When I’m working on blog posts, I frequently look up random words to see if there’s a trend in new titles. Lately I have noticed an uptick in books with the word ‘summer’ in the title. Below you will find a list of fiction and romance summer reads! As of this writing, all of these titles are owned by the Davenport Public Library. Descriptions are provided by the publishers.

FICTION

Last Summer at Maine Chance by Jessica Everett

Economics undergrad Cynthia Proctor knows everything about statistical impossibilities. In 1954, women like her from middle-class families do not earn degrees from prestigious New England colleges. When Cynthia receives notice that her scholarship will now be given to a male student, she knows her chances of graduating are slim.

But an invitation to spend the summer lakeside in Maine turns into a job at Elizabeth Arden’s Maine Chance spa, where Cynthia will learn that the best investment of all is herself. – Sourcebooks Landmark

The Summer Boy by Philippe Besson, translated by Sam Taylor

Tell me, do you know why the most beautiful love stories must always end badly?

In the summer of 1985, on a scruffy resort island off the coast of France, six teenagers—five boys and one girl—band together for a final golden season before adulthood. Their days are drenched in sun and freedom, and their nights simmer with secrets, jealousy, and longing. Philippe is drawn to Nicolas, the quiet new boy who sees him in a way that no one else does. As their bond deepens, part of Nicolas remains unreachable—until a sudden tragedy brings their summer to a brutal end.

The Summer Boy is a lush and unforgettable autobiographical tale, capturing the ineffable summers of youth in amber. Celebrated novelist Philippe Besson has shaped his memories into an aching meditation on how one summer night—and one fierce connection—can echo across a lifetime. – Scribner

Summer of Love by Kerri Maher

It’s the summer of 1967 and the counterculture revolution is in full swing in San Francisco. Every street is alive with the music of Jim Morrison and Dionne Warwick, and in view of the Golden Gate bridge young people come together, waving anti-war signs and shouting for equal rights. No one is more into the messages of love and peace than Winnie Hartley who has just graduated from UC Berkeley determined to use poetry to capture the ever-shifting world around her. When she reconnects with her high school boyfriend, an aspiring musician, their creative bond further fuels her work, and it feels like her life is finally taking off.

Meanwhile, miles up the winding coast, her sister Miranda stays close to home, throwing herself into running the family business, Hartley Vineyard. She’s determined to make California wine that rivals French. But change is in the air this wild and heady summer, and each sister will make choices that set their lives hurdling down paths neither would have imagined.

Fifty years later, Dawn Hartley stays as far as possible from her family’s famous vineyard, until a work assignment requires her to research the bestselling Vineland novels penned by a famously anonymous author. Determined to discover the identity of this mysterious writer—who seems to know things no one should about her family—Dawn embarks on a soul-searching journey along the windswept coast of California to uncover her family’s secrets even as she’s keeping a big one of her own. – Berkley

This title is also available in large print.

Summer State of Mind by Kristy Woodson Harvey

After the worst day in her professional life, burnt-out NICU nurse Daisy Stevens runs to Cape Carolina, North Carolina, looking for a new life—and possibly new romance. On her first day at her “simpler” job, high school baseball coach Mason Thaysden discovers an abandoned baby, sending ripples through the entire tight-knit town of Cape Carolina.

Mason is still struggling to reconcile the scars of the injury that kept him out of the big leagues, stuck in his hometown, and searching for a way out. This newcomer and the child they’ve saved together might be just the motivation he needs to stay put. Sparks fly as Mason acquaints Daisy with Cape Carolina, introducing her to his friends and family, including his batty Aunt Tilley, who is looking for relief from long-buried family secrets and her own fresh start.

But as Daisy becomes increasingly attached to this abandoned child, and begins facing her own demons in the process, a startling discovery is made that threatens to rip the entire town of Cape Carolina apart, placing Daisy, Mason, and Tilley in the center of the storm. In a novel that proves that “Kristy Woodson Harvey is (the) go-to for elevated beach reads” (People), they will each learn that with love, understanding—and a community theater production of Hello, Dolly!—sometimes life conspires to bring us just exactly where we belong. – Gallery Books

This title is also available in large print.

Summer’s Never Over by Darby Bozeman

Five years ago, Greer left her family’s summer camp in the mountains of Georgia and vowed she’d never return. An idyllic season had turned into a nightmare after a mysterious Phantom began stalking the camp—and ended with Greer’s friend and fellow counselor dead. Losing Steph shattered everything, and Greer’s been fleeing from the grief ever since.

But then Greer’s mother dies, and Greer finds herself back at Dread’s Cove, surrounded by the people she was closest to that intense summer. Two ex-boyfriends—one a childhood sweetheart, the other the guy she’s never gotten over—and old friends. Including Margo, Steph’s best friend.

Greer and Margo didn’t leave things on the best of terms. But now, Margo needs her. Margo never believed that Steph’s death in that horrific fire was an accident—and she’s on the trail of an explosive secret Steph took to her grave.

Greer has to make a choice: keep the Cove’s secrets and her own, or finally face the truth about that summer. – Berkley

Summerland Cove by Ellen Baker

Lindy has the summer of a lifetime planned at her family’s beloved cottage in Summerland Cove, Maine, where she’s spent summers all her life and where she and her husband David met as teenagers. She’s slated big events three weekends in a row: David’s fiftieth birthday party, her parents’ fiftieth anniversary party, and her oldest daughter Hailey’s wedding. But when David doesn’t show up for his own party, everything about the life they’ve created together is thrown into question, as the shattered family sets out looking for him. Has he been in an accident? God forbid, been the victim of a crime? Or is it something more cliché—a midlife crisis, an affair? Surely, he’ll show up for his beloved daughter’s wedding—won’t he?

