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With summer right around in the corner in the Northern Hemisphere (heading into winter down here in New Zealand!), this is the perfect time to get those summer reading lists out! I have to say, as I was compiling this list of books to read this summer, I almost wished the weather was warming up here, too.

Almost.

I’m definitely an autumn and winter girlie, but I do love a themed book. So finding summery reads is going to be perfect to me come December. 🤣

But if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere and you’re looking for some books to binge read over your holiday or vacation or beach days … check out these books! I’ve included some books with a summery vibe, and also a list of popular books that everyone is talking about at the moment, just in case that’s more your vibe.

Books with a Summery vibe

The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants by Ann Brashares

Books to Read this Summer (2026 Edition)

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Sisterhood, #1) by Ann Brashares
ISBN: 0385729332
on 11 September 2001
Pages: 294
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Carmen got the jeans at a thrift shop. They didn’t look all that great: they were worn, dirty, and speckled with bleach. On the night before she and her friends part for the summer, Carmen decides to toss them.

But Tibby says they’re great. She'd love to have them. Lena and Bridget also think they’re fabulous. Lena decides that they should all try them on. Whoever they fit best will get them.

Nobody knows why, but the pants fit everyone perfectly. Even Carmen (who never thinks she looks good in anything) thinks she looks good in the pants. Over a few bags of cheese puffs, they decide to form a sisterhood and take the vow of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants . . . the next morning, they say good-bye.

And then the journey of the pants — and the most memorable summer of their lives — begins.

Okay we’re starting off strong! Throw back to your youth, potentially, with The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants. While the entire series isn’t set all in summer (as far as I can remember), it gives serious summer vibes, and I can see you sitting on a beach chair by the water, reliving your teenage years.

Every Summer After by Carley Fortune

Every Summer After by Carley Fortune
Published by Berkley
on 10 May 2022
Pages: 320
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Six summers to fall in love. One moment to fall apart. A weekend to get it right. They say you can never go home again, and for Persephone Fraser, ever since she made the biggest mistake of her life a decade ago, that has felt too true. Instead of glittering summers on the lakeshore of her childhood, she spends them in a stylish apartment in the city, going out with friends, and keeping everyone a safe distance from her heart.

Until she receives the call that sends her racing back to Barry’s Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek—the man she never thought she’d have to live without.

For six summers, through hazy afternoons on the water and warm summer nights working in his family’s restaurant and curling up together with books—medical textbooks for him and work-in-progress horror short stories for her—Percy and Sam had been inseparable. Eventually that friendship turned into something breathtakingly more, before it fell spectacularly apart.

When Percy returns to the lake for Sam’s mother’s funeral, their connection is as undeniable as it had always been. But until Percy can confront the decisions she made and the years she’s spent punishing herself for them, they’ll never know whether their love might be bigger than the biggest mistakes of their past.

I find the multiple-summers plot line to be a lot of fun. You can really see the characters grow over the course of the years, and see how their relationships change, too. This one screams summer-on-a-beach-chair.

Beach Read by Emily Henry

Beach Read by Emily Henry
ISBN: 1984806734
on 19 May 2020
Pages: 358
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Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast. They’re polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they're living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer's block.

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.

A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.

Well surely it’s all in the title! I’ve been reading a few Emily Henry’s recently – late to the party, I know! – and enjoyed Beach Read! Total bonus that it’s a book about books, too!

💡Check out my review of Emily Henry’s Funny Story

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
ISBN: 1984806750
Published by Berkley
on 11 May 2021
Pages: 361
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Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows without a doubt it was on that ill-fated final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?

Emily Henry really does write summery books, doesn’t she? While not specifically summer, the vacation vibes of this one make for a really great option if you’re looking to add to your books to read this summer! And then be sure to check out the movie if you haven’t seen it yet.

