If you were an author whose name was Freida, Carley or Elsie in 2025, you were having a good year.
Freida McFadden — whose 2022 novel “The Housemaid” was just turned into a movie starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried — had four thrillers on the Star’s year-end list of bestselling original fiction.
That’s not surprising since, according to the New York Times, the doctor turned author has surpassed established names like James Patterson and John Grisham to become the top-selling thriller writer in the United States.
The only other author who notched more than one entry on the 2025 original fiction list was Canada’s Carley Fortune, whose summertime romances thrill in a different way.
Two of them, 2025’s “One Golden Summer” and 2022’s “Every Summer After,” made the original fiction list, while all four of her books to date — including “Meet Me at the Lake” (2023) and “This Summer Will Be Different” (2024) — can be found on the year-end Canadian list.
We’ll see if she can make it five when her newest one, “Our Perfect Storm,” comes out in May 2026.
Romance readers also gave B.C. author Elsie Silver three berths on the Canadian fiction list, with “Wild Love,” “Wild Side” and “Wild Card,” while the top book in original fiction was the romantasy “Onyx Storm” by Rebecca Yarros.
So, yes, romance and thrillers were what Canadian fiction readers turned to most in 2025, with dashes of historical fiction, poetry and dystopian fiction on the Canadian list.
In that latter category, the perennial bestseller “The Handmaid’s Tale” put Canada’s first lady of letters, Margaret Atwood, on the Canadian fiction year-end list, helped no doubt by the TV series of the same name that wrapped up this year. But Atwood also made both the original and Canadian non-fiction lists with “Book of Lives,” her “Memoir of Sorts.”
That book is No. 3 on both lists. It was surpassed in original non-fiction by another memoir, Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s posthumous account of being sexually trafficked by the late Jeffrey Epstein.
The top spot in original non-fiction goes to “The Wealthy Barber,” Canadian David Chilton’s complete rewrite of his 1989 personal finance hit, while Prime Minister Mark Carney edged out Chilton on the Canadian list with his 2021 book “Values,” subtitled “Building a Better World for All” — which Canadians certainly hope comes true in 2026.
Other Canadians who made a showing in original non-fiction include Omar El Akkad, whose “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This” critiques Western hypocrisy in the treatment of Arabs, Muslims and immigrants; Alan Doyle, who celebrates his love of Newfoundland in “The Smiling Land”; James Duthie, for his book of hockey stories, “Certified Beauties”; and Adam Shoalts with “Vanished Beyond the Map,” in which he retraces the routes of long-lost explorer Hubert Darrell.
Shoalts has a second book on the Canadian non-fiction list: “A History of Canada in Ten Maps,” which chronicles the country through the eyes of the explorers who first mapped it.
Speaking of the history of Canada, books by descendants of its original inhabitants ranked in Canadian non-fiction, including “52 Ways to Reconcile,” by Cree author David A. Robertson, and “21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act,” by Bob Joseph, a member of the Gwawaenuk First Nation.
Canadian readers also took an interest in the stories of some of our celebrities, including the “John Candy” biography by Paul Myers, brother of comedian Mike; “Future Boy,” actor Michael J. Fox’s account of his time making “Back to the Future”; “Try Hard,” a part memoir, part self-help book from Arkells lead singer Max Kerman; and “Rock Star,” Olympic curling champion Jennifer Jones’ narrative of her life on and off the rink.
And then there’s Mark Critch, “This Hour Has 22 Minutes” comedian, and creator and star of “Son of a Critch,” who reminds us why Canada is worth fighting for in “Sorry, Not Sorry.”
Happy New Year and elbows up!
