10 Books to Read This Summer

Looking for a book to read during a trip to the beach this summer or a novel to dive into on a lazy Sunday afternoon? Today’s post features 10 books to read this summer and includes everything from intense, suspenseful thrillers to breezy beach reads.

I love reading year-round but there is something about reading in the summer that is my all-time favorite. Perhaps it’s because feeling the sun on my face as I flip through pages of a suspenseful novel feels somehow relaxing and rejuvenating at the same time. Or maybe it’s because summer feels like the perfect season to dive into that light and breezy beach read? Whatever it is, summer and reading go hand-in-hand for me and today I wanted to share 10 books I have on my personal summer reading list!

If you are looking my previous book recommendations, you can always check out my Books page which is constantly updated with books I’ve read and loved and last year’s Summer Reading List blog post features 10 of my favorite reads as well!

The summary below each book is from Amazon, though I’ve provided a little insight into why I selected each book above the summary in the “My Notes” section.

Happy reading!

10 Books to Read This Summer

• The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

My note: This book was highly recommended by a number of you guys on a previous Things I’m Loving Friday blog post! My mom also recently finished this one and said it was intense so it’s definitely on my radar.

Anne and Marco Conti seem to have it all—a loving relationship, a wonderful home, and their beautiful baby, Cora. But one night when they are at a dinner party next door, a terrible crime is committed. Suspicion immediately focuses on the parents. But the truth is a much more complicated story. Inside the curtained house, an unsettling account of what actually happened unfolds. Detective Rasbach knows that the panicked couple is hiding something. Both Anne and Marco soon discover that the other is keeping secrets, secrets they’ve kept for years. What follows is the nerve-racking unraveling of a family—a chilling tale of  deception, duplicity, and unfaithfulness that will keep you breathless until the final shocking twist.

• Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty

My note: I am such a big fan of Liane Moriarty’s novels (The Husband’s Secret and Big Little Lies were two of of my all-time favs) and cannot wait to dive into her latest novel. I love the way her books are always incredibly intriguing but light enough to make them the perfect beach read.

Lyn, Cat, and Gemma Kettle, beautiful thirty-three-year-old triplets, seem to attract attention everywhere they go. Together, laughter, drama, and mayhem seem to follow them. But apart, each is dealing with her own share of ups and downs. Lyn has organized her life into one big checklist, Cat has just learned a startling secret about her marriage, and Gemma, who bolts every time a relationship hits the six-month mark, holds out hope for lasting love. In this wise, witty, and hilarious novel, we follow the Kettle sisters through their tumultuous thirty-third year as they deal with sibling rivalry and secrets, revelations and relationships, unfaithful husbands and unthinkable decisions, and the fabulous, frustrating life of forever being part of a trio.

• What She Knew by Gilly MacMillian

My note: I already have this one downloaded on my Kindle! With 1,400+ reviews and the majority of them 5-star reviews on Amazon, I have high hopes for this book!

Rachel Jenner is walking in a Bristol park with her eight-year-old son, Ben, when he asks if he can run ahead. It’s an ordinary request on an ordinary Sunday afternoon, and Rachel has no reason to worry—until Ben vanishes. Police are called, search parties go out, and Rachel, already insecure after her recent divorce, feels herself coming undone. As hours and then days pass without a sign of Ben, everyone who knew him is called into question, from Rachel’s newly married ex-husband to her mother-of-the-year sister. Inevitably, media attention focuses on Rachel too, and the public’s attitude toward her begins to shift from sympathy to suspicion.

As she desperately pieces together the threadbare clues, Rachel realizes that nothing is quite as she imagined it to be, not even her own judgment. And the greatest dangers may lie not in the anonymous strangers of every parent’s nightmares, but behind the familiar smiles of those she trusts the most.

• The Marriage Lie by Kimberly Belle

My note: This book popped up as a recommended read for me on Amazon and the description has me all kinds of intrigued!

Iris and Will have been married for seven years, and life is as close to perfect as it can be. But on the morning Will flies out for a business trip to Florida, Iris’s happy world comes to an abrupt halt: another plane headed for Seattle has crashed into a field, killing everyone on board and, according to the airline, Will was one of the passengers.

Grief stricken and confused, Iris is convinced it all must be a huge misunderstanding. Why did Will lie about where he was going? And what else has he lied about? As Iris sets off on a desperate quest to uncover what her husband was keeping from her, the answers she finds shock her to her very core.

• My (Not So) Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella

My note: I just started reading this book because I was looking for a light, easy read and love the humor in Sophie Kinsella’s writing!

Everywhere Katie Brenner looks, someone else is living the life she longs for, particularly her boss, Demeter Farlowe. Demeter is brilliant and creative, lives with her perfect family in a posh townhouse, and wears the coolest clothes. Katie’s life, meanwhile, is a daily struggle—from her dismal rental to her oddball flatmates to the tense office politics she’s trying to negotiate. No wonder Katie takes refuge in not-quite-true Instagram posts, especially as she’s desperate to make her dad proud.