The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas

The Spanish Love Deception (Love Deception, #1) by Elena Armas
ISBN: 1668002531
Published by Elena Armas
on 23 February 2021
Pages: 487
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Catalina Martín desperately needs a date to her sister’s wedding. Especially since her little white lie about her American boyfriend has spiralled out of control. Now everyone she knows—including her ex and his fiancée—will be there and eager to meet him.

She only has four weeks to find someone willing to cross the Atlantic and aid in her deception. New York to Spain is no short flight and her raucous family won’t be easy to fool.

Enter Aaron Blackford—her tall, handsome, condescending colleague—who surprisingly offers to step in. She’d rather refuse; never has there been a more aggravating, blood-boiling, and insufferable man.

But Catalina is desperate, and as the wedding draws nearer, Aaron looks like her best option. And she begins to realize he might not be as terrible in the real world as he is at the office.

I read The Spanish Love Deception a while ago, and to be honest with you, I can’t remember what season it’s set in, but I’m 90% sure it’s summer and regardless, it gives summer vibes all the same. Spain, fake dating, enemies to lovers … bit of everything!

These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean

These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean
ISBN: 0593972252
on 8 July 2025
Pages: 384
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Alice isn't like the other Storm siblings. While the rest stayed to battle for their parents' approval, attention, and untold billions, she left, building her own life beyond the family’s name and influence. Nothing could induce her to come back, except the shocking death of her larger-than-life father. Now back on the family’s private island off the Rhode Island coast, she plans to keep her head down, pay the last of her respects, and leave the minute the funeral is over.

Unfortunately, her father had other plans. The eccentric, manipulative patriarch left his widow and their grown children a final challenge--an inheritance game designed to humiliate, devastate, and unravel the Storm family in ways both petty and life-altering. The rules of the game are clear: stay on the island for one week, complete the tasks, receive the inheritance.

One week on Storm Island is an impossible task for Alice. Every corner of the sprawling old house is bursting dysfunctional chaos: Her older sister’s secret love affair. Her brother’s incessant mansplaining. Her sister-in-law’s unapologetic greed. Her younger sister’s obsession with "vibes". Her mother’s penchant for stirring up competition between her children.

And all under the stern, watchful gaze of Jack Dean, her father’s enigmatic, unfairly good-looking, second-in-command. It will be a miracle if Alice manages to escape the week unscathed.

I haven’t read this one but it’s on my list, and it sounds great! Very summer vibes, Rhode Island, games, handsome MC … very summery.

Summer in the City by Alex Aster

Summer in the City by Alex Aster
ISBN: 0063411660
on 25 March 2025
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Twenty-seven-year-old screenwriter Elle has the chance of a lifetime to write a big-budget movie set in New York City. The only problem? She’s had writer’s block for months, and her screenplay is due at the end of the summer.

In a desperate attempt at inspiration, Elle ends up back in the city she swore she would never return to, in an apartment she could never afford (floor-to-ceiling windows, skyline views, and a new coffee shop to haunt included). It’s the perfect place to write her screenplay…until she realizes her new neighbor is tech “Billionaire Bachelor” Parker Warren, her stairwell hookup from two years ago. It’s been a lovers-to-enemies situation ever since.

When seeing him again turns into a full night of hate-fueled writing, Elle realizes her enemy/twisted muse might just be the key to finishing her screenplay... if she can stand being around her polar opposite. She writes anonymously, and he’s on the cover of every business magazine. He frequents fancy red carpeted events, and she doesn’t like leaving her emotional support five block radius.

One summer. One wall apart. He needs to fake a buzzy relationship during his company’s precarious acquisition. She needs to write a movie around a list of NYC locations. Both need a break from their unrelenting schedules, and a chance to rediscover the skyscraper glimmering, pizza crusted, sunlit charms of the city.

Summers always end, and so will this agreement. It’s all pretend. Promise. Until it isn’t.

