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Summer Reading 2013

Summer Reading

Summer Reading 2013

Summer is here! At Bookreporter.com, this means it's time for us to share some great summer book picks with our Summer Reading Feature. While our series of 24-hour contests have ended, we encourage you to take a look at our 21 featured titles for some sizzling summer reading ideas.

» Click here to see the winners of our Summer Reading contests.

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Big Girl Panties by Stephanie Evanovich - Women's Fiction/Humor

Holly Brennan used food to comfort herself through her husband’s illness and death. Now she is alone at age 32 and weighs more than she ever has. When fate throws her in the path of Logan Montgomery, personal trainer to pro athletes, and he offers to train her, Holly concludes it must be a sign. Can Holly and Logan go the distance as a couple even after she has met her goals --- and other men are noticing?

The Eskimo Hunts in Miami by Stefan Kanfer - Thriller

 

Jordan Gulok is off for a little R&R in Miami, but he must maintain his skills. He frequents a firing range where he stumbles upon a paramilitary group called the 417s. Is an anti-gun US Congressman somehow entangled in a plot to raid several military arms storage depots? The 417s are poised to visit a fresh hell on the Caribbean if Jordan, his lovely ally and her edgy colleagues can't stop them.

The Expats by Chris Pavone - Thriller

 

Kate Moore is a working mother struggling to make ends meet and maintain an increasingly unbearable life-defining secret. So when her husband is offered a lucrative job in Luxembourg, she jumps at the chance to leave behind her double-life and to start anew. But then another American couple arrives, and Kate becomes terrified that her own past is catching up to her.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn - Thriller


On a summer morning in Missouri, Nick and Amy Dunne are celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary. Or they would be, if Amy hadn't disappeared from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. As the cops close in and the stream of lies, deceits and inappropriate behavior leaks out, everyone in town is wondering how well they know the one that they love. Did Nick kill his clever and beautiful wife? If not, who did?

The Innocents by Francesca Segal - Fiction

 

Adam Newman has been dating Rachel Gilbert since they were both 16, and now they are finally planning to marry. But as the vast machinery of the wedding gathers momentum, Adam feels the first faint touches of claustrophobia. And when Rachel’s younger cousin moves home, Adam starts questioning everything, suddenly torn between security and exhilaration, tradition and independence.

Is This Tomorrow by Caroline Leavitt - Historical Fiction

 

In 1956, Ava Lark rents a house with her 12-year-old son, Lewis, in a desirable Boston suburb. Lewis yearns for his absent father, befriending the only other fatherless kids: Jimmy and Rose. One afternoon, Jimmy goes missing. Years later, when Lewis and Rose reunite to untangle the final pieces of the tragic puzzle, they must decide: Should you tell the truth even if it hurts those you love, or should some secrets remain buried?

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Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Dicks - Fiction

 

Budo is the imaginary friend of eight-year-old Max Delaney. He loves Max and is charged with protecting him from the class bully, from awkward situations in the cafeteria, and even in the bathroom stalls. But he can’t protect Max from Mrs. Patterson, who kidnaps him. It is up to Budo and a team of imaginary friends to save him --- and Budo must ultimately decide which is more important: Max’s happiness or Budo's very existence.

The Panther by Nelson DeMille - Thriller

 

Anti-Terrorist Task Force agent John Corey and his wife, FBI agent Kate Mayfield, have been posted in one of the most dangerous places in the Middle East to track down a high-ranking Al Qaeda operative called The Panther. John and Kate don't know the entirety of their mission, but they know there is more to it than meets the eye.

Pastors' Wives by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen - Fiction

 

PASTORS’ WIVES follows three women whose lives converge and intertwine at a Southern evangelical megachurch. Ruthie follows her Wall Street husband from New York to Magnolia, a fictional suburb of Atlanta, when he hears a calling to serve at Greenleaf. Candace is Greenleaf’s “First Lady,” a force of nature who’ll stop at nothing to protect her church and her superstar husband. Ginger, married to Candace’s son, struggles to play dutiful wife and mother while burying her calamitous past.

