I know summer doesn’t technically end until September 22, but for me, the few days after Labor Day are the finale.
It’s still plenty warm, but Joann’s* has Halloween out the wazoo and down the hall, and Costco is already starting to get decorative if you know what I mean, and I think that you do. Alongside the 10 pound bags of Halloween candy (100 Grand or bust!) there’s…signs of sparkle.
But while I think of summer as coming to an end, I do love sitting outside and reading, bugs permitting. This is part of my backyard, and the view from where I’m usually reading (or looking at my phone, or both).
Which got me thinking.
I read a number of books from that viewpoint, but which was my book of the summer?
Can I narrow it down to one? No, no, I can’t. So I’m going to highlight one nonfiction and one fiction.
In the nonfiction department: Love in the Time of Self Publishing by Dr. Christine M. Larson made me extremely happy to read. I gulped it down in one afternoon and had the greatest time reading a book that was looking at essentially Romancelandia and applying academic analysis to the communities of authors within it and how it works (and sometimes doesn’t). It was wild to read a whole entire academic book about, well, us. (I also interviewed Dr. Larson about it.)
And for romance fiction, I think the book that made my summer extra sparkly was The Love of My Afterlife by Kirsty Greenwood. I read it in part to prepare for a very fun podcast interview, but like the book I just mentioned, I inhaled this story.
It’s like the book version of all the humorous yet macabre posts on social media that arrive for spooky season. There are some heavy moments and honest depictions and navigations of grief, and at the same time, it’s really freaking funny. It was a book I big-gulped and grinned while doing so.
I asked the SBTB reviewers about their book of the summer, and got awesome answers.
Shana: Only one?!
Tara: Hands down, Loser of the Year by Carrie Byrd. No question.
Sarah: Ha! Tara, I guessed yours! Go me. (Y’all, don’t miss Tara’s review for this book – it’s a terrific review!)
Elyse: Mine was Earl’s Trip by Jenny Holiday. It’s a historical road trip romance with lots of found family.
Shana: I loved All the Right Notes by Dominic Lim. It’s a second chance romance with music, food, and just the right amount of angst.
…
*Also, for no other reason than I HAD TO SHARE THIS.
I found this individual in my local Joann’s and I’m really thinking I might need to buy it and just…put it in different places in the house.
I should buy this, right?
And most importantly: what was your book of the summer? What book rocked your world, or made you so happy to be reading, or made a vacation that much more awesome?
Two books really stood out for me this summer:
Kate Clayborn’s THE OTHER SIDE OF DISAPPEARING: a woman searches for her mother (who ran off with a con man a decade before) while falling in love with the producer of a podcast focused on said con man. Emotional, smart, and literate in all the best ways.
Kris Ripper’s SETTLE THE SCORE: a journalist gets snowed in with the former soccer player whose career was destroyed when the journalist outed him. The book has one of the best representations of remorse that I’ve read in a romance, along with a healthy dose of self-deprecating humor and a (closed-door) romance that happens in a few days but feels very much like a slow-burn.
I read Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey in July and had such a great time with it. I think it balances good world building with good character writing and good relationship writing.
My favourites that were released this summer were Here We Go Again by Alison Cochrun and Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan. I know reception to Here We Go Again was mixed, but it’s honestly my favourite Cochrun and my favourite contemporary romance I read this year either new or backlist. I’m already excited for the sequel whenever it comes out (I also read and loved Rees Brannan’s In Other Lands this summer).
Finally, I read three literary fiction novellas that were really good: Galatea by Madeleine Millar; A Magical Girl Retires by Park Seolyeon; and Minor Detail by Adania Shibli. Note: all these do discuss domestic abuse and/or rape to some degree.
Mine was Martha Wells’ revised edition of THE BOOK OF ILE-RIEN, which then sent me off to find the three other books in the series (The Wizard Hunters, The Ships of Air, and The Gate of Gods, and a novella Between Worlds). Reading these made me even more excited about her upcoming revised edition of Wheel of the Infinite in November.
My read of the summer was Casey McQuiston’s THE PAIRING. It’s their most adult book yet, not to mention their sexiest, and the setting and food descriptions made for such a rich read. I wasn’t even done with my library edition when I ran out to buy my own (signed!) copy.
KJ Charles has a new book out this summer, which means I don’t even have to think about this, it’s definitely THE DUKE AT HAZARD for me.
If we set KJ Charles in a category of her own in order to let anyone else have even a chance of consideration ever, I was probably most delighted by AJ Demas’s latest, THE HOUSE OF THE RED BALCONIES. But LADY EVE’S LAST CON by Rebecca Fraimow is definitely a contender, and that’s particularly exciting as I believe it’s her first book. Not as thrilling as a new to me author with a big backlist but still an extremely promising development.
My Book of The Summer That I Actually Finished (I DNF’d a lot): Sweeten The Deal by Katie Shepard because I am a sucker for a) a good love story and b) stories where people in their 20’s actually figure their sh*t out. (See also, Delilah Green Doesn’t Care).
