These books I have read religiously over the years and I still don't get bored reading them. Some of these books I have read recently and cant wait to read them again, they are that good! The majority of these are chick flick/romance/comedy/adventure/mystery as those are the kind of books that have me gripped straight away and guarantee a light-hearted summer read. Excuse how long this post is going to be.. I mean, it may as well be a book itself!
1. Twenties Girl; Sophie Kinsella
OPINION:
Of course Sophie Kinsella is going to pop up here!! This book at first I wasn't too sure about. When I first read it, I assumed it was going to be another sort of chick flick kind of book, but I was wrong. It is a more mystery/ghost story with quirky twists and turns and of course an unexpected love story.
BLURB:
Lara has always had an overactive imagination. Now she wonders if she is losing her mind. Normal twenty-something girls just don’t get visited by ghosts! But inexplicably, the spirit of Lara’s great Aunt Sadie – in the form of a bold, demanding Charleston-dancing girl – has appeared to make one last request: Lara must track down a missing necklace Sadie simply can’t rest without. Lara’s got enough problems of her own. Her start-up company is floundering, her best friend and business partner has run off to Goa, and she’s just been dumped by the love of her life. But as Lara spends time with Sadie, life becomes more glamorous and their treasure hunt turns into something intriguing and romantic. Could Sadie’s ghost be the answer to Lara’s problems and can two girls from different times end up learning something special from each other?
FAVE QUOTE:“Honestly, it’s so easy to get what you want from people if they think you’re a psycho.”
2. The Fill In Boyfriend; Kasie West
OPINION:
This book is SO brilliant. The feels from this book are REAL. You will fall in love with the 'fill in boyfriend' and all the scandals that go on throughout. There are so many beautiful quotes and it is one of those books I could see as a chick flick high school rom-com film one day!
BLURB:
When Gia Montgomery's boyfriend, Bradley, dumps her in the parking lot of her high school prom, she has to think fast. After all, she'd been telling her friends about him for months now. This was supposed to be the night she proved he existed. So when she sees a cute guy waiting to pick up his sister, she enlists his help. The task is simple: be her fill-in boyfriend—two hours, zero commitment, a few white lies. After that, she can win back the real Bradley. The problem is that days after prom, it's not the real Bradley she's thinking about, but the stand-in. The one whose name she doesn't even know. But tracking him down doesn't mean they're done faking a relationship. Gia owes him a favour and his sister intends to see that he collects: his ex-girlfriend's graduation party—three hours, zero commitment, a few white lies. Just when Gia begins to wonder if she could turn her fake boyfriend into a real one, Bradley comes waltzing back into her life, exposing her lie, and threatening to destroy her friendships and her new-found relationship.
FAVE QUOTE:
“We rarely find a depth by looking inside of ourselves for it. Depth is found in what we can learn from the people and things around us. Everyone, everything, has a story, Gia. When you learn those stories, you learn experiences that fill you up, that expand your understanding. You add layers to your soul.”
3. Looking For Alaska; John Green
OPINION:
John Green I feel is an absolute hero in the world of literature. He entices his readers with his thoughtful metaphors and brings his characters to life with their realistic and relatable characteristics. This book was emotional, thought provoking and somewhat beautiful.
BLURB:
Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words–and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps.” Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy. Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.
FAVE QUOTE:
“So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane.”
4. Finding Audrey Sophie Kinsella
OPINION:
Sophie Kinsella is just so good! A somewhat different approach with a more deep and meaningful message. It is such a positive book, that touches on serious issues of mental health and the beautiful journey of overcoming it. If you suffer with anxiety this book will have you relating to the character Audrey in more ways than one.
BLURB:
"Audrey can't leave the house. She can't even take off her dark glasses inside the house. Then her brother's friend Linus stumbles into her life. With his friendly, orange-slice smile and his funny notes, he starts to entice Audrey out again - well, Starbucks is a start. And with Linus at her side, Audrey feels like she can do the things she'd thought were too scary. Suddenly, finding her way back to the real world seems achievable. Be prepared to laugh, dream and hope with Audrey as she learns that even when you feel like you have lost yourself, love can still find you.."
FAVE QUOTE:
“Most people underestimate eyes. They're infinite. You look someone straight in the eye and your whole soul can be sucked out in a nanosecond. Other people's eyes are limitless and that's what scares me.”
5. Boys of Summer (Book One in the Series); C J Duggan
OPINION:
The best thing about this book is you get so sucked in to the storyline, yet it isn't the end! This fabulous story comes in several books, each with a different narrator from the group. I can't tell which is my favourite yet, but they were each all funny, relatable, exciting and will guarantee you wanting to find a job in a pub in hope of finding your own version of the Onslow Boys. I have included the blurb of the first book. Each of the books has a completely different storyline! They are just one of those books that has you wanting to stay up all night to finish it, even if it means you'll be a complete zombie the next day because it is SO worth it.
