Best Summer Reads

March 31, 2021

Is there anything better than your toes in the sand and a great book in your hands, whiling away the afternoon under a beach umbrella, listening to the sound of the sea? If there is, I haven’t found it.

As you all know, I’m quite fond of summer and all the funny, steamy, and romantic beach-bag-ready books that are just around the corner. Lucky for me (and you!), I’ve gotten a sneak peek at a few of this season’s hottest upcoming books. Below, you’ll find a few of the titles you definitely don’t want to miss!

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

If you loved last summer’s Beach Read, you’ll be swooning over Henry’s newest novel. Poppy and Alex are complete opposites — he’s the type of guy who reads at a night club and likes to wrap up his taxes by mid-February at the latest, and she’s the wild, adventuresome travel blogger. Naturally, they are besties. Or at least they were. Every year for the last decade they went on vacation together, until one year when they screwed everything up so badly they stopped speaking. (Hmmm… I’ll leave it to you to figure out what
happened.) After much self-reflection and lamentation, Poppy realizes she was happiest when she was on holidays with Alex, and decides to convince him to take one last trip together. He agrees, which is where things get pretty interesting. Emily Henry is a terrific writer, and this book was definitely one of those where you read it and then right away you wish you had the chance to read it all over again for the very first time. (But this time, you’d do it better — slowly, savoring every page instead of rushing through it to see what happens next.) I love a good friends-to-lovers story, and Alex and Poppy’s chemistry was palpable. This book is charming, swoony, and incredibly heartfelt. If you loved Single-Minded, you’ll definitely love People We Meet on Vacation, which will be released May 11, 2021 from Penguin Random House.

The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren⠀
I absolutely adored this fun, funny, romance about a data scientist and single mom, Jess Davis, who has just about given up on love (wouldn’t you know it?) when she hears about GeneticAlly, a brand new DNA-based matchmaking app that’s claiming it will change romance as we know it. Turns out, Jess is a 98% match with none other than Dr. River Peña, the founder of the company. WHAT ARE THE ODDS??? As a dating expert and nerd lover myself, this premise was like catnip for me, and funnily enough, there WAS a DNA dating app a few years ago called Pheramor that I covered on the Daytime show a while back, that promised true love via a cheek swab (plus, ahem, combing through your social media profiles without your knowledge, and the secret sauce — the dubious magic of pheromones…) Anyhoo, Jess agrees to get to know River, even though she dislikes him right off the bat, because GeneticAlly is paying her to, and she’s a broke single mom doing it on her own who really needs the cash. River, obviously, has a vested interest in seeing this whole DNA dating scenario work out for himself because, you know, stock prices, not to mention proof of concept.

The Soulmate Equation is a speedy, super-fun read with some laugh-out-loud moments, fantastic banter, and chemistry hotter than a Bunsen burner.

Jess and River quickly became one of my favorite book pairings this year — if you’re a Christina Lauren fan, you definitely don’t want to miss this one. ⠀The Soulmate Equation releases May 18, 2021 from Simon & Shuster.

The Ex-Talk by Rachel Lynn Soloman
Sparks flying at a Seattle public radio station? Yes, puhleese. I adored this fun enemies-to-lovers rom-com about Shay and Dominic, competing coworkers at an NPR-esque radio station. Shay has put in ten long years at the station working as a producer, in pursuit of her lifelong dream of hosting her own radio show. Dominic is the Very Serious Journalist with a Master’s degree he can’t help but drop into every conversation. I mean every conversation. The station is struggling, and the station manager has a plan: Shay and Dominic can keep their jobs if they’re willing to host a brand new show together, THE EX TALK, where they must pretend to be friendly exes doling out relationship advice to listeners. The premise is charming and Solomon’s talent for writing (and obvious forearm fandom) shines through. You’ll definitely want this one in your beach bag.