When I’m trying to spend more time away from my phone, I pick up a book before I get lost in endless and needless scrolling. These summer books are here to add more fun and joy to your life than your phone ever will.
Summer books are such a treat. You can read summer books on the beach, in the backyard with a coffee or on vacation. You’ll never find me out in the world without a good book nearby. Once one of these summer books hooks you, your phone will be a distant memory.
Choosing a book over your phone will make you feel better too. Less digital connection leads to feeling more relaxed and sleeping better. I’m sure there are studies out there to back this up and it’s definitely been my experience.
How I enjoy my summer books.
I am almost always reading a book and listening to a book. Usually I get books from Libby (free) and pre-order books from authors I love to support.
I listen to audiobooks with Libro.fm instead of Audible for a 3 reasons.
1. You get a couple of free audiobooks when you sign up with Libro.fm.
2. You can choose a local bookstore to support with each order.
3. Libro.fm allows you to download your books, unlike Audible where you have to listen to them on the platform. Because you can download your audiobooks, you can share them with friends. When friends share their audiobooks with me, I listen with an app called Book Player. I’m sure there are other options!
7 Summer Books That Will Make You Forget to Check Your Phone
I pulled the synopsis for each book from StoryGraph (my favorite app to keep track of the books I want to read and the ones I do read). I hope these 7 summer books make you smile and forget to check your phone.
1. Dolly All The Time by Annabel Monaghan
When it comes to finding a good summer book, look no further. I’m reading Dolly All The Time now and it is adorable. It’s set in a town the author created after visiting Newport, RI. If you need a little summer escape, pick this one up.
From The New York Times bestselling author of Nora Goes Off Script, a romance about a single mother who’s offered a Pretty Woman-type deal that’s too good to refuse. If they begin by pretending, can they end with something real?
Dolly Brick has never met a problem she couldn’t solve. Not when her mom left when she was twelve, and not at thirty-nine when she moves with her son back to Whitfield, Rhode Island for the summer to keep her dad and brother from losing the family home.
So when she comes across Stewart Whitfield—annoyingly handsome scion of the Whitfield family—with a flat tire and at the wrong end of a very public, very humiliating breakup, it’s in her nature to help. But Stewart’s proposed arrangement ends up being more than either of them bargained for, because as public dinners and high society benefits turn into sunset boat rides and swinging on the porch, Dolly starts to feel something more than helpful. She’s never relied on anyone besides herself, can she really start now? Amazon | Libro.fm | Bookshop.org
2. The Fine Art of Lying by Alexandra Andrews
I listened to this summer book and it was a great audiobook.
Despite her best efforts—including a half-finished PhD, abandoned when her daughter Sadie was born—Clare secretly can’t help but feel like an imposter in Jed’s one-percent, Park-Avenue life.
When the well-connected wife of Jed’s new boss introduces her to influential friends—a curator here, a gallerist there, an aficionado abroad—Clare feels an essential part of herself coming alive again. And when she discovers that an important work painted by the subject of her unfinished dissertation is hanging in the brownstone of a seductively attractive dealer, she believes fate is leading her where she belongs . . . until she finds herself at the scene of a gruesome murder and a stolen masterpiece. Caught in the perfectly wrong place at the perfectly wrong time, every clue the investigation uncovers points back to her.
Suddenly, Clare is trapped inside a dark and treacherous art world filled with unscrupulous dealers and international criminals. What, exactly, has she gotten herself into . . . and how is she going to get herself, and her family, out? Amazon | Libro.fm | Bookshop.org
3. The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick
I would have loved being in book club with these women. Throughout the book, I fell in love with all of them.
By early 1960s standards, Margaret Ryan, Viv Buschetti, and Bitsy Cobb, suburban housewives in a brand-new “planned community” in Northern Virginia, appear to have it all. The fact that “all” doesn’t feel like enough leaves them feeling confused and guilty, certain the fault must lie with them. Things begin to change when they form a book club with Charlotte Gustafson–the eccentric and artsy “new neighbor” from Manhattan–and read Betty Friedan’s just-released book, The Feminine Mystique.
Controversial and groundbreaking, the book struck a chord with an entire generation of women, helping them realize that they weren’t alone in their dissatisfactions, or their longings, lifting their eyes to new horizons of possibility and achievement. Margaret, Charlotte, Bitsy, and Viv are among them. But is it really the book that alters the lives of these four very different women? Or is it the bond of sisterhood that helps them find courage to confront the past, navigate turmoil in a rapidly changing world, and see themselves in a new and limitless light?
Four dissatisfied sixties-era housewives form a book club turned sisterhood that will hold fast amid the turmoil of a rapidly changing world and alter the course of each of their lives. Amazon | Libro.fm | Bookshop.org
4. These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean
Alice isn’t like the other Storm siblings. While the rest stayed to battle for their parents’ approval, attention, and untold billions, she left, building her own life beyond the family’s name and influence. Nothing could induce her to come back, except the shocking death of her larger-than-life father. Now back on the family’s private island off the Rhode Island coast, she plans to keep her head down, pay the last of her respects, and leave the minute the funeral is over.
