The best books about summer are perfect for adults to read on lazy, hazy days this year. Summer is when many readers try to catch up on reading, which makes it all the harder to pick the best seasonal reads.
That’s why I read as many as possible over several years and showcased the best of all time here. Browse the list to find the right book for your summer self-care below!
List of the Best Books About Summer for Adults (By Genre)
TOP 3 PICKS
28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand: best for fans of same time next year romances
Just For the Summer by Abby Jimenez: best for fans of fake dating romances
One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle: best for fans of Gilmore Girls
METHODOLOGY
To pare this list of the best summer books down to a manageable size, I decided to include ONLY books I have read and recommend and ONLY books with summer in the title, so as to focus on books that have summer at their core. I’m also limiting the number of books to 25 and refining it over time as I read more summer-themed books.
Romance Novels and Rom-Coms
- 28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand
- Every Summer After by Carley Fortune
- Just For the Summer by Abby Jimenez
- Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monaghan
- Summer Fridays by Suzanne Rindell
- Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan
- This Summer Will Be Different by Carely Fortune
Light Mystery Novels
- All the Summers in Between by Brooke Lea Foster
- Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner
- Summers at the Saint by Mary Kay Andrews
- The Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams
Beach Reads
- The Edge of Summer by Viola Shipman
- The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner
- Summer on the Bluffs by Sunny Hostin
Historical Fiction
- A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams
- Summer of ’69 by Elin Hilderbrand
- Summer Darlings by Brooke Lea Foster
- Summer Sisters by Judy Blume
Young Adult (YA) Novels Adults Will Love
- The Summer of Broken Rules by K.L. Walther
- The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
Other Summer-Themed Fiction
- Jackpot Summer by Elyssa Friedland
- One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle
- Last Summer at the Golden Hotel by Elyssa Friedland
- The Summer of Songbirds by Kristy Woodson Harvey
- That Summer by Jennifer Weiner
Reviews of the Best Summer Books of All Time (In Alphabetical Order)
Read these books about Summer in The Literary Lifestyle’s Summer Reading Challenge.
28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand
28 Summers has it all: a preppy Nantucket setting. It’s light but still has substance. It has well-drawn-out characters and realistic (yet clever) dialogue. Lastly, it’s compulsively readable.
It’s a summer romance novel about two people, Mallory Blessing and Jake McCloud, who decide to have a “same time next year” meeting that lasts each Labor Day weekend over the course of, you guessed it, 28 Summers. Naturally, this becomes more complicated with age, marriage, and kids.
While I can normally be critical about books that glamorize affairs, this book did it in a really smart way. It showed that all relationships are different and complex.
Finally, my favorite part was that each “year” included a rundown of all the pop culture items we were talking about at the time.
Related Posts: Best Elin Hilderbrand Books | Elin Hilderbrand Books in Order
All the Summers in Between by Brooke Lea Foster
All the Summers In Between transports the reader to the Hamptons in 1967 and 1977. There, the rebellious visitor Margot meets and befriends a reliable local, Thea. But, after their music-filled summer of sun and fun, a terrible incident drives them apart.
Ten summers later, Thea is a stay-at-home mom dreaming of self-fulfillment through art. Margot secretly returns and brings with her more problems that need fixing. Thea wants to help, yet she also doesn’t trust Margot based on the past.
This is quite a complex female friendship! It shows the power some people have to force others outside their comfort zone, for better and for worse.
The book balanced many things just right. It takes the reader back in time without ever feeling too historical, and it offers a light mystery without ever feeling too much like a thriller. I also loved how the “secret” from the past unfolded methodically over the course of the novel.
Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner
Big Summer is a Cape Cod wedding-turned-murder mystery involving young social media influencers. It maintains a light tone and reads very easily, making it a good beach read from an author like Elin Hilderbrand.
Six years after a fallout, Daphne is surprised when her former best friend, Drue, asks her to be the maid-of-honor at her high-profile wedding. Despite their estrangement and Daphne’s new life as a plus-size Instagram influencer, she is allured by Drue’s world.
It’s a modern tale of female friendship that explores what it’s like to live life online.
The Edge of Summer by Viola Shipman
The Edge of Summer blends a few genres, including mystery, family drama, and romance. All of these genres are handled lightly and with saccharine tones, weaving themes of “buttons,” sewing, and small-town charm into the narrative.
