Outside of the festive season, I’m not much of a seasonal reader, I usually just accidentally read seasonal-themed books. However, this year I have been a bit more conscious about this. There are a few titles you are probably expecting to see, but I’ll let you know now I haven’t included It Happened One Summer because it actually wasn’t very summery and also I haven’t read Beach Read yet.
The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
This one is quite obvious as it has summer in the title, but it does have great summer vibes – although I will say the show has major summer vibes.
It’s actually a pretty short book and I’d personally recommend the audiobook over any other format. The narration is done by Lola Tung (who plays Belly on the show) and it’s so good. If you’ve watched the show it makes the book so much more immersive.
Synopsis: Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer—they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one terrible and wonderful summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.
Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
I read this book a couple of summers ago and it is ridiculously summery. I know this isn’t everyone’s favourite Taylor Jenkins Reid book, but I actually really liked it. Her books are so magical, despite them being about normal people.
The majority of this book takes place either in a beach house or on the actual beach, so it is jam-packed with summer vibes.
Synopsis: 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 rising to the surface.
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
I always say this book has autumnal vibes because I find it so cosy, but I think it actually does take place over the summer. It’s been so long since I read it, I can’t actually remember, but I’m pretty sure I read this during the summer so that’s why it has summer vibes to me.
It’s got a real sense of adventure and the writing feels so magical. If you haven’t read this series yet, you absolutely need to. I love it so much.
Synopsis: It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.
Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.
His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.
But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.
For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.
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