I’ve always loved reading, but this year I rekindled my love of books and I’ve had so much extra time for it. I’m honestly so sad that I’m so busy with school right now because I barely have time to read and I miss it so much. This summer, I was on a reading kick. I seriously read so much. If you remember my last book post, I mentioned that I was getting into mysteries and thrillers, and I dove headfirst into this genre over the summer. I also read some cute rom-com style books, a few faith related books, and also got into dystopian books! I’ve read 49 books so far this year, and here’s what I read this summer!
The Elite // 3.8 ☆ // This was the second book of the Selection Series, which I read back at the beginning of the summer, and wow does it feel like forever ago! This was good, just a cheesy dystopian romance. It’s kind of like The Bachelor meets Hunger Games. Good for a chill summer read.
Pressure Points // 4.6 ☆ // I started this last year actually, but didn’t get very far and finished it back in May. It was so good, I highly recommend. It’s a Christian book that talks about the different trials you’ll go through in college and how to deal with them in a biblical way.
The One // 3.4 ☆ // The third and final book of the Selection series, and probably my least favorite You know you’re signing up for a cheesy book when you start it, but the ending just didn’t meet my expectations.
The Toll // 3.7 ☆ // This was the third book the the Scythe series, which I read last year. I loved the first two books, and was really excited for this one. It was still good, but just super long and drawn out and I feel like it could have been at least half as long. Definitely recommend Scythe tho!
I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You // 3 ☆ // This one was definitely under my age level. I didn’t realize it was more of a middle school read until I started it, and I hate not finishing books. It was a mystery/spy book about these girls in boarding school, and it was okay, but not my fave.
Wild and Free // 4 ☆ // This was another book I had started a while ago and never gotten around to finishing. It was a good Christian read about being unapologetically yourself knowing that you are free in Christ.
All Your Twisted Secrets // 3.8 ☆ // This was a mystery book that I had high expectations for, but it had a kind of weird ending. It was about this group of high school kids that get trapped at a dinner party in a locked room, and they have to kill someone in order to get out before the timer goes off. Sounds weird, but it was pretty interesting!
Good Girl, Bad Blood // 4.3 ☆ // This was the second book to A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, which I read a few months ago, and it was super good! I got super into mysteries this year, and this was a good high school mystery novel with a plot that sucks you in.
Dangerous Girls // 4.6 ☆ // Oh my gosh, this book. I read it so fast and the ending shocked me. I literally just sat in my bed in shock, looking up everything I could about the book to try to help me understand what just happened. A girl and her friends go on a trip to Aruba, and one of her friends is found dead in their condo. I even got my dad to read it and he was shocked too, haha.
The Woman in Cabin 10 // 4 ☆ // This was a really popular mystery novel a few years ago, and it’s more of an adult novel in the sense that there’s no high school/college characters like the other one. A woman is on a boat with a bunch of popular socialites, and the woman in the room next to her disappears. As she tries to figure out what happened, she realizes that there are definitely some sketchy things going on with the rest of the group.
People Like Us // 3 ☆ // Probably wouldn’t recommend this one, it was kind of a waste of time reading. I thought it would be a good mystery but it was honestly just really weird and the ending made no sense.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix // 5 ☆ // This wasn’t a physical book I read, but actually an audiobook! I’ve been listening to it before bed a few times a week when I don’t feel like reading but can’t go to sleep. The calming voice of Jim Dale really helps me relax and drift off, haha. It took a while to get through this book because I kept falling asleep between chapters, but I finally finished it and I’ve moved on to The Half Blood Prince!
Little Monsters // 4.5 ☆ // I read this one super fast, and it was so good! It’s about a small town mystery that also involves secrets from the past. It’s been a while so I honestly don’t remember exactly what happened, but I remember there was a big twist at the end!
The Thousandth Floor // 4.5 ☆ // This was another dystopian novel, and it’s set in NYC in 2118, a hundred years in the future. In this futuristic world, all New York citizens live in one huge, thousandth floor tower that contains schools, streets, stores, etc. It’s kind of like a futuristic Gossip Girl, with lots of high school drama and cool futuristic technology.
