Freida McFadden’s The Housemaid best-selling book of the year on Amazon UK

Freida McFadden’s The Housemaid was the best-selling book of the year on Amazon’s UK platform, while Rory Stewart’s memoir Politics On The Edge topped the biography category.

Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us, which was released as a film adaptation this year, was the second-biggest seller as social media increasingly drove sales, the retailer said.

The Amazon Books Most Sold list ranks books according to the number of copies sold and pre-ordered in both print and ebook.

Amazon said “romantasy” dominated the fiction category, with Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing and Iron Flame and multiple entries from Sarah J Maas’ Court Of Thorns And Roses series making the top 20.

Cookbooks, and particularly those dedicated to cooking with air fryers, dominated the non-fiction category.

Pinch of Nom Air Fryer by Kay Allinson and Nathan Anthony’s Bored Of Lunch: The Healthy Air Fryer Book both capitalised on the appliance’s popularity – while So Good by British nutritionist Emily English was the second bestselling cookbook.

Chris van Tulleken’s Ultra-Processed People and Tim Spector’s The Food For Life also made the top sellers list, reflecting concerns about both the cost-of-living crisis and growing awareness of diet’s role in wellbeing, Amazon said.

Stewart’s memoir was the bestselling biography, at number 42 on the overall bestseller list.

Boris Johnson’s Unleashed missed out on this year’s bestsellers list, having only been released in October.

Amazon’s Most Read list, ranked by the average number of daily Kindle Readers and Audible listeners each week, saw JK Rowling dominating the list, with all seven Harry Potter books captivating readers years after their release.

Zak Watts, UK books country manager at Amazon.co.uk, said: “This year’s bestseller list tells a fascinating story about British readers in 2024.

“From the surge of popularity for romantasy, to our continued love affair with cosy crime, we’re seeing how our nation’s reading habits are a means of escapism and perhaps a much-needed departure from day-to-day reality.

“The remarkable success of authors like Rebecca Yarros, Sarah J Maas and Emily English shows how social channels like TikTok and Instagram shape the publishing landscape, while news of TV adaptations are helping to drive further success for the likes of Richard Osman, who has five books in the top 50 bestselling books this year.

“That interplay between social media and mainstream entertainment has also helped new audiences discover David Nicholls, the winner of our ‘Best Book of the Year’ for You Are Here, following the successful TV adaptation and resulting social media buzz for One Day earlier this year.”