7 Summer Reads To Get You Through July

 It's officially July and it's hot, hot, hot outside (and I might have to live at the pool) and time for another roundup of summer reading. Take a look at the list and tell me in the comments your favorite summer read!



BEAUTY and the CLOCKWORK BEAST
 by Nancy Campbell Allen

Jane Eyre meets Beauty and the Beast.

When Lucy Pickett arrives at Blackwell Manor to tend to her ailing cousin, Kate, she finds more than she bargained for. A restless ghost roams the hallways, werewolves have been reported in the area, and vampires lurk across the Scottish border. Lord Miles himself is clearly hiding a secret.

Opening line:
 "It had never been proven that Lord Blackwell had killed his wife, but then the man in question hadn't actually denied it, either."

Oh my. I loved this book more than I thought I would! Because a twist on Beauty and the Beast with a twist of steampunk? I wasn't sure. But yes. I loved it.





UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN
by Rene Collins

Cassandra craves drama and adventure, so the last thing she wants is to spend her summer marooned with her mother and stepfather in a snooty Massachusetts shore town. But when a dreamy stranger shows up on their private beach claiming it's his own—and that the year is 1925—she is swept into a mystery a hundred years in the making.

Opening line:
"The beach is empty."

Beach, time traveling, and romance. What more is there?








THE ONLY THING WORSE THAN ME IS YOU
by Lily Anderson

Trixie Watson has two very important goals for senior year: to finally save enough to buy the set of Doctor Who figurines at the local comic books store, and to place third in her class and knock Ben West--and his horrendous new mustache that he spent all summer growing--down to number four.

Opening line:
"Ben West spent summer vacation growing a handlebar mustache."



Any book that gets me to sit still and reading-not skim-is worth a shout out.

The Only Thing Worse Than Me is You is funny, nerdy, witty, cute, smart, geeky, well-paced...ETC.






LADY HELEN FINDS HER SONG
 by Jennifer Moore

 Spring 1813The exotic splendors of India are legendary, and the colorful sights of her new home in Calcutta immediately captivate eighteen-year-old Lady Helen Poulter. It is in this vibrant, bustling city that she finds a kindred soul in Captain Michael Rhodes, an Englishman whose lifelong love of India runs deep. Their friendship quickly grows, yet despite their undeniable connection, she could never think of Captain Rhodes as more than a dear friend.

Opening line:
"Lady Helen Poulter stood on the deck of the ship,  her gloved fingers tapping on the rail, playing invisible keys in a melody that only she could hear."

 So now I want to go to India and eat exotic food and have a pet monkey. Thanks a lot Ms. Moore! 



The Wrath & Dawn
by Renee Ahdieh 

 One Life to One Dawn.

In a land ruled by a murderous boy-king, each dawn brings heartache to a new family. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, is a monster. Each night he takes a new bride only to have a silk cord wrapped around her throat come morning.
Night after night, Shahrzad beguiles Khalid, weaving stories that enchant, ensuring her survival, though she knows each dawn could be her last. But something she never expected begins to happen: Khalid is nothing like what she'd imagined him to be.

Opening line:
"It would not be a welcome dawn."

 This book is a twist on A Thousand and One Nights that I couldn't put down!





WILLOWKEEP 
by Julie Daines

Charlotte Darby’s ship is sinking. Penniless and alone, she is struggling to care for herself and her young sister in the harsh seaport town of Kingston upon Hull. When a solicitor from London brings news that she is the heir to a vast estate in Kent, it seems her days of rough seas are over. Willowkeep is prosperous and grand, far too much for a shipping merchant’s daughter to manage, and she quickly comes to rely on the help of Henry Morland, the estate’s kind and handsome steward.

Opening line:
""Twelve thousand a year?" Charlotte stared at the letter in her hand."

 Henry and Charlotte. What better named pair? I loved reading their story!




THE GIRL FROM EVERYWHERE
by Heidi Heilig

Nix has spent her entire life aboard her father’s ship, sailing across the centuries, across the world, across myth and imagination.

As long as her father has a map for it, he can sail to any time, any place, real or imagined: nineteenth-century China, the land from One Thousand and One Nights, a mythic version of Africa. Along the way they have found crewmates and friends, and even a disarming thief who could come to mean much more to Nix.

But the end to it all looms closer every day.

Opening line:
"It was the kind of August day that hinted at monsoons, and the year was 1774, though not for very much longer."

 
A time-traveling pirate ship.
A crazy, smart main character named Nix.
An Aladdin-type love interest.
Maps to the future, past and make believe.
Hawaii.

What could be better than a story with ALL of the above elements?? This girl can write!