Magazines are all flush with the summer reading lists, and I’ve been asked to compile a never-fail list of books for the perfect summer reading. Any time, any part of the romance genre, with the only caveat that they still be in print.
I’ve been doodling my faves in various genres, and have a pretty diverse list of old and newer books, but I wanted to query the Power of the Bitchery. Is there a book that without fail will give you hours of sunny, peaceful enjoyment, complete with perfect tan, that really great post-ocean-swim hair, and the warm bliss of a happy ending? What’s your personal never-lets-you-down book for happy summer vacation reading?
I’m not sure if this counts, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin. I haven’t read any of the follow-ups, so I can’t attest to their awesome, but if they’re half as great as the first one they’re worth reading.
Also, sort of like romances but historically accurate! Sex with the Queen by Eleanor Herman is HI-LARIOUS, because it is all written like this:
“In the summer of 1666, the eighteen-year-old Princess Francisca Isabel de Savoy arrived with her retinue in Lisbon harbor to marry King Alfonso VI of Portugal. Delighted at the prospect of being a queen, she had turned a deaf ear to rumors that her new husband was fat, impotent, and mentally retarded… The king had tried to counter the reputation of his impotence by surrounding himself with the most infamous prostitutes, whom he paid generously to tell stories of his sexual exploits. He even found a little girl who resembled him and, claiming her as his illegitimate daughter, brought her out at public events. The child’s mother was forced to walk along casting longing glances at the king, which he ardently returned. Only later did she swear that she hd never had sex with the king, though he had tried, and the child had been fathered by her cousin.”
Put down anything by Christopher Moore, whose novels include Practical Demonkeeping, Lamb, The Stupidest Angel, and The Island of the Sequined Love-Nun (my favourite!).
We’re talking some serious hold-your-stomach-can’t-breathe LOL moments here. Just don’t read these things on your way to work unless you want to be known as Crazy Bus Lady.
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen was excellent. And recently out in paperback!
In years past, some of my favorite beach authors have been:
Janet Evanovich
Laurell K. Hamilton (the early years)
Elizabeth Young
Jim Butcher
Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick/Jayne Castle
Meg Cabot
Jenny Crusie
I’m leaving for the beach on Friday, and Jim Butcher and Lois McMaster Bujold are definitely coming with me. I’m waffling on the Patricia Briggs, J.R. Ward, and Jennifer Weiner. Loretta Chase is a possibility too, if I can find one I haven’t read yet.
Jessica – I thought I was the only person on the planet who’d read Butterfly!!!
Cat – I’m reading Welcome To Temptation for the very first time right now. I was intrigued by the quote topic yesterday and went out today and bought a copy. I love what I’ve read so far!
Let’s see: The YA series The Secret Circle by L.J. Smith and The Weekend by Christopher Pike never let me down.
For Romance: Mr. Perfect and All The Queen’s Men by Linda Howard are definitely “take to the pool” books.
I’ve also got some categories that I re-read at least once a summer at the pool (no beach in NE). Her Perfect Stranger by Jill Shalvis, In Over His Head by Jacquie D’Allessandro and Intimate Knowledge by Julie Miller.
Plus, The MacKade brothers stories from Nora Roberts are always good reads for me.
word: enough44 – telling me to shup up already
Eve
Lois MacMaster Bujold’s A Civil Campaign. I laughed so hard during the bug-butter fight that I hurt myself and scared the cat.
Oh I have to add Olivia Goldsmiths The First Wives Club as a beach read.
And Welcome To Temptation is the best. Just the best. Although Crazy For You is brilliant also.
Ohmygod BUTTERFLY!!!!!! That book, along with some Sidney Sheldons, was the very first truly trashy wonderful novel I’d ever read. I was never the same after reading that book as a kid. I can still remember the plot: a young ugly girl who’s taken terrible advantage of by the world decides to get REVENGE by looking fabulous as an adult and owning a male brothel where the female clients get to pick out their gigolos and then enact any fantasy they want, from dangerous masked men to slow dancing with cowboys.
Ah, memories!
I’ll second Jennifer Crusie and Janet Evanovich as great beach reads.
(Also, for outside the romance genre, I rec Lawrence Sanders’ McNally series. So funny and fast!)
If I were to go on vacation and I could only take books that I have read before these would be my favorites:
Curse of Chalion – Lois McMaster Bujold
Ransom – Julie Garwood
Slightly Dangerous – Mary Balogh
The Viscount who Loved me – Julia Quinn
Until You – Judith McNaught
Naked in Death – JD Robb/Nora Roberts
I reach for these books constantly and pick my favorite passage and read them over and over and over again. Of course it is fun to read the entire book again as well. I’m still new to Nora’s non-sci/fi future suspense books. I’ve liked what I’ve read so far, but I’m really hooked on the Death books.