This was a fun rom-com set in New York, with the addition of a struggling-writer trope and enemies-to-lovers. You don’t have to be in New York to enjoy it either haha. 🤣

Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monaghan

Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monaghan
ISBN: 059354496X
on 6 June 2023
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Beach Rules: Do take long walks on the sand. Do put an umbrella in every cocktail. Do NOT run into your first love.

Sam’s life is on track. She has the perfect doctor fiancé, Jack (his strict routines are a good thing, really), a great job in Manhattan (unless they fire her), and is about to tour a wedding venue near her family’s Long Island beach house. Everything should go to plan, yet the minute she arrives, Sam senses something is off. Wyatt is here. Her Wyatt. But there’s no reason for a thirty-year-old engaged woman to feel panicked around the guy who broke her heart when she was seventeen. Right?

Yet being back at this beach, hearing notes from Wyatt’s guitar float across the night air from next door as if no time has passed—Sam’s memories come flooding back: the feel of Wyatt’s skin on hers, their nights in the treehouse, and the truth behind their split. Sam remembers who she used to be, and as Wyatt reenters her life their connection is as undeniable as it always was. She will have to make a choice.

At this point in my list of summery reads, I’m convinced I need to just pile these high and binge read them all. Same Time Next Summer is about an old love coming back into the picture … on the beach.

Dolly All the Time by Annabel Monaghan

Dolly All the Time by Annabel Monaghan
ISBN: 0593853970
on 26 May 2026
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If they begin by pretending, can they end with something real?

Dolly Brick has never met a problem she couldn’t solve. Not when her mom left when she was twelve, and not at thirty-nine when she moves with her son back to Whitfield, Rhode Island for the summer to keep her dad and brother from losing the family home.

So when she comes across Stewart Whitfield—annoyingly handsome scion of the Whitfield family—with a flat tire and at the wrong end of a very public, very humiliating breakup, it’s in her nature to help. But Stewart’s proposed arrangement ends up being more than either of them bargained for, because as public dinners and high society benefits turn into sunset boat rides and swinging on the porch, Dolly starts to feel something more than helpful. She’s never relied on anyone besides herself, can she really start now?

Released in May 2026, just in time for summer, this is the perfect addition to your summer TBR pile. Another fake-dating situation in this book, but with slightly older characters – Dolly is 39 – and another one set on Rhode Island. So summery.

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
ISBN: 1524798657
on 27 May 2021
Pages: 369
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Four famous siblings throw an epic party to celebrate the end of the summer. But over the course of twenty-four hours, their lives will change forever.

Malibu: August, 1983. It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together, the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over—especially as the offspring of the legendary singer, Mick Riva.

The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself, who never wanted to be the center of attention, and who has also just been very publicly abandoned by her pro tennis player husband. Oh, and maybe Hud—because it is long past time to confess something to the brother from whom he’s been inseparable since birth.

Jay, on the other hand, is counting the minutes until nightfall, when the girl he can’t stop thinking about promised she’ll be there.

And Kit has a couple secrets of her own—including a guest she invited without consulting anyone.

By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family’s generations will all come bubbling to the surface.

Taylor Jenkins Reid writes superb books. I loved The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones and the Six, and while I haven’t quite got around to reading Malibu Rising at the time of writing this blog post, it’s been on my list to check out for years now. Definitely need to pick it up!

The Summer of Broken Rules by KL Walther

The Summer of Broken Rules by K.L. Walther
ISBN: 1728210291
on 4 May 2021
Pages: 359
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Meredith Fox has been going to Martha's Vineyard for the summer as long as she can remember. But this summer is the first one back since the death of Meredith's sister. It will all be overwhelming, but even more since the entire extended family will be together for her cousin's big wedding.

Unfortunately, Meredith's longtime boyfriend unexpectedly dumped her two weeks before the wedding, leaving her dateless. Luckily, she has the perfect distraction. Her family has a tradition of playing the ultimate game of Assassin every summer, and this year it will take place during the week of wedding festivities.

