If you’re looking for books to read this summer (or any time for that matter!), we’ve got you covered with titles to fit everyone’s interest, recommended by experts at our local book shop. There’s even a discount code specifically for our readers to boot!
DISCOUNT CODE: FOUNTAIN
Beach weather is upon us, and we’re back with our annual summer reading list, curated by our friends at Pocket Books, who always manage to guide their customers to the perfect book.
First things first. What are the discount code details?
All Fountain Avenue Kitchen readers can use the discount code FOUNTAIN at check out (online or in store) at Pocket Books Shop to receive 15% off the suggested titles below – or any of their other titles! – through 8/31/24.
And now on to the summer reading list, with special thanks to Pocket Books Shop:
Truth be told, Team Pocket Books is not by nature a crew of summer girlies.
We aren’t beach bums, we prefer to avoid most, if not all, outdoor activities, and we really would rather be cozy under blankets with big mugs of hot drinks.
But!
We do love summer reads – thrillers in tropical locales, steamy vacation romances, delicious summer-before-college YA novels, escapist romps of all climes. Give us a big ol’ floppy paperback and a stretch of uninterrupted minutes in the sun, and we’re happy.
So, without further ado, here are a few of the books we think will be surefire hits for your summer reading list!
Funny Story by Emily Henry
Emily Henry is the queen of contemporary romance for a reason! She consistently writes swoony love stories that are smart, thoughtful, and full of big-hearted characters that immediately feel like your closest friends. Funny Story is a delightful story of making lemonade out of some very undesired lemons. Daphne’s new roommate Miles is scruffy, chaotic, and every bit her opposite…and he’s also her ex-fiance’s new fiance’s ex-boyfriend.
Daphne had been on the cusp of a perfect new life, in a beautiful new town with an excellent job and the dreamiest soon-to-be-husband who, unfortunately, came home from his bachelor party with the realization that he was actually in love with his childhood best friend, Petra. So, Daphne is stuck splitting rent with the boyfriend Petra left behind, and while drowning their sorrows together, they form a tenuous friendship and hatch a plan that may or may not involve posting some deliberately misleading photos of their new relationship. It’s all for show, of course. Unless…
All three of us LOVED this book! It was one of our most anticipated titles of 2024, and it did not disappoint at all. Daphne is a buttoned-up, white-knuckled heroine, and Miles is chaos in Crocs – watching them learn how to trust each other and, more importantly, themselves, is absolutely everything we want in a romance. Do NOT miss this one!
Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Abike-Ilymide
Sade hasn’t had the luckiest life, but she’s hopeful as she enters the prestigious Alfred Nobel Academy boarding school for her junior year after being homeschooled. It seems misfortune hasn’t left her side yet, though, as her new roommate Elizabeth disappears on her first night, and people begin to wonder if Sade had something to do with it. Sade falls in with a trio of notorious girls and begins to investigate Elizabeth’s disappearance. When a student is found dead, Sade digs deeper and begins to suspect that there’s more to the Academy than she first thought.
This is one of those edge-of-your-seat reads that shines a light on very real problems that plague elite campuses across the country. Abike-Iyimide’s prose is beautiful, and she creates a world both surreal and suffused with secrets, with complex characters and relationships with depth. If you’re looking for a good ‘dark academia’ time, this is a great option!
The Phoenix Bride by Natasha Siegel
Looking for an immersive historical fiction novel to dive into? Set between the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London, The Phoenix Bride follows Cecilia, a young widow who is so ill with grief that her sister hires doctor after doctor to try to cure her. Dr. David Mendes is one of her last hopes—he is different from the other London doctors they’ve tried in that he is Portuguese and Jewish and he favors herbal remedies over leeching. His heart is also aching as his dear friend died of Plague before David could confess his feelings to him.
David and Cecilia feel a deep connection with one another, but David fears their differences are too great for them to be together. The romance in this book is a slow burn (though things do heat up while London is on fire), but the passion is deep and the yearning is strong! If you like big feelings, forbidden love, and high stakes, this one’s for you!
Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings
Ok, we know that this is technically a summer reading list, but we had to sneak in this pitch-perfect springtime romance! Late Bloomer follows one woman’s attempts to de-disaster her life after a surprise lottery win left her helpless to say no to a seemingly endless stream of people asking for cash. Thoroughly disillusioned, Opal decides to sink almost all of her remaining winnings into a failing flower farm in North Carolina so that she can relax amidst the blooms and start the painting business of her dreams. Peace escapes her as soon as she sets foot on Thistle and Bloom Farms, as she finds a very angry flower farmer insisting that the farm belongs to her. Grumpy Pepper and sweet Opal strike up a deal to cohabitate and make the best of things, despite their tendency to butt heads at every turn.
Jessica can’t stop raving about this absolute delight of a book, which she insists was written just for her. This feel-good getaway is sweet and spicy, with an autistic main character and great neurodiversity representation. Also, stunning cover art by the inimitable Jenifer Prince!
