10 Exciting Books to Read this Summer

From the author of the Grishaverse comes a new standalone fantasy set in the throes of the Spanish Inquisition. Luzia knows she has to keep her magic a secret or risk persecution for both her skills and her Jewish ancestry. But when her ‘miracles’ are discovered, she finds herself thrown into a competition full of complex politics, tightroping the line between showing off in order to win and being sent to her death. With the help of Guillén Santangel, an intimidating immortal, she’ll have to figure out a way to win a better life for herself—a safer one.

Abdurraqib could write out the phone book, and I would preorder it. His newest book is a semi-memoir: he tells the stories of his coming of age in a neighborhood of Columbus; of the importance of basketball there and to him specifically; of the rise, departure, and return of LeBron James; and of what it means to grow old and to no longer be a child. You don’t need to be a fan of basketball to love this one (though it wouldn’t hurt) because it’s a rich, heartfelt memoir all on its own. It’s a well-written book about place, longing, heartbreak, and nostalgia.

Silvia and her mother are refugees recently accepted into the repopulation program for Island City, hopeful that they’re on their way to a better life. Her mother has always forbidden her to talk about their past, and she’s in a weird position of trying to make friends while staying secretive. Her Aunt Ena tells her that the mysterious occupant of their building’s penthouse has a big, magical secret—but Ena dies before she can share it. Sil becomes obsessed, and the book unfolds from there as a novel of painful realities, climate fiction, and the desire for mystery and wonder.

After her parents die tragically, Carmen flees to her sister’s mansion, hoping to find a comfortable place to recover. But all she’ll find there are secrets going back to when Robert and Anna Barnes—wealthy and new to South Florida—came down to Biscayne Bay to build their beautiful estate, only to head straight for scandal. Carmen has to try and unspool the house’s secrets before they can take her down, too. The author, best known for her Cuban-American historical fiction series that begins with Next Year in Havana, has turned towards thriller, and readers will love speeding through this one under the summer sun.

Did you fall in love with 2016 book The Essex Serpent? Well, Sarah Perry is back with a new, epic story that spans decades. Two good friends, Thomas Hart (an older man living two lives) and Grace Macaulay (a younger woman dissatisfied with her life in the small town of Aldleigh), are wrapped up in the mystery of an astronomer who disappeared in the 19th century. The book unspools as the two characters drift together and apart, discovering a lot about themselves, about love, and about the nature of astronomy and what lies beyond the stars.

A new novel of magical realism is out from the iconic author of In the Time of the Butterflies and How the García Girls Lost Their Accents. In this one, author Alma Cruz decides that she wants to put any unfinished manuscripts of hers to rest—literally. She buries them in the land, hoping she won’t be haunted by the plots she couldn’t finish, by unearthed manuscripts. Unfortunately, stories are hardy creatures, and soon, the forgotten characters are confronting Cruz herself, proving that there are multiple ways for a story to get told.