Sutton is grieving the loss of her mother when she learns her mother may have lied when she said her family all died in a house fire.
This leads her to a charming lake town in Michigan, where she meets a handsome athlete-turned-antique shop owner (yes, really!) and “unravels” the dark secrets of the past over the course of the summer.
Every Summer After by Carley Fortune
Every Summer After has become one of the most popular summer love stories. It emotionally taps into the nostalgia of first love and second chances with characters you’ll root for.
Over the course of six summers in Barry’s Bay, teenagers Persephone and Sam fall in love. Then, one Thanksgiving tears them apart. Years later, Persephone returns to Barry’s Bay for the funeral of Sam’s mother, and she must face how she feels about him after all this time.
This romance novel offers friendship, love, angst, conflict, family, and more. You’ll love it as much as everyone else does!
Related Post: Carley Fortune Books | Every Summer After Review
A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams
A Hundred Summers is a salacious book about summer masterfully connects the hurricane of 1938, which decimated a shore town in Rhode Island, to fiction.
It’s the story of glamorous Lily Dane and her old college football-playing flame, who shows up for a summer at Seaview, Rhode Island, married to her friend (or, as one may say, “frenemy”).
That’s just the beginning of the drama and interconnectedness of these characters. A passive-aggressive summer comes to a head when the great hurricane hits.
Jackpot Summer by Elyssa Friedland
Jackpot Summer is a unique summer read because it offers a family drama but maintains a light tone.
It also offers a really creative plot: four adult siblings are struggling in life and with their grief of their mother’s death. Three of them join forces to buy lottery tickets, but the wealthiest sibling declines. They win and become instant millionaires, which should solve all of their problems, right?! Wrong.
The predicaments caused by their striking gold are both humorous and thought-provoking. It’s unlike any family saga I’ve read!
Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez
Just For the Summer proves that Abby Jimenez can continue to deliver everything her readers love.
Every woman Justin dates finds her soulmate just after breaking up with him. In a twist of fate, he meets, Emma, who is similarly “cursed.” Together, they create a plan to date each other and break up, so they can go on to live happily ever after with someone else.
They connect deeper than expected over their “mommy” issues. But, the chaos left by Emma’s mom just may be too complicated to make the plan work.
This novel features my favorite couple in Abby Jimenez’s books. They are quirky, loveable, have great chemistry, and support each other through difficult life issues. There is also one spicy scene for steamy romance lovers!
It’s great for those who like a little bit of realistic drama in their escape reads.
Related Post: Just For the Summer Book Review
Last Summer at the Golden Hotel by Elyssa Friedland
Last Summer at the Golden Hotel is a great light novel about The Golden Hotel, the hottest resort in the Catskills for more than sixty years. But the Catskills have lost their luster, and so has the relationship between the two families that own it.
As everything begins to fall apart, both figuratively and literally, an offer to purchase the property brings these two families together to decide its fate.
In the process, old secrets and new drama emerge. Business and pleasure converge in this light, nostalgia-filled story filled with memorable characters.
One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle
Set on the Amalfi coast, One Italian Summer follows Katy’s solo “vacation” after the death of her beloved mother.
Magical realism comes into play when Kary meets a woman who doesn’t just look like her mother but appears to be her mother at age 30. This changes the course of Katy’s grief and her life. Plus, there’s a twist you won’t see coming.
Serle is known for blending grief with magical realism, and she’s at her best here. It’s immersive, emotional, and memorable.
Pro Tip: This is one of the best audiobooks of all-time, perfectly narrated by Gilmore Girls’ own charming mother, Lauren Graham. I highly recommend this version.
Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monaghan
Same Time Next Summer is about a woman whose seemingly perfect life is disrupted when she unexpectedly runs into her first love during a visit to her family’s Long Island beach house.
Despite being engaged to her doctor fiancé and having a career in Manhattan, her surprise encounter stirs up old feelings and memories, including why they parted ways.
She grapples with the undeniable connection and is forced to reassess her life. It’s a super satisfying seasonal read that captures the magic of first love.
Summer of ’69 by Elin Hilderbrand
Summer of ’69 perfectly blends historical fiction, family drama, and pop culture. The plot follows the Levin family during a monumental summer on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.
While they usually all spend the summer in Nantucket with their grandmother, this year, Blair is pregnant with twins in Boston, Kirby is working in Martha’s Vineyard, Tiger is fighting in Vietnam, and only young Jessie is vacationing with their grandmother on Nantucket.
