“One benefit of Summer was that each day we had more light to read by.”
Summers were made for reading. Whether they’re crammed into your carry-on bag, or your companion for a day by the back garden, the long warm days are perfect for finding the next great story to escape away with. Which is why we here at What We Reading thought we would take a look at the best fiction books to read this summer. We’ve decided to keep our collection simple with books that are being published in 2024 and that offer an immersive storytelling experience. So, from hilarious rom-coms, cosy mysteries or thrilling fantasy adventures, whether you’re catching some rays by the pool or sheltering in the shade, check out these great 2024 summer books!
Bear – Julia Phillips
Kicking off our list of books to read in the summer is Julia Phillip’s Bear. Sam and her sister, Elena, dream of another life. On the island off the coast of Washington where they were born and raised, both they and their mother struggle to survive. Sam works on the ferry that shuttles vacationers onto their island, while Elena bartends at the local golf club. Yet, even together, they can’t make enough to get by.
Then, one night on the boat, Sam spies a bear swimming in the dark waters of the channel. Where is it going? What does it want? When the bear turns up by their home, she becomes more convinced than ever that it is time to leave their island home. But Elena, enchanted by the animal, responds differently and throws their long-held dreams for the future into doubt. Propulsive and whimsical, Bear is a story about sisterhood and the mysteries of the animals that live both around and within us.
The Wedding People – Alison Espach
It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island when Phoebe Stone arrives at the luxurious Cornwall Inn. She’s wearing a green dress, and gold heels and doesn’t have a bag in sight. Most mistakenly believe she’s here for the big wedding but is, in fact, the only person in the hotel not here for the big occasion. The truth is, Phoebe has always dreamt of shucking oysters and taking sunset sails in Cornwall with her husband. Only, she’s come on her own.
Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster her perfect weekend might serve up. Except for Phoebe. Which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in one another. Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is a hilarious 2024 romance story about an unexpected wedding guest, and the chance encounters we get that reroute our paths in life.
The Midnight Feast – Lucy Foley
It’s the opening night of The Manor and no expense, small or large, has been spared. The infinity pool sparkles, and crystal pouches for the guests’ healing have been placed in the Seaside Cottages and Woodland Hutches and the ‘Manor Mule’ cocktails are being poured. But, beyond The Manor’s pristine grounds, an ancient forest bristles with secrets.
The local community are resentful of what The Manor is doing, and local skirmishes between staff and residents have already erupted on the edge of the property. On top of that, whispers about an old piece of pagan folklore refuse to be silenced. On the Sunday morning of the opening weekend, the police are called. There’s been a fire. A body has been found. Something’s not right with the guests. In Lucy Foley’s 2024 locked-room mystery, The Midnight Feast, everyone has an agenda, everyone has a past, and not everyone will survive.
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When Among Crows – Veronica Roth
Pain is Dymitr’s calling. His family is one in a long line of hunters who sacrifice their souls to slay monsters. Now, he has been tasked with a deadly mission: locate the malevolent witch, Baba Jaga. However, to find her, he must ally up with the ones he has sworn to kill.
Pain is Ala’s inheritance. A fear-eating Zmora with nothing left to lose, she waits for death from the curse she carries. When Dymitr offers her a cure in exchange for her help, she has few other options but to agree. Together, the pair must fight against time and the wrath of the Chicago underworld in Veronica Roth’s 2024 urban fantasy story, When Among Crows. But Dymitr’s secrets – and true motivations – may be the thing that finally ends up destroying them both.
The Bright Sword – Lev Grossman
Another one of the most anticipated 2024 fantasy books perfect for some summertime reading comes from Lev Grossman in The Bright Sword. The story follows a gifted young knight called Collum who arrives at Camelot hoping for a spot at the Round Table, only to find he is too late. The king died two weeks earlier, leaving behind no heir and only a few remaining knights. There are no heroes, only oddballs from the fringes of the legend of King Arthur.
Arthur’s death has meant God has abandoned Britain, allowing fairies, monsters and old gods led by the malevolent Morgan l Fay to return. Rival factions are forming, warlords are laying siege to Camelot. It is up to Collum and his ragtag group of companions to reclaim Excalibur, solve the mysteries of the old world and restore Camelot to its former balance. But, before they do this, they must learn why the brilliant, lonely, King Arthur fell and lay to rest the ghosts of his troubled family and Britain’s dark past.
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All This & More – Peng Shepherd
Meek, play-it-safe Marsh has just turned forty-five and her life is in shambles. Her career is stagnant, her marriage has imploded and her teenage daughter is becoming more and more distant every day. From romance to adventures, Marsh feels like she has missed her shot at everything. So she can’t believe her luck when she is selected to be the star of the show, All This and More, which uses quantum technology to allow participants to fix their past mistakes and change their lives in the present.
But, even as she becomes a hotshot lawyer, rekindles her high school romance and travels the world, Marsh begins to wonder whether All This and More may be too good to be true. Peng Shepherd’s All This & More is an innovative new sci-fi story where readers get to choose what Marsh does next to change her fate.
The Pairing – Casey McQuiston
Theo and Kit have gone the whole nine yards. From childhood best friends, crushes, in love and now estranged exes. And the time apart has done them good. Theo has become a hustling bartender, and aspiring sommelier with a long line of casual lovers, whereas Kit now bakes at one of the finest restaurants in Paris. All that remains is the unused voucher of the European tour they were meant to go on together but never did.