I’d like some suggestions for Georgette Heyer to start with because I read one book by her and I hated it. Absolutely hated it. It had a young girl marrying an older rich lord. The BIG argument in the book, the one thing that keeps them apart is that she spends too much money, borrows from someone and gets into trouble and is so afraid of telling her new husband. When she tells him, it’s so utterly anticlimactic. I couldn’t stand the heroine and said if this is what Heyer is about, I don’t want to read anything by her again.
The medievals by Julie Garwood. OMG! They’re so-so good.
Anything by Lisa Kleypas (even her grocery list) makes for good reading.
There are some really good recs on this list! I second the Megan Whalen Turner books, which are possibly some of the best books I’ve ever read. It takes her forever to get a book published, but it’s sooo worth the wait in the end. And LJ Smith’s The Secret Circle is great, too. Tara Janzen’s Crazy series is good for fast-paced, entertaining reading.
Every summer I have to read Mary Stewart; usually it’s The Ivy Tree. Love that book! I think a new addition to my must-read summer list is going to be Twilight.
Chrissie… Thanks for bringing up Margaret Mahy. That brings back memories! I loved Changeover: A Supernatural Romance.
For nostalgia’s sake, I also recommend A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter.
Jessica, Eve Savage & Willa, allow me to join the Butterfly Brigade! My mother passed Butterfly on to me not long after it was released, damn am I dating myself, and I could not put the darn thing down. It’s a quintessential trashy summer read, heroine who’s done wrong by a man and gets revenge in the end. How much better can it get? Add to that the brothel, the group of friends who could teach Carrie and the gals a few things about life, a presidential campaign and a truly despicable villain and you’ve got a summer read like very few others. It’s a bit dated, but man-o-man what a book! Still have it on my shelf. Did any of you read the sequel? Not as good but I had to find out what happened next.
I myself am rereading all 31 books in the JD Robb, In Death series. (Is that a record for one author writing a continuing series? It is one of the few long running series that actually keeps me coming back and gets better with each successive book. Mavis’ birth scene in Creation in Death is hysterical, and that’s in book 30.) I figure that will keep me busy. I know I’ll like those and some of the buzz around JR Ward’s Lover Enshrined isn’t looking as promising.
Laura Kinsale, Flowers from the Storm. The scene when Jervaulx describes Maddy to her (blind) father makes me tear up every time.
You know what I thought would be a good summer read? A book that I could lose myself in for hours and bask in its yellow sun-like glow? The new JR Ward, Lover Enshrined. I just finished it. As in 15 minutes ago just. And all I have to say is WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK. I won’t spoil it. I can’t. I’m not that much of a bitch. But please read this so we can all discuss what the hell is happening with this series. Not that I didn’t love it. But I did hate it. But I didn’t not not love it. It was crazy. Insane. I-want-to-toss-this-book-across-the-room and bang-my-head-against-the-wall-for-hours insane. But its a must read for the summer. To use my least favorite romance novel love scene cliché, “It hurt so good.”
Adding to the Tamora Pierce chorus. And also Lisa Kleypas’s books because they’re the ones that got me into romance, especially When Strangers Marry and Devil in Winter.
Michelle, I am so with you on the YA The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope, also another YA The Primrose Way by Jackie French Koller (Cassie Edwards eat your heart out). A real Hollywood ending on this one. I need to reread the Jane Austen series, as well. Otherwise I don’t reread books- too many books too little time. I am grateful to those who shared their faves- good too know- Carnal Innocense and the Born to series will go to the head of the TBR pile.
So here are my all-time favorites other than the YA I’ve mentioned:
1. Anything by Mary Stewart – Especially The Moonspinners, the movie was great, the book better!
2.Susan Elizabeth Phillips, check out the Chicago Bears series- can’t remember which one it was where the heroine removes all the marshmallows from the Lucky Charms via the bottom of the boxes to aggravate the hero!
3.Anything by Nora Roberts/Amanda Quick/ Lisa Kleypas/Julia Quinn/Sandra Brown/Karen Harper/Linda Lael Miller
4. Deanna Raybourn- Silent in the Grave (nominated for two Rita’s including best first book) and Silent in the Sanctuary. Unfortunately, Silent in the Moors is not due out til next March- unfortunately that is not beach reading weather and if you like romantic mysteries you won’t want to wait til July 2009 to read it!
Happy reading!
I put in my vote for the Tamora Pierce “The Immortals” series. Young Adult books, but some of my favorites.