When the Summer of ’69 heats up, Senator Ted Kennedy’s car sinks in Chappaquiddick in Martha’s Vineyard, causing the death of a woman. And, a man flies to the moon, all amidst a backdrop of civil rights and war.
Summer of ’69 immerses you in the family’s lives and transports you to the 1960s at the same time, making for an extremely satisfying read. I could not stop researching the book’s historical context!
Related Post: Best Books About Martha’s Vineyard
Summer on the Bluffs by Sunny Hostin
Summer on the Bluffs takes place in my favorite summer hot spot, Martha’s Vineyard, and it’s filled with diverse characters and viewpoints.
A wealthy godmother of three twentysomething women invites them to spend one last summer with her before she chooses one to whom she will give the island estate come summer’s end.
Each of these goddaughters deals with life issues during this time. Meanwhile, their godmother also reveals the secrets behind her becoming part of their lives, which may forever change their relationships.
Read this one for a Martha’s Vineyard setting, light family drama, and diverse characters.
The Summer of Broken Rules by K.L. Walther
The Summer of Broken Rules was inspired by Taylor Swift’s songs!
Meredith is a teen coping with the loss of her beloved sister when she visits the family’s Martha’s Vineyard island farm for a week that will culminate in her cousin’s wedding.
Prior to the wedding, the family plays a competitive game of Assassin and, in an attempt to win it all in memory of her sister, Meredith forms an alliance with a cute groomsman named Wit.
But it’s not all fun and games when their adventures around the island stir up romantic feelings.
It’s filled with all those warm and fuzzy feelings of lighthearted young summer love.
Related Post: Taylor Swift Book Recommendations
Summer Darlings by Brooke Lea Foster
Summer Darlings is both historical and dramatic as a soap opera. It made me think of what the 1960s on Martha’s Vineyard may have felt like for the Kennedys.
In 1962, Brooklyn coed Heddy becomes a nanny for a wealthy family on Martha’s Vineyard.
As she gets an insider’s look into the lives of the rich and famous and dates various island men of different classes, she comes of age as she ultimately questions whether a rich lifestyle will solve her problems or create more of them.
There’s even some suspense! Read it for a historical fiction narrative that feels juicy at the same time.
Summer Fridays by Suzanne Rindell
Summer Fridays takes the reader back to New York City in the early 2000s. Sawyer is an engaged aspiring writer who works in publishing. Her fiance has been spending long hours at work with his female colleague, which makes Sawyer and the colleague’s boyfriend, Nick, suspicious.
Over emails, Sawyer and Nick grow to like each other, and they begin spending their “Summer Fridays” around town. Not only do they have to figure out whether their spouses are cheating, but whether what they really want is each other.
It felt so refreshing to bookishly travel back to a time when people wrote back and forth to each other with so much meaning. And, of course, New York City was the perfect backdrop for this. The story remains light and engaging throughout.
The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
The Summer I Turned Pretty begins a trilogy that follows teenage “Belly” as she, her single mom, and her brother visit their shared beach house with her mom’s friend and her two sons.
It’s about how a young teen starts to bloom from that awkward stage to that “getting noticed” by boys stage. But, as life in the beach house takes a difficult turn, the course of Belly’s teenage life forever changes.
If you like dramatic YA romance books, you are bound to enjoy it.
Tip: The Amazon Prime TV series adaptation is fantastic.
Related Post: The Summer I Turned Pretty Trilogy
The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner
The Summer Place is the story of Sarah, who is shocked when her twenty-two-year-old stepdaughter, Ruby, announces her engagement to her pandemic boyfriend. Ruby wants the wedding to be held at Sarah’s family’s Cape Cod home before it’s sold.
As the big wedding day approaches, generations of women encounter family drama. And, when the wedding day finally arrives, secrets that change everyone forever are revealed.
It’s a big-hearted story about family sacrifice.
Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan
The title of this one says it all. Summer Romance? Yes, please!
Everything is going wrong in Ali’s life, as a single mom and divorcee whose mother had died, when her dog claims a man for her — by peeing on him.
Since summer romances are so light and non-committal, she takes a chance. As they each help each other through some “hard stuff,” though, she starts falling hard.
This book balances the light and heavy sides of life just right. The heavy stuff makes the couple feel real, and the light stuff makes the book feel romantic. It’s not spicy, and it’s super breezy to read.
