magical Readathon created and hosted by the supremely talented G @Book Roast! I know we’re already halfway through February but this announcement did come out a bit late. I was originally going to “go with the flow” and not spoil the adventure for myself but I wanted to be a little more organized so… I’ve chosen my path! 😂 Before we get into the details, if you want to learn more about the adventure, check out G’s video below:

This year, G (and Logan, her partner and the amazing illustrator for the readathon) have gone the extra mile and created a whole board game for the year of Adventures in Aeldia! Just look at how stunning it is! 😍 Starting from Orilium in the middle, there are so many paths to choose from as we branch out but the one I took led me to Irtheria (top left).

You can check out THIS GUIDEBOOK for the list of prompts. G suggested that you go by month so as not to “spoil” the story for yourself but as I mentioned, I wanted to feel a bit more organized so I’ve planned my route in advance!

Just like last year I’ve made another template that I’ll be using to keep track of what I read each month! I’ve also included a blank copy so that if you want to use it for your monthly wrap-ups or on social media, feel free to download it! 😃

JANUARY
1B: Book Published in 2024

As the 2025 adventure board was launched a bit later in the month, all prompts to kick off our adventures from Orilium are the same.

I had plenty of options to choose from but in the end I went with Church Girl by Naima Simone. This was a fun opposites-attract / good girl-bad boy / single parent dynamic. It was sweet, healing and sexy! 🔥

FEBRUARY
1B ⇢ 2B: Book from the middle left of the shelf

I’ve circled the middle left section of my bookshelf in the image below (please excuse the absolute mess that is the bottom half of my shelves. I am unorganized *hides in shame*). This square houses all of my Owlcrate books (with a few Illumicrate editions due to overflow) and I purposefully chose this part of my bookshelf for that reason! 🤭 The book that I’ll be reading for this prompt is: Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte. Coincidentally, this is the book I’ll be reading for my Owlcrate Backlist read in February!

An image of a dark brown wooden bookshelf of 20 square shelf spaces bisected in the middle by a line of four drawers. The middle left square is highlighted by a purple circle.

MARCH
2B ⇢ 3B: Book from my priority TBR

As a mood reader, I don’t really have a priority TBR because my brain doesn’t recognise the legitimacy of TBRs. That’s why for this prompt I’ve decided to list five highly likely-to-be-read possibilities for my reading challenges!

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty, Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That A Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall, You, With A View by Jessica Joyce

APRIL
3B ⇢ 4B: Book by an author with a “W” in their name

I’m glad that the letter ‘W’ is a pretty common letter to have in a name and that I have so many options to choose from for this prompt! Some of these are books for other challenges and some have a higher chance of getting read than others (although tbh, I hope I read all of them at some point this year, lol) but I’m keen to read them either way!

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, The Running Club by Ali Lowe, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams, However Many Must Die by Phil Williams, Someone You Can Build A Nest In by John Wiswell

MAY
4B ⇢ 5B: Read a dystopia

Ngl, I was lowkey dreading this prompt because I feel like I’m slowly shedding dystopian reads as I don’t feel they’re so much my jam anymore. Does that mean I have fewer options to choose from? Of course not! I do feel, however, that I need to really be in the right mood to read them! Let’s see how this goes. 🫣

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa, Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh, The Only Light Left Burning by Erik J. Brown

JUNE
5B ⇢ 6B: Read a mystery

I enjoy a good mystery/thriller every now and again but I end up reading them less often than I add a new one to my TBR, lol. I’m looking forward to all of these possibilities!

Saving Noah by Lucinda Berry, The Five Year Lie by Sarina Bowen, In My Dreams I Hold A Knife by Ashley Winstead, My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing, Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney

JULY
6B ⇢ 7B: Read a book entirely in the PM hours

I do the majority of my reading in the PM hours (in bed before passing out is my reading golden hour) so fulfilling this prompt will be no issue! However, the matter of what I’ll be reading in the PM hours in July is a toss up because it could be anything. Here are some titles that fulfil a reading challenge though (the Buzzword’s Punctuation prompt)!

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher, Martyr! by Kavch Akbar, Frank & Red by Matt Coyne, Puck & Prejudice by Lia Riley, Adam & Evie’s Matchmaking Tour by Nora Nguyen

AUGUST
7B ⇢ 8B: Read a book with the word “light” in the title

I’m slightly surprised by how few unread titles I have with the word “light” in it so this was actually a bit of a struggle!

The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo, Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer, A Lily in the Light by Kristin Fields, A Scatter of Light by Malinda Lo, Lightfall by Ed Crocker

SEPTEMBER
8B ⇢ 9A: Read a book under 250 pages

There are so many short stories and novellas that I have been wanting to read so maybe even doing a month of short reads would be amazing but I won’t get ahead of myself! 😂

Under One Roof by Ali Hazelwood (112), The Jade Setter of Janloon by Fonda Lee (144), Jade Shards by Fonda Lee (136), The Lover by Silvia Moreno Garcia (43), Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa (186)

OCTOBER
9A ⇢ 10A: Read a book with foil on the cover

These are going to be the Illumicrate editions that have beautiful covers that have foil on them! These images aren’t of those specific editions though, lol. 😂

A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross, After the Forest by Kell Woods, The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem, Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake, A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid

NOVEMBER
10B ⇢ 11A: Read a non-fiction book

Every year I have a goal to read more non-fiction books and every year, without fail, I fail. 🫣 I really struggle with non-fiction but these titles are ones that I’ve been really looking forward to trying!

All About Love by Bell Hooks, Not That Bad edited by Roxane Gay, The Wager by David Grann, Becoming by Michelle Obama, The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown

DECEMBER
11A ⇢ 12A: Book with a tree on the cover

Trees are everywhere on covers but I wanted to find the ones that feature them prominently! Luckily, it wasn’t too hard to find although I’m glad that I dug deep into the backlist to find titles that have been on the TBR for years.

Age of Myth by Michael J. Sullivan, In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune, A Power Unbound by Freya Marske, The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst, The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

And that’s it for my Adventures in Aeldia in 2025. Are you also taking part in adventuring during your year in Aeldia? If you are, what’s your end goal? Good luck and happy reading, fellow magical readathoners!

15 thoughts on “Choose Your Own Adventure: Year in Aeldia 2025 Reading Challenge”

  3. Loo at you and this list of possibilities!! I don’t think I made a post on here, just on instagram. Oh well. lol. I think we have You With A View on our BR list if you want to read that in March. I reallyyyyy want you to read A Man Called Ove though!! haha. Good luck, Dini!!

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