Then, just as she’s finding her feet—not to mention a possible new romance—the worst happens. Demeter fires Katie. Shattered but determined to stay positive, Katie retreats to her family’s farm in Somerset to help them set up a vacation business. London has never seemed so far away—until Demeter unexpectedly turns up as a guest. Secrets are spilled and relationships rejiggered, and as the stakes for Katie’s future get higher, she must question her own assumptions about what makes for a truly meaningful life.

• A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams

 

My note: This book sounds like the definition of a great summer read. Beachy scenery, romance, suspense. Sign me up!

Lily Dane has returned to Seaview, Rhode Island, where her family has summered for generations. It’s an escape not only from New York’s social scene but from a heartbreak that still haunts her. Here, among the seaside community that has embraced her since childhood, she finds comfort in the familiar rituals of summer. But this summer is different. Budgie and Nick Greenwald—Lily’s former best friend and former fiancé—have arrived, too, and Seaview’s elite are abuzz. Under Budgie’s glamorous influence, Lily is seduced into a complicated web of renewed friendship and dangerous longing. As a cataclysmic hurricane churns north through the Atlantic, and uneasy secrets slowly reveal themselves, Lily and Nick must confront an emotional storm that will change their worlds forever…

• Forever Is the Worst Long Time by Camille Pagan

My note: I trust Ashley Spivey’s book recommendations – yes the former Bachelor show contestant! – because she’s always sharing great novels to check out! She messaged me about this one on Instagram after I finished reading The Kind Worth Killing and so it immediately found a place on my must-read list!

When struggling novelist James Hernandez meets poet Louisa “Lou” Bell, he’s sure he’s just found the love of his life. There’s just one problem: she’s engaged to his oldest friend, Rob. So James toasts their union and swallows his desire.

As the years pass, James’s dreams always seem just out of reach—he can’t finish that novel, can’t mend his relationship with his father, can’t fully commit to a romantic relationship. He just can’t move on. But after betrayal fractures Lou’s once-solid marriage, she turns to James for comfort.

When Lou and James act on their long-standing mutual attraction, the consequences are more heartbreaking—and miraculous—than either of them could have ever anticipated. Then life throws James one more curveball, and he, Rob, and Lou are forced to come to terms with the unexpected ways in which love and loss are intertwined.

• The Escape Artist by Diane Chamberlain

My note: One of my girlfriends and I regularly share book recommendations and she raved about this one, calling it one of the best books she’s read in a long time.

Susanna Miller loses custody of her eleven-month-old son, Tyler, but rather than turning the little boy over to her ex-husband and his new wife, she goes on the run. She dyes her hair, changes her name and escapes from Boulder, Colorado, leaving behind everyone she knows including Linc Sebastian, the man who has been her best friend since childhood and who knows her better than anyone. Susanna lands in Annapolis, Maryland, alone, frightened, and always looking over her shoulder for someone who might recognize her. Just as she’s beginning to feel safe in her new surroundings, she stumbles across information that could save the lives of many people . . . if she’s willing to take it to the police. But going to the authorities means revealing her identity, admitting her guilt, and worst of all, losing her son.

• One Lavender Ribbon by Heather Burch

My note: I already downloaded this one on my Kindle when it was a free download and it has tons of positive reviews (5,000+!).

Reeling from a bitter divorce, Adrienne Carter abandons Chicago and retreats to the sun, sand, and beauty of Southern Florida, throwing herself into the restoration of a dilapidated old Victorian beach house. Early into the renovations, she discovers a tin box hidden away in the attic that reveals the emotional letters from a WWII paratrooper to a young woman who lived in the house more than a half-century earlier.

The old letters—incredibly poetic and romantic—transcend time, and they arouse in Adrienne a curiosity that leads her to track down the writer of the letters. William “Pops” Bryant is now an old man living in a nearby town with his handsome but overprotective grandson, Will. As Adrienne begins to unravel the secrets of the letters (and the Bryants), she finds herself not yet willing to give up entirely on love.

• The Look of Love by Sarah Jio

My note: Sarah Jio is one of my all-time favorite authors and this is the only remaining book she’s written that I have yet to read!

Born during a Christmas blizzard, Jane Williams receives a rare gift: the ability to see true love. Jane has emerged from an ailing childhood a lonely, hopeless romantic when, on her twenty-ninth birthday, a mysterious greeting card arrives, specifying that Jane must identify the six types of love before the full moon following her thirtieth birthday, or face grave consequences. When Jane falls for a science writer who doesn’t believe in love, she fears that her fate is sealed.

Question of the Day

What was the last book you read that you thought was worthy of recommending?

What is the next book you have on your reading list?