BLURB:
Quiet seventeen-year-old Tess doesn’t relish the thought of a summertime job. She wants nothing more than to forget the past haunts of high school and have fun with her best friends before the dreaded Year Twelve begins. To Tess, summer is when everything happens: riding bikes down to the lake, watching the fireworks at the Onslow Show and water bomb fights at the sweltering Sunday markets. How did she let her friends talk her into working?After first-shift disasters, rude, wealthy tourists and a taunting ex-boyfriend, Tess is convinced nothing good can come of working her summer away. However, Tess finds unlikely allies in a group of locals dubbed ‘The Onslow Boys’, who are old enough to drive cars, drink beer and not worry about curfews. Tess’s summer of working expands her world with a series of first times with new friends, forbidden love and heartbreaking chaos. All with the one boy she has never been able to forget. It will be a summer she will always remember
FAVE QUOTE:
“Love is not necessary to life, but it is what makes life worth living.”
6. To Marry A Prince; Sophie Page
OPINION:
This book is so magical it makes you believe you can be a princess! (Because why shouldn't we dream?! I mean, Prince Harry is still single?). It will make your heart skip a beat and your adrenaline rush as you take the journey with Bella in her unexpected love story!
BLURB:
It tells the story of an ordinary, unlucky and clumsy girl Bella Greenwood who gets herself in all sorts of situations, one of which being tangled up in a bush of ivy at a charity event full of celebrities, resulting in a mystery man in the dark having to come out and rescue her. It isn't till she leaves her phone at the event and this mystery man calls her that she has to embarrassingly show her face to him again after the incident the night before. As the tale unfolds, we learn that this mystery man isn't just any young man, but the world's most eligible bachelor—Prince Richard, heir to the throne. As they get to know each other properly, their love story begins and Richard sweeps her off her feet. In an attempt to keep their love affair hidden from the Prince super fans, the media, Bella's family and even the Royal Family themselves, they realise it is a somewhat impossible task and their love story becomes public property. Can Bella keep up with the curtsying, negotiating the etiquette of how to address her future mother-in-law, Richard travelling without her and a national scandal caused by an evil blogger?
FAVE QUOTE:
“God, this is why I can never live with women. They go off into corners and think, maybe it’s this, maybe it’s that. Ask, woman. Ask.”
7. Can You Keep A Secret; Sophie Kinsella.
OPINION:
Sophie Kinsella has got to be one of my all time favourite writers. Any book of hers that I have read I think I genuinely cried when I got to the end of the book. This book certainly was the case when I first read it, because it is my ALL time favourite book, EVER. I have read this millions of times and each time it never fails to actually make me laugh out loud! Warning; it is so gripping it may make you become rather unsociable. I promise that this book will make your tummy hurt from laughter, will leave you feeling uplifted and definitely teach you to trust who you tell your secrets to! It is one of those books that I could imagine being an amazing rom-com film. HINT HINT FILM PRODUCERS OUT THERE, HINT HINT.
BLURB:
We all have our secrets, don't we? Some are big, some are small. Well, Emma has hundreds. A huge list of little white lies that she told and little secrets stored away in her little head.
Emma is a nervous flyer, so on her way back from her first ever business deal (which of course she managed to screw up by throwing fizzy drink down the boss) the plane hitting some bad turbulence was the worst thing that could happen to someone as nervous as Emma. She really thinks this could be her last moments, so naturally begins telling the dishy American man next to her all the secrets and lies that she had stored away, without even noticing. Things like, how she scans the backs of intellectual books and pretends she has read them. Or, how she's not sure if she's found her G spot and whether her boyfriend could find it anyway. And how she does her hair up like Princess Leia in her bedroom. How everyone at her work uses the word 'operational' and she really has no idea what it means, and how the coffee machine there tastes horrible. Even how she pours orange juice in her colleagues plant at work when she's not looking because she annoys her.
Emma survives the flight of course, and the next morning she finds herself in work with everyone frantic as the famous founding boss of the whole mega corporation is coming to look at the UK branch. Its then Emma looks up from her desk and realises this mega boss is the man she told all her secrets to on the plane. What will he do with her secrets? He knows them all, but she doesn't know a single one of his. Or..does she?
FAVE QUOTE:
“I feel all agitated, like one of those snow globes you see resting peacefully on shop counters. I was perfectly happy being an ordinary, dull little Swiss village. But now Jack Harper’s come and shaken me up, and there are snowflakes all over the place, whirling around until I don’t know what I think anymore. And bits of glitter, too. Tiny bits of shiny, secret excitement.”
Let me know your favourite books in the comments below! I have a whole other list to go up of more books I have enjoyed reading recently. These are just a handful of summer reads!!
Happy Reading and Happy Summer!
Soph x