The pair both decide to make use of the voucher before it expires. It is only when they board the tour bus that they discover they’ve both had the same idea. Now they’re trapped together for three weeks of stunning views, luxurious wine and the most romantic cities across France, Spain and Italy. But, when Kit proposes a hook-up competition, it becomes clear that a taste of everything sometimes makes you crave what you can’t have. The Pairing is a 2024 romantic comedy by #1 New York Times bestselling author Casey McQuiston.
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Such Charming Liars – Karen M. McManus
For all of Kat’s life, it’s just been her and her mother, Jamie. Except for the forty-eight hours when Jamie was married and Kat briefly had a stepbrother, Liam. It all ended in a tragic divorce, and Kat and Liam haven’t spoken since.
Jamie is now a professional jewel thief trying to go straight. But, she has one last heist to at billionaire Ross Sutherland’s birthday party. Kat has figured out a way of tagging along. What she hasn’t wagered for, however, are the two surprise guests also attending the party: Liam and his father. In her new YA mystery Such Charming Liars, Karen M. McManus puts Kat and Liam on a collision course to disaster. But, when a Sutherland suddenly dies, the pair find themselves reliant on one another and in the crosshairs of a killer.
House Of Bone And Rain – Gabino Iglesias
For childhood friends Gabe, Xavier, Tavo, Paul and Bimbo, death has always been close. Hurricanes. Car crashes. Gangs. Suicide. ‘Estamos rodeados de fantasmas’ was what Gabe’s grandmother always used to say. We are surrounded by ghosts. But this time is different. Bimbo’s mother has been shot dead. When Bimbo swears to kill the people who killed her, all of his friends agree.
Feral with grief, Bimbo becomes unrecognisable and he searches for the names behind his mother’s murder. They soon learn that Maria was gunned down by workers for the drug kingpin of Puerto Rico, a figure no one has gone up against and survived. As the boys strategise their next move, a storm gathers far from the coast. Blurring the boundaries between myth, mythicism and the gritty realities of real life, Gabino Igleasias’ House of Bone and Rain is a 2024 horror novel that delves into devotion, violence and what rolls in on the tide.
The Paradise Problem – Christina Lauren
Another one of the most hyped summer romance books from 2024, The Paradise Problem, is a fake romance story of a buttoned-up heir of a grocery chain and his free-spirited artist ex-wife. Anna Green is a starving artist living paycheck to paycheck, whilst Liam ‘West’ Weston is a Stanford professor who has no interest in working for the soulless corporation his family built. However, he is interested in the one-hundred-million-dollar inheritance that comes with it. There’s just one catch.
Due to a clause in his grandfather’s will, Liam won’t see a penny of his inheritance until he has been happily married for five years. When his family pressure him to show off his mysterious spouse, he has no other choice but to unveil his feisty, paint-splattered not-so-ex-wife. But, in the company of his family, Liam’s fears shift from whether Anna can play her part, to whether the world of wealth and privilege may corrupt something pure in his surprisingly grounded wife. Soon, Liam is forced to ponder whether the price tag on his cover story is worth losing true love that sprouted from a lie.
The God Of The Woods – Liz Moore
Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar has vanished. Barbara isn’t just an ordinary thirteen-year-old, she is the daughter of the owners of the summer camp who employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time one of the Van Laar children has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother mysteriously went missing fourteen years ago in similar circumstances, never to be found.
As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama soon unfolds. Chasing down the many secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, The God of the Woods is a 2024 mystery thriller by Liz Moore perfect for a summer read. Ambitious and wide-reaching, readers are pulled into a dark web of shocking secrets and second chances.
I Was A Teenage Slasher – Stephen Graham Jones
Stephen Graham Jones’ 2024 horror book I Was a Teenage Slasher is a summer teen movie in novel form and a slasher story with a twist. In a small west Texas town driven by oil and cotton – a place where every resident knows each other’s secrets, readers are introduced to seventeen-year-old Tolly Driver, a good kid with more potential, who is about to be cursed to kill for revenge.
In I Was a Teenage Slasher, Stephen Graham Jones explores the Texas he grew up in, the unfairness of being on the outside and delivers a slasher tale from the perspective of the killer. If you’re looking for a summer horror flick that doubles up as the villain’s own autobiography, this blood-curdling tragedy has to be on your TBR list!
This Ravenous Fate (This Ravenous Fate #1) – Hayley Dennings
It’s 1926 and reapers, the once-human vampires with a terrifying affliction are on the rise across New York. But the Saint family’s reaper-hunting monopoly continues to hold sway across the city. Eighteen-year-old Eilse Saint, home after five years in Paris, is the reluctant heir to the family’s empire. Only one weighs heavier on Elise’s mind than her family’s expectations and obligations: the fact that the Harlem reapers want her dead.
Layla Quinn is a young reaper haunted by her past and has only been a reaper for five years. The night she was turned, she lost her parents, the protection of the Saints and her humanity. She will never forget how Elise Saint betrayed her. When Layla is framed for a murder, the Saint patriarch offers to assist, if she agrees to investigate the killings with Elise. Set in the Jazz Age in Harlem, Hayley Dennings’ debut novel, This Ravenous Fate, is part murder mystery, part sapphire romance as Elise and Layla investigate the underbelly of the city, their own feelings for each other, and the rising threat to reaper and humans alike lurking in the shadows.
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Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
