10 Awesome (S)ummertime Reads To Add To Your Reading List

Since we both use Goodreads to track the books we’ve read, we can use it to look back at our faves. We want to shout out to these awesome books we read in summers past – and encourage you to read them, if you haven’t already.

Tanya –

The Nest, Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney

I’m not a big contemporary fan, but I get why this book is so popular. The author did an amazing job with the characters. They were totally relatable, and also the situations they were in was so well interwoven into the story that I loved seeing everything unveil. I listened to the audiobook, narrated superbly by Mia Barton.

Every family has its problems. But even among the most troubled, the Plumb family stands out as spectacularly dysfunctional

Heart-Shaped Box, Joe Hill

Heart-Shaped Box is full of tension and mystery and the plot will pull you along – making you want to figure out what the hell is happening – and whats going to happen.

Aging, self-absorbed rock star Judas Coyne has a thing for the macabre — his collection includes sketches from infamous serial killer John Wayne Gacy, a trepanned skull from the 16th century, a used hangman’s noose, Aleister Crowley’s childhood chessboard, etc. — so when his assistant tells him about a ghost for sale on an online auction site, he immediately puts in a bid and purchases it.

The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins

We both really enjoyed this fast paced thriller. It’ll keep you guessing and page turning as quick as you can.

Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning and night. Every day the same. Until today. She swears she sees something shocking. It’s only for a split second and the train keeps on rattling down the track. Rachel can’t stop obsessing about it and everything changes.

Kim –

Half Bad, Sally Green

This book had been sitting on my shelf for ages. For some reason I finally picked it up last summer. I ended up flying through all three books and loving them so much!

Sixteen-year-old Nathan lives in a cage: beaten, shackled, trained to kill. In a modern-day England where two warring factions of witches live amongst humans, Nathan is an abomination, the illegitimate son of the world’s most terrifying and violent witch, Marcus. Nathan’s only hope for survival is to escape his captors, track down Marcus

The Girl With All The Gifts, M.R. Carey

I love a good zombie story so it was an automatic ‘yes’ when Tanya suggested I read this. Seriously, so good!

Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don’t like her. She jokes that she won’t bite, but they don’t laugh.

A Gathering of Shadows, V.E. Schwab

I still haven’t finished this series, mostly because I don’t want it to end. I love it when the second book in a series lives up to the first. I wasn’t disappointed with this one.

It has been four months since a mysterious obsidian stone fell into Kell’s possession. Four months since his path crossed with Delilah Bard. Four months since Prince Rhy was wounded, and since the nefarious Dane twins of White London fell, and four months since the stone was cast with Holland’s dying body through the rift–back into Black London.

Uprooted, Naomi Novik

I can’t even tell you how many times Tanya and I have raved about this one on the blog. Basically, go read this now!

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life. Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.

We love tracking our reading and looking back on it. Last summer proved to be a really good season for books!