Now that this pretty weird year’s summer is coming and it looks like we won’t be able to travel as much as we’d like to, I thought about recommending you some books to travel this summer without moving from your hammock–and saving some money, right? So here go seven books I liked and think are perfect to read in summer.
The Sacrifice Box, by Martin Stewart
Pages: 390
My rating: ★★★★☆
Genre: YA, fantasy, horror.
Summary: Sep, Arkle, Mack, Lamb and Hadley: five friends thrown together one hot, sultry summer. When they discover an ancient stone box hidden in the forest, they decide to each make a sacrifice: something special to them, committed to the box for ever. And they make a pact: they will never return to the box at night; they'll never visit it alone; and they'll never take back their offerings.
Four years later, the gang have drifted apart. Then a series of strange and terrifying events take place, and Sep and his friends understand that one of them has broken the pact.
As their sacrifices haunt them with increased violence and hunger, they realise that they are not the first children to have found the box in their town's history. And ultimately, the box may want the greatest sacrifice of all: one of them.
My comment: Every time I think about this book it comes to my mind a summer evening, children riding their bikes down a street and a sunset on the beach. That’s why I think it’s a great book to read in summer, because if you do you might think of these things too. Plus a little bit of horror is always welcomed, isn’t it?
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared, by Jonas Jonasson
Pages: 396
My rating: ★★★★☆
Genre: fiction memoirs, comedy.
Summary: It all starts on the one-hundredth birthday of Allan Karlsson. Sitting quietly in his room in an old people’s home, he is waiting for the party he-never-wanted-anyway to begin. The Mayor is going to be there. The press is going to be there. But, as it turns out, Allan is not… Slowly but surely Allan climbs out of his bedroom window, into the flowerbed (in his slippers) and makes his getaway. And so begins his picaresque and unlikely journey involving criminals, several murders, a suitcase full of cash, and incompetent police. As his escapades unfold, we learn something of Allan’s earlier life in which – remarkably – he helped to make the atom bomb, became friends with American presidents, Russian tyrants, and Chinese leaders, and was a participant behind the scenes in many key events of the twentieth century.
My comment: This is not a light read, it can be a bit weary even, but if you start it with low expectations then it will be a great book, it’ll make you laugh like no other, and Allan’s adventures will make you travel around the world, so it’s a good way to escape from reality.
A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J. Maas
Pages: 419
My rating: ★★★★★
Genre: new adult, fantasy, retelling, romance.
Summary: Feyre's survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price...
Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre's presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.
My comment: If you haven’t read this series yet, what the heck are you doing with your life? I mean, hey, hehe, you should grab a copy of ACOTAR and join the fandom, because you’re losing a great story really well written. It might not be a “summer read” as such, but this first book happens in the Spring Court, which is full of flowers, always sunny and that stuff, so the spring/summer vibes are real. And if you’ve already read it, then what about a reread?
Paper Towns, by John Green
Pages: 305
My rating: ★★★★★
Genre: YA, contemporary, fiction.
Summary: Who is the real Margo? Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs into his life—dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows. After their all-nighter ends, and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues—and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew...
My comment: Here we are, throwing back to our teenage years, reading YA romances and basically all John Green’s books, crying over The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska. But to be honest, this one here deserves all my love, John Green always writes more than what you think in his books, like in Looking for Alaska, there you think about life and death, and how it affects our everyday life. And in Paper Towns he makes you think about society, how we all live like sheep, following the routines every day of our lives, becoming robots. So if you want to go on an adventure and feel like you’re living your best Revel Without a Cause life then read this book.
Broken Things, by Lauren Oliver
Pages: 416
My rating: ★★★★☆
Genre: YA, thriller, mystery, contemporary.
Summary: It’s been five years since Summer Marks was brutally murdered in the woods. Everyone thinks Mia and Brynn killed their best friend. That driven by their obsession with a novel called The Way into Lovelorn the three girls had imagined themselves into the magical world where their fantasies became twisted, even deadly.
The only thing is: they didn’t do it. On the anniversary of Summer’s death, a seemingly insignificant discovery resurrects the mystery and pulls Mia and Brynn back together once again. But as the lines begin to blur between past and present and fiction and reality, the girls must confront what really happened in the woods all those years ago—no matter how monstrous.
My comment: Yes, I’ve chosen this one because one of the main characters is called Summer, but also because it’s a chilling mystery that will catch you from the first page, and will also take you to a magical place that reminds me of Narnia.
Wild Bird, by Wendelin Van Draanen
Pages: 320
My rating: ★★★★★
Genre: YA, realistic fiction, contemporary.
Summary: 3:47 a.m. That’s when they come for Wren Clemmens. She’s hustled out of her house and into a waiting car, then a plane, and then taken on a forced march into the desert. This is what happens to kids who’ve gone so far off the rails, their parents don’t know what to do with them anymore. This is wilderness therapy camp. Eight weeks of survivalist camping in the desert. Eight weeks to turn your life around. Yeah, right.
The Wren who arrives in the Utah desert is angry and bitter, and blaming everyone but herself. But angry can’t put up a tent. And bitter won’t start a fire. Wren’s going to have to admit she needs help if she’s going to survive.
My comment: What could be better in a summer read than some months in the middle of Utah desert? Nothing, right? Also, if you want to come back to the routine a bit changed and grown up you should read this book. I have nothing else to say, just read it.
Kissing in America, by Margo Rabb
Pages: 416
My rating: ★★★☆☆
Genre: YA, romance, contemporary.
Summary: In the two years since her father died, sixteen-year-old Eva has found comfort in reading romance novels—118 of them, to be exact—to dull the pain of her loss that’s still so present. Her romantic fantasies become a reality when she meets Will, who can relate to Eva’s grief. Unfortunately, after Eva falls head-over-heels for him, he picks up and moves to California with barely any warning. Not wanting to lose the only person who has been able to pull her out of sadness—and, perhaps, her first shot at real love—Eva and her best friend, Annie, concoct a plan to travel to the west coast. As they road trip across America, Eva and Annie confront the complex truth about love.
My comment: To be honest this book is not a masterpiece, but it’s a light read and it’ll take you in a journey from one side of America to the other while discovering little secrets of love and life. So it’s another good way to travel a bit while drinking a fresh lemonade.
And that’s all folks! I hope you read at least one of these books and enjoy it as much as you can while getting a sunburn. Take care, drink water and stay healthy!
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