NYT Best Seller Analysis: Dec 2025
Monthly breakdown of the NYT Combined Fiction Best Sellers list with a focus on romance and romantasy books, along with some year-end insights.
Here is the December analysis of The New York Times Combined Print & E-Book Fiction Best Sellers list focused on romance and romantasy books, including some year-end insights as well! I will be doing a consolidated list of all the Romance & Romantasy Combined Fiction Best Sellers in 2025, so stay tuned for that.
Since starting my Amazon Kindle Store analysis in July, which provides a much larger and richer data set, my New York Times Best Sellers analysis has felt decidedly less interesting, especially when breaking it down at a monthly level. So for 2026 I’ve decided to shift to a quarterly analysis for the NYT Best Sellers list.
You can see the romance and romantasy book ranking for free before the paywall, but you’ll need to become a paid subscriber for all the details (only US$5/month or US$50/year).
Your support is greatly appreciated!
January Recap
It’s been a busy January with lots of December and year-end analysis! Here’s a recap of what I’ve published so far this month:
Data Source
List: The New York Times Combined Print & E-Book Fiction Best Sellers
Sales Period: December 2025 (4 weeks: November 30 to December 27, 2025)1
Frontlist = Published in the last year
Backlist = Published more than a year ago
Romance & Romantasy Book Ranking
All romance and romantasy books on the list in the December 2025 sales period, ranked using a sum of ranks calculation.2
Brimstone by Callie Heart
This Month: 4 weeks (Avg Rank: 6)
All Time: 6 weeksAlchemised by SenLinYu
This Month: 4 weeks (Avg Rank: 8)
All Time: 14 weeksQuicksilver by Callie Heart
This Month: 4 weeks (Avg Rank: 13)
All Time: 18 weeksHeated Rivalry by Rachel Reid
This Month: 3 weeks (Avg Rank: 11)
All Time: 3 weeksFourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
This Month: 3 weeks (Avg Rank: 13)
All Time: 104 weeksSweet Venom by Rina Kent
This Month: 1 weeks (Avg Rank: 7)
All Time: 1 week