5 Summer Book Recommendations 2022
I’m gonna be talking about my personal favorite books to read during the summer which generally fall into the category of still fantasy but just different types. but anyway without further ado let’s go ahead and dive into the blog.
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Little Fires Everywhere
by Celeste Ng
That is book little fires everywhere by Celestia they honestly think either of her two dolls this or everything. I never told you would be perfect summer reads when they’re both only about 300 pages.
They’re incredibly fast and those have a central premise of this sort of family drama in suburban America with some sort of thriller-esque drama like fueling behind. what’s going on there’s this deep-seated mystery and unease that she makes you feel while also just going through people’s everyday life little fires everywhere is an exceptional novel.
that is being turned into an upcoming television show which I’m sure will be very popular starting Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington is a story set in the 90s in a town called Shaker Heights in Ohio this town is artsy and liberal but it still has a very strict undefined and defined rulebook.
This town is structured and how people kind of move throughout the town is very um. let’s just say organized and one of our main characters Elena Richardson really personifies the sort of feeling within this town she has a beautiful home a beautiful family both her and her husband have important jobs within the community.
she lives a very picturesque white-picket-fence life however her life center turned upside down when an artist moves in Mia Warren and Elena rents out her rental property to Mia and her daughter then Mia and her daughter kind of begin to integrate with their family and thing kind of begin to spiral a bit out of control.
this story opens with Elena Richardson’s family home 100% on fire and burning to the ground and then we flashback to a year earlier where me and her daughter move in they’re kind of trying to piece together what happened within that year to cause such a dramatic aftermath this book is great it’s full of really complex characters no one is black and white good and evil everyone’s full of gray morality in that people are just trying to live their life learning possibly from making bad decisions Bethel makes them so in explicitly human people making choices learning from those choices good or bad and you kind of love everyone.
but you also hope for people to just be better in the future anyway this book I feel like is so good I feel like it’s les Engh does such an incredible job writing kind of suburban dramas she really kind of peeks behind the curtain and you just feel like you’re really in the family.
I also feel like she created a great 90 setting that really transports you to suburban America in the 90s as someone who kind of experienced that also in the early 2000s I can attest to that feeling quite accurate I also looked at Ohio in the nineties in suburbia so you know there’s that.
read these book
Read more +A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer
A Curse So Dark and Lonely
by Brigid Kemmerer
Next book I’m gonna recommend falls into the category of angsty why hey there’s something about summertime that makes me just want to read easy-breezy really fun really entertaining books.
and for me that sometimes means kind of an angsty white paranormal fantasy that would just like put a smile on my face and be super entertaining something that perfectly falls into that category is a curse so dark and lonely my budget Kemmer this is actually a beauty in the Beast retelling.
which at first hearing that I thought good not coming for me that’s too cliche honestly felt like this book did some really interesting things to those tropes and ultimately the Aqua crafts in a super entertaining a full of twists and turns story our main character Harper who lives in our world and she has cerebral palsy.
Harper and her brother live a rough life her father has skipped town after owing a lot of money to some bad people and their mother is very very sick so Harper and her brother worked tirelessly day in day out to raise enough money survive.
and also make sure their mother is comfortable as her illness continues to progress at the beginning of this story due to some interesting circumstances harbour is transported to a parallel fantastical world.
where she meets Prince Wren who is as you guessed it the Beast in this story he’s cursed his kingdom cursed she feels pity for his plight they have a dramatic course of plot intertwines and so we have this story of really entertaining twists and turns some really cute romance but I honestly really loved Harper.
as a main character she was spunky and really really fun I also feel like the author is very aware of the trope she’s writing about scheana she makes knots in them she’s she kind of almost makes us part of the joke like she’s like yeah I’m aware that this is a little ridiculous.
so I’m gonna make a joke out of it and it kind of breaks the tension I constantly had a smile on my face throughout this story in a good way it’s funny it’s entertaining I’ve really really enjoyed every second of it I flew through it it’s a huge page-turner and I can’t wait for the sequel to come out I think this fall.
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Show more +A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
A Darker Shade of Magic
by V.E. Schwab
I have a fantasy series that it’s just one of my all-time faves and I honestly think it’s a perfect series to marathon throughout these summer months it’s very entertaining a great introduction into adult fantasy and that book is darker shades of magic trilogy by ve Schwab.
