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July has already arrived and the heat waves are still going strong. Before summer ends, I have a few book recommendations to enjoy in the sun, on the beach, at the lake, or even inside to stay cool. I would also like to present my plans for what I will be reading for the rest of the summer.
All summaries and synopses come from Goodreads.
My Summer Recs
Romance
First on my list, Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood.
Maybe a bit on the nose with “summer” being in the title — but such a good book for the summertime.
This book follows Maya and Conor, who are in Italy for Maya’s brother’s wedding. They stay in a romantic Sicilian villa for over a week, battling their attraction to each other for more than one reason.
It’s an age gap romance, and usually, I wouldn’t read romances with age gaps, but Ali Hazelwood executed it very well. She combats all the criticisms and issues that come with an age gap seamlessly, making it an enjoyable read altogether.
Next is Beach Read by Emily Henry.
Honestly, you can’t go wrong with any Emily Henry book.
January, a romance writer, and Augustus, a literary writer, are both stuck with nothing to write. They meet because of their neighbouring beach houses and decide to swap their genres to help their creative blocks.
Funny, heart-warming, heart-wrenching, and lots of tension. Perfect for the summer.
Last for the romance section, Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun by Jonny Garza Villa.
Julián accidentally comes out on Twitter, and now the whole world knows. The upside is that he gets to be his real, authentic self. Plus, he meets a cute boy named Mat online, and they become fast friends and something more. However, when Julián’s fears seem to be coming true, the only person he can talk to lives fifteen hundred miles away.
Super cute coming-of-age LGBTQ+ romance that deals with coming out and the hardships that come with it. Very emotional, and I still think about this book even months later.
Lit Fic
When I think of summer books, I immediately think of My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante.
It is a popular book/series for a reason. This book starts out with Elena, who is an older adult, reminiscing on her relationship with Lila. She talks about them during childhood and adolescence, telling us what they went through as friends and as rivals. Their lives are so intertwined. Ferrante captures the complexity of female friendships, social and economic class, and the barriers to education so beautifully that it’s like these are real people.
I read books one and two, and I plan to finish the series hopefully soon. But I feel like this is a series everyone should read.
A perfect classic to read this summer, Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin.
Set in 1950s Paris, David meets Giovanni, and their relationship goes through turmoil while David grapples with his own shame and inner conflict. He struggles with desire and what is societally right/expected.
Baldwin’s writing is heartbreakingly beautiful. The novel is very atmospheric, and the story will leave you in despair.
For a more lighthearted read, I recommend If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang.
A contemporary novel including magical realism. Alice Sun is the only scholarship student at an elite Beijing international boarding school. Then, out of nowhere, she starts turning invisible. When she finds out her parents might not be able to afford her tuition anymore, she monetizes her new ability by seeking out secrets her classmates are so desperate to know, for a price.
Ann Liang writes about how far Alice will take her new ability — is it worth losing her conscious, and potentially her life, to save her spot?
An amazing debut novel. I still think about this book.
Fantasy
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater is maybe more of a fall-type book, with the setting taking place across many different seasons, but I think it’s a perfect read for the summer as well.
It is a four-book series following Blue and her raven boys: Gansey, Adam, Ronan, and Noah.
Every year, Blue and her clairvoyant mother go to the graveyard for St. Mark’s Eve. Blue can never see the soon-to-be-dead walking by, until now, when she sees a boy named Gansey and he speaks directly to her. Gansey is from Aglionby, a local private school, and Blue has a self-imposed policy to stay away from Aglionby — or Raven — boys. However, she is drawn to this one for some reason, and Gansey is on a quest of his own with his three friends, and she gets roped along.
Additionally, Blue has always been told that she will cause her true love to die by kissing them. So, she’s sworn off all romantic relationships until now, as she gets caught up in the Raven Boys.
Such an amazing series. I love it so much, and I think about them so often. Endearing found family with complex relationships and a unique magic system that involves tarot cards and psychics.
The Sunbearer Trials duology is a fun, fast-paced YA fantasy novel by Aiden Thomas.
In this Mexican-inspired fantasy, ten semidioses aged thirteen to eighteen are chosen by Sol to compete in the Sunbearer Trials every decade to keep the Obsidian gods at bay and to replenish the Sun’s power. The winner carries light and life to the Temples around Reino del Sol, but the loser has to be sacrificed so their body can be used as fuel for the Sun Stones that protect the people of Reino del Sol for ten years. This is seen as the greatest honour of all.
