Summer reading: 5 Love Stories to Make You Swoon
There is something about summertime that makes reading irresistible. Whether you are on the lake house, beach, or park, being outside and diving into a cute and light love story while drinking iced coffee sounds just like pure perfection.
Last summer, I went on a reading marathon and compiled a list of my top 5 favorite books. To be completely transparent, I read more summer books than just these 5, but these are the only ones that truly made an impression on me.
Summer Reading for Second Chance Lovers: Forget Me Not by Julie Soto
Perfect for beach reading. The story is sweet and fast, with the right amount of deep topics and spice.
Ama is a wedding planner. Since her mother was married 16 times, she doesn’t believe in marriage. But she adores weddings. Elliot is a grumpy florist. He inherited his dad’s flower shop, although he dreamed about becoming an architect. Elliot and Ama met years ago. At first, they were working together, but soon they became a couple. Their relationship ended with Ama breaking Elliot’s heart.
Two years have passed, and Ama is standing in Elliot’s shop with two high-profile clients. This wedding is necessary for both of them, so they are forced to work together. Working together is challenging since they can’t let go of their past.
The story is a dual POV with a dual timeline. Elliot’s POV is from the past, while Amas is present. Ama is ambitious and funny, while Elliot is the complete opposite. He believes flowers are better than people and is grouchy at the beginning. By the end of the book, you will love both of them. Put this on your Summer reading list if you want a story about a strong and ambitious female character.
About the book for workplace romance summer reading:
An ambitious wedding planner must work with her grumpy florist ex, whose heart she broke, on the most high-profile wedding of her career, in this spicy and emotional romance from popular fanfic author Julie Soto.
He loves me; he loves me not…
Ama Torres loves being a wedding planner. But with a mother who has been married more times than you can count on your fingers, Ama has decided that marriage is not the route for her. But weddings? Weddings are amazing. As a small business owner, she knows how to match her clients with the perfect vendor to give them the wedding of their dreams. Well, almost perfect…
Elliot hates being a florist, most of the time. When his father left him the flower shop, he considered it a burden, but he’s stuck with it. Just like how he’s stuck with the way he proposed to Ama, his main collaborator and girlfriend (or was she?) two years ago. But flowers have grown on him, just like Ama did. And flowers can’t run off and never speak to him again, like Ama did.
When Ama is hired to plan a celebrity wedding that will bring her business national exposure, there’s a catch: Elliot is already contracted to design the flowers. Things are not helped by the two brides, who see the obvious chemistry between Ama and Elliot and are determined to set them up, not knowing their complicated history. Add in a meddling ex-boss, and a reality TV film crew documenting every step of the wedding prep, and Ama and Elliot’s hearts are not only in jeopardy again, but this time, their livelihoods are too.
Slow burn Sumer Reading: Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren
This book is a perfect read at the beach house while the warm weather envelops you cause this book will give you all the feels, giddiness, laughter, and tears. I don’t think you should take this book to the beach. So, if you are here for beach reads, skip this one cause tears are threatening with this book.
The story is deep and emotional. You will fall in love with all the characters in this book. The love story between Elliot and Macy is heart-wrenching and beautiful, whether it’s their first time or second. Additionally, a significant portion of the story revolves around books, which I also enjoyed.
I look forward to re-reading this book as soon as the first ray of sun hits my terrace.
About the book for a summer reading about soulmate couple:
The story of the heart can never be unwritten.
Macy Sorensen is settling into an ambitious if emotionally tepid routine: work hard as a new pediatrics resident, plan her wedding to an older, financially secure man, keep her head down and heart tucked away.
But when she runs into Elliot Petropoulos—the first and only love of her life—the careful bubble she’s constructed begins to dissolve. Once upon a time, Elliot was Macy’s entire world—growing from her gangly bookish friend into the man who coaxed her heart open again after the loss of her mother…only to break it on the very night he declared his love for her.
Told in alternating timelines between Then and Now, teenage Elliot and Macy grow from friends to much more—spending weekends and lazy summers together in a house outside of San Francisco devouring books, sharing favorite words, and talking through their growing pains and triumphs. As adults, they have become strangers to one another until their chance reunion. Although their memories are obscured by the agony of what happened that night so many years ago, Elliot will come to understand the truth behind Macy’s decade-long silence, and will have to overcome the past and himself to revive her faith in the possibility of an all-consuming love.
Love, loss, friendship, and the betrayals of the past all collide in this first fiction novel from New York Times and #1 international bestselling author Christina Lauren (Autoboyography, Dating You / Hating You).
