Sunny showers, pool-side holidays and beach vacations are all perfect excuses to pick up a brand new book this summer, and lose yourself in a few hours of pure escapism.
That’s why we couldn’t be more excited by the sheer volume of wonderful new releases which seem to be hitting the book shop shelves each and every day.
To help you decide which title is right for you, we’ve rounded up our top June releases, which you absolutely must pick up this summer, especially if you’re on the hunt for a page-turning holiday read or two!
The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill
The ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library is quiet, until the tranquility is shattered by a woman's terrified scream. Security guards take charge immediately, instructing everyone inside to stay put until the threat is identified and contained. While they wait for the all-clear, four strangers, who'd happened to sit at the same table, pass the time in conversation and friendships are struck. Each has his or her own reasons for being in the reading room that morning—it just happens that one is a murderer.
Odd Hours by Ania Bas - published June 23
Meet Gosia. She’s a sensitive soul with a filthy mouth and problems with intimacy. From shifts in a well-lit budget supermarket to nights in a badly-lit zone 3 flat share, she’s better off inside her own head. But when a ticket out of there appears at her checkout, she can’t help wondering if there might be more to life than she bargained for…
You Are Here by Eva Woods
It is the morning of Ellie Warren's wedding day and she is hiding under her childhood bed. She cannot shake the feeling that she isn't where she's supposed to be - the marriage, that is - but she can't work out how she ended up here or where exactly she should be. Ellie knows there wasn't just one decision that led her to this day. Her life is made up of billions of choices but some of them must have changed the course of her life forever. Ellie is sure that if she can just find those moments, work out where she went wrong in the past, then maybe she can make things right in the present. But what if Ellie is exactly where she is meant to be? What if all the missed opportunities and paths never taken are leading her to happiness?
More Than You'll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez
An evocative drama about a woman caught leading a double life after one husband murders the other, and the true-crime writer who becomes obsessed with telling her story—this masterful work of literary suspense marks the debut of an extraordinary new writer.
Waiting For The Miracle by Anna McPartlin
2010 Caroline can't get pregnant, Janet can't hold a pregnancy, Natalie's sperm donor is a stoner with a bad attitude and Ronnie is, well, no one knows Ronnie's story. When the women meet in an infertility group, they quickly form a firm - if slightly odd - friendship and their lives begin to change.
1976 When 16-year-old Catherine's pregnancy is revealed, she's sent to a convent to give birth. Her baby is taken from her, and she re-emerges into the world, down but not out, determined to fight back. She finds work, a home and acceptance with gay hairdresser and fellow outsider and her life begins again. Waiting for the Miracle is story about finding your tribe, at any age. It's about love, loss, friendship and laughing at yourself. It's about life.
Cult Classic by Sloan Crosley
One night in New York City’s Chinatown, a woman is at a work reunion dinner with former colleagues when she excuses herself to buy a pack of cigarettes. On her way back, she runs into a former boyfriend. And then another. And . . . another. Nothing is quite what it seems as the city becomes awash with ghosts of heartbreaks past.
What would normally pass for coincidence becomes something far stranger as the recently engaged Lola must contend not only with the viability of her current relationship but the fact that both her best friend and her former boss, a magazine editor turned mystical guru, might have an unhealthy investment in the outcome. Memories of the past swirl and converge in ways both comic and eerie, as Lola is forced to decide if she will surrender herself to the conspiring of one very contemporary cult.
Lucie Yi Is Not a Romantic by Lauren Ho - published June 21
Management consultant Lucie Yi is done waiting for Mr. Right. After a harrowing breakup foiled her plans for children—and drove her to a meltdown in a Tribeca baby store—she’s ready to take matters into her own hands. She signs up for an elective co-parenting website to find a suitable partner with whom to procreate—as platonic as family planning can be.
Collin Read checks all of Lucie’s boxes; he shares a similar cultural background, he’s honest, and most important, he’s ready to become a father. When they match, it doesn’t take long for Lucie to take a leap of faith for her future. However, suddenly her straightforward arrangement is falling apart before her very eyes, and Lucie will have to decide how to juggle the demands of the people she loves while pursuing the life she really wants.
Factory Girls by Michelle Gallen - published June 23
Maeve and her two best friends try to squeeze as much fun as possible into their last summer at home in Northern Ireland. But as marching season raises tensions among the Catholic and Protestant workforce, Maeve realises something is going on behind the scenes at the factory where she and her pals took on a summer job, forcing her to make a choice that will impact her life - and the lives of others - for ever.
Complicit by Winnie M. Li - published June 23
You know what it’s like. A comment here, a closed door there, turning a blind eye to get ahead. My name is Sarah Lai. You won’t have heard of me. A decade ago I was on the cusp of being a big deal. But that was a long time ago. Now, instead of working in Hollywood, I teach students about it. And these are the two most important lessons you need to know about the film industry:
1) Those with the money have all the power.
2) Those with the power get whatever they want.
Ignore these rules and the whole system will crumble. Stick to the rules and you’ll succeed. But at what cost?
The Truth About Love by Conor Creighton
We are trained from the youngest of ages to imagine that love is a force outside of ourselves. That if you keep swiping one day your prince will come. That love is something you have to look for, you have to work for, you have to diet for. The truth is that love is an inside job. We are creators of love, not discoverers of love, and until we realise that love comes out of us, rather than to us, we'll never really get it or feel it.
Conor Creighton learned this the hard way with a string of tumultuous relationships in his past. That was until, through meditation, he woke up to the powerful force that is self-love and watched as his relationships and the whole world transformed around him. Now Conor wants everyone to wake up to the truth about love.
In this modern manifesto and spiritual guide to relationships, he makes a daring call to action and explains how to change yourself and the world around you through the courageous act of opening your heart.
The Setup by Lizzy Dent
Mara Williams reads her horoscope every day - but she wasn't expecting to be in a whole other country when destiny finally found her. Just as a fortune teller reveals that her true love is about to arrive, a gorgeous stranger literally walks into her life. And now Mara is determined to bring them together again . . . Surely even fate needs a nudge in the right direction sometimes?
But while Mara is getting ready for 'the one', the universe intervenes. Her new flatmate Ash is funny, and kind, and sexy as hell . . . There was no predicting this: it's as if her destiny just arrived on her doorstep. So will Mara put her destiny in fate's hands - and finally trust herself to reach for the stars?
The Heights by Louise Candlish
Up here, anything can happen. Even murder. . . The Heights is a tall, slender apartment building among the warehouses of Tower Bridge, its roof terrace so discreet you wouldn't know it existed if you weren't standing at the window of the flat directly opposite. But you are. And that's when you see a man up there - a man you'd recognise anywhere. He's older now and his appearance has subtly changed, but it's definitely him. Which makes no sense at all since you know he has been dead for over two years. You know this for a fact. Because you're the one who killed him.
