The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) presented its 2025 Christy Awards in a webcast Friday evening, naming All We Thought We Knew by Michelle Shocklee (Tyndale) as the 2025 Christy Book of the Year. Bitter and Sweet by Rhonda McKnight (Thomas Nelson) received the Amplify Award for Christian Fiction.
Shocklee's novel—which also tied with Amanda Dykes' novel, Born of Gilded Mountains (Bethany), as the top winner in the history category—is described as a story of family, faith and hidden secrets. In the ECPA tradition of prior winners announcing the new honorees, T.I. Lowe, 2024 Christy Book of the Year winner, announced Shocklee's win, saying "God gives us the gift of Story and He wants us to receive it and enjoy it, even through seasons of 'noise.'"
Judges for the 2025 Amplify Award—established by the ECPA in 2022 to "encourage, elevate, and recognize stories from ethnically diverse perspectives"—named McKnight for a book they noted, "masterfully weaves together the taste, fragrance, and rich heritage of Gullah cuisine with themes of faith, forgiveness, and belonging. Every scene feels alive—steeped in history, family conflict and resolution, and the kind of love that refuses to let go."
ECPA president Jeff Crosby praised all the finalists and winners who, he said, "have taken up the challenge not merely of amusing or distracting readers; rather, they have undertaken a higher calling of reaching, touching, changing hearts through the power of words, plot, authentic character development, and memorable insight."
Among the award winners are Nicole Deese, whose The Roads We Follow (Bethany) took home the prize in the contemporary romance category; Jamie Ogle's As Sure as the Sea (Tyndale), for Historical Romance; and Jaime Jo Wright's Night Falls on Predicament Avenue (Bethany), for Mystery/Suspense/Thriller. The full list of finalists and winners is all nine categories here.
