LIFE'S A PEARL

For many book nerds, summer signifies an important reading season. Perhaps it brings back childhood memories of endless summer days full of tons of time for reading or tackling projects.

Maybe it’s planning your book packing list for a summer vacation spent lounging at the beach or poolside.

Whether it’s kicking back in a hammock with a cold beverage and a paperback or sitting near a campfire reading by firelight, summer inspires its own reading season.

What Makes a Great Summer Read?

Every reader will be looking for something different out of their summer book picks. Books that give me summer vibes tend to be quick reads with a story that’s easy to immerse yourself in completely.

For me it’s more about the ease of reading, the feelings the story invokes, and my attachment to the characters that makes a book a satisfying summer read. Many genres can fit those needs.

In my case a summer read can be a mystery, a travel adventure, a beach setting, or a young adult story that reminds me of the infinite possibilities of summer vacation and first love. This summer I’m feeling pulled toward fast paced thrillers, cute romantic comedies, and suburban family dramas.

The Summer Reading Guides I Look Forward to

• Modern Mrs Darcy
• Everyday Reading
• Sarah’s Bookshelves

I also love these sources for their past summer reading guides! While there are a few backlist recommendations featured on these blogs, they mainly focus on new summer publications.

The guides come out in May. Even if you jump right on requesting holds from the library, there’s often already a long wait for new releases.

If you check out their past guides though, there are tons of great summer recommendations you may have missed the first time around that are more easily available.

Summer Reads I’ve Already Gotten My Hands On

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Rating: 3.5 stars

I got to check this book out when it popped up as a lucky day pick through the Libby app with my local library!

I’m a huge Taylor Jenkins Reid fan. I’ve read all her books, something I recently heard referred to as a Taylor Jenkins Reid completeist and loved that! So this book was top of my list even before seeing it recommended on every single summer reading list.

Malibu Rising follows the Riva family switching between timelines starting in the 1950s when their parents met and August 1983 when the four siblings are all adults about to host their annual end of summer party in their hometown of Malibu. While they’re the children of legendary singer Mick Riva, they’ve been estranged from their father most of their lives and have found success on their own through modeling, surfing, or photography. The different timelines explore how their upbringing lead to the personal struggles they’re each facing on that fateful day in 1983.

I found this book to be fully immersive – I read it in a day – and the Malibu setting makes it a perfect beach read. It was a solid reading experience but not my favorite of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s books. You can check out more of my thoughts on this book in my June Quick Lit post.

Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica

Rating: 4 stars

I just finished this recent release from Mary Kubica! I read her first book, The Good Girl, years ago and found it intriguing but nowhere near close to the hype surrounding it. When it ended, I came away feeling tricked and depressed. I’ve been in the mood for a good thriller though so when this one became available through my library, I jumped on it.

Local Woman Missing begins with a disjointed prologue and a fast paced section told from the perspective of a kidnapped girl. Then the reader is thrown back in the past eleven years prior when a woman, Shelby Tebow, goes missing in a peaceful community. Shortly after, Meredith Dickey and her 6-year-old daughter, Delilah, vanish as well.

The book unwinds three perspectives and two timelines, one in the past during the disappearances and one in the future when Delilah shockingly returns. Things weren’t as peaceful as they seemed eleven years ago among the suburban families and neighbors in this community. In the present, everyone wants to know what happened to newly found Delilah but no one is prepared for the answers.

I enjoyed this new mystery thriller. It’s definitely several steps above The Good Girl, making me curious about Kubica’s in between works. The beginning of Local Woman Missing was definitely written as a thriller. I couldn’t flip through the pages fast enough. I was a bit concerned I’d gotten myself into something beyond my comfort level. The rest of the book remains fast paced but reads more as a mystery with some great twists and turns. My only complaint is the ending seemed very abrupt.

Summer Books I’m Hoping to Check Out

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

Poppy and Alex are long distance best friends with nothing in common. Every summer they meet up to spend a one week vacation together. Until two summers ago when everything was ruined. Now Poppy realizes the last time she was truly happy was that final vacation with Alex. When she convinces him to go on another trip, she’s determined to fix everything, even if that means laying her feelings all on the table.

I read my first Emily Henry book this past January. Beach Read is an enemies to lovers romance that follows two blocked writers who make a bet to write a book in each other’s genres by the end of summer. While I adored it in winter, this novel would be a wonderful read for summer and will have a shorter wait than her new release.

I can’t wait to experience Poppy and Alex’s story but People We Meet on Vacation is my longest hold with my library at the moment – over 6 months! I was in that boat with Malibu Rising too though so you never know when luck may pop up.

Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto sounds like it could be delightful and hilarious debut! It’s described as part murder mystery, part romantic comedy, and part family drama. It explores Chinese-Indonesian culture and is set on an island resort off the coast of California.

When Meddelin Chan accidentally kills her date, she has to turn to her meddlesome mother and aunties for help. Even more troublesome, this event takes place during the most important weekend yet for their family wedding business. Top that off with the past love of Meddy’s life showing up unexpectedly.

The description of over the top drama, expensive wedding, and meddlesome family members reminded me of the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy by Kevin Kwan. While the books in the series stand alone, the whole trilogy would be great to read this summer. First published in 2013, there’s likely to be a short wait if any. It was one of my few reading successes in early 2020. I also really loved the movie adaptation!

Good Company by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney

When Flora discovers an envelope containing her husband’s wedding ring, her world is turned upside down. It’s the one he claimed to have lost one summer when their daughter was 5. Now after twenty years of marriage, she questions everything she thought she knew about her husband and her relationship with her best friend, Margot.

Good Company unravels the present summer as Flora’s daughter, Ruby, prepares to head off to college and the past events that got each character to their current predicament.

I have had Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s first book, The Nest, sitting in my Kindle for awhile – since impulse buying it as a daily deal. Good Company is her second book releasing 5 years later. I’ve heard The Nest described as dealing with rich people problems. Both have ties in family discord and drama while remaining light hearted. That makes them the perfect family sagas to escape into as a summer read.

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave

After a year of marriage, Owen disappears. He was able to get a note to his wife, Hannah, that only says: Protect her. Hannah knows the note refers to Owen’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey, who wants nothing to do with her new stepmother. When Hannah finds herself in the middle of an FBI investigation she realizes her husband isn’t who he claimed to be. She needs Bailey’s help to put together the puzzle of his true identity and why he disappeared.

In addition to popping up on multiple summer reading recommendations, The Last Thing He Told Me is now a Reese Witherspoon Book Club Selection. This book may fit my desire for a fast paced thriller to read this summer. Although it has the second longest wait on my list.

The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth

Published in 2019, The Mother-in-Law is a backlist summer read I’m looking forward to checking out. Australian author Sally Hepworth also recently published The Good Sister, which became an instant bestseller and is listed on many of this year’s summer reading guides.

The Mother-in-Law tells the story of a complicated family that ends in murder. Lucy has always struggled with her relationship with her husband’s mother, Diana. Their interactions are polite but stifled. Ever since being introduced, Lucy has known she wasn’t the woman Diana envisioned her son marrying.

Now suddenly, Diana is found dead with a suicide note claiming she no longer wants to battle cancer. When the autopsy is performed it finds no cancer but rather evidence of foul play opening up a homicide investigation. Deeper complexities and family secrets are revealed and built upon as the timeline jumps between past and present.

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Is summer reading a season you get excited for? What do you look for in a summer reads?