I loved Emily Henry’s “Funny Story.” The found family and finding yourself paths wove together so well, and there were a lot of warm fuzzies. I devoured “Cabaret Macabre,” the latest in the Joseph Spector mystery series by Tom Mead. The locked-room mystery was well done, and Mead does a great job of creating full characters. I’ve also been making my way through the fantastic Rivers of London supernatural mystery series by Ben Aaronovitch. The overarching storyline is done well across the baddie-of-the-week novels. I’m a little sad that I’m almost done with the published stories and will have to wait far too long for the next one.
THE HAZELBOURNE LADIES MOTORCYCLE AND FLYING CLUB by Helen Simonson
A group of women in small English seaside town figuring out their lives after the war. Some of the women are independently wealthy, enough that they can risk societal disapproval and pursue “unconventional” careers but some, including our heroine, are not so lucky and need to find respectable livelihoods or depend on relatives for the rest of their lives. It can be bleak at times and does not shy away from depicting the xenophobia and prejudice that crops up in insular villages but it is also hopeful. There’s a also a bit of romance and HEA.
A few of my favorites of the summer ~
The Unlikely Pair and The Unlikely Heir by Jax Calder.
JFH: Justin F**king Halstead by GiGi DeGraham and also Lucky by the same author.
Moonbound by Robin Sloan
It was sooooo good. It’s sci-fi, but also medieval-fantasy, but also about stories… It’s an epic journey and will stick with me forever.
Tangled up in you by Christina Lauren
I read 12 romance novels this “summer” (june-august) and this was my favorite.
The Wild Robot by Peter Brown
This book…. it gets in your heart!
My book of the YEAR so far is Ali Hazelwood’s Bride. I was not a fan of paranormal before, but this book changed my mind. It is on my keeper shelf and would be the one I want if I am ever stranded on a desert island.
I have read a lot of romance and genre fiction in the last few months, of course, but nothing that I have really loved. My stand-out book would have to be non-fiction – Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell’s Invisible Life, by Anna Funder. Gave me a lot to think about. If I had to choose a fiction runner-up, it would be A Coronet for Cathie by Gwendoline Courtney, a recently re-published children’s novel. There’s a good review here.
As I have posted many times in WAYR posts, my summer patio reading has been chock full of wonderful books. I agree that the aforementioned THE OTHERSIDE OF DISAPPEARING, THE HAZELBOURNE LADIES MOTORCYCLE & FLYING CLUB, FUNNY STORY were all standouts.
I’ll add Abby Jimenez’s JUST FOR THE SUMMER because it made her a must read author for me. In the non-romance category I recommend Harry Dolan’s suspense novel, THE GOOD KILLER. He took me on a roller coaster of a ride and delivered me safely home.
My summer belonged to Julie Soto. I read Forget Me Not on my “vacation” (aka arguably stressful 3-week trip culminating with flight home on The Day the Airport Software Crashed) and read Not Another Love Song while recovering from said vacation. They were both wonderful. Also, Forget Me Not will always be the first book I read on an e-reader!
I hit a major reading skid in mid-June and a lot of the books I did finish were okay, but not especially memorable. However, I did really enjoy Cara Bastone’s “Ready or Not,” which is an unexpected pregnancy book which rode the line between women’s fiction and romance. I would still consider it romance, in the end. The blurb sounded interesting to me, and it more than delivered in the feels department.
And then for something *completely* different, just before my reading skid I finished Finley Fenn’s new Orc Sworn, The Widow and the Orcs. It’s the 9th in the series and it jumped right to the top of my list of favorite installments. Come for the improbable orc anatomy and the Drama, stay for the impeccable world building and found family.
I second THE OTHERSIDE OF DISAPPEARING, EARL’S TRIP, FUNNY STORY, THE UNLIKELY HEIR and JUST FOR THE SUMMER.
My list of contenders for best romances I read this summer is:
– Rosalind James’ New Zealand Ever After series (I inhaled those this
summer),
– Ali Hazelwood’s NOT IN LOVE (it really worked for me!),
– KJ Charles’ DEATH IN THE SPIRES (she can do no wrong),
– Cat Sebastian’s YOU SHOULD BE SO LUCKY (amazing),
– Megeara Lorenz’s THE SHABTI (MM historical romance, con artists and 1930s spiritualism!!),
– Julie Kriss’ SONGS TO BREAK UP TO,
– Jay Hogan’s ANIMAL HUSBANDRY
For me too it is KJ Charles’ THE DUKE AT HAZARD in romance. In non-romance, it’s Felicity Day’s THE GAME OF HEARTS – True Stories of Regency Romance, which I mentioned before in WAYR. I just finished it, and I loved it from beginning to end. And so many inspirations there for Regency romances!
Looking at my ratings, my favorite read of the summer was MIDNIGHT SMOKE which is the 3rd book in Helen Harper’s Urban Fantasy/police procedural Firebrand series.
The series is fun, it is about a newly minted detective in London who is killed on the very first day of her very first posting. But she revives 12 hours later a little stronger than she was before she died. The third book is a ‘Groundhog Day’-eqsue time-loop where a lot of really bad things happen over the course of one disastrous day. It is really well done and each do-over has different outcomes. I like that the final ‘fix’ to restart the timeline was as a result of our heroine working smarter, not harder.