But her target just happens to be a very cute groomsman. She's determined to not let herself get distracted, not let herself be lost in another doomed relationship. But as the week progresses, she can't help falling for him, which may cost her not only the game, but also her heart.

Meredith's family's annual game of assassin at Martha's Vineyard during a summer wedding is the perfect chance to honor her sister's legacy, and finally join the world again. But when she forms an alliance with a cute groomsman, she's at risk of losing both the game… and her heart.

An adorable-sounding Young Adult book set at Martha’s Vineyard. It sounds like, while there would be heart-wrenching and heart-warming (hopefully?) moments in the story, it should be a fun read. I’m all about family traditions like games in books!

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren

The Unhoneymooners (Unhoneymooners, #1) by Christina Lauren
ISBN: 1501128035
on 14 May 2019
Pages: 432
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Olive is always unlucky: in her career, in love, in…well, everything. Her identical twin sister Ami, on the other hand, is probably the luckiest person in the world. Her meet-cute with her fiancé is something out of a romantic comedy (gag) and she’s managed to finance her entire wedding by winning a series of Internet contests (double gag). Worst of all, she’s forcing Olive to spend the day with her sworn enemy, Ethan, who just happens to be the best man.

Olive braces herself to get through 24 hours of wedding hell before she can return to her comfortable, unlucky life. But when the entire wedding party gets food poisoning from eating bad shellfish, the only people who aren’t affected are Olive and Ethan. And now there’s an all-expenses-paid honeymoon in Hawaii up for grabs.

Putting their mutual hatred aside for the sake of a free vacation, Olive and Ethan head for paradise, determined to avoid each other at all costs. But when Olive runs into her future boss, the little white lie she tells him is suddenly at risk to become a whole lot bigger. She and Ethan now have to pretend to be loving newlyweds, and her luck seems worse than ever. But the weird thing is that she doesn’t mind playing pretend. In fact, she feels kind of... lucky.

One I read recently was The Unhoneymooners and it’s the perfect book for summer. Another wedding, another enemies-to-lovers (is this summer theme??), another fake dating … honestly, totally fine to read this any time of the year, but it suits the warmer months so much!

It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey

It Happened One Summer (Bellinger Sisters, #1) by Tessa Bailey
ISBN: 0063045656
on 19 August 2021
Pages: 397
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Piper Bellinger is fashionable, influential, and her reputation as a wild child means the paparazzi are constantly on her heels. When too much champagne and an out-of-control rooftop party lands Piper in the slammer, her stepfather decides enough is enough. So he cuts her off, and sends Piper and her sister to learn some responsibility running their late father’s dive bar... in Washington.

Piper hasn’t even been in Westport for five minutes when she meets big, bearded sea captain Brendan, who thinks she won’t last a week outside of Beverly Hills. So what if Piper can’t do math, and the idea of sleeping in a shabby apartment with bunk beds gives her hives. How bad could it really be? She’s determined to show her stepfather—and the hot, grumpy local—that she’s more than a pretty face.

Except it’s a small town and everywhere she turns, she bumps into Brendan. The fun-loving socialite and the gruff fisherman are polar opposites, but there’s an undeniable attraction simmering between them. Piper doesn’t want any distractions, especially feelings for a man who sails off into the sunset for weeks at a time. Yet as she reconnects with her past and begins to feel at home in Westport, Piper starts to wonder if the cold, glamorous life she knew is what she truly wants. LA is calling her name, but Brendan—and this town full of memories—may have already caught her heart.

It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey is hitting the screens sometime in the coming years (no date yet, at the writing of this blog post), and as a very popular book, it should be a hit! Set in a small town over the summer, this romance is apparently steamy but sweet!

