Best Books to Read This Summer
Every year I resolve to read more books, but this summer I am really making a commitment. There are so many new books to be read, from love stories to thrillers, and I can’t wait to read them all. We’ve scoured all the recommendations so we can bring you our choices for the best books to read this summer.
Best Summer Reads to Take on Vacation
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Best Books to Read this Summer
The Tuscan Child by Rhys Bowen
In 1944, British bomber pilot Hugo Langley parachuted from his stricken plane into the verdant fields of German-occupied Tuscany. Badly wounded, he found refuge in a ruined monastery and in the arms of Sofia Bartoli. But the love between them was shaken by an irreversible betrayal.
Nearly thirty years later, Hugo’s estranged daughter, Joanna, has returned home to the English countryside to arrange her father’s funeral. Among his personal effects is an unopened letter addressed to Sofia. In it is a startling revelation.
Still dealing with the emotional wounds of her own personal trauma, Joanna embarks on a healing journey to Tuscany to understand her father’s history—and maybe come to understand herself as well. Joanna soon discovers that sometimes the past should be left undisturbed. Unfortunately, she has come too far to let go of her father’s secrets now.
Hurricane Season: A Southern Novel of Two Sisters and the Storms They Must Weather by Lauren K. Denton
Betsy and Ty Franklin, owners of Franklin Dairy Farm in southern Alabama, have long since buried their desire for children of their own. While Ty manages their herd of dairy cows, Betsy busies herself with the farm’s day-to-day operations and tries to forget her dream of motherhood. When her free-spirited sister, Jenna, drops off her two young daughters for “just two weeks,” Betsy’s wall of self-protection begins to crumble. Hurricane Season is the story of one family’s unconventional journey to healing and the relationships that must be mended along the way.
The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory
On the eve of his ex’s wedding festivities, Drew is minus a plus one. Until a power outage strands him with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend…Alexa Monroe wouldn’t normally agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator. But there’s something about Drew Nichols that’s too hard to resist.
After Alexa and Drew have more fun than they ever thought possible, Drew has to fly back to Los Angeles, and Alexa heads home to Berkeley. Too bad they can’t stop thinking about the other…
They’re just two high-powered professionals on a collision course toward the long distance dating disaster of the century–or closing the gap between what they think they need and what they truly want. A great romantic beach read.
The Perfect Couple by Elin Hilderbrand
It’s Nantucket wedding season, also known as summer. The sight of a bride racing down Main Street is as common as the sun setting at Madaket Beach. The Otis-Winbury wedding promises to be an event to remember. The groom’s wealthy parents have spared no expense to host a lavish ceremony at their oceanfront estate.
But it’s going to be memorable for all the wrong reasons after tragedy strikes. A body is discovered in Nantucket Harbor just hours before the ceremony and everyone in the wedding party is suddenly a suspect. As the Chief of Police interviews the bride, the groom, the groom’s famous mystery-novelist mother, he discovers that every wedding is a minefield-and no couple is perfect.
My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella
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.
Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance by Ruth Emma Lang
Orphaned, raised by wolves, and the proud owner of a horned pig named Merlin, Weylyn Grey knew he wasn’t like other people. When he single-handedly stopped that tornado on a stormy Christmas day in Oklahoma, he realized how different he actually was.
As amazing as these powers appear, they tend to manifest themselves at inopportune times and places. This jeopardizes not only his own life, but the life of Mary, the woman he loves.
Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance tells the story of Weylyn Grey’s life from the perspectives of the people who knew him, loved him, and even those who thought he was just weird. He doesn’t stay in any of their lives for long, but he leaves each of them with a story to tell.
There is one story, however, that Weylyn wishes he could change: his own. But first he has to muster enough courage to knock on Mary’s front door.
Everything Here Is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee
Two Chinese-American sisters—Miranda, the older, responsible one, always her younger sister’s protector; Lucia, the headstrong, unpredictable one, whose impulses are huge and, often, life changing. When Lucia starts hearing voices, it is Miranda who must find a way to reach her sister. Lucia impetuously plows ahead, but the bitter constant is that she is, in fact, mentally ill. Lucia lives life on a grand scale, until, inevitably, she crashes to earth.
Miranda leaves her life in Switzerland to rescue her sister again, but only Lucia can decide whether she wants to be saved. The bonds of sisterly devotion stretch across oceans—but what does it take to break them?