Ready to Die: A Selena Alvarez / Regan Pescoli Novel by Lisa Jackson - Fiction

 

Nothing can prepare you to face a killer. Six faces, all guilty --- and detectives Regan Pescoli and Selena Alvarez are at the top of his list. One by one, he'll stalk them, then he'll squeeze the trigger, savoring the way each lifeless body crumples to the reddening snow. One down already. And then there were five. When hunter meets prey, both must be willing to kill --- and ready to die.

Sea Change by S. M. Wheeler - Fantasy

 

The unhappy child of two powerful parents who despise each other, young Lilly turns to the ocean to find solace, which she finds in the form of the eloquent and intelligent sea monster Octavius, a kraken.In Octavius’s many arms, Lilly learns of friendship, loyalty, and family. When Octavius, forbidden by Lilly to harm humans, is captured by seafaring traders and sold to a circus, Lilly becomes his only hope for salvation. Desperate to find him, she strikes a bargain with a witch that carries a shocking price.

Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld - Fiction


Kate and her identical twin sister, Violet, were born with innate psychic abilities concerning future events and other people’s secrets. Now, years later, their different paths have led them both back to their hometown of St. Louis. When a minor earthquake hits in the middle of the night, the normal life Kate has always wished for begins to shift. She is ultimately forced to reconcile her fraught relationship with her sister and to face truths about herself she has long tried to deny.

Something Wicked by Lisa Jackson and Nancy Bush - Romantic Suspense

 

Eight months into a surrogate pregnancy for her sister, Kristina, Detective Savannah Dunbar just wants to wrap up paperwork before taking medical leave. But her department’s investigation into a brutal double homicide has suddenly become much more complex --- and personal. And now there are disturbing rumors about the Colony, its matriarch, and a long history of bitter secrets.

Sutton by J.R. Moehringer - Historical Fiction

 

Pulitzer Prize-winner J.R. Moehringer brings Willie Sutton blazing back to life. In his retelling, it was more than need or rage at society that drove Sutton. It was one unforgettable woman. In all of Sutton’s crimes and confinements, his first love (and first accomplice) was never far from his thoughts. And when Sutton finally walked free --- a surprise pardon on Christmas Eve, 1969 --- he immediately set out to find her.

Tell Me by Lisa Jackson - Thriller


Twenty years ago, Blondell O'Henry was convicted of murdering her eldest daughter and wounding her two other children. The prosecution argued that Blondell wanted to be rid of them to be with her lover. Blondell's son, Niall, has recanted his testimony and demolished the case in the process. Reporter Nikki Gillette is determined to get the true story, and not just for professional reasons.

Those We Love Most by Lee Woodruff - Fiction

 

Life is good for Maura Corrigan. Married to her college sweetheart, Pete, raising three young kids with her parents nearby in her peaceful Chicago suburb, her world is secure. Then one day, in a single turn of fate, that entire world comes crashing down and everything that she thought she knew changes.

Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall - Historical Fiction


Susan Crandall’s latest novel takes place in the summer of 1963 and introduces readers to nine-year-old Starla Claudelle, who runs away from home to be with her mother in Nashville and is offered a ride by a black woman who is traveling with a white baby. As the two unlikely companions make their long and sometimes dangerous journey, Starla’s eyes are opened to the harsh realities of 1963 southern segregation.

The Widow Waltz by Sally Koslow - Fiction


Ben Silver had it all --- a successful law practice, a New York apartment overlooking Central Park, a beach house, fine art, club memberships. Yet when a massive coronary fells him while training for the New York City Marathon, it’s revealed that his life was a lie. He’s left his wife, Georgia Waltz, and their two daughters almost penniless. Georgia must now rally to support her family while mourning a husband whose private enigmas keep surfacing.

Wisp of a Thing by Alex Bledsoe - Fantasy

 

Touched by a very public tragedy, musician Rob Quillen comes to Cloud County, Tennessee, in search of a song that might ease his aching heart. There, in the isolated ridges and hollows of the Smoky Mountains, Rob finds both music and mystery. Close-lipped locals guard their secrets, even as Rob gets caught up in a subtle power struggle he can’t begin to comprehend. Change is coming to Cloud County, and only the night wind knows what part Rob will play when the last leaf falls from the Widow’s Tree…and a timeless curse must be broken at last.