Summers at the Saint by Mary Kay Andrews
You’re either a “Saint” or you ain’t! Summers at the Saint is exactly what you’d expect from a summer mystery with a Southern twist.
St. Cecelia is a historic hotel in coastal Georgia. Traci, once an outsider, now finds herself a widowed owner striving to restore the property to its glory.
She struggles with everything from staff shortages to financial woes, family drama, and even another death that hits close to home. With the help of the summer staff, she uncovers secrets of both a past drowning and this recent tragic death. Meanwhile, her love life also heats up.
I’m calling it a cozy Southern mystery. It reads like an episode of Southern Charm but with even more scandal and intrigue.
Summer Sisters by Judy Blume
Summer Sisters is a modern summer classic. It’s the summer of 1977 and Victoria’s life forever changes when dazzling and reckless Caitlin becomes her friend. Vix enters the world of privilege, which is filled with exclusive vacations on Martha’s Vineyard.
Years later, Vix is working in New York City, and Caitlin is getting married on Martha’s Vineyard. Although their friendship has faded, Caitlin begs Vix to come to be her maid of honor.
Vix agrees to go because she wants to better understand what happened during their last Summer.
Summer Sisters is one book I didn’t want to end, and I have saved my copy since the late 1990s.
The Summer of Songbirds by Kristy Woodson Harvey
The Summer of Songbirds has all those nostalgic summer camp vibes. It mixes the depth of real-life drama and conflict with the lightheartedness of a top beach read.
Three decades prior, June developed Camp Holly Springs into a summer retreat for girls, including her beloved niece, Daphne, but now its future is at stake.
Meanwhile, Daphne and her old Summer camp friends Lanier and Mary Stuart are still in touch, navigating all of life’s “hard things” together as adults.
Lanier is engaged, but she is tempted by an old flame. Daphne is keen to a business secret about Lanier’s fiance that she can’t tell. At the same time, Daphne herself reignites the spark of an old flame (Lanier’s brother), which is a relationship Lanier has not been keen on.
These conflicts, along with the demons of addiction and the hardships of single parenthood, come to a head when the women unite to save the camp.
It’s not as dark as it may seem. The characters and their friendships feel both real and mature. These are women used to coping with “hard things” together, and they do so as they work on their love lives.
The Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams
The Summer Wives is a dramatic historical fiction book reminded me of such great books as Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Rules of Civility, and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Need I say more?!
As far as I am concerned, Summer Wives doesn’t need a review or a summary. If you like the above books, just read it! It’s filled with the escapist drama of the rich and famous on an exclusive island, with some added mystery.
That Summer by Jennifer Weiner
That Summer is not your typical narrative compared to the other best books about summer. It starts as a teenage Diana heads to Cape Cod to babysit for the summer. I envisioned a sweet, nostalgia-filled season. Then, it happened. She was raped.
Decades later, she’s still struggling to cope with the trauma of her rape, when she begins an online friendship with another woman named Diana. But, their acquaintance wasn’t by chance after all, and there’s a whole lot more to unpack in this unlikely friendship.
Despite the difficult subject matter, it was utterly captivating and really beautifully told.
This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune
This Summer Will Be Different transports the reader to Prince Edward Island for a picturesque love story with countless nods to Anne of Green Gables.
Years ago, while visiting her best friend Bridget’s beach house, Lucy had an electrifying rendezvous with Bridget’s brother, Felix. The problem? Bridget specifically forbade Lucy from falling in love with him. Over the years, their chemistry remains both palpable and secret.
Now, Bridget is getting married, and she frantically calls Lucy and Felix to the beach house just days before the wedding to help her cope with her own secret. Lucy and Felix must confront their feelings again.
This book made me want to jump on a plane! Beyond the perfect setting and lovable couple, there is also a good deal of spice for the steamy romance readers out there.
Summer Reading Tips
TIPS
- Over the summer, read light books set at beaches, lakes, and other sunny destinations. Elin Hilderbrand is known for these types of books, so her works are a good place to start.
- Select a mix of genres, such as romance and mystery, that have light narratives and/or summer settings, especially at seasonal hot spots. Also consider catching up on the most popular books of the year so far.
Recap
TOP 3 PICKS
Get started with the best books about summer:
- Every Summer After by Carley Fortune
- Just For the Summer by Abby Jimenez
- Summer of ’69 by Elin Hilderbrand
remember, it’s a good day to read a book. – jules