Up until a week or so ago, I would have named Change of Heart by Kate Canterbary as my book of this summer. (That’s in spite of the hideous cover.) It may have been the most thoughtful workplace romance I’ve ever read. Turns out, I really have a soft spot for a character with a moral compass. It’s almost like in Romancelandia, a boner is more magnetic than the North Pole.
Then August hit and I read Not Another Love Song by Julie Soto. I’ll probably reread it before the end of the year, I loved it so hard. Interestingly, this novel also featured a protagonist with sterling integrity. Also, it’s kind of a truism that music is intensely romantic and inherently sexy, but Soto makes that vividly real on the page.
I have no nonfiction suggestions, so Imma claim two summer reads with no qualms, However, if I was forced to pick only one book of the summer, it would be Not Another Love Song based on rereadability and the superior cover. I mean, who gives a woman professional on the cover of a contemporary romance, elf ears and flat hair?
My list of contender for best of summer reads is:
* Jennifer Donnelly’s REVOLUTION (YA contemporary/historical from 2010)
* Julie Soto’s NOT ANOTHER LOVE SONG
* B.K. Borison’s BUSINESS CASUAL (my fav of this very enjoyable series)
* Ali Hazelwood’s NOT IN LOVE
* Tarah DeWitt’s SAVOR IT
* Julie Kriss’s SONGS TO BREAK UP TO
Seconding JUST FOR THE SUMMER by Abby Jimenez which I absolutely adored. Also a big shout-out to READY OR NOT by Cara Bastone which I read last spring.
Aside from that, I adored UNDER YOUR SPELL BY Laura Wood and BETWEEN FRIENDS AND LOVERS by Shirlene Obuobi. Both of them (and the other two I also mentioned) featured sweet, fluffy cinnamon roll heroes that would do absolutely anything to make their chosen partners’ lives easier. This is such a comfort to me in this crazy world that I have a hard time reading any other type of romance these days.
Looking back over the books I read this summer, the ones I’d be most likely to recommend were Forget Me Not by Julie Soto and Funny Story by Emily Henry.
I enjoyed several books of Summer:
Sanctuary by Ilona Andrews, Earls Trip, the Spellshop, Birding with Benefits, Not in Love and Bride, and Ebony Gate/Blood Jade, and Stardust Grail, A Ruse of Shadows, Stars Uncharted by S. K. Dunstable as well.
I cannot pick just one.
As much as I loved The Rom-Commers, it was triggering because of the mention of a type a cancer–the exact cancer that took the life of my MIL in May. 2024 has been a crappy year–I’m not looking for sympathy. It’s just what it is. Three family members in overlapping hospices is more than a family should have.
But Bummer Camp was a book that helped me. It had crappy stuff and happy stuff, and it helped me feel better.
I also read a few Christmas ARCs which just let me go to another place as I’m helping the family pack-up, sell, appraise, etc… Sometimes, you just want light feel-good stuff to Calgon you to another place.
My book of the summer (and probably of the year) was Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland. I read all 436 glorious, hard-covered pages over a 2 day poolcation, and laughed so hard at times, that I had to stop reading to recover. It’s got pirates, magic, sea serpents, intelligence espionage, escapades, and a cake contest. Though it’s not a romance per se, but it has romantic (and sexy) elements. It was so fun to read!
I’m in a years-long reading slump when it comes to romance at this point, but THE MINISTRY OF TIME by Kaliane Bradley scratched all the itches romance used to. Now, I don’t actually know know that this time-travel adventure/romance/thriller is The Terror self-insert fanfic with the serial numbers scratched off (does that even make sense when both the book and the show use real historical people as characters?) but it definitely could have been, in the complimentary sense. Excellent pining and really great sex scenes. It made me very happy.
I read the first of the Leonidas the Gladiator books based on the SBTB review and then snarfled up the rest of the series in about a week. Thank you for the content warnings in the review — it was good to go into these prepared.
@Barb: I am so glad you enjoyed the series, and more importantly that the warnings were helpful!
@F. Concolor: If you haven’t already read it, you might be interested to know that Linesman by S.K. Dunstall is currently $1.99 for US Kindle readers. I like this book/series even more than Stars Uncharted.
I think if it has to come down to one, it would be The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center. I read it on the flight down to Panama (all but about 20 pages anyway), and it was just a lovely experience. It was such a great book, funny and heartfelt, and perfect pacing for a plane ride.
My best summer reads were not new releases. A GENTLEMAN UNDONE by Cecelia Grant blew me away, with a heroine who is a sex worker. I also loved THE SPY’S REWARD by Nita Abrams.
There were also a couple of contemporaries that were solid B’s, SAY YOU’LL BE MINE and DO ME A FAVOR.
Reign and Ruin for sure! I have never had book (series) hangover this bad. I really loved the Mediterranean/ottoman setting but the chatacters are so good, especially the MMC. Someone called the male MC from book 1 the “green flags only” boyfriend and I so agree. I also thought the fantasy plot and world were fantastic on their own and would read it happily even if there weren’t fun spicy parts…