This is an adult fantasy story where we follow a multitude of different POVs but it’s a magical good time that is just incredible and one of my favorite things I have ever read but specifically we follow one of our main characters Cal.
who is a traveler basically there are four different parallel London’s there’s grey London which is our world which has no magic there’s red London which is thriving and full of magic and this is Kells hometown there’s white London which kind of like devours its own magic.
it’s like spiraling into chaos and like power rules there and then there’s black London which has been completely sealed off no one can go to any more and it’s like a very evil dark place that has been defeated because of tell strange ability to pass through all of these different London’s he is a messenger and kind of like the main and only diplomat for all of these worlds.
he basically passes messages on from various ruling bodies from each one of these London’s keeping the peacemaking sure everything is running smoothly something however occurs naturally that kind of sets.
this plot in motion and one of those things is that he runs into a character called Delilah bard who is a girl pickpocket in gray London and this changes his life forever this is a magical story full of hijinks and good time kal and Delilah bard will steal your heart there’s also an amazing sibling moment.
there’s complicated great characters it is a magical story that will just propel you with a smile on your face the whole time the second book almost has it’s like goblin fire magical competition element to it I loved this trilogy so much it’s so good and I think just get a perfect introduction to adult high fantasy book and something that will be super easy to read throughout the summer months it’s amazing you got to read it.
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Show more +The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
The Priory of the Orange Tree
by Samantha Shannon
The next book I’m gonna talk about is the Priory of the orange tree by Samantha Shannon now before you’re intimidated by this book sighs because it is very long I think a really strong selling point of this book is that it’s actually a standalone fantasy novel.
so while it’s very long it’s basically like you’re reading a whole fantasy series in one go because it’s like think of it like three three hundred book pages it’s 900 pages actually I think it’s like 800 pages it’s not so bad guys give it a go this is a really great epic fantasy story.
that’s ending around dragons this is a story where we follow a multitude of different perspectives residing in different kingdoms but specifically mostly like the west and the east a thousand years ago there was basically.
this huge battle good against evil and was essentially the origin to many religions that exist within this world and from this event different nations that exist in this fantasy world have interpreted the events in different ways resulting in very different religions.
which have basically made these geographical lands over time distrust and hate each other so it’s kind of like East versus West but they have a lot of similarities and they have ties that go back thousands of years at the beginning of the story that evil that was defeated.
all those years ago is beginning to rise again and an unlikely cast of characters kind of have to work together or not to figure out how to save the world this does involve dragons and again has just a slew of very interesting POV as we follow an alchemist we follow a dragon rider in training.
we follow a spy a popper like anyone you can think of is present in this story which makes it’s so fascinating cuz you’re seeing things unfurl from so many different levels within this world.
I also think a huge strength that this novel is that lore and also the geological differences between these two places you really feel a huge expansiveness to this story really seeing a lot of history and political tension kind of unfurled before our eyes.
I thought this is a really strong novel that I think is a really good again another introductory to epic high fantasy it is a standalone which is incredibly rare but it really has all of the trappings of a fantastical fantasy book so this is something I would also recommend picking up this summer.
read these book.
Show more +A Winter’s Promise by Christelle Dabos
A Winter’s Promise
by Christelle Dabos
Before everyone to my last two books I have to just mention that if you have not yet read the way of kings or the name of the wind ignore all these recommendations and just read these books instead.
I promise they’re amazing they’re not intimidating to read they might be long but they’re incredible and you’ll fly through them and it’ll change your life forever so read these if you haven’t all right continue next book recommendation I have is a winter’s promise by crystal Davos.
this is the part of the mirror visitor quartet I want to say and this has just been an utter surprise for me and something that I just can’t stop talking about this series has swept me off my feet has a smile on my face the whole time it’s one of the most unique y-a stories.
I’ve come across in years and I just feel like everyone needs to read it in this story would follow our main character of Fillion and in her world there is a Germanic catastrophe that kind of led to the end of the world.
and from these ashes a new structure of nations arose meaning like literally arose because now people live on spires in the sky and each spire has their own ruling like family spirit which is very much inspired by a variety of different religious lore from like our world think like Artemis etc.
etc our main character Ophelia has a very unique set of powers she can basically do two things she can touch objects and see their entire past in history of the object itself and also everyone who touched the object and two she can travel through mirrors Oh fili just wants a little very ordinary and unremarkable life.
however her family is a little fed because she refuses to marry in consequence of this they basically make a deal to marry her off to a very faraway spire to a man they never met before.
and in the beginning of this book she’s basically sent away to this new place this new spire starkly contrasts her home one this new spire is absolutely ruthless and the magic that exists here senator an illusion so you can imagine how that impacts a day to day life within this fire also the family spirit is very detached.
but demanding which creates another complicated layer to the political system again this is just truly one of the most unique stories I have come across in a long time from every angle the romance is unlike anything ever encountered.
and why if you can call it romance the politics and the world are so unique and captivating and they’re just inspired by so many different elements of like our world news fire she travelled to kind of gives you like Versailles politics mixed with like Russian czar politics.
it’s wild and again incredible and the writing style is absolutely beautiful lyrical captivating I loved every second of this first and second novel I can’t wait for the third one to come out if you haven’t picked this up you got to read it it’s mesmerizing the world building it’s intricate it is just it’ll blow you it’ll blow you away. read these book.
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