The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
The Husbands was our April Pocket Pick, our monthly subscription service in which we select our favorite early career novel & include an introductory letter & a letter of analysis with each package.Pocket Picks is our favorite program here at Pocket Books (shh, don’t tell the others), partially because we love supporting debut and early-career authors and partially because we never fail to find a fantastic book that we might’ve otherwise missed.The Husbands is a total gem on all counts! Gramazio introduces us to our main character as she comes home from a night out to find a man in her home claiming to be her husband–except she’s not married. But actually according to the background on her phone, she is. As it turns out, her attic is producing husbands such that any time one goes up there, a new one comes down
Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K. Reilly
We couldn’t be contained to just one Pocket Pick – we also have to recommend our February Pick, which we just loved to pieces. This book, set in New Zealand, follows two siblings who are just trying to make life work in their twenties. They live together in Aukland and see their parents frequently. Their father works at the university where Greta studies and where Valdin dropped out of his career in physics to work in TV and film. Greta and Valdin both have good relationships with their parents and their extended family including their uncle and grandfather, perhaps prompting the Schitt’s Creek comps in early promos for the US release of the novel.
The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins
When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. As a child, she was a famous kidnapping victim, and as an adult, she was a widow four times over and the glamorous head diva of Ashby House, her family’s estate. Her adopted son Cam just wants to escape the drama, renouncing his inheritance and escaping to a ‘normal’ life with his new wife, Jules. A decade later, though, Ashby House tightens its grip on Cam, and he finds himself back in North Carolina, sifting through the detritus of his late mother’s mysteries.
Who doesn’t love a domestic thriller with secrets on secrets on secrets. Unravel these mysteries and try to figure out who you can root for. We love reading about monied people behaving badly; Rachel Hawkins delivers!
The Project by Courtney Summers
We are HUGE fans of Courtney Summers and her prickly, heartbreaking heroines. The Project is, like all of Courtney’s books, an absolute stunner of a novel. It’s a sister story, a cult story, a trauma story, and the unforgettable exploration of the lengths we’ll go to find somewhere we belong.In 2011, Lo is saved from the wreckage of the devastating car accident that killed her parents; her savior is none other than Lev Warren, the charismatic leader of The Unity Project. When Lo wakes up in recovery, she discovers that not only has she lost her parents, but her beloved older sister Bea has left too–to join the Project, where she’s been promised safety from harm.
Six years later, Lo is an aspiring journalist who launches her own investigation into the Project and Warren himself in a desperate attempt to reconnect with her sister. Warren reveals that Bea left him, too, but he’s willing to help Lo anyway…for a price. This book absolutely wrecked us in all the best ways–it’s worth many, many rereads!
Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez
Xochitl Gonzalez has followed her unreal debut, Olga Dies Dreaming, with another absolute masterpiece. This book takes place in the art world in dual timelines, both following women in relationships with power imbalances–one a Puerto Rican first gen college student in the ’90s, and the other a Cuban-American artist in the ’70s and ’80s.Both worlds are richly drawn, and you’ll be unable to walk away from these women trying to figure out their needs and boundaries as men impinge upon them. The book asks us to think about whether art can be separated from the artist, whose stories we remember, and whether there’s room for more than one person’s success in a relationship. It is so compelling, so well told, and so perfectly framed to examine critical issues within the context of the story it tells.
We absolutely loved this book and chose it for our April book club discussion–it was, by far, the most popular book we’ve ever picked! Our readers were totally enamored, and you will be too!
An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin
You might be thinking ‘these women are nuts for recommending a 500-page nonfiction tome as summer reading’ and you might be right! But there’s something undeniable about Doris Kearns Goodwin’s delicious mix of history and memoir that just makes us want to crack this beauty open while enjoying a glass of something cold on the patio.
A firsthand account of the Kennedy years and Johnson’s Great Society, wrapped up in the story of an unforgettable marriage of two world-class minds.
An Unfinished Love Story is the result of Doris and Dick Goodwin’s careful dig through more than 300 boxes of letters, diaries, and documents that the two had saved for over fifty years.
The Only Way Through Is Out by Suzette Mullen
Suzette is a Lancaster icon for a reason! We were lucky enough to host the release party for her remarkable memoir earlier this year, and we’ve heard nothing but rave reviews from readers. The Only Way Through Is Out chronicles Suzette’s midlife realization that she’s been in love with her best friend for nearly two decades and her terrifyingly brave decision to leave behind the ‘perfect’ life she’d always thought she wanted–multiple degrees, a kind and successful husband, two thriving adult sons, a luxurious vacation home, etc.–in pursuit of something new.
This is a coming-out and a coming-of-age story with so much heart. It’s the perfect call to action for anyone longing to live authentically but afraid of the potential cost.
HUGE thanks to the team at Pocket Books Shop for this beautiful list of summer reads. Don’t forget our reader code FOUNTAIN to get 15% off all book purchases from them through the end of August. Tell us below, which title will you be picking up?
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