Hi dear friends,

Today’s topic in Top 5 Tuesday hosted by Shanah @bionicbookworm could not be a better choice.

After a really bad week and many worries, drama and sad news I needed some light and fun reads!

Here are my favorite Summer reads but before, what do I brand a “summer read”?

Well to meet my expectations and be labelled a summer read a book must be:

-light and fluffy;

-funny;

-easy to read (no deep philosophical considerations);

-with a HEA;

-ubeat and somewhat fast paced;

-sweet;

….in one word untertaining! I must be able to read it in one sitting.

Here are my favorite ones:

1. Jessica’s Guide to dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey

Synopsis

The undead can really screw up your senior year …

Marrying a vampire definitely doesn’t fit into Jessica Packwood’s senior year “get-a-life” plan. But then a bizarre (and incredibly hot) new exchange student named Lucius Vladescu shows up, claiming that Jessica is a Romanian vampire princess by birth—and he’s her long-lost fiancé. Armed with newfound confidence and a copy of Growing Up Undead: A Teen Vampire’s Guide to Dating, Health, and Emotions, Jessica makes a dramatic transition from average American teenager to glam European vampire princess. But when a devious cheerleader sets her sights on Lucius, Jess finds herself fighting to win back her wayward prince, stop a global vampire war—and save Lucius’s soul from eternal destruction.

This book has been published for nine years now but has been a guilty pleasure. It’s funny, light, snarky and upbeat! One I’d really like more would speak about!

2.The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson

My first Morgan Matson but so good! Girlish yet insightful.

Synopsis

Andie had it all planned out. When you are a politician’s daughter who’s pretty much raised yourself, you learn everything can be planned or spun, or both. Especially your future. Important internship? Check. Amazing friends? Check. Guys? Check (as long as we’re talking no more than three weeks).

But that was before the scandal. Before having to be in the same house with her dad. Before walking an insane number of dogs. That was before Clark and those few months that might change her whole life. Because here’s the thing—if everything’s planned out, you can never find the unexpected. And where’s the fun in that?

3. Wild for You by Daisy Prescott

Because not everyone goes to the beach for summer but some love mountains and Colorado (like me last summer). 4 “Yee haw!” stars 😉

“Before rodeos, I never thought a man lasting eight seconds could ever be a good thing.”

Synopsis

Wild for You is a standalone, slow burn cowboy romance.

This city girl doesn’t want to play it safe anymore …

I’ve been dumped. I can’t afford my condo. My job sucks. So when my girls take me to a rodeo and I discover a smoking-hot cowboy packing heat in his Wranglers? Well, I’ve got nothing to lose except my dry spell.

After watching him ride, there’s no way I’m walking away. Only, something tells me Justin might be more than just a rebound. So much for living dangerously.

***

The fastest way to break a cowboy? Force him to settle down …

I have a ranch to run. Rodeos to ride. Scandals that don’t want to stay buried. What I don’t have is time for a city girl like her, even if she does have the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen

So why can’t I stay away? Winning Zoe’s love might be the hardest event I’ve ever entered- but she’ll be worth the challenge.

Wild for You is part of the Love with Altitude series of standalone romantic comedies. You do not have to read other books in the series before reading this one.

4. Mackenzie Fire by Elle Casey

Because the heroine was so crazy and klutz that I nearly peed my pants laughing so hard!

Synopsis

Still bitter about his failed engagement and life on the family ranch, Ian MacKenzie has been cranky for nearly three years. His brother Mack’s married bliss hasn’t helped, and now his pregnant sister-in-law’s airhead best friend is coming for a visit.

Candice arrives to help with the new baby, even though it means swapping her Louboutins for snow boots and her flat irons for flannel. She’s far from prepared for the freezing cold and she certainly wasn’t expecting the sizzling heat of her attraction to a certain green-eyed cowboy. Ian may be rude and infuriating, but he looks sinfully good in those jeans of his.

The two clash at every turn, but there’s one thing they can both agree on—if they do give in to their undeniable chemistry, then it’s just a fling…because he’s a country boy and she’s a city girl, and their zip codes are on opposite sides of the map.

Revised edition: This edition of Mackenzie Fire includes editorial revisions.

5.Win Some, Lose Some by Shay Savage

The hero has Asperger and is lost but so sweet. This book is downright funny!

That book made me snicker and giggle so hard people in my doctor’s waiting room must think I am the freak by now!
I can’t resist sharing some gems with you. Just enjoy!

Matthew’s car broke and he is walking in the heavy rain when Mayra offers him a lift. It’s really hard for him to enter this unknown car with a driver that could be careless but she is very determined and it’s pouring and… he sits in her vintage Porsche thinking: ”I became increasingly aware that I was in a vintage vehicle with the beautiful and popular Mayra Trevino, and I was about as ill-prepared to talk to her as I was to give her a gynecological exam.”

Now later in the book, his uncle realizes he could potentially have a girlfriend and wants him to protect himself. Here is how their discussion went, knowing people suffering from autism take everything literally most of the time: ”I know Kyle gave you “the talk” when you were younger”. “The talk?…What talk?” “The sex talk!” “Yes” “I’d guess that talk was probably pretty…mechanical in nature.” “You can use machines?” I asked. “ I nearly peed my pants with this one!!!

And just a last one, funny but also really touching as it shows how Matthew was sometimes lost in life, did not dare hope living a “normal “ life with a girlfriend but wishing for it really hard anyway.
Every new situation he could encounter, every change has to be prepared. He has to be guided through it, repeating and rehearsing what might happen countless times. He is with his aunt Bethany: ”Do you remember when you couldn’t order pizza over the phone? Can you do that now?” “Yes but I have to work up to it a little”. “So we’ll work on getting you ready to ask Mayra out the same way we worked on ordering pizza. I’ll be Mayra and you ask me. We’ll keep doing it until you think you got it.” “But…” I hesitated. “What is it?” “But the pizza place never says no!”

Now what are your top 5 summer reads?

Thanks for reading!

Sophie