One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle

One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle
ISBN: 1982166797
on 1 March 2022
Pages: 255
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When Katy’s mother dies, she is left reeling. Carol wasn’t just Katy’s mom, but her best friend and first phone call. She had all the answers and now, when Katy needs her the most, she is gone. To make matters worse, their planned mother-daughter trip of a lifetime looms: two weeks in Positano, the magical town Carol spent the summer right before she met Katy’s father. Katy has been waiting years for Carol to take her, and now she is faced with embarking on the adventure alone.

But as soon as she steps foot on the Amalfi Coast, Katy begins to feel her mother’s spirit. Buoyed by the stunning waters, beautiful cliffsides, delightful residents, and, of course, delectable food, Katy feels herself coming back to life.

And then Carol appears—in the flesh, healthy, sun-tanned, and thirty years old. Katy doesn’t understand what is happening, or how—all she can focus on is that she has somehow, impossibly, gotten her mother back. Over the course of one Italian summer, Katy gets to know Carol, not as her mother, but as the young woman before her. She is not exactly who Katy imagined she might be, however, and soon Katy must reconcile the mother who knew everything with the young woman who does not yet have a clue.

While this book isn’t time travel, per se, it’s kinda time travelly … As you can see by the description, it’s about a mother and daughter and their summer in Italy. But the mother is actually dead, and the daughter is on their mother-daughter trip alone. I bet this is a heart-wrencher!

People keep talking about these ones

You don’t have to be on social media all the time to have heard about these books.

They’re ones that are pretty hot topics all over the internet and the world at the moment. Whether you’re one to pick up the latest releases or the books that everyone is talking about or not, perhaps there’s something in here that might tickle your fancy.

Project Hail May by Andy Weir

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
ISBN: 0593135202
on 4 May 2021
Pages: 476
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Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.
And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.

Or does he?

One of the most talked-about books and movies so far in 2026, this is a great one to pick up over the summer months. Read the book, then catch the movie if you haven’t seen it already.

Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman

Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #1) by Matt Dinniman
ISBN: 059382024X
on 21 September 2020
Pages: 450
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You know what’s worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what’s worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction of all man-made structures on Earth, and the systematic exploitation of all the survivors for a sadistic intergalactic game show. That’s what.

Join Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, as they try to survive the end of the world—or just get to the next level—in a video game–like, trap-filled fantasy dungeon. A dungeon that’s actually the set of a reality television show with countless viewers across the galaxy. Exploding goblins. Magical potions. Deadly, drug-dealing llamas. This ain’t your ordinary game show.

Welcome, Crawler. Welcome to the Dungeon. Survival is optional. Keeping the viewers entertained is not.

Achievement Unlocked! Sooooo I accidentally jumped on this bandwagon HARD this year. I read the first one (above and linked), and then promptly bought the rest of the books on my Kindle and pre-ordered the latest release, which is Book 8. I’ve now read 4 of them and I get the hype. I love it. And they’re really not my kind of book, but for whatever reason, they hooked me right in.

You have 8 books to catch up on, with a further 2 to be released sometime in the future. Make Summer 26 a Carl and Princess Donut summer (you’ll get it when you read it).

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
ISBN: 0008742766
Published by Fourth Estate
on 9 April 2026
Pages: 391
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'My name is Natalie Heller Mills, and I was perfect at being alive…'

Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle – and has the social media accounts to prove it. Her charming farmhouse on her working ranch is artfully cluttered, her husband is a handsome cowboy, her homemade sourdough boules are each more beautiful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers and industrial-grade ovens behind the scenes? What Natalie’s followers don’t know won’t hurt them.
Then, one morning, Natalie wakes up in a strange, horrible version of reality. Her home, her husband, her children―they’re all familiar, but something’s off. Is this a hoax? A reality show? A test from God? Natalie knows just two things for sure: this isn't her perfect life, and she must escape, by any means possible.

Probably the book that every book club in the world is reading at the moment! While I haven’t read it yet, it’s on my list to check out! I feel like it’s going to be picked up by many over the summer months.

