Another school year has come and gone, and hopefully, you’ve been able to get through all the end-of-year events and are able to relax (or at least move at a more leisurely pace). While I still have to work all summer, no school means I get at least an extra hour of sleep every morning. What I look forward to even more during the summer months is light, fun, and escapist summer reading! There are a lot of book lists out there to guide you as you select the perfect book to spend time with, but I hope you’ll enjoy the recommendations I’ve put together.
The Housemaid, The Housemaid’s Secret & The Housemaid is Watching by Freida McFadden
This twisty and addictive trilogy will have you flipping pages so fast you’ll be dying for more. Book three, The Housemaid is Watching, is released June 11th, so you can binge the whole collection this summer. Freida has plenty more for you to dive into if you end up craving more psychological thrillers. Her catalog is huge, and the Housemaid series is a great place to start.
The Honey Witch by Sydney J. Shields
This book is 100% on my personal summer #TBR list. When I saw this cover, I said to myself, “Absolutely, yes, I’m reading that”. It’s a cottagecore, cozy fantasy and seems like the perfect book to escape into a completely different world. Twenty-one-year-old Marigold Claude has always preferred the company of the spirits of the meadow to any of the suitors who’ve tried to woo her. So when her grandmother whisks her away to the family cottage on the tiny Isle of Innisfree with an offer to train her as the next Honey Witch, she accepts immediately. But her newfound magic and independence come with a price: No one can fall in love with the Honey Witch.
The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza
Next on the list is the Indy Moms Book Club (IMBC) July pick! This book is part family drama, part mystery, and part adventure that will transport you to the Italian countryside. We will be meeting at Liter House on Wednesday, July 31st, at 7 p.m. to discuss this one. Join us!
Sara Marsala barely knows who she is anymore after the failure of her business and marriage. On top of that, her beloved great-aunt Rosie passes away, leaving Sara bereft with grief. But Aunt Rosie’s death also opens an escape from her life and a window into the past by way of a plane ticket to Sicily, a deed to a possibly valuable plot of land, and a bombshell family secret.
I’ve Tried Being Nice by Ann Leary
Don’t worry, non-fiction girlies, I’ve got a recommendation for you, too. Starting with a delightful and humorous collection of essays from Ann Leary. She describes herself as a recovering “people pleaser,” and honestly, that’s so relatable. Grab this collection just released on June 4th and enjoy getting lost in the stories.
Ann Leary casts a wry backward glance at a life spent trying—and often failing—to be nice. With wit and surprising candor, Leary recounts the bedlam of home bat invasions, an obsession with online personality tests, and the mortification of taking ballroom dance lessons with her actor husband.
The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
I loved this debut novel from Holly Gramazio, which was also a Read with Jenna pick back in April. Side note: Jenna Bush Hager is the “IT girl” when it comes to recommending books. She has great taste! The Husbands is about who we are, our choices, and what (and who) we need to be the best version of ourselves.
When Lauren returns home to her flat in London late one night, she is greeted at the door by her husband, Michael. There’s only one problem—she’s not married. She’d never seen this man before in her life. But according to her friends, her much-improved decor, and the photos on her phone, they’ve been together for years. As Lauren tries to puzzle out how she could be married to someone she can’t remember meeting, Michael goes to the attic to change a lightbulb and abruptly disappears. A new man emerges in his place, and a new, slightly altered life re-forms around her. Realizing that her attic is creating an infinite supply of husbands.
Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez
The perfect beach or poolside paperback summer read of 2024 has to be 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 out, and they’ll both go on to find the love of their lives. It’s a bonkers idea… and it just might work.
The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer
This is the IMBC pick for September. The author will also be visiting Franklin, IN courtesy of Wild Geese Bookshop on Friday, July 19th. This story was inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia and is described as a fairytale for adults. We are so excited to read this brand-new book together! The Lost Story hits shelves on July 16th.
Fifteen years after their miraculous homecoming, Rafe is a reclusive artist who still bears scars inside and out but has no memory of what happened during those months. Meanwhile, Jeremy has become a famed missing persons investigator. With his uncanny abilities, he is the one person who can help vet tech Emilie Wendell find her sister, who vanished in the very same forest as Rafe and Jeremy. As boys, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell went missing in a vast West Virginia state forest, only to mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanation for where they’d gone or how they’d survived.
Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age by Katherine May
Lastly, Enchantment by Katherine May is also the August IMBC pick. We loved her previous book, Wintering, and I have no doubt this one will also be a book club member favorite. In Enchantment, May invites the reader to accompany her on a journey to reawaken our innate sense of wonder and awe. With humor, candor, and warmth, she shares stories of her own struggles with work, family, and the aftereffects of the pandemic, particularly feelings of overwhelm as the world rushes to reopen. Craving a different way to live, May begins to explore the restorative properties of the natural world, moving through the elements of earth, water, fire, and air and identifying the quiet traces of magic that can be found only when we look for them.
I hope you have a fantastic summer. Happy reading!
