Our top Summer Reads #holidayreads

30th June 2014

Once again we bring together our choice of hot Summer reads for you to enjoy. (We got totally carried away with some of the beautiful covers on our selected titles, redolent, lazy, sunny days….).

Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klaussman. Set in Martha’s Vineyard. We review this great novel set in Martha’s Vineyard. It’s hot, sultry and a gripping read, guaranteed to keep you engrossed and transport you this exclusive holiday area in the States. And the publishers talk to us about the gorgeous cover and how it came into being.

Summer of ’76 by Isabel Ashdown. Set in the Isle of Wight. 1976 is the hottest Summer on record, and the creaking heat pervades everything. The gardens are wilting, there is a hosepipe ban and the people of Sandown and elsewhere on the magical island, are grappling with the soaring temperatures. Luke Wolff is coming to the end of his time at school and is looking forward to College on the mainland come the Autumn. This is his story, and how he negotiates the final months of being at home with his family.

The Vacationers by Emma Straub. Set in Mallorca. Two weeks off the world with friends and family, in a villa at the foot of the Tramuntana Mountains in Mallorca. A perfect scenario for one family and their hangers-on to explore relationship dynamics and work out ways of co-existing. And enjoy the beautiful Balearic island of Mallorca.

Bittersweet by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore. Set in Vermont. Fictional Winloch is like a small village, with each of the perfect Winslow children inhabiting a pretty white cottage. Days spent swimming in watery coves evaporate into nights at glamorous cocktail parties. As the formality melts away, who are the Winslows really?

The Lemon Grove by Helen Walsh. Set in Mallorca. has the sultry setting of Deià to warm the reader’s heart, and the storyline certainly bowls along the winding country roads in this part of the island, with effortless prose.Greg and Jenn are a couple, holidaying with their 15 year old daughter and her new boyfriend Greg, who is a veritable cuckoo in this particular nest. As a family, they have come on holiday to Mallorca every year but this one turns out very differently.

Swimming Home by Deborah Levy. Set in Alpes-Maritimes, France. It is July, 1994 and Joe Jacobs, who is well known poet, his war reporter wife Isabel, and their 14 year old daughter are renting a holiday villa near Nice, accompanied by their friends Laura and Mitchell. Part into their holiday they discover a naked woman swimming in their pool, she has no accommodation and Isabel suggests she stay in the spare room. What happens next? Mixed reviews, see what TripFiction thinks.

Autobiography of Us by Aria Beth Sloss. Set in USA. Coming of age in early 1960s suburban California, Rebecca Madden and her beautiful, reckless best friend Alex dream of lives beyond their mothers’ narrow expectations. As teenagers they are inseparable. But then, one sweltering evening the summer before their college graduation, a single act of betrayal changes everything. Decades later, Rebecca’s haunting confession reveals the truth about that night, the years that followed, and the friendship that defined her.

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