I, as a person, do not like the beach. It’s too sandy, humid, and my mouth constantly tastes like sunscreen because of how much I have to use to avoid burning. I’m not a fan of swimming in the ocean.
But I, as a reader, love the beach. It gives me an excuse to read an entire book a day, occasionally more. This is, of course, helped along by my fast reading speed, but I digress.
This summer, I read quite a few good books, and I’m pleased to recommend them to you all! All but one of these I read using Libby, connected to my hometown’s library. I suggest checking your local library or Libby to support your local library!
The Perks of Loving a Wallflower by Erica Ridley
I have a bit of a lengthy history with this book. Or, it seems to me like a lengthy history, but can be summed up in a handful of sentences. Two years ago, my roommates and I found this book at Walmart for I think $7, and because I hadn’t read an adult romance novel before, and this was the first WLW adult romance book I’d ever seen, I bought it. …And then subsequently forgot to start reading it for two years. Yeah.
I finally forced myself to start reading The Perks of Loving a Wallflower by bringing it with me to the beach this year. It’s technically the second book in the Wild Wynchesters series, focused around a group of adopted siblings, but I found it easy enough to start with this plot and learn about the characters and context of the story. Which is really impressive in my opinion, since often when you drop yourself in the middle of a series, it’s difficult to gain the proper context for the characters to then appreciate the plot.
Perks is known as a Regency romance, focusing on bluestocking Philippa York and master of disguise Thomasina Wynchester. Thomasina—or Tommy, as she’s better known—is part of the Wynchester family, who is the group of adopted siblings I mentioned earlier. Her siblings play a sort of background role in this novel, and even then seem to be very well-rounded characters that I want to learn more about. The Wynchesters focus on solving various “cases” they’re put on, such as in this novel’s case: “to decode a centuries-old manuscript to keep a modern-day villain from claiming credit for work that wasn’t his.”
This is, as I mentioned, the first romance novel I ever read, and I’m very happy to say it was a greatly entertaining one. Between the quasi-mystery plot, the witty banter between various characters and the growing romance between Philippa and Tommy, I was enjoying this book to the very end. Everything about it felt very well-balanced. I want to read the others in this series when I get a chance!
I do warn, though, for those who aren’t interested in more explicit romance, there are two explicit scenes in this book. It’s easy to skip them, as they’re pretty well-defined and usually confined to one chapter. I also have to take this moment to applaud the way those scenes were written, though, complete with plenty of consent.
Summary: As a master of disguise, Thomasina Wynchester can be a polite young lady—or a bawdy old man. She’ll do whatever it takes to solve the cases her family takes on. But when Tommy’s beautiful new client turns out to be the highborn lady she’s secretly smitten with, more than her mission is at stake…
Bluestocking Miss Philippa York doesn’t believe in love. Her heart didn’t pitter-patter when she was betrothed to a duke, nor did it break when he married someone else. All Philippa desires is to decode a centuries-old manuscript to keep a modern-day villain from claiming credit for work that wasn’t his. She hates that she needs a man’s help to do it—so she’s delighted to discover the clever, charming baron at her side is in fact a woman. But as she and Tommy grow closer and the stakes of their discovery higher, more than just their hearts are at risk.
Anne of Greenville by Mariko Tamaki
Anne of Greenville is, from what I’ve read, a modern retelling of Anne of Green Gables. …Which, full disclosure, I haven’t actually read. I’ve read a couple of Tamaki’s works before, such as the graphic novel This One Summer, so I knew I’d get a good story.
Anne Shirley’s voice in this book is ever-present, and is very unique to this book. I’ve read a lot of coming-of-age YA books in my day, and I can confidently say that Anne’s voice is one of a kind in the best way. The way she describes her experiences and thought processes remind me a bit of my own winding thought processes, haha.
I think one of the best ways to describe parts of this book are cute and colorful. I love how artistic Anne is, and how her interests bleed into the way she exists and tells her story. With that said, this book also comes with a content warning for “experiences relating to racism and homophobia” and includes “offensive language that may be triggering for readers.” I can confirm that this is not an overstatement, and some of it did make me uncomfortable in that I was angry for Anne and the characters who experience the racism and homophobia.
Altogether, I thought it was a good read, though the ending felt a bit quick and easy, but was a satisfying one for the characters nonetheless. It made me want to read the source material, at the very least!
