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Summer Reads for 2021: Buzzed-About Fiction

The books on this list are all about that easy reading vibe required in summer. Everyone is going to be talking about the books on this list, so better request them now!

24 articles from news sites, magazines, and blogs were used to find which fiction books are going to be talked about most this summer. Well over 200 books were mentioned. The best of the best are divided into 3 tiers, based on how many recommendations they garnered. 
 

Most Recommended

Cover of The Summer Job
Lizzy
Dent

Everyone imagines running away from their life at some point. But Birdy has actually done it. When her world class wine expert best friend ditches a summer job at a highland Scottish hotel, Birdy wonders if she can survive the summer pretending to be her, especially when she falls in love with a man who thinks she is someone else.

Cover of The Other Black Girl
Zakiya Dalila
Harris

The Other Black Girl is an electric debut about the tension that unfurls when two young Black women meet against the starkly white backdrop of New York City book publishing. A whip-smart and dynamic thriller and sly social commentary that is perfect for anyone who has ever felt manipulated, threatened, or overlooked in the workplace. Available to download: eBook | Audio

Cover of The People We Meet on Vaca
Emily
Henry

With one week to win back the best friend she might just be in love with, a travel writer plans the trip of a lifetime. Flashbacks to each past summer trip make for fun travelogues that highlight both characters' understandable but frustrating refusal to discuss their feelings. Available to download: eBook | Audio

Cover of One Last Stop
Casey
McQuiston

When August realizes her subway crush is impossible in more ways than one--namely, displaced in time from the 1970s--she thinks maybe it's time to start believing. Casey McQuiston's One Last Stop is a magical, sexy, big-hearted romance where the impossible becomes possible as August does everything in her power to save the girl lost in time. Available to download: eBook | Audio

Cover of Malibu Rising
Taylor Jenkins
Reid

Four famous siblings throw an epic end-of-summer party that goes dangerously out of control as secrets and loves that shaped this family’s generations come to light, changing their lives forever. Set against the backdrop of the Malibu surf culture of the 1980s. Available to download: eBook | Audio

Solid Bets

Cover of The Husbands
Chandler
Baker

When Nora meets a group of high-powered women whose husbands' are supportive unlike her own, she discovers that the women use an unorthodox method of couples' therapy that has transformed their lives -- one that is worth killing for. (Available Aug. 3)

Cover of A Special Place for Women
Laura
Hankin

Jillian Beckley tries to impress her crush, Miles, a married editor, by promising him an exposé on the secretive, influential New York City women’s social club Nevertheless, rumored to be the force behind the rise-and-fall of a recent progressive mayoral candidate.

Cover of Act Your Age, Eve Brown
Talia
Hibbert

Eve Brown is a certified hot mess. No matter how hard she strives to do right, her life always goes horribly wrong. So she's given up trying. But when her personal brand of chaos ruins an expensive wedding (someone had to liberate those poor doves), her parents draw the line. It's time for Eve to grow up and prove herself—even though she's not entirely sure how... Available to download: eBook | Audio

Cover of Golden Girl
Elin
Hilderbrand

Entering the afterlife due to a hit and run accident, a successful author learns she can observe the earthly lives of her nearly grown children and is also permitted three "nudges" to alter the outcome of events. Available to download: eBook | Audio

Cover of The Soulmate Equation
Christina
Lauren

Perfect for fans of The Rosie Project and One Plus One, this entertaining novel follows single mom and data and statistics wizard Jess Davis as she, using a revolutionary new scientific dating app, is matched with the app’s arrogant creator who is not what he seems. Available to download: eBook | Audio

Cover of The Maidens
Alex
Michaelides

Edward Fosca is a murderer. Of this Mariana is certain. But Fosca is untouchable. A handsome and charismatic Greek tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Fosca is adored by staff and students alike—particularly by the members of a secret society of female students known as The Maidens. Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member, a friend of Mariana's niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge. Available to download: eBook | Audio

Cover of The Summer of Lost and Fou
Mary Alice
Monroe

With her family, finances, emotions, relationships and health teetering on the brink, Linnea Rutledge finds her life further complicated by her feelings for John, an old flame who turns up from California and is quarantining next door. Available to download: eBook | Audio

Cover of The Guncle
Steven
Rowley

When Patrick, or Gay Uncle Patrick (GUP) for short, takes on the role of primary guardian for his young niece and nephew, he sets “Guncle Rules,” but soon learns that parenting isn’t solved with treats or jokes as his eyes are opened to a new sense of responsibility. Available to download: eBook | Audio

Cover of The Siren
Katherine
St. John

In the midst of a sizzling hot summer, some of Hollywood's most notorious faces are assembled on the idyllic Caribbean island of St. Genesius to film The Siren. When dangerously handsome megastar Cole Power hires his ex-wife, Stella Rivers, to act in his son's film, he sparks a firestorm on an isolated island that will unearth long-buried secrets--and unravel years of lies. 

