Top 5 Tuesday: Summer Reads

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Shanah @ The Bionic Book Worm. I can’t believe May is coming to and end already, to be honest. I feel like the confinement robbed me of Spring time (which I love!) and I didn’t have to mentally prepare for summer. And now I’m back to work although the situation is definitely not over, and it’s just a lot to take in. But anyway, this is not what I wanted to talk about today.

I think about “summer reads” a lot for some reason, so when I saw the topic for this week, I knew that I had to do it. For some reason, I associate summer reads with contemporaries. Preferably contemporaries that take place in the summer, but not necessarily. I also LOVE making “summer reads” blog post recommendations, so for today I’m going to first of all attempt picking up books that weren’t on last year’s post, and also books that I have read recently.

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Once and For All by Sarah Dessen

When I think summer reads, my mind immediately jumps to Sarah Dessen. Along for the ride will always be one of my favourite books, but for today, I have decided to pick up one that is a little more recent. It takes place mostly over the course of the summer, and despite also lying on heavier topics, it is a perfectly swoon-worthy summer romance. If you haven’t read it yet, maybe this summer is the right time to do so? Bonus if you like weddings, because this book has plenty of them. As for me, I just finished Someone Like You and I will have to find another Sarah Dessen book to read this summer!

Frankly in Love by David Yoon

I’m including this one first of all because it’s a contemporary, and second of all because I’m already thinking a YA “books to read this summer” display at work, and I want to include this one because I didn’t get to promote it that much thanks to the confinement. It’s an adorable coming-of-age story that includes many aspects of a cute romance, and while it doesn’t take place entirely over summer, it does have the “last summer before college trope” and that’s definitely a win. So if you haven’t read Frankly in Love maybe this summer will be the perfect timing for you to read it? I hope so!

Love from A to Z by S. K. Ali

I’m SO GLAD that I found yet another opportunity to talk about this book. It does not actually take place in the summer, but rather over Spring break, and that will have to do, because it actually really have a “summer vibe” with what of Adam’s friends all being back from wherever they are, and Zayneb being halfway across the world to visit her aunt. Love from A to Z also deals with important topics such as racism, islamophobia and grief. And that makes it both an important book, and a great coming-of-age story. The romance is also one of the best I’ve ever read, hands down.

Don’t Date Rosa Santos by Nina Moreno

I still think about this book a lot, and I’m so glad that I read it last year because it was absolutely excellent. I can’t believe I forgot to include it in my “cute romances” blog post, it would have fitted right in! It has characters bonding over the fact that they are preparing a wedding together, it has tales of the sea, and it also is a great story about family. I absolutely loved that book, and I hope you do too.

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

Out of all this list, I think this is actually my most recent read. Radio Silence is an excellent queer, coming of age story that also has some more heavy topic such as parental abuse and depression. That broke me a little bit because I wanted to protect these characters at all cost. But it also has the most wonderful friendhips, and some fun summer shenanigans which makes it the perfect read for this summer in my opinion. (And like Frankly in Love and Once and For All, I’m planning on including this one in my YA summer reads display at work. The other two, unfortunately, have not been translated into French yet.)

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I also wanted to include Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli because I feel like I haven’t read it in a long time, and this book was so important to me. But we have already reached five books, so I’m just adding it here as an afterthought. It’s also a quality, cute contemporary romance, so you do what you want with that information!

And that’s it for today! Thank you so much for reading, stay safe, and have a wonderful day! May it be full of books if you want it to be, and full of rest if you need it to be.