Summary: Anne is an ABBA-loving singer/actor/writer of disco-operas, queer, Japanese-American who longs to be understood for her artistic genius. Recently relocated to middle-of-nowhere Greenville and starting at a new school, Anne has a tendency to A) fall in love quickly, deeply, and effervescently and B) fly off the handle in the face of jerks. Both personality quirks quickly come into play when the soccer team boos the premier of her disco performance, which—in a roundabout way—introduces her to her new BFF, Berry, and she soon after meets the girl of her dreams, Gilly. Falling quickly into that age-old trap of ignoring the best friend for the new crush, Anne soon becomes embroiled in a series of dramatic and unfortunate events, and quickly finds herself wrapped up in a love triangle she never expected. Is she MTB with Gilly? Or is Berry her true soul mate? Only time (or 304 pages) will tell.
Girl Against the universe by paula stokes
From just the summary, I knew I wanted to read Girl Against the Universe sooner rather than later. Usually, sports-focused books like this one aren’t really my thing, especially if I don’t know a lot about the sport (like tennis). However, I was able to look past that from just the first chapter being as compelling as it was.
Maguire’s really been put through a lot in her life, and her inner voice (that we as a reader get to know) doesn’t really let her forget any of it. It’s interesting to me to see a character so unlucky in the ways Maguire was, and to get to know why her thought process exists through her therapy sessions. Since I’ve taken a few psychology sessions myself, I was able to understand a lot of that side of the discussion, though it’s also explained in a clear and concise way for those not already familiar.
That’s not even to mention the romance between her and Jordy being pretty well-written, in my opinion, and the side characters like Maguire’s friend and Jordy’s sister having pretty strong writing despite being side characters. My one complaint is that I’m the kind to fixate on editing mistakes, of which there were only like three in the entire book, but they took me out of the story. Aside from that, this was a very interesting read, and had a couple emotional moments that even made me tear up, which is hard to do with books.
Summary: Maguire knows she’s bad luck. No matter how many charms she buys off the internet or good luck rituals she performs each morning, horrible things happen when Maguire is around. Like that time her brother, father, and uncle were all killed in a car crash—and Maguire walked away with barely a scratch. But then on her way out of her therapist’s office, she meets Jordy, an aspiring tennis star, who wants to help Maguire break her unlucky streak. Maguire knows that the best thing she can do for Jordy is to stay away, but staying away may be harder than she thought.
At the Speed of Lies by Cindy L. Otis
Now, I’m a huge mystery lover. Most of the mysteries I tend to read are set in high school, though none of them are really missing persons cases; more murders. Likely the influence of being a Danganronpa fan, if you know what I mean.
Anyway! At the Speed of Lies sets up a really intriguing mystery of sorts, and is super eerie both in that and the fact that it takes place in Canandaigua, which is only 45 minutes from Geneseo and an hour from my hometown, which is basically the closet to my home I’ve ever read. This is also a strange case for me as a read, since among the many things I’m terrified of, being abducted is one of them, and that is what this book focuses on (for the most part). My fears tend to hinge on things that could feasibly happen, and oh boy does this book capture that fear.
With that said, I thoroughly enjoyed this and got legitimately scared for Quinn, the main character, towards the end. I loved Quinn as a character, and thought it was amazing to see a disabled main character written by a disabled author—something that sadly isn’t very common.
And speaking of the author, Cindy L. Otis is AMAZING? This was her debut novel, a super recent release since it came out in June of this year, but she was formerly an intelligence analyst for the CIA and is commonly cited by the New York Times and CNN. She really played to her strengths with this book, and it very much paid off. I can’t say enough good things about this book, which also includes very good information about the spread of lies and conspiracies, especially in the age of social media.
Summary: Quinn Calvet was supposed to be having an epic year. She had all kinds of plans with her best friend, Ximena, and sister, Ava, and to grow her following as an influencer on The Whine. Instead, Quinn finds herself third wheel to Ximena and her new boyfriend or get ditched by Ava who has turned into an overachiever, obsessed with studying and joining every school club. It brings up Quinn’s old feelings that her disability has her left behind. She tries to talk to Ava about it, but she’s too busy with the newest club at school, Defend Kids, which is working frantically to help find two kids who were recently kidnapped from a nearby town.