Cover of The Break Up Book Club
Wendy
Wax

The story of a book club of broken hearts, where four women come together and discover the power of female friendship and find the courage to pursue their dreams, from the USA Today bestselling author of My Ex-Best Friend's Wedding. Available to download: eBook
 

Cover of That Summer
Jennifer
Weiner

While trying to pinpoint the root of her dissatisfaction with her life, Daisy Shoemaker begins receiving misdirected emails meant for another woman and starts living vicariously through her until she discovers that their connection was not completely accidental. Available to download: eBook | Audio

Cover of Seven Days in June
Tia
Williams

Brooklynite Eva Mercy is a single mom and bestselling erotica writer, who is feeling pressed from all sides. Shane Hall is a reclusive, enigmatic, award-winning literary author who, to everyone's surprise, shows up in New York. When Shane and Eva meet unexpectedly at a literary event, sparks fly, raising not only their past buried traumas, but the eyebrows of New York's Black literati.

Dark Horses

Cover of Leda and the Swan
Anna
Caritj

Is it just a coincidence that Leda's slightly scary new boyfriend and a missing woman used to be a couple? Is Leda herself in danger? Or only in danger of falling in love? Anna Caritj's riveting storytelling brings together a suspenseful plot; a confessional voice; and invaluable insights into sex, power, and contemporary culture.

Cover of Shoulder Season
Christina
Clancy

The small town of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin is an unlikely location for a Playboy Resort, and nineteen-year old Sherri Taylor is an unlikely bunny. A dazzling portrait of a young woman coming into her own, the youthful allure of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, and what we lose-and gain-when we leave home.

Cover of Had to be You
Georgia
Clark

When her late husband leaves his half of their wedding planning business to his girlfriend, Liv Goldenhorn, who never saw this coming, finds herself shackled to her polar opposite in every way whose inexperience may be just what the company needs. Available to download: eBook

Cover of The Hunting Wives
May K
Cobb

 Sophie O'Neill left behind an envy-inspiring career and the stressful, competitive life of big-city Chicago to settle down with her husband and young son in a small Texas town. When the body of a teenage girl is discovered in the woods where the Hunting Wives meet, Sophie finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation and her life spirals out of control. Available to download: eBook | Audio

Cover of This Close to Okay
Leesa
Cross-Smith

A recently divorced therapist spots a man standing on the edge of a bridge and convinces him to join her for coffee instead of jumping and the pair spend a cathartic weekend sharing secrets and angsts. As dark and tense as it is flirty and humorous, this moving novel offers consistent surprises. Available to download: eBook | Audio

Cover of Summer on the Bluffs
Sunny
Hostin

In the exclusive black beach community of Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard, the three unofficial "goddaughters" of Amelia Vaux Tanner, successful women from different backgrounds, gather for one last summer together before Amelia moves to the south of France and gives her home to one of them. Available to download: eBook | Audio

Cover of Meet Me in Paradise
Libby
Hubscher

A tropical island vacation does not sound ideal for homebody Marin Cole. When their journalist mom died while on assignment during their youth, Marin completely devoted herself to her younger, globe-trotting sister, Sadie. Sadie plans a sisters’ trip for them but then misses the flight, leaving Marin to journey on her own. Available to download: eBook

Cover of To Sir, With Love
Lauren
Layne

Love Is Blind meets You've Got Mail in this laugh-out-loud romantic comedy following two thirty-somethings who meet on a blind dating app—only to realize that their online chemistry is nothing compared to their offline rivalry. Layne grounds her Manhattan fairy tale by surrounding Gracie with supportive friends and family who advise her to step out of her comfort zone and take a chance on love. Available to download: eBook | Audio

Cover of The Invisible Husband of F
Colleen
Oakley

Colleen Oakley delivers an unforgettable love story about an eccentric community, a grieving widow, and an outsider who slowly learns that sometimes faith is more important than the facts. Available to download: eBook | Audio

Cover of The Therapist
B.A.
Paris

When a mysterious man turns up on her doorstep, claiming that a murder took place 18 months before in her new home, Alice becomes obsessed with finding the truth. Her neighbors are keeping secrets and things are not as perfect as they seem…

Cover of What Comes After
JoAnne
Tompkins

In misty, coastal Washington State, Isaac lives alone with his dog, grieving the recent death of his teenage son, Daniel. Next door, Lorrie, a working single mother, struggles with a heinous act committed by her own teenage son. The two parents are emotionally stranded, isolated by their great losses—until an unfamiliar sixteen-year-old girl shows up, bridges the gap, and changes everything. Available to download: eBook | Audio

Cover of The Chosen and the Beautif
Nghi
Vo

Treated as an exotic attraction by her peers, Jordan Baker, queer and Asian, has the world of illusion, magic and mystery at her fingertips but the most important doors remain closed to her until she can figure out a way to open them.

Cover of The Layover
Lacie
Waldon

An unexpected tropical layover with her nemesis turns a flight attendant's life upside down in this witty, breezy debut romantic comedy about life--and love--30,000 feet above the ground.