Teo, seventeen and our main character, is not worried about being chosen for the Trials. He is a Jade semidiose, and Jades are seen as “lesser” than the Gold semidioses, who are almost always chosen by Sol. Rather, he worries for others: Niya, a Gold semidiose and his best friend, and Aurelio, also a Gold semidiose but his best friend-turned-rival. Yet, for the first time in years, two Jades are chosen: Teo and Xio, a thirteen-year-old Jade.
They compete in five trials. This series is so fun to read and it has such amazing representation with a diverse cast of characters. I couldn’t put this down when I read it just this past June.
My last recommendation is Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko.
Tarisai was raised in isolation by an absent mother called The Lady. The Lady sends Tarisai to the capital of the global empire of Aritsar to compete with other children to be chosen as one of the Crown Prince’s council of 11. If she is picked, she will join the council through the Ray, a bond deeper than blood. This is appealing to Tarisai, who has always longed for a family. However, the Lady has an alternative objective; she compels Tarisai to obey a magical wish: kill the Crown Prince once she gains his trust.
Tarisai doesn’t want to be anyone’s pawn, but this book will show us if she is strong enough to create her own path.
If you like found family, read this book. It is a duology, and I still have to read book two, but I loved this one. Unique worldbuilding inspired by West African mythology and a familial bond that is so beautifully written.
My Summer TBR
Whenever I curate a TBR for myself, I have a hard time following through with it. It’s hard to stick to it as a mood reader, but I will definitely try! I recently bought quite a lot of books, so here’s what I plan to read for the next couple of months.
A staple in the fantasy genre that I have yet to read. It follows three characters: Queen Sabran the Ninth, who must conceive a child to protect her realm; Ead Duryan, who is a part of a hidden society of mages and secretly protects Sabran with forbidden magic; and Tané, a trained dragonrider since she was a child, who is forced to make a choice that could unravel her life.
I’m excited yet apprehensive to get to this. One of the main criticisms I see is that the book is too long/could be cut shorter, but I will try to not let that get in the way of me going into it blind.
Truyan Saigas supports her mother and two sisters after her father is lost at sea by becoming a con artist. Truyan has the unique ability to paint the future, but that isn’t enough to save her and her family from gangsters demanding payment in blood for her mother’s gambling debts.
To fix this, Tru agrees to a marriage contract with a mysterious dragon lord. He offers little information on her father, but in exchange, she must join him in his desolate undersea palace. Also, she must assist him in a plot to invade the tyrannical Dragon King’s inner circle, painting a future so treasonous, it could upend both the mortal and immortal realms.
First of all, this cover is gorgeous. Even if I don’t like this book — which I think I will — this cover will sit beautifully on my bookshelf. I read Elizabeth Lim’s other series, Six Crimson Cranes, and I really enjoyed it. So I hope this one is good too.
Alice Scott and Hayden Anderson are both invited to Little Crescent Island to write a biography about a woman no one has seen in years, or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be Margaret Ives. She is a tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied and scandalous families of the 20th century.
Margaret invites them for a one-month trial period and will choose who gets to write the book. However, she is only giving each of them pieces of the story, pieces the other cannot share to put together because of their ironclad NDA and inconvenient attraction to one another.
I love Emily Henry’s books, and I will most likely buy whatever she puts out. I’ve seen many conflicting opinions about this book, but I’m eager to start it.
A pawnshop lies on a back street in Tokyo, but not everyone can find it. Only those who are lost will find a place to pawn their life choices and deepest regrets. Hana Ishikawa, the pawnshop’s newest owner, finds the place ransacked, the shop’s most precious acquisition stolen, and her father missing. Then, a charming stranger stumbles in, offering his help instead of seeking it.
They journey together through a mystical world to find Hana’s father and the stolen choice. However, as they get closer to the truth, Hana must reveal a secret of her own and risk making a choice she will never be able to take back.
Again, a gorgeous cover and a unique plot to a book.
In a corporate-dominated space-faring future, planetary missions are approved and supplied by the Company. For safety concerns, exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security andriods. On a distant planet, a team of scientists is conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied droid. However, this self-aware SecUnit has hacked its own governor module and refers to itself as “Murderbot.”
All Murderbot wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is, but when a neighbouring mission goes dark, it’s up to the scientists and Murderbot to get to the truth.
Honestly, I started watching the Apple TV series first and decided to get the first book. The narration is hilarious, and the plot is intriguing, so I wanted to read it for myself. I’m sure I will love it.
That’s all for my summer recs and TBR! Let me know if you have read any of these or plan to, or if you have any other recommendations you’d like to send my way.
The cover photo is by yagmurakskll_ on Pinterest.