Hi besties! I shared my Summer TBR a few weeks ago (so far I’ve only read one of these…I gotta get on that!), so I wanted to share some summer recs! As I’ve mentioned, summer is my favorite time of year (though I’ll be honest I did not love that heatwave we went through at the beginning of the month), so of course, I love any book set in the summer or just gives summer vibes.
So, if you’re looking for books to read while lounging by the pool or lying on the beach, I’ve got you. Grab your favorite iced beverage, get comfy, and let’s talk summer book recs!
Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez
Justin has a curse, and thanks to a Reddit thread, it’s now all over the internet. Every woman he dates goes on to find their soul mate the second they break up. When a woman slides into his DMs with the same problem, they come up with a plan: They’ll date each other and break up. Their curses will cancel each other’s out, and they’ll both go on to find the love of their lives. It’s a bonkers idea… and it just might work.
Emma hadn’t planned that her next assignment as a traveling nurse would be in Minnesota, but she and her best friend agree that dating Justin is too good of an opportunity to pass up, especially when they get to rent an adorable cottage on a private island on Lake Minnetonka.
It’s supposed to be a quick fling, just for the summer. But when Emma’s toxic mother shows up and Justin has to assume guardianship of his three siblings, they’re suddenly navigating a lot more than they expected–including catching real feelings for each other. What if this time Fate has actually brought the perfect pair together?
I mean, it’s got summer in the title, so how can you not put it on a summer books rec list? This was my first Abby Jimenez book and I really enjoyed it! While it’s not the super carefree summer read that some people associate with summer book recs, I do think it’s a great read for the summer. There’s a unicorn floatie! What could be more summer than that? However, this is one that you’ll want to have some tissues on hand for!
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.
Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.
Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.
Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.
Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?
Am I resisting putting all Emily Henry books on this list? I absolutely am; I really could make this any Emily Henry book because they’re all great summer reads, but I do think that if you asked me to link the word “summer” with Emily Henry, my first reply would be People We Meet on Vacation. I did a reread of this one recently, and I loved it just as much as I have every other time I’ve read it and it made me long for summer vacations. Plus, it’s a fun and sexy slow-burn friends-to-lovers romance, what else could you want for a beach read?
Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson
It was Sloane who yanked Emily out of her shell and made life 100% interesting. But right before what should have been the most epic summer, Sloane just…disappears. All she leaves behind is a to-do list.
On it, thirteen Sloane-inspired tasks that Emily would normally never try. But what if they could bring her best friend back?
Apple picking at night? Okay, easy enough.
Dance until dawn? Sure. Why not?
Kiss a stranger? Um…
Emily now has this unexpected summer, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected), to check things off Sloane’s list. Who knows what she’ll find?
Go skinny-dipping? Wait…what?
When I think summer reads, I automatically think of Morgan Matson. Even if one of her books isn’t set in the summer, it still feels like summer. To me, of her books, Since You’ve Been Gone is the ultimate summer read — swimming in the ocean, scavenger hunts, and late nights spent with friends, that has summer written all over it. Additionally, it’s a really lovely coming-of-age and growth story for our main character, and I feel like when you’re a teenager you learn so much about yourself in the summer, the season just has that vibe to it. So, yeah, definitely a great summer read!
Wild About You by Kaitlyn Hill
Two total opposites. One race through the Great Outdoors. In this grumpy-sunshine teen romance from the author of Love from Scratch and Not Here to Stay Friends , the trail to true love doesn’t always come with a map.
Natalie Hart has always been loud, unfiltered, and unapologetically herself. But then comes her freshman year of college, when she loses her merit scholarship and gains one pesky little anxiety diagnosis.
Hesitant to take out more student loans, Natalie decides to shoot her shot and applies to Wild Adventures , a popular outdoorsy reality show. Sure, Natalie prefers her twelve-step skincare routine to roughing it on the Appalachian Trail while competing in challenges against other college kids, but that scholarship prize money is calling her name. High risk, high reward, right?
Enter Finn Markum, her randomly assigned, capital- O Outdoorsy teammate whose growl could rival a black bear. These partners have more friction than a pair of new hiking boots. Or is it flirtation? Turns out falling in love might be the wildest adventure of all…
If you’re looking for a summer read that has some fun adventure in it, you should absolutely check out Wild About You! I had so much fun reading this book, and although I’ve never been big on camping, it oddly enough made me want to go camping (though, I’d like to avoid the bears). The teen reality TV aspect of this book was super fun and added to the summery feel of the book. The main characters are great examples of the grumpy x sunshine trope, and I really enjoyed reading about the two of them.
The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
Some summers are just destined to be pretty.
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 wonderful and terrible summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.
I feel like this one was obvious, and of course, I had to include it! I won’t lie, the Summer I Turned Pretty books aren’t my favorite, but I do like them, and I think they’re great summer reads. The beachy vibes are immaculate, and who doesn’t love a good dose of teen angst? For extra summer vibes, after you read the book, watch the TV series (I’m thinking of doing a rewatch soon myself) and enjoy spending some time in Cousins with Belly and the Fisher boys.
Really, this list could go on and on, but when I thought of doing a summer book recs post these were the first books I thought of. Have you read any of these? What books would you put on a summer book recs list? Let me know in the comments!
Until next time 💜
Just for the Summer and People We Meet on My Vacation are two of my favourite summer books! I also love The Road Trip by Beth O’Leary and Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert – there’s so many good books to pick from!
So many of these books have been on my TBR for ages now 🙈