I have a monthly reading recap coming up next week, but this month felt like it had some standout books that were released! So I want to highlight five books that I loved that came out this month.
The Secret Summer Promise by Keah Brown
I got an ARC of this book through NetGalley earlier this year, but it was released this month. It’s a really sweet YA rom-com / coming-of-age story with a disabled and queer protagonist! Andrea and her best friend Hailee come up with a summer to do list – ways to have the best summer ever. Except Hailee doesn’t know that Andrea adds one more secret item to the list – to fall out of love with Hailee, who she has a crush on that she’s too afraid to confess. So when a guy she knows from school asks Andrea out, she figures going out with him will help her fall out of love with her best friend. Of course, this doesn’t go exactly as she plans. I loved that Andrea’s cerebral palsy is part of the story, but in a very real, authentic way – not just as a plot point to check off.
Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monaghan
I got an ARC of this one, too – I read it back in April. But summer really is the perfect time to read it – it’s everything I want in a summer read! Sam goes back to the summer beach house of her childhood, and brings her fiancé Jack with her to experience the place where she grew up. But once she gets there, things just start to seem… wrong in her relationship. Jack is a man of order and routines and doesn’t fit in with the “anything goes” vibe at the beach house. And her childhood crush Wyatt, who broke her heart when she was 17, is also unexpectedly there. I am a sucker for a long lost love story and this one did it so well!
The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende
I don’t think there’s ever been an Isabel Allende book that I haven’t loved, and this one is no exception. It weaves together two storylines beautifully – we begin by following the story of Samuel, who is separated from his family as a very young boy for his safety after Nazi attacks in Austria. Years and years and years later, another young child, Anita, is fleeing with her mother, and the pair also end up separated. As a social worker and lawyer work to help reunite Anita with her mother, the Anita and Samuel’s stories are told, first separately, and then intertwined. This was such a beautiful story about family and home!
WOW this memoir! Pageboy is not always the easiest to read – it’s incredibly intimate, in that Elliot shares some of what I’m assuming were the most incredibly traumatic experiences in his life. But it is incredibly moving, and absolutely worth a read. It’s told in a series of essays, and not always in a chronological way, all about his experiences acting as a young child, personal stories about growing up in his family, some Hollywood stories, and of course, talking about being trans and what that meant for him and his life. There are definite content warnings for this book – sexual assault, transphobia, stalking, and eating disorders – but if you can handle it, this is definitely worth reading.
All The Right Notes by Dominic Lim
I loved this queer rom com – it was like if Glee also had a Hollywood meet cute. Quito was a choir kid in high school, where his dad was the choir director. Emmett, a popular boy, also joins choir, and he and Quito become friends… until college, when they grow apart and don’t speak for years. But down the road, both end up in New York City at the same time – Emmett as a visiting Hollywood heartthrob, and Quito as a struggling composer / piano player. When fate (or a meddling father…) bring the two of them together again, will they rekindle their friendship… or something more?
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