And I cannot believe that nobody put a word in for “The Perilous Gard” by Elizabeth Marie Pope. I love love LOVE that book. It is absolutely beautiful to watch the romance between Kate and Christopher develop, and there are wonderful tie-ins to the ballad of Tam Lin and the legends about the fairy folk of Britain. And NOT your typical flower fairies, either.
lost41—I would be lost for forty-one years without a decent book to read.
Scotsie- I have sold many a book of Tamora’s to young people looking for sf/f. And a whole bunch of adults too. I love her books and make them one of the must buys on my list.
Angie Fox- I can’t wait for the Sookie stuff to hit the TV!
Hmmm….Robin McKinley? How have I missed that one? I will need to go get.
Becky- TAKE the new Weiner with you. Certain Girls. It’s great. Not in the way Good in Bed was, which is one of my fav reads, but it a whole new way. I loved the story. There’s laughter, tears and all of it in there.
give me anything by SEP/JD Robb/La Nora/Carly Phillips/Bujold/Lackey and I could go on and on….but, even though it is out of print and a used PB can go for $30 or more, I love Laura London’s The Windflower. Someone gave me a copy, who has bragged on this forever. I was prepared for, it’s an ok feeling. I sat outside all day in the heat reading it. I hate the sun. I hate the heat. I’d rather do a beach at night. I seldom have time to re-read since there are so many books to read the first time, but this is one of those that I will read again. And again.
Yay Mercedes Lackey!
Particularly her Elemental Mages series! I love me some re-told fairy tales with a past-England twist! Lovely.
Danae,
that was April Lady. I like it, but it’s probably not a good first read. Is older man/younger woman an issue, or just the fact that she was afraid of him because her mother had stuck all these weird ideas in her head? Lots of Heyers have older hero/younger heroine setups.
Maybe you could tell us what kind of story usually appeals to you and then we can tailor our suggestions. For now, here goes.
These Old Shades (check the memorable quote thread for some lovely dialogue)
Venetia, because Damerel is the essential reformed rake the one who came before all others… ;), and he’s smart, and the repartee is just lovely.
Devil’s Cub (has a heroine that’s pretty much at the opposite spectrum from the one in AL. If you have read Lord of Scoundrels you will recognize where Chase got the inspiration for one of the scenes after reading this one.)
The Convenient Marriage (this one might be iffy as it has a similar set up as April Lady, but the heroine is a lot more interesting. I read it (and AL to a lesser degree) for the subtle tortured hero thing that’s going on beneath the layers of plot. I’m mean, what can I say, grin).
I love Lackey’s Companion series. My daughter is starting on those next, as soon as she is done with the Robb stuff. I love lackey’s new series, the Kingdom ones. I am reading the newest one right now. I hope to be able to find some time today to just sit and read. Alone. quietly. haha
I love and agree with a ton of the recs already up, but I find it absolutely necesary to throw Poison Study (and the rest of the trilogy) by Maria V. Snyder out there. They are fantastic books. I’ve read them half a million times. They catch me everytime because they are balanced. There is a nice page turning plot, and everything -including the romance- slowly builds till you can’t help but rooting. Not really grad-study material, but it’s summer, who wants to be in school? They’re perfect for sitting on beach and getting a nice tan.
Qadesh – Butterfly sequel??? Need details, please. 🙂
E
Ditto on the Lover Enshrined, finished it at 11PM last night, patiently waiting for others to read so it can be discussed. That book needs medication and I mean that in the kindest sense possible. I belive in better living thru chemistry.
This summer I’m going old school
Pride and Prejudice
Go Ask Alice
All the Judy Blume books (as a timing/release issue for my 10 yr old)
And all the repeated recommends from this site.
-Laura Kinsale
-The Wildflower,etc
The best used book sale in the Burgh starts June 13 and I will be armed with my kids as beasts of burden and all the backlists I can carry. Looking for old Dara Joy, want to reread Flowers in the Attic for giggles
Which book sale is that?!
Anything by Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, or Jim Butcher.
As for Georgette Heyer recommendations, two that stick in my mind are The Reluctant Widow and The Toll Gate, both of which have interesting mystery plots as well as romance, and bright, confident female protagonists.
Sarah its at Memorial Park Church in Allison Park on Duncan Avenue. They used to do in the Northway Mall, if that rings a bell.
The Sale is June 13-18 and benefits a youth counseling center in the North Hills. The last couple days the prices go way down and on the last day, you can fill up a grocery bag for like $5 or something ridiculous like that. I usually go in the beginning for selection.
Last year there were at least 500 series books there and they were OLD. I wish I had known a few names, because I would have liked to have picked up a few horrors.
They have an excellent selection of kids book from 10 cents to $1 ( (allows the kids that sense of abandon) and the adult books are $.50 to $5 depending on cover and size. They have every category, including an “antique” (read:mildewed)section. I like to look for old cookbook & etiquette books too.
