
This reading challenge, hosted by Austine @ Austine Decker.com, is returning for its 9th year in 2025! Designed to help you tackle all the books you keep meaning to read and still haven’t, this challenge is flexible enough to work for all kinds of readers. I’m pledging to read 50 books in 2025.
Guidelines
- The challenge runs from January 1, 2025 to December 31, 2025.
- The book must have been published in 2024 or earlier.
- You have to start and finish the book in 2025.
- Any format, any genre. Re-reads count, you don’t have to own the book, and you can join at any time.
- Track your BTB reading separately or pair it with another reading challenge!
- For more information, access the challenge here.
Follow the challenge on social media through the BTB pages and #BeatTheBacklist
Tracking
- Rolling Toward Clear Skies by Catherine Ryan Hyde
- The Close-Up by Pip Drysdale
- The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman
- Her Mother’s Grave by Lisa Regan
- Eddie Winston is Looking for Love by Marianne Cronin
- Lost by Michael Robotham
- The 6:20 Man by David Baldacci
- A Five-Letter Word for Love by Amy James
- Her Final Confession by Lisa Regan
- The Bones She Buried by Lisa Regan
- Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe
- State of Affairs by Marie Force
- The Duke Says I Do by Anna Campbell
- My Darling Bride by Ilsa Madden-Mills
- Cold Heart Creek by Lisa Regan
- My Darling Jane by Ilsa Madden-Mills
- Kit McBride Gets a Wife by Amy Barry
- The Girls in the Snow by Stacy Green
- Save Her Soul by Lisa Regan
- One Perfect Grave by Stacy Green
- Breathe Your Last by Lisa Regan
- The First Shot by Liv Constantine
- Lost Angels by Stacy Green
- Northern Lights by Nora Roberts
- Hush Little Girl by Lisa Regan
- The Spy Coast by Tess Gerritsen
- You’ll Never Find Me by Allison Brennan
- Her Deadly Touch by Lisa Regan
- The Girl in the Ground by Stacy Green
- What Does It Feel Like? by Sophie Kinsella

Good luck Jonetta! I have a few already on my January reading list from my backlist.
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Thank you, Joanne💜
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Good luck, Jonetta!
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Thanks, Kelly💜
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Good luck Jo!
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Thanks, Nicki💜
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I’ll be doing this challenge again in 2025 Jonetta! I hope you enjoy the challenge.
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I hope you do well, too, Jodie💜
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I did this one year but now I’m doing it in my own way. Good luck!
Anne – Books of My Heart
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Thanks, Anne💜 I set my own goals, too.
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Good Luck, Jo. I’m going to participate again, but try to read or listen to books that were published in 2020 or before. I still have several of them on my shelves.
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Thanks, Carla💜 I’ve got many that go back further!
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My oldest on NG is 2015.
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Good luck with the challenge! I can never resist joining both the challenge itself and the BINGO one… StoryGraph is very useful to keep track of the prompts and books if you joined the BINGO as well. xx
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Thanks, Yvo💜 I’m at my challenge limit, especially as I, doing a few on Goodreads.
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