Summer is officially here, and to me summer is the perfect time to grab a romance novel, pour a cold beverage (preferably the adult kind), put on my cutest bikini, and lounge by the pool. Doesn't that sound like pure heaven? Seriously, there are few things better in this world than reading a book by a body of water.
Whether you are someone who reads romance regularly, or you are someone who is trying to dip their toes into the world of reading, I have recommendations for you! In this post I will give you TEN (okay, fine, one of these recs is a series) summer romance recommendations that are sure to have your heart fluttering.
Let's get into it.
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EVERY SUMMER AFTER by Carley Fortune
Synopsis from Goodreads:
They say you can never go home again, and for Persephone Fraser, ever since she made the biggest mistake of her life a decade ago, that has felt too true. Instead of glittering summers on the lakeshore of her childhood, she spends them in a stylish apartment in the city, going out with friends, and keeping everyone a safe distance from her heart.
Until she receives the call that sends her racing back to Barry’s Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek—the man she never thought she’d have to live without.
For six summers, through hazy afternoons on the water and warm summer nights working in his family’s restaurant and curling up together with books—medical textbooks for him and work-in-progress horror short stories for her—Percy and Sam had been inseparable. Eventually that friendship turned into something breathtakingly more, before it fell spectacularly apart.
When Percy returns to the lake for Sam’s mother’s funeral, their connection is as undeniable as it had always been. But until Percy can confront the decisions she made and the years she’s spent punishing herself for them, they’ll never know whether their love might be bigger than the biggest mistakes of their past.
Told over the course of six years and one weekend, Every Summer After is a big, sweeping nostalgic look at love and the people and choices that mark us forever.
Six summers to fall in love. One moment to fall apart. A weekend to get it right.
My Thoughts:
I LOVED THIS BOOK. If you've followed me on Instagram, you know that this was my FAVORITE book of 2022 and I have been recommending it to everyone who breathes in my direction.
IT HAPPENED ONE SUMMER by Tessa Bailey
Synopsis from Goodreads:
Piper Bellinger is fashionable, influential, and her reputation as a wild child means the paparazzi are constantly on her heels. When too much champagne and an out-of-control rooftop party lands Piper in the slammer, her stepfather decides enough is enough. So he cuts her off, and sends Piper and her sister to learn some responsibility running their late father’s dive bar... in Washington.
Piper hasn’t even been in Westport for five minutes when she meets big, bearded sea captain Brendan, who thinks she won’t last a week outside of Beverly Hills. So what if Piper can’t do math, and the idea of sleeping in a shabby apartment with bunk beds gives her hives. How bad could it really be?
She’s determined to show her stepfather—and the hot, grumpy local—that she’s more than a pretty face. Except it’s a small town and everywhere she turns, she bumps into Brendan.
The fun-loving socialite and the gruff fisherman are polar opposites, but there’s an undeniable attraction simmering between them. Piper doesn’t want any distractions, especially feelings for a man who sails off into the sunset for weeks at a time. Yet as she reconnects with her past and begins to feel at home in Westport, Piper starts to wonder if the cold, glamorous life she knew is what she truly wants. LA is calling her name, but Brendan—and this town full of memories—may have already caught her heart.
My Thoughts:
This was my first Tessa Bailey book (and is still my favorite) and it got me HOOKED on her writing. Seriously though… After I read this book, I read 8 more of her books that month.
Read this book if you love rom-coms and Schitt's Creek. WARNING: This is a SPICY romance book and is only recommended for readers 18+.
HEART BONES by Colleen Hoover
Synopsis from Goodreads:
Life and a dismal last name are the only two things Beyah Grim's parents ever gave her. After carving her path all on her own, Beyah is well on her way to bigger and better things, thanks to no one but herself.
With only two short months separating her from the future she's built and the past she desperately wants to leave behind, an unexpected death leaves Beyah with no place to go during the interim. Forced to reach out to her last resort, Beyah has to spend the remainder of her summer on a peninsula in Texas with a father she barely knows. Beyah's plan is to keep her head down and let the summer slip by seamlessly, but her new neighbor Samson throws a wrench in that plan.
Samson and Beyah have nothing in common on the surface.