Nora Roberts – Carnal Innocence – This is my hands down go to book no matter the season. I will one day have this book bronzed after I finally get La Nora to sign it. 🙂
Jennifer Crusie – Fast Women – The very first Crusie I read is still my favorite.
PJ Tracy – Monkeewrench – Not a romance, but still damn fun if’n ya like serial killers in Minnesota. 😀
I love pulling out some Nora. Massive fan of The Gallaghers, and I took Jewels with me when I went traveling a few years ago – I’d loan it out to people. It’s been around the world 😀 Although it’s the opposite season here, I’m getting together some “Winter” reading, cause we’re about to go away for a month to Tasmania, where it will be COLD! And only good for staying in bed, and reading. *grin-blush* Have to admit that I’m also taking a bunch of Elizabeth Chadwick’s novels, and they’re historicals.
Jewels of the Sun makes me happy – perfect for summer reading 🙂 I also love anything of Lisa Kleypas’ – her shopping list totally included!
For me, any books by the following authors:
Johanna Lindsey, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Elizabeth Lowell, Linda Howard, Nora Roberts, Jenny Crusie, Anne Stuart and Rachel Gibson. I could read any books by these women over and over.
Not to go totally off topic, but on Lover Enshrined:
I just finished it last night and even tho I went out of my way to find spoilers on teh internet, and I read all the juicy scenes first – I was still all WTfuckityF? by the end.
I mean seriously? The best parts of the story are the ones that have nothing to do with the main characters.
I’ll go old, old school here and say Daphne Du Maurier’s ‘Frenchman’s Creek.’ I love that book; so bittersweet. Definitely the odd man out in DuMaurier’s works, but has all her writerly flair.
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver. She can get a bit preachy at times, but I love the way she combines sex(uality) and ecology in a way that both entertains and educates. I’ve often described this to friends as the sexiest book I’ve ever read.
This summer i’m putting Jenifer Cruise back on by summer book list. Last year I bought 3 of her books but never got around to reading them. So this year! For sure! I mean it this time.
anything Nora, or Elizabeth Lowell, or Tamora Pierce.
occasionally i’ll be in a strange mood and have nothing good from the library, and i’ll go reread all my Gabaldon again, too. And my Sara Donati generally follows Gabaldon.
I second Medeiros’s Thief of Hearts. Love, love, love that book every time.
And last summer, I really enjoyed Ann Brashares’s The Last Summer (Of You and Me). Not strictly romance and the ending was definitely rushed and oversimplistic, but I enjoyed the rest of the book (with all of its lovely tension and melodrama) so much the I didn’t care!
Frenchman’s Creek is on my all-time favorites list- number 1 is Rebecca, #2 Wuthering Heights, F.C. is about #3 alternating with Du Maurier’s Jamaica Inn which at least had a happier ending.
Summer Musts – and the summer is long and hot in AZ – Crusie/Meyer are fun romps: Agnes and the Hitman and Don’t Look Down. I’ll second to the nth power the Chesapeake series by La Nora. AND – for awesome freaky fun that will leave you pissed as hell that it’s not done until December – pick up the first two of the new series. Blood Brothers and The Hollow. I love the supernatural Nora.
@ Virginia: Yeah, anyone who is a strong traditionalist in their romance reading will have to hit Frenchman’s with an open mind; it’s not tidy and the heroine is unconventional. But for moody and evocative sex by the sea, DuMaurier’s marks couldn’t be higher. Plus: Pirates!
Daphne D’s so underrated. Or maybe just, with the passage of time, overlooked. The first chapter of My Cousin Rachel raises the hair on my arms every time I read it; The House on the Strand always makes me weep when All Is Revealed. And cripes: the variety of things she did—she wrote “The Birds” for Hitchcock and a biography of the Bronte sisters crackpot brother. I wouldn’t say Frenchman’s is her best or most representative, but it’s got a special place for me, since it’s her only “true romance.”
LOL! This may take a minute, I’ve got to clean out the cobwebs of time. Let’s see….the next book is Stars, Beverly aka Rachel has survived and opened a resort in the California mountains named Stars. She manages to find her missing twin sister and the evil Danny McKay is back to get revenge. See, clever, neither of them die. (snort) I also seem to recall that some of the girls find out she is still alive and arrive on scene. You’ll have to forgive me, my memory is really hazy on this one, so long ago. I do remember I didn’t like it nearly as much as Butterly, I think she should have stopped while she was ahead. Amazon shows that both were reissued last summer. Harvey also has another book Private Entrance, haven’t read that one. Didn’t even know there was another book by her, it isn’t a continuation of the Butterfly story.