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1) by Rebecca Yarros
ISBN: 1649374046
Published by Entangled: Red Tower Books
on 2 May 2023
Pages: 517
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Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general―also known as her tough-as-talons mother―has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter―like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.
She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda―because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

Dragon romantasy continues to sweep through Bookstagram and Booktok, and yes Fourth Wing was an excellent read. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Summer is a great way to spend time in this series and read all 3 currently released books.

A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J Maas

A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1) by Sarah J. Maas
ISBN: 1635575567
on 5 May 2015
Pages: 419
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When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a terrifying creature arrives to demand retribution. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she knows about only from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not truly a beast, but one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled her world.

At least, he’s not a beast all the time.

As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

Okay hear me out. No, this is not summery, but people continue to froth about this series by Sarah J Maas (and honestly, yes I’m one of them). With the announcement of ACTOAR 6 coming in October, shortly followed by ACOTAR 7 in January 2027, you have time between now and then to pick up this series if you haven’t already.

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
ISBN: 0063204150
Published by Ecco
on 3 May 2022
Pages: 360
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After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.
Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late.

The Netflix movie was released in 2026, so if you’ve been meaning to check it out but wanted to read the book first, summer is the perfect time to do that. Then you can head back and watch the movie! Let me know what you thought; I’d love to hear from you!

Off-Campus series by Elle Kennedy

The Deal (Off-Campus, #1) by Elle Kennedy
ISBN: 0349440832
on 24 February 2015
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She's about to make a deal with the college bad boy...

Hannah Wells has finally found someone who turns her on. But while she might be confident in every other area of her life, she's carting around a full set of baggage when it comes to sex and seduction. If she wants to get her crush's attention, she'll have to step out of her comfort zone and make him take notice... even if it means tutoring the annoying, childish, cocky captain of the hockey team in exchange for a pretend date

... and it's going to be oh so good

All Garrett Graham has ever wanted is to play professional hockey after graduation, but his plummeting GPA is threatening everything he's worked so hard for. If helping a sarcastic brunette make another guy jealous will help him secure his position on the team, he's all for it. But when one unexpected kiss leads to the wildest sex of both their lives, it doesn't take long for Garrett to realize that pretend isn't going to cut it.

Now he just has to convince Hannah that the man she wants looks a lot like him.

Amazon Prime released the Off Campus series in May 2026, and the world ate it up. What better way than to dive into this very long University Sports Romance series than to spend all of summer reading the entire series? The Deal is the first one. Start there.

Game Changer series by Rachel Reid

Game Changer (Game Changers, #1) by Rachel Reid
ISBN: 1488038678
Published by Carina Press
on 22 October 2024
Pages: 400
Buy on Barnes & Noble
Buy on Bookshop.org
Goodreads

Pro hockey star Scott Hunter knows a good thing when he sees it. So, when a smoothie made by juice bar barista Kip Grady precedes Scott breaking his on-ice slump, he’s desperate to recreate the magic...and to get to know the sexy, funny guy behind the counter.

Kip knew there was more to Scott’s frequent visits than blended fruit, but he never let himself imagine being invited back to Scott’s penthouse. Or kissed with reckless abandon, nevermind touched everywhere all at once. When it happens it’s red-hot, incredible and frequent, but also only on Scott’s terms and always behind his closed apartment doors.

Scott needs Kip in his life, but with playoff season approaching, the spotlight on him is suddenly brighter than ever. He can’t afford to do anything that might derail his career…like introducing the world to his boyfriend. Kip is ready to go all-in with Scott—but how much longer will he have to remain a secret?

With the TV series, Heated Rivalry, these books have been all over the internet. And there are quite a few in this series, too, so you could absolutely spend the entire summer reading these books. Note: Game Changer listed here is book one.

Phoar, that’s a lot of books! And there are so many more books to read this summer if you just do a bit of a search on Goodreads or Storygraph. And, of course, I only listed a bunch of popular books at the moment; there will be so many I missed!

I’d love to hear from you, though – what are you hoping to read this summer?