Unfortunately, her father had other plans. The eccentric, manipulative patriarch left his widow and their grown children a final challenge–an inheritance game designed to humiliate, devastate, and unravel the Storm family in ways both petty and life-altering. The rules of the game are clear: stay on the island for one week, complete the tasks, receive the inheritance.
A story about the transformative power of grief, love, and family, this luscious novel is at once deliciously clever and surprisingly tender, exploring past secrets, present truths, and futures forged in the wake of wild summer storms. Amazon | Libro.fm | Bookshop.org
5. The Sisters by Jonas Hassen Khemiri
I haven’t read this one yet but you had me at big, vivid family saga of the highest order. And with a 4-star rating (1400+ reviews), I’m ready to spend time with this one.
Meet the Mikkola sisters: Ina, Evelyn, and Anastasia. Their mother is a Tunisian carpet seller, their father a mysterious Swede who left them when they were young. Ina is tall, serious, a compulsive organizer. Evelyn is dreamy, magnetic, a smooth talker. And Anastasia is moody, chaotic, a shape-shifting presence, quick to anger.
Ina meets her future husband when she’s dragged to a New Year’s rave by her sisters, only to suffer the ultimate betrayal. Evelyn drifts through life before embarking on a wild career as an actress. And Anastasia runs off to Tunisia, where she falls in love with a woman who, years later, will transform her life.
Following the sisters from afar is Jonas, the son of a Swedish mother and a Tunisian father. Over the course of three decades, his life intersects with the sisters, from a chance encounter in Tunis to the scene of a fighter jet crash in Stockholm. When Evelyn disappears on a trip to New York, Jonas manages to track her down—and helps her to break the curse that has been looming over the Mikkolas for decades. In the process, a shocking revelation changes everything about who they think they are.
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Narrated in six parts, each spanning a period ranging from a year to a day to a single minute, Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s The Sisters is a big, vivid family saga of the highest order—an addictively entertaining tour de force. Amazon | Libro.fm | Bookshop.org
6. Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth
So many people have told me to read this book. I think that means I will probably really like it.
‘In 1959, at just fifteen years of age, Mabel Waller became the youngest Australian in history to be convicted of murder.’
In 2025, on a quiet Melbourne lane, an elderly man is found dead by his neighbour, 81-year-old Elsie Fitzpatrick. No one suspects any foul play.
Until they discover Elsie’s past.
In the 1950s, her name was not Elsie. It was Mabel.
‘She is known around the world as Mad Mabel. But is she mad? More importantly, is she guilty?’
When the police open a new investigation and the media descend upon her, the elderly Mabel decides it’s time to set the record straight.
‘In a world first, at the age of 81, Mabel Waller is speaking.’
New York Times bestselling author Sally Hepworth is at her finest in this twisty, compulsive thriller of friendship, family and murder. Or is it justice . . . ? Amazon | Libro.fm | Bookshop.org
7. Our Perfect Storm by Carley Fortune
I look forward to a new Carley Fortune book every summer. As soon as I visit my daughter, I’ll be borrowing this one from her book shelves.
Frankie and George have been best friends since they were eight years old. Both passionate, impulsive, and headstrong—they’ve always clashed . . . and come back together. Until now. It’s the eve of Frankie’s wedding weekend, and she doesn’t know where they stand or even if George will show up as her best man.
Then, at the start of the festivities, in walks George. For one glorious evening, surrounded by her loved ones, Frankie’s life is finally perfect. But it all comes crashing down when her fiancé dumps her the next morning, leaving only a note as an explanation.
Crushed and confused, Frankie returns to her family’s home to wallow. But George has a different idea and a plan for healing Frankie’s broken heart. He wants her to go on her honeymoon. With him. For one week, to the lush rainforests and misty beaches of Tofino. Frankie agrees, seeing the trip for what it really is: one last chance to repair their friendship. Even if it means unearthing secrets and long buried feelings neither knows how to handle. Even if it means falling apart for good. Amazon | Libro.fm | Bookshop.org
A few more notes to help you read more.
If you want to restart your reading habit or get out of a reading rut (or slump), check out these 7 books. The compelling stories, amazing audiobook narrators and great writing in these books will restart your reading habit with ease.
If living more simply and peacefully is a lifestyle change for you, these simplicity books will support your tiny steps and shifts.
Read these 8 uplifting books when you feel overwhelmed with the news. Every time I get lost in the news I am little worse for wear. Every time I get lost in a book, I am recharged, rested and feel more creative and happy.
Goodbye scrolling. Hello reading summer books!
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