She comes from a life of poverty and neglect; he comes from a family of wealth and privilege. But one thing they do have in common is that they're both drawn to sad things. Which means they're drawn to each other. With an almost immediate connection too intense for them to continue denying, Beyah and Samson agree to stay in the shallow end of a summer fling. What Beyah doesn't realize is that a rip current is coming, and it's about to drag her heart out to sea.
TWISTED SERIES by Ana Huang
Book One: Twisted Love
Book Two: Twisted Games
Book Three: Twisted Hate
Book Four: Twisted Lies
My Thoughts:
If I could go back in time and tell myself to stop putting this series off... I would. This series made me feel every feeling known to man. It has drama, humor, moments that will make you cry, and TONS of SPICE.
Technically this is a series of interconnected standalone novels, but I highly recommend you read them all (and in order). The series gets better with each book and all of the characters are in each book, so knowing their individual stories will make your reading experience better.
Here's an idea of what each book is about:
Twisted Love: Follows Alex and Ava. Grumpy x Sunshine trope. Brother's Best Friend romance. Billionaire Romance.
Twisted Games: Follows Bridget and Rhys. Crown Princess x Bodyguard. Forbidden Love Romance.
Twisted Hate: Follows Josh and Jules. Best Friend's Brother romance. Enemies to Lovers. Enemies with benefits.
Twisted Lies: Follows Christian and Stella. Social Media Influencer and Billionaire CEO of a cyber security company. Fake dating. Forced proximity.
PLEASE check trigger warnings for each of these books and be advised that these books are very spicy and for 18+ only.
These books are currently available to read FOR FREE with Kindle Unlimited.
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BEACH READ by Emily Henry
Synopsis from Goodreads:
A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.
Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.
They’re polar opposites.
In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they're living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer's block.
Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.
MY KILLER VACATION by Tessa Bailey
Synopsis from Goodreads:
It was supposed to be a relaxing vacation in sweet, sunny Cape Cod—just me and my beloved brother—but discovering a corpse in our rental house really throws a wrench into our tanning schedule. Now a rude, crude bounty hunter has arrived on the back of his motorcycle to catch the killer and refuses to believe I can be helpful, despite countless hours of true crime podcast listening. Not to mention a fulfilling teaching career of wrangling second graders.
A brash bounty hunter and an energetic elementary schoolteacher: the murder-solving team no one asked for, but thanks to these pesky attempts on my life, we're stuck together, come hell or high tide.
I'm just here to do a job, not babysit an amateur sleuth. Although… it is becoming less and less of a hardship to have her around. Sure, she's stubborn, distracting and can't stay out of harm's way. She's also brave and beautiful and reminds me of the home I left behind three years ago. In other words, the painful hunger and protectiveness she is waking up in me is a threat to my peace of mind. Before I sink any deeper into this dangerous attraction, I need to solve this murder and get back on the road. But will fate take her from me before I realize the road has been leading to her all along?
My Thoughts:
This book is a great mix of spicy romance with mystery and suspense. This book contains spicy scenes and is for 18+ only
MEET ME AT THE LAKE by Carley Fortune
Synopsis from Goodreads:
Fern Brookbanks has wasted far too much of her adult life thinking about Will Baxter. She spent just twenty-four hours in her early twenties with the aggravatingly attractive, idealistic artist, a chance encounter that spiraled into a daylong adventure in Toronto. The timing was wrong, but their connection was undeniable: they shared every secret, every dream, and made a pact to meet one year later. Fern showed up. Will didn't.
At thirty-two, Fern's life doesn't look at all how she once imagined it would. Instead of living in the city, Fern's back home, running her mother's Muskoka lakeside resort--something she vowed never to do. The place is in disarray, her ex-boyfriend's the manager, and Fern doesn't know where to begin.
She needs a plan--a lifeline. To her surprise, it comes in the form of Will, who arrives nine years too late, with a suitcase in tow and an offer to help on his lips. Will may be the only person who understands what Fern's going through. But how could she possibly trust this expensive-suit wearing mirage who seems nothing like the young man she met all those years ago. Will is hiding something, and Fern's not sure she wants to know what it is.
But ten years ago, Will Baxter rescued Fern. Can she do the same for him?
I hope this blog post helped you find a book to read this summer that you can't put down!
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