Suddenly, Defend Kids is all anyone is talking about, and whenever Quinn posts about them on The Whine, she gains tons of new followers and her posts go viral. As the club works to get the message out, more kids in the surrounding area go missing, but it seems like the police and the media aren’t doing much about it. When two of Quinn’s classmates are kidnapped, the dangers that Defend Kids is trying to fight become all too real.
As Quinn and her friends search for the missing kids, tensions escalate at school, there’s an uptick in bullying, and conspiracy theories abound. Before she knows it, Quinn and The Whine are at the center of it all, trying to find out what’s really happening. Only the truth might be more deadly than anyone knows…
Love from Scratch by Kaitlyn Hill
Love From Scratch to me is like a really good Hallmark film. The premise is very cute and niche in a way, with the main character Reese being an intern at a popular cooking channel that is hosted on a particular streaming service (if I understood that right). Reese herself is already a fish out of water, since she’s from Kentucky and the internship is in Seattle.
And because this is a romance story, I have to talk about the love interest, Benny. From his introduction and the summary, I was so worried that he would fall into the jerk-with-a-heart-of-gold trope, which is actually one of my least favorites since it’s hardly ever done justice, at least in my opinion. Benny is actually just the sweetest dork, and has the same amount of character depth as Reese does. I can very honestly say: I need a man like Benny in my life.
This book is all-around fun and cute, and also has its share of feminism in the workplace, which fit in quite well if you ask me. Additionally, it was refreshing to see a YA romance set in a non-high school setting, as both Reese and Benny are setting up for the rest of their lives in terms of college and career choices. If nothing else, I’d recommend this book for the adorable romance and Reese’s Southern charm.
Summary: This summer, Reese Camden is trading sweet tea and Southern hospitality for cold brew and crisp coastal air. She’s landed her dream marketing internship at Friends of Flavor, a wildly popular cooking channel in Seattle. The only problem? Benny Beneventi, the relentlessly charming, backwards-baseball-cap-wearing culinary intern—and her main competition for the fall job.
Reese’s plan to keep work a No Feelings Zone crumbles like a day-old muffin when she and Benny are thrown together for a video shoot that goes viral, making them the internet’s newest ship. Audiences are hungry for more, and their bosses at Friends of Flavor are happy to deliver. Soon Reese and Benny are in an all-out food war, churning homemade ice cream, twisting soft pretzels, breaking eggs in an omelet showdown—while hundreds of thousands of viewers watch.
Reese can’t deny the chemistry between her and Benny. But the more their rivalry heats up, the harder it is to keep love on the back burner…
How to Excavate a heart by jake maia arlow
Okay, it wouldn’t be a proper week at the beach without at lease one book that takes place in the winter!
Just like Love From Scratch, How to Excavate a Heart gave me Hallmark vibes in the best of ways. These two books also share the similarity of not taking place in high school (for once), as Shani is participating in a paleoichthyology internship when she meets May, her love interest. We love a good queer romance!
I got through this book a lot quicker than most of the others on this list, though I don’t know if that’s due to length (as I read on my Kindle and didn’t pay attention to page numbers throughout the week) or this just being an easy read. Regardless, I came away satisfied with almost everything in this book.
My one sticking point is that none of the several side characters (like Shani’s housemates, her boss at her internship or May’s dad) were given much development, but I’m willing to look past that due to how refreshing it is to see a main character (two, actually, including May) with a very specific interest. Tell me you’ve read another book that discusses paleoichthyology or meteorology at length! This book was a great way to end off my week at the beach.
Summary: It all starts when Shani runs into May. Like, literally. With her mom’s Subaru.
Attempted vehicular manslaughter was not part of Shani’s plan. She was supposed to be focusing on her monthlong paleoichthyology internship. She was going to spend all her time thinking about dead fish and not at all about how she was unceremoniously dumped days before winter break.
It could be going better.
But when a dog-walking gig puts her back in May’s path, the fossils she’s meant to be diligently studying are pushed to the side—along with the breakup.
Then they’re snowed in together on Christmas Eve. As things start to feel more serious, though, Shani’s hurt over her ex-girlfriend’s rejection comes rushing back. Is she ready to try a committed relationship again, or is she okay with this just being a passing winter fling?