Irresistible Summer Reads You Need On Your TBR N
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It’s official! We’re midway through summer. Midway through sand, ice cream, and long sun-filled days. If your summer reading list is looking a little dim and you want to bring back the sunshine, I’ve got you. These are the reads that have been living rent-free on my TBR.
The ones I’ve been eyeing, thinking about way too much for someone who hasn’t cracked them open yet. This is my summer reading list, and trust me, you’re going to want to add these to yours too.
If you want a romance that will make you believe in summer love →
One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune
At a Glance:
🌊 lakeside small town romance
📸 photographer heroine
💛 slow burn connection
🚤 yellow speedboat meet-cute
✨ summer that changes everything
Alice came back to Barry’s Bay to help her grandmother heal. She didn’t expect the man in the yellow speedboat.
Charlie Florek was nineteen when she photographed him from afar. Now he’s all grown up, making her grandmother laugh and making Alice question everything she thought she wanted from her carefully controlled life.
It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey
At a Glance:
🎣 grumpy x sunshine
🌊 Pacific Northwest beach town
💋 spicy slow burn
👠 fish out of water
🍺 dive bar setting
A Hollywood party girl gets cut off, shipped out, and handed the keys to a dive bar in a small fishing town she never asked for.
The grumpy sea captain next door thinks she won’t last a week. Piper Bellinger has never been more motivated to prove someone wrong, and accidentally fall for them in the process
The Summer Girl by Elle Kennedy
At a Glance:
🏖️ beach town setting
💛 friends to lovers
🎂 21st birthday summer
🌊 sailing & small town life
💔 secrets that change everything
Cassie came to Avalon Bay for one last summer before her grandmother sells the family hotel, and decided a summer fling was exactly what she needed.
Tate put her in the friend zone the moment they met and immediately regretted it. Two people who both know better and can’t help themselves anyway.
A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams
At a Glance:
🌺 Harlem setting
🎨 artist heroine
💫 magical & dreamy romance
✨ Renaissance glamour vibes
🌸 swoony mysterious love interest
Ricki Wilde walked away from her powerful Atlanta dynasty to open a flower shop in Harlem and finally build the life she actually wanted.
Then a deeply mysterious stranger knocked her world completely off balance. Tia Williams writes love stories that feel like music, and this one has been on my reading list way too long.
If you want a rom-com that’s completely unhinged →
Till Summer Do Us Part by Meghan Quinn
At a Glance:
💍 fake husband situation
😂 workplace lie gone very wrong
🏕️ couples marriage camp
🎭 improv obsessed love interest
🤦 chaos from start to finish
Scottie invented a husband to impress her boss in a meeting, and now she’s stuck attending an eight-day marriage camp with a millionaire improv enthusiast she just met.
The main rule of improv is always say yes, and that rule is about to make everything hilariously (beautifully) worse.
Curvy Girl Summer by Danielle Allen
At a Glance:
💃 body positive romance
📱 online dating chaos
⏰ seven-week deadline
🍹 charming bartender love interest
Aaliyah is done with situationships; she knows what she wants, and she has seven weeks to find him before a big family event proves everyone wrong about her.
Enter Ahmad, the charming local bartender who suggested the dating app she’s now completely ignoring because of him. Funny, real, and warm in all the right ways.
If you want enemies to lovers that simmers all summer →
Seven Year Itch by Amy Daws
At a Glance:
😂 seven years of mutual hatred
🌴 destination wedding setting
🛏️ forced to share a room
💋 tension that finally has nowhere to go
📱 family sabotaged dating profile
Her family hacked his dating profile, ruined his chances at a weekend fling, and now they’re stuck sharing a room at a destination wedding in paradise.
Seven years of tension with absolutely nowhere left to hide. What starts as another screaming match turns into something neither of them saw coming, and now he wants everything.
The Summer Girlfriend by Kristina Forest
At a Glance:
💍 fake girlfriend for hire
💕 one weekend becomes all summer
📚 stand-in bridesmaid side hustle
💰 business deal with very real feelings
Noelle makes her living as a stand-in bridesmaid, so when a wealthy heir needs a fake girlfriend for a family summer house weekend, it sounds like quick, easy money.
One weekend turns into an entire summer and feelings nobody budgeted for. The fake dating trope with a setup I haven’t seen before, and I am very much here for it.
If you want all the feels →
Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone
At a Glance:
💔 grief romance done right
🌻 grumpy x sunshine slow burn
🌊 late-night ferry rides
👧 unexpected found family
Lenny is functioning (barely) after losing her best friend, held together by babysitting gigs and a promise she made to herself to start living again.