ORIGINAL FICTION
1. Onyx Storm, Rebecca Yarros, Red Tower
2. The Housemaid, Freida McFadden, Grand Central
3. The Secret of Secrets, Dan Brown, Doubleday
4. One Golden Summer, Carley Fortune, Viking
5. My Friends, Fredrik Backman, Simon & Schuster
6. Broken Country, Clare Leslie Hall, Simon & Schuster
7. Atmosphere, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Doubleday Canada
8. Alchemised, SenLinYu, Del Ray
9. The Black Wolf, Louise Penny, Minotaur
10. The Housemaid’s Secret, Freida McFadden, Quercus
11. Deep End, Ali Hazelwood, Berkley
12. The Crash, Freida McFadden, Poisoned Pen
13. The Tenant, Freida McFadden, Poisoned Pen
14. Every Summer After, Carley Fortune, Viking
15. Quicksilver, Callie Hart, Forever
16. Never Flinch, Stephen King, Scribner
17. The Widow, John Grisham, Doubleday
18. Great Big Beautiful Life, Emily Henry, Berkley
19. Don’t Let Him In, Lisa Jewell, Atria
20. Wild Dark Shore, Charlotte McConaghy, Flatiron
ORIGINAL NON-FICTION
1. The Wealthy Barber, David Chilton, Financial Awareness
2. Nobody’s Girl, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, Knopf
3. Book of Lives, Margaret Atwood, McClelland & Stewart
4. The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt, Penguin
5. The Serviceberry, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Scribner
6. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El Akkad, McClelland & Stewart
7. The Smiling Land, Alan Doyle, Doubleday Canada
8. 107 Days, Kamala Harris, Simon & Schuster
9. Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed
10. The Old Farmer’s Almanac 2026 Canadian Edition, Old Farmer’s Almanac
11. Certified Beauties, James Duthie, Collins
12. On Tyranny, Timothy Snyder, Tim Duggan
13. Vanished Beyond the Map, Adam Shoalts, Allen Lane
14. 1929, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Viking
15. Mother Mary Comes to Me, Arundhati Roy, Simon & Schuster
16. Everything Is Tuberculosis, John Green, Penguin Young Readers
17. Careless People, Sarah Wynn-Williams, Flatiron
18. Nexus, Yuval Noah Harari, Signal
19. The House of My Mother, Shari Franke, Gallery
20. Last Rites, Ozzy Osbourne, Grand Central
CANADIAN FICTION
1. One Golden Summer, Carley Fortune, Viking
2. The Black Wolf, Louise Penny, Minotaur
3. Every Summer After, Carley Fortune, Viking
4. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood, McClelland & Stewart
5. She Didn’t See It Coming, Shari Lapena, Doubleday Canada
6. The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus, Emma Knight, Viking
7. Finding Flora, Elinor Florence, Simon & Schuster
8. Final Orbit, Chris Hadfield, Random House Canada
9. I Hope You Remember, Josie Balka, Simon & Schuster
10. Scythe and Sparrow, Brynne Weaver, Zando
11. The Maid’s Secret, Nita Prose, Viking
12. Butcher and Blackbird, Brynne Weaver, Zando
13. Wild Card, Elsie Silver, Bloom
14. When the World Fell Silent, Donna Jones Alward, One More Chapter
15. Wild Love, Elsie Silver, Bloom
16. This Summer Will Be Different, Carley Fortune, Viking
17. On Wings of Blood (deluxe edition), Briar Boleyn, Mira
18. Wild Side, Elsie Silver, Bloom
19. The Spirit of Scatarie, Lesley Crewe, Vagrant
20. Meet Me at the Lake, Carley Fortune, Viking
CANADIAN NON-FICTION
1. Values, Mark Carney, Signal
2. The Wealthy Barber, David Chilton, Financial Awareness
3. Book of Lives, Margaret Atwood, McClelland & Stewart
4. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El Akkad, McClelland & Stewart
5. The Smiling Land, Alan Doyle, Doubleday Canada
6. Certified Beauties, James Duthie, Collins
7. Vanished Beyond the Map, Adam Shoalts, Allen Lane
8. 52 Ways to Reconcile, David A. Robertson, McClelland & Stewart
9. For the Love of a Son, Scott Oake, Simon & Schuster
10. Rock Star, Jennifer Jones, Collins
11. A History of Canada in Ten Maps, Adam Shoalts, Penguin Canada
12. A Truce That Is Not Peace, Miriam Toews, Knopf Canada
13. Revenge of the Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell, Little, Brown
14. Anatomy of a Cover-Up, Paul Palango, Random House Canada
15. We Who Wrestle With God, Jordan B. Peterson, Portfolio
16. Sorry, Not Sorry, Mark Critch, Viking
17. John Candy, Paul Myers, House of Anansi
18. 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act, Bob Joseph, Indigenous Relations
19. Try Hard, Max Kerman, Viking
20. Future Boy, Michael J. Fox, Nelle Fortenberry, Flatiron
The bestseller lists are compiled by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited from information provided by BookNet Canada’s national sales tracking service, BNC SalesData.
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