**The birds chirp and the sun shines bright through my open curtains. It is the perfect day for a walk. I grab my bag and take a drink with me, knowing it’s going to be a hot one. I take the walk into town and watch as all of the vendors try to sell their goods. I pass stalls of fresh baked bread, sweet chocolate chip cookies, and fruit. Then I pass by the clothing stalls, with beautiful fabrics and bright colors perfect for summer. I eventually come across my favorite book stall. I take a look around and try to find a new summer book. The stall owner looks over and catches me with a beach read. We start to talk about some of our favorite summer reads.**

Welcome or welcome back to the bookishcore blog. Today, I wanted to take some time to discuss some summer reads. We are already towards the end of June, well into summer by now, but I still wanted to take some time to give a few recommendations for summer.

I can’t write about summer book recommendations without mentioning one of my favorite books, one that I already have a review on. If you are looking for a great summer read, you should check out The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson. This is a young adult contemporary following Andie, who has her entire summer planned out, but with her dad in the middle of a political scandal, her plans don’t go the way she wanted them to. This is such a fun book that is perfect for the summertime, with friendship, reconnecting with parents, dogs, scavenger hunts, and a dash of romance.

My next recommendation is Stay Sweet by Siobhan Vivian. I read this book years ago, possibly around the time it came out, and I really enjoyed it. From what I remember, it follows a girl as she works at an ice cream stand for the summer. Our main character is head girl of the stand for the summer, but with the passing of the shop’s owner the day she begins and her grandnephew taking over, running the stand isn’t going to be as easy as she thought. I remember really enjoying this book when I read it and think that it is a great choice to add to a summer TBR. I’m not usually one to re-read books, but I may need to with this one.

My next recommendation is When We Had Summer by Jennifer Castle. I read this book last year when it came out and I think that it is a great book to read over the summer. In my personal opinion, this is a book better suited for the younger side of ya. I had a hard time getting into this one and had to read it with a younger audience in mind. With that change in mindset, I was able to enjoy it a bit more. This is a story following four girls who spend every summer together, completing bucket lists that they create each year. Tragedy strikes and one of the girls passes away, causing lots of changes for the three girls this summer. It’s the first time it’s not the four of them and they are all off doing their own things. I thought that this was a sweet read with lots of emotional undertones, but it is very atmospheric with its beach town setting. 

Another perfect read for summer is The Summer of Broken Rules by K. L. Walther. This book definitely gained popularity the summer it came out, so I wanted to see what it was about. The cover was gorgeous and I heard great things. The idea of a girl going to Martha’s Vineyard for a wedding, all the while a game of assassin is going on, seemed like a great idea. There is also a subplot of grief that occurs in this book, as the main character’s sister had recently passed away, so she has to deal with those feelings as well.

Another summery recommendation would be to read something by Emily Henry specifically either Beach Read or Happy Place. I preferred Beach Read, but I think that Happy Place is a bit better for a summer rec. Happy Place is an adult literary fiction/women’s fiction/romance that follows a friend group through the eyes of our protagonist Harriet. Harriet and Wyn were friends that started dating, but no one else in their friend group knows that they broke up months ago, so the two of them keep up the facade that they’re dating while staying at a cabin in Maine with their friends. The writing and the setting make this a great read for the summer, whether you’re on a beach or in a cabin near the lake. 

To switch it up a bit, I have two thrillers that I think are great for summer. The first one is We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. This book has been very popular, but seems to be one of those that you love or you hate. I am one of the people who loved it. This is a young adult mystery/thriller following Cadence Sinclair who spends every summer on her grandparents’ private island, but she doesn’t remember anything from her fifteenth summer there. We watch as Cadence comes together with her cousins and a family friend as she tries to figure out what happened in her fifteenth summer. I loved this book and it was in my top five books of 2020. It’s actually one of my extremely few five star reads as well. I highly recommend picking this one up if you are looking for a more mysterious summer read. 

My final summer recommendation is The Lake by Natasha Preston. I love Natasha Preston and The Lake is my favorite by her. This book follows a girl going back to her old summer camp as a camp counselor along with her friend, but the two of them have a secret about something that happened at the camp when they were kids. Unfortunately for them, someone is trying to resurface the thing from their past through a series of threats and attacks on the camp. This was another one of my few five star reads. The story had me hooked and I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. 

These are a few of my recommendations for this summer. Let me know if you have read any and your thoughts, or even some of your own favorite summer books or ones on your summer TBR. I think I read so many contemporaries and romances throughout the year that now all I want are fantasy stories, so we’ll see if I read any summer books.

xoxo,

Just another reader