Cold Tangerines // 4.7 ☆ // This was such a sweet little read. The author writes in a beautiful way, with so many descriptions and stories that describe perfectly so many emotions and feelings. It’s basically a book of little stories about the author’s life and how to look for the small moments that make life exciting and unique. It inspired me to look for God in little moments every day and be more grateful!
All We Ever Wanted // 4.3 ☆ // This was another “adult” book, but it was a really good read with an important message behind it. The popular boy at school takes and sends an inappropriate video of a girl in his class, and the parents are working through the aftermath. I want to read more of Emily Giffin’s books now, she has so many!
Jane Anonymous // 4.7 ☆ // This book was another thriller that also really sucked me in. It’s about a girl that gets kidnapped and taken to what she thinks is a house full of other taken kids. She finally escapes after months of captivity, and what she realizes after she’s out shocks her.
With Malice // 4 ☆ // This was a quick mystery read based off of the Amanda Knox trial. A girl goes on a summer trip to Italy with her best friend, and gets in a car crash that makes her lose her memory of the past few weeks. She learns that she has apparently killed her best friend in the crash, and there is a trial for her arrest. I read this at the beach and it was really good!
Gone Girl // 4.2 ☆ // I’m sure most people have heard of this book, I’ve been thinking about reading it for a while now. It’s definitely an intense thriller, but there are so many twists and turns throughout the story. It took me a while to get into it but after about 1/3 of the book, I was hooked. Now I want to watch the movie!
Darling Rose Gold // 4 ☆ // This book is based off of the Gypsy Rose Blanchard case, and it was such an interesting thriller! I read it in like a day while at the beach, highly recommend. Now I want to watch the Act, the show on Hulu about Gypsy and her mom.
The Rules for Disappearing // 3.6 ☆ // This was another book I read at the beach and it wasn’t quite as good as I was expecting. A girl and her family is in the witness protection program because of something that happened years ago. This was just really unrealistic and didn’t suck me in as much as I thought it would.
Then She Was Gone // 4.4 ☆ // This was my first Lisa Jewell book to read and now I want to read more! It’s really hard to explain the plot, because there’s so many overlapping stories, but it all comes together in a really interesting way at the end. Highly recommend!
The Last Time I Lied // 4.5 ☆ // This was a perfect book to read over the summer, because it was a mystery set at a summer camp. The main character goes back as a counselor to the same summer camp she went to as a girl, and starts to uncover a mystery involving the owners of the camp.
An Anonymous Girl // 4.6 ☆ // This is another really popular one, and I definitely recommend! I read this at the beach and it was so interesting. I liked how it went back and forth between different perspectives. A woman enrolls in a psychological experiment for some extra money, but the deeper she gets into the experiment, she finds herself trapped in a controlling environment with the leader of the experiment.
My (Not So) Perfect Life // 4.3 ☆ // This was a fun summer read that had a really sweet message! A city girl has to move back home for the summer to help her parents run a family business, and she realizes she was focusing too much on materialistic pleasures and would rather live the small town life.
Confessions of a Shopaholic // 4.2 ☆ // This was by the same author of the previous book, and it was another easy, chill read. The main character has a serious shopping addiction, and the book is basically a funny recap of her journey to managing her money and love life!
Lock Every Door // 4.1 ☆ // This book sucked me in from the very beginning, but it had a really interesting ending. I honestly don’t think the ending made much sense, it was really unrealistic, but good nonetheless. A girl moves into a penthouse to be a housesitter for a few months, and realizes some pretty creepy things going on around the building.
The Dazzling Heights // 4.5 ☆ // This was the second book to the Thousandth Floor series, and it was just as good (if not better!) than the first. I liked that I already got to meet the main characters and was sucked into their story, and this book continued the drama with new characters and romances.
The Towering Sky // 4.5 ☆ // My very last book of the summer! Finished this literally the night before I moved into college, and it was the conclusion to the Thousandth Floor trilogy. I definitely recommend this whole series, it’s so good for a fun summer escape into the drama of futuristic New York.
Until I rounded them all up I honestly didn’t realize how much I read this summer! My favorite place to read is at the beach by the ocean, and I had lots of beach trips this summer to get some reading in. I actually just finished Redeeming Love, which was so good, and now I’m starting Anna K. by Jenny Lee. What book should I read next?
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