Miles is grumpy, grieving, and keeps showing up with a shoulder exactly when she needs it most. Two broken people finding each other between late-night ferry rides and midnight ramen — this one is going to have me in my feelings for days.
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
At a Glance:
🐙 POV from a giant Pacific octopus
💔 widow searching for answers
🔍 thirty-year-old mystery
🌊 aquarium night shift setting
✨ the most unlikely friendship at the center
Tova has been quietly searching for answers about her son’s disappearance for thirty years; she just didn’t expect the answer to come from an octopus.
Marcellus knows exactly what happened that night and is determined to tell her before it’s too late. The wildcard on this entire list, and I have a feeling it’s going to be the one that surprises me most.
Tropesick by Lauren Okie
At a Glance:
✍️ ghostwriter heroine
💔 second chance with brother’s best friend
🏖️ isolated Southampton summer home
📖 real life mirroring the novel they’re writing
🌊 forced proximity with history
Katie has spent eight years being completely normal, then Tyler McNally walks back into her life as her writing partner for the summer and the facade crumbles immediately.
The tropes they’re writing into their romance novel start playing out in their own lives, and the line between fiction and reality gets very blurry very fast. Meta, emotional, and I have a feeling this one is going to hit differently.
If you want Italy and wanderlust →
Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood
At a Glance:
🇮🇹 Sicily & Amalfi Coast setting
💋 age gap romance
🚫 brother’s best friend trope
🏛️ ancient ruins & coastal beauty
✨ destination wedding chaos
Maya cannot stop thinking about Conor, fifteen years older, successful, and completely convinced that anything between them would be too complicated to count.
Then they end up stuck together in a romantic Sicilian villa for a week with a destination wedding erupting around them. Ali Hazelwood, with an age-gap romance set in Italy, and I was never going to say no.
One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle
At a Glance:
🇮🇹 Positano & Amalfi Coast
💫 magical realism
💔 mother-daughter relationship
✨ impossible reunion
🌊 grief wrapped in breathtaking beauty
Katy goes to Positano to grieve her mother and somehow finds her mother there, thirty years old, sun-tanned, and full of a life Katy never knew.
A story about loss, identity, and getting to know the people we love in ways we never expected. This one is going to wreck me in the absolute best way.
If you want a thriller that will have you tossing sand in the air →
The Summer Guest by Tess Gerritsen
At A Glance:
🕵️ retired spy protagonist
🔍 missing teenager mystery
🌊 small Maine coastal town
💀 cold case tangled with the present
A retired spy, a cocktail-sipping book club of ex-CIA agents called the Martini Club, and a missing teenager in a quiet Maine seaside town.
Then a decades-old corpse turns up in a nearby pond, and the two cases start connecting in ways nobody expected. Tess Gerritsen is doing what only she can, and the Martini Club alone has me completely sold.
Summer’s Never Over by Darby Bozeman
At a Glance:
🔪 dual timeline debut thriller
🏕️ remote summer camp setting
👻 phantom stalker
🕵️ cold case reopened
💔 grief driving the mystery
Five years ago, Greer left her family’s summer camp after her friend died in a fire that may not have been an accident — now she’s back, surrounded by everyone from that summer.
A phantom, a secret Steph took to her grave, and a choice between staying quiet or finally facing the truth. I will absolutely be reading this one with every light in the house on.
If you want Emily Henry →
Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
At a Glance:
✍️ rivals to lovers
🏝️ remote island setting
📖 biography competition
🔒 ironclad NDA creating tension
💫 mystery wrapped inside a love story
Two writers, one legendary woman’s untold story, and a month-long competition on a remote island, with an ironclad NDA keeping them from sharing the pieces they each hold.
Emily Henry wrapping a mystery inside a love story inside a question about who gets to tell our stories. This is the one I’m most looking forward to on this entire list, and I need it in my hands immediately.
Not sure where to start? I’ve got you 👇
- If you want a romance that will make you believe in summer love, try → One Golden Summer, or It Happened One Summer
- If you want a thriller that will have you tossing sand in the air, try → Summer’s Never Over or The Summer Guests
- If you want to ugly cry in the best way, try → Remarkably Bright Creatures or Promise Me Sunshine
- If you want a rom-com that’s completely unhinged, try → Till Summer Do Us Part
- If you want enemies-to-lovers tension that simmers all summer, try → Seven Year Itch
- If you want Italy and all the feelings, try → One Italian Summer or Problematic Summer Romance
- If you want Emily Henry at her best, try → Great Big Beautiful Life
- If you want fake dating chaos with actual heart, try → The Summer Girlfriend
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The Atmospheric Books You Need to Savor Before Summer Fades
10 New Summer Reads You Need to Add to Your TBR