Spicy Summer Reading: The Roommate by Rosie Danan
The story is fluffy and cute. Easy and fast-read book, perfect for the beach, but warning, it is very spicy (the main male character is a pornstar). The story is happening in LA and does give a warm weather feel. I read this book last summer and thought it was perfect for summer reading.
Clara is a shy girl with a prominent wealthy family. For her family, social status is everything.
Clara’s family expects her to obtain an image according to their social status. She is overwhelmed with all the expectations and decides to stay with her best friend in LA.
She has a crush on her friend and thinks they will spend the summer together. Unfortunately, he leaves for the tour, so she ends up with a roommate, pornstar Josh. Tension and attraction between them are instant, but their love story is endearing.
About the book for a summer reading about sunny LA:
House Rules:
Do your own dishes
Knock before entering the bathroom
Never look up your roommate online
The Wheatons are infamous among the east coast elite for their lack of impulse control, except for their daughter Clara. She’s the consummate socialite: over-achieving, well-mannered, predictable. But every Wheaton has their weakness. When Clara’s childhood crush invites her to move cross-country, the offer is too much to resist. Unfortunately, it’s also too good to be true.
After a bait-and-switch, Clara finds herself sharing a lease with a charming stranger. Josh might be a bit too perceptive—not to mention handsome—for comfort, but there’s a good chance he and Clara could have survived sharing a summer sublet if she hadn’t looked him up on the Internet…
Once she learns how Josh has made a name for himself, Clara realizes living with him might make her the Wheaton’s most scandalous story yet. His professional prowess inspires her to take tackling the stigma against female desire into her own hands. They may not agree on much, but Josh and Clara both believe women deserve better sex. What they decide to do about it will change both of their lives, and if they’re lucky, they’ll help everyone else get lucky
Romantic comedy: Just My Type by Falon Ballard
Taylor Swift said in one interview that everyone has that one person for whom she would run from the wedding if necessary. This book is precisely that.
Lana and Seth were high school sweethearts. Everyone thought they were going to get married. Sadly, they broke up while going to college. Years later, they meet again while competing for the same job. Both of them are journalists. To win the desired promotion, they will write columns. Whoever gets more exposure wins.
Lana was always in a relationship, and Seth is the complete opposite. Their writing tasks include this part of their lives. Seth will start dating, and Lana will learn how to be single. They create a list of tasks for each other and write columns about how they dealt with each task.
About the book If you like Enemies to Lovers story:
To win the job of her dreams, a relationship-prone journalist needs to learn how to stay single in this heartwarming and hilarious new romantic comedy from the beloved author of Lease on Love.
Lana Parker has never been single for long. After a disastrous break-up with her high school boyfriend, Seth Carson, Lana’s bounced from long-term relationship to long-term relationship. She’s an expert girlfriend, even acting as the resident dating and relationship columnist for one of Los Angeles’s trendiest websites. But now, at the age of thirty, Lana suddenly finds herself single again, and she’s determined to stay that way, no matter how challenging.
That is, until her high school ex, Seth, now a journalist in his own right, takes an assignment at Lana’s site. Ready to put down roots after years of traveling and freelancing, Seth becomes not only Lana’s colleague but also her competitor. With their combative relationship history–and undeniable chemistry–they quickly find themselves pitted against each other in a battle of wits: writing an article series that goes against dating type. For Lana, that means writing about staying single and embracing it. For Seth, it’s learning to settle down and become boyfriend material. Whoever’s is most popular wins a highly coveted columnist spot that either could only dream of. But when the two square off against one another, it’s not only their careers on the line–it’s also their hearts.
People We Meet at Vacation by Emily Henry
Poppy and Alex were college friends. They grew up in the same city. They travel together home for college break. During the drive, they connect and start visiting each other. After that, they were best friends.
Every summer, they travel together. Unfortunately, something happens during their last trip that ruins their friendship.
Poppy is aware of her privileged life. She has a good, high-paying job, the career from her dreams, and an apartment in her dream city. Despite all of the privileges, Poppy is unhappy. The last time when she felt joy was with Alex.
She reaches out to him, and they decide to go on vacation together like before (Poppy did bend the truth here a little).
The story follows them from the beginning of their friendship to the present. We get insight into how their relationship developed.
You may initially find Poppy irritating, but she becomes more endearing later in the book. And Alex is a dream.
About the book If You Like Friends to Lovers story:
Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.
Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.
Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.
Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.
Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?
