This has been one hot summer and it’s not over yet! We’re giving you the books we cannot wait to dive into before autumn arrives.
Lisa’s Pick: Sunstruck by William Rayfet
Outside of our own brilliant 2025 summer reads for July and August – Send Flowers, The Rivals and Shred Sisters – I’ve got Sunstruck by William Rayfet Hunter on my TBR for this summer. I keep seeing it EVERYWHERE and it sounds like the perfect holiday read – I love a novel about power and privilege too. Hunter was selected for the Observer Best New Novelists list at the start of the year and I generally find this list to be books I will enjoy. I have read and loved two of their other recommendations – Fundamentally and Nesting and have two more of them on my reading list (The Benefactors and Confessions).
Demi’s Pick: Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab
If you, like me, love something a little darker and chillier to stave off the summer heat, you must also be waiting to read Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab. Ryan Coogler’s Sinners proved that heat waves and vampires go hand in hand, and this is the same case with this highly anticipated gothic novel that spans over centuries, following three women in different time periods as each try to search for freedom, whether from their past, present or from themselves. It has similar themes to our upcoming novel Slashed Beauties by A. Rushby and Weyward by Emilia Hart, but this is a spellbinding queer love story that I’ve been itching to get my hands on.
Ellie’s Pick: Park Avenue by Renée Ahdieh
I’m halfway through Park Avenue by Renée Ahdieh and I can’t wait to jump back in! Billed as Succession meets Crazy Rich Asians with a touch of Gossip Girl, it’s a fun and suspenseful read following hot-shot lawyer Jia as she uncovers the truth about the super wealthy family at the helm of a billion dollar K-beauty brand. The case takes Jia from New York to Seoul, the Cayman Islands and Paris as she follows the money – and her heart. Full of dreamy travel details, high fashion glamour, biting social satire and a sprinkling of romance, Park Avenue is the perfect summer read.
Jenna’s Pick: Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
The paperback edition of Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s highly anticipated follow up to Fleishman is in Trouble was recently released, and I can’t wait to dive in this summer. Long Island Compromise tells of the downfall of a wealthy Jewish American family after its patriarch is kidnapped and held for ransom for several days in 1980. Flash forward to the present day, and the trauma they’ve buried in the intervening years is about to surface, with devastating consequences. Expect: an intergenerational narrative that spans decades, in-depth portraits of highly complicated characters and an examination of wealth, identity and family. Plus, it’s a book that’s thick enough to last a good few days by the beach or pool.
(NB: If you haven’t already, dive into Fleishman is in Trouble – book or TV series, both are wonderful.)