Everything Here Is Beautiful is, at its heart, an immigrant story, and a young woman’s quest to find fulfillment and a life unconstrained by her illness. It’s also an unforgettable, gut-wrenching story of the sacrifices we make to truly love someone and when loyalty to one’s self must prevail.
The Young Wives Club by Julie Pennell
Laura Landry’s quarterback husband was her ticket out of Toulouse, Louisiana. When a devastating football injury sidelines him, they’re forced to move back to the small town she was so desperate to leave. As Brian starts drinking instead of rehabbing his knee, Laura must reevaluate what her future looks like…and if it includes her husband.
Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman
Erin is a documentary filmmaker on the brink of a professional breakthrough, Mark a handsome investment banker with big plans. Passionately in love, they embark on a dream honeymoon to the tropical island of Bora Bora. Then, while scuba diving in the crystal blue sea, they find something in the water. . . .
Could the life of your dreams be the stuff of nightmares?
Suddenly the newlyweds must make a dangerous choice: to speak out or to protect their secret. After all, if no one else knows, who would be hurt? Their decision will trigger a devastating chain of events. . . .
Ghosted by Rosie Walsh
When Sarah meets Eddie, they connect instantly and fall in love. To Sarah, it seems as though her life has finally begun. And it’s mutual. Sarah has never been so certain of anything. When Eddie leaves for a vacation and promises to call from the airport, she has no cause to doubt him. But he doesn’t call.
Sarah’s friends tell her to forget about him, but she can’t. She knows something’s happened–there must be an explanation.
Minutes, days, weeks go by as Sarah becomes increasingly worried. But then she discovers she’s right. There is a reason for Eddie’s disappearance, and it’s the one thing they didn’t share with each other: the truth.
The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware
From the author of The Woman in Cabin 10 comes this suspenseful thriller. On a day that begins like any other, Hal receives a mysterious letter bequeathing her a substantial inheritance. She realizes the letter was sent to the wrong person—but also that the skills she’s honed as a tarot card reader might help her claim the money.
Soon, Hal finds herself at the funeral of the deceased…where it dawns on her there is something very wrong about this strange situation and the inheritance at the center of it.
When Life Gives You Lululemons by Lauren Weisberger
Welcome to Greenwich, Connecticut, where the lawns and the women are perfectly manicured, the Tito’s and sodas are extra strong, and everyone has something to say about the infamous new neighbor.
Let’s be clear: Emily Charlton does not do the suburbs. After leaving Miranda Priestly, she’s been working in Hollywood as an image consultant to the stars, but recently, Emily’s lost a few clients. She’s hopeless with social media. The new guard is nipping at her heels. She needs a big opportunity, and she needs it now.
With her signature wit, Lauren Weisberger offers an alluring look into a sexy, over-the-top world—and proves it’s style and substance together that gets the job done.
The Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams (available July 10)
New York Times bestselling author Beatriz Williams brings the blockbuster novel of the season. This is an electrifying postwar fable of love, class, and redemption set on an island off the New England coast.
In the summer of 1951, Miranda Schuyler arrives on elite, secretive Winthrop Island as a schoolgirl from the margins of high society. When her beautiful mother marries Hugh Fisher, whose summer house on Winthrop overlooks the famous lighthouse, Miranda’s catapulted into a heady new world of pedigrees and cocktails, status and swimming pools. Isobel Fisher, Miranda’s new stepsister, is eager to draw Miranda into the arcane customs of Winthrop society.
Beneath the island’s patrician surface, there are really two clans: the summer families, and the working class of Portuguese fishermen. They are the domestic workers who earn their living on the water and in the laundries of the summer houses. Uneasy among Isobel’s privileged friends, Miranda finds herself drawn to Joseph Vargas, whose father keeps the lighthouse with his mysterious wife. In summer, Joseph helps his father in the lobster boats, but in the autumn he returns to Brown University, where he’s determined to make something of himself. Since childhood, Joseph’s enjoyed an intense, complex friendship with Isobel Fisher, and as the summer winds to its end, Miranda’s caught in a catastrophe that will shatter Winthrop’s hard-won tranquility and banish Miranda from the island for nearly two decades.
If you’re looking for other summer travel tips check out: 25 Easy to Pack Organic Snacks or 25 Easy to Pack Organic Snacks