The agonizing days tick by and still no David. Lindy’s four nearly grown children are panicked. Lindy struggles to remain calm, even as long-buried details of the family’s past begin to surface, offering distressing clues. Meanwhile, her mother seems to be harboring secrets of her own, her father has grown alarmingly absent-minded, and Hailey wrestles with whether she should get married at all—even if her father does turn up.

A richly drawn novel of mothers, marriages, and one endearingly messy family, Summerland Cove beautifully evokes the crisp air and rocky beaches of coastal Maine, while poignantly revealing how complicated histories can shape the present in unexpected ways. – Mariner Books

ROMANCE

Burnout Summer by Jenna Ramirez

Four years after graduation, life isn’t going the way Camille Luna expected. Her corporate career is soul-sucking, she’s in debt from student loans, and her breakup with her ex has created a serious rift between her college best friends. When her spiraling lands her in jail for the night, it’s Danny Brennan —the lovable burnout from their college clique— who bails her out and offers the perfect solution to her quarter-life crisis: a summer by the beach.

Cam is whisked away to Elswick, Rhode Island, where former slacker Danny has taken over his uncle’s restaurant and turned it into a seaside hotspot. But while Danny has grown into a devoted boss and dog dad, his carpe diem life philosophy is still as fiery as ever. The hazy summer days start to blur between shifts at the restaurant, dips in the ocean, and a reignited passion for writing, all alongside Danny who makes her laugh like nobody else. Cam can’t help but wonder —is it the salty waves that have her feeling so renewed, or is it the carefree friend she always overlooked? But summer can’t last forever, and Cam’s looming student debt reminds her at every turn that the frigid air of corporate office life is waiting.

As September approaches, Cam must decide between snuffing out the flames with Danny in order to keep her beloved friend group together and returning to the corporate grind—or falling into his forbidden arms and setting her old life ablaze. – Saturday Books

The Summer Girlfriend by Kristina Forest

Noelle Lewis doesn’t have time for long walks on the beach, brunch with the girls, or summer vacations. She’s too busy saving up to go back to college. After recently getting laid off from her bookseller job, her main gig is now serving as a “stand-in” bridesmaid, which doesn’t pay enough for the upcoming semester’s tuition. But then the perfect, if not unconventional, opportunity arises…

Jeremiah Smith II, grandson of the founder of Smith’s Sweets—a well-known baked goods company—once lived a life of frivolity. Since his grandfather’s death, Jeremiah’s tried to clean up his act, but it’s hard to focus when his family requests that he join them at their summer house in Heart Beach, New Jersey, where his most painful memory lies. To avoid going there, Jeremiah claims he already has plans with his girlfriend, and of course, his family tells him to bring her. The problem? Jeremiah doesn’t have a girlfriend.

After a chance meeting, Noelle and Jeremiah come to an agreement. He’ll hire her to be his stand-in girlfriend for the weekend, and she’ll use that money toward her tuition. She figures it will be quick, easy money, but as it turns out, Jeremiah’s family is lovely, and Jeremiah is even lovelier. Soon, a weekend agreement turns into an entire summer, and Noelle and Jeremiah will have to keep their hearts in check, or else it’s sink or swim for them both. – Berkley

The Summer I Found You by Jennifer O’Brien

When Dahlia Newberry escapes her terrible marriage and returns to Long Island’s North Fork to put her family’s beach house on the market, she discovers the property has fallen into disrepair, and she has no idea how she’ll get it from fixer to fabulous in a month’s time.

Things start to look up when she discovers her neighbor is Noah, a handsome reality TV star known for his Hamptons-set home renovation series. Noah turns out to be quite handy and pitches in to help Dahlia with the renovations and, as chemistry sparks between them, her self-discovery too.

Meanwhile, Dahlia discovers a letter from her Aunt Lil, whose dying wish was for Dahlia to find a key that unlocks a mystery spanning three generations. Soon Dahlia is unearthing mysterious clues buried in the garden that threaten to upend everything she believes about her world.

The truth is supposed to set her free, but excavated secrets have a way of shattering an already fragile life—unless Dahlia can find a way to bloom into the woman she was always meant to be. – Alcove Press

The Summer Share by Jenn McKinlay

Free-spirited travel influencer Hannah Spencer has spent five years touring the country in her vintage van, alone save for her hulking Great Dane, Dude. Until an unexpected inheritance from her pops has Hannah thinking about putting down roots in Cape Split, North Carolina, where she’s the new owner of a worse-for-wear seaside beach house. Or, rather, fifty percent of one. Turns out Simon O’Malley inherited the other half from his gramps.

As Simon and Hannah spend the summer tag-teaming repairs on the crumbling cottage, they discover it was once home to a timeless love story. As their own relationship shifts from enemies to friends to lovers, they begin to wonder if the house’s romantic past might be a good omen for their future together. But there’s one problem—Simon is set on selling the property at the end of the summer.

For Hannah, the Split isn’t like anyplace she’s ever been, and Simon isn’t like any man she’s ever known—she doesn’t want to let this new life go. She just needs Simon to see their budding relationship and this newfound community in the same way, or their first summer share might also be their last. – Berkley