10 Books To Read This Spring and Summer

There’s something about spring and summer that makes reading feel different—in the best way. Maybe it’s the longer days, the slower evenings, or the simple luxury of sitting outside with a book and nowhere to be. This is the season for stories that pull you in, books you can’t put down, and pages that feel like a mini escape from your everyday routine.

Whether you’re building the perfect beach bag lineup, looking for something light and fun between busy weekends, or craving a story that actually makes you think, the right book can completely shape your mood for the season. So if you’ve been stuck scrolling instead of reading (we’ve all been there), consider this your sign to reset your stack.

Here are 10 books to add to your spring and summer reading list—ones that feel just right for this time of year.

The Secret World of Briar Rose by Cindy Pham (June 2)

One hundred years have passed since the last heir of Gyldan fell into eternal slumber and doomed the once-mighty kingdom to poverty and invasion. At least, that’s what the fairy tales claim. Corin is a jaded thief who doesn’t believe in fables, even when she searches Gyldan’s underground tunnels to find her younger sister, Elly, who ran away to find the sleeping princess in hopes of a better life.

Corin’s conviction is challenged when she discovers the ruins of the ancient castle, maintained by beings from the kingdom’s golden age, who protect a hidden portal into Princess Amelia’s subconscious. Following Elly’s voice, Corin jumps in the portal and seals the entry behind her. Inside the lush world of Amelia’s dreams, the sisters reunite for a new adventure as they meet Briar Rose, Amelia’s whimsical alter ego, and Malicine, a sharp-tongued demon with a gift for magic. But as they explore ice castles, sunflower mazes, and star-filled oceans, Corin suspects Briar Rose is hiding darker secrets behind her “perfect” paradise – and that there are some things her subconscious can’t bury forever.

Every Hunter Is Hunted by Barry Lyga (June 23)

Brides are being murdered on their wedding nights. Soaked in blood and draped in lace. With nothing left behind to help them find the killer, the FBI is at an impasse. Their only, desperate hope is to convince Jasper Dent, the son of two serial killers and a former teen prodigy at hunting down such monsters, to emerge from his self-imposed exile.

When he was a teenager, both of Jasper’s parents were members of a secret society of serial killers. Today, his father is in prison, and his mother is in a coma, both results of their final confrontation with Jasper years ago. Now wealthy from a bestselling memoir about his parents, Jasper still carries the scars from their parenting—and the uncanny, unwanted ability to understand killers that they instilled in him.

Jasper wants nothing more than to hide from his past – cash his royalty checks and never think about murder and blood again. But he knows the only way to find any meaning or redemption in his life is to face his demons once again. His skills rusty, his confidence shaken, Jasper races against a ticking clock, frantically seeking to solve the impossible mystery before more women meet a horrific end.

It Came From Neverland by Cynthia Pelayo (June 9)

Peter Pan meets Stephen King’s It in this twisted horror retelling of a classic childhood fairytale set during WWI. 1914, Wendy Darling works by day as a school teacher and by night, she assists soldiers who have returned home from the Western Front. There is one mysterious patient who despite all the care they’ve given him, is in a deep sleep, unable to wake up.

One night, when he murmurs the words “Peter Pan,” Wendy is thrown back to a darker time, one that she wishes she could forget. When one of her students goes missing, it brings back memories of when children went missing and were later found murdered in London many years ago. Wendy believes that Peter Pan, the entity that she believed killed those children, is back. She and her brothers had a close encounter with Peter Pan, after all. But her
brothers only remember Peter Pan and Neverland as a fantasy of childhood games.

When another child goes missing and signs start to point to Wendy, Scotland Yard digs into old reports, finding that Wendy knew the names of all the children who had been killed. As Wendy tries to prove her innocence, she also has to find a way to stop Peter Pan once and for all.

Throw Away the Key by Jason M. Hough (July 14)

Lars Bergman is no ordinary janitor. He’s the CIA’s locksmith.

Formerly part of the CIA’s infamous Surreptitious Entry Team, Lars is now responsible for every padlock, safe, and secure door across the CIA headquarters. He’s never met a lock he couldn’t pick…except one, which he tried and failed to open during a botched mission in Warsaw at the end of the Cold War.

Cruising toward retirement, Lars’s life is upended when a senior CIA official dies and he’s called upon to open the safe in her office. Inside the safe is a clue only Lars would notice, left by someone he’d worked with in his heyday. As he investigates, Lars soon realizes that his failed Warsaw operation has come back to haunt him and perhaps give him another chance at picking the one lock that’s ever eluded him.

What Lars doesn’t realize is that what the lock is protecting could have dire ramifications for the organization he has spent his whole adult life safekeeping.

Confessions of the Green River Killer by Maria DiLorenzo (July 21)

When crime journalist Maria DiLorenzo mailed a letter to Gary Ridgway, she never expected him to reply. He refused to speak to reporters and would send only religious materials back to anyone who contacted him in prison—if he replied at all. But instead of silence or a boilerplate letter, Maria’s phone rang–and it was the Green River Killer calling.

Over the next several years, Ridgway would call Maria hundreds of times, using all of his free time in prison to speak with her. Her goal: to pry the details of his dozens of unidentified and unsolved murders from him. His motivation in speaking to her: unknowable. Through these hundreds of hours of phone calls, Ridgway revealed new details about his life, his crimes, and his motives – and manipulated Maria much like he tormented his victims.

In Case I Go Missing by R.N. Swann (May 26)

Seventeen-year-old Fenny Allen has been Sarah Vincenty’s sidekick for as long as she can remember. Over the years, Sarah has built a reputation in their small town as an amateur detective and a vigilante who has dispensed her own form of justice.

Now Sarah is missing. The police have written her off as yet another teen runaway, but Fenny is convinced there’s foul play. And when she discovers a binder Sarah left behind, entitled In Case I Go Missing, Fenny realizes that Sarah disappeared while investigating her biggest case yet.

With Sarah gone, it’s up to Fenny and her other best friend, Sam, to finish her investigation. As they piece together the clues, they find themselves up against a decades-old mystery that links to the town’s dark history. But is this binder a guide to finding Sarah—or are Fenny and Sam already too late?

The more the pair uncover, the clearer it becomes that those involved will go to great lengths to keep their secrets. And when everyone has something to hide, there are more than a few reasons to want Fenny and Sam out of the picture. Permanently.

The Lost Book of Lancelot by John Glynn (May 12)

Hidden away on the Isle of Women, a nameless orphan grows up among a powerful sisterhood, but always at a distance. He hears whispers of a prophecy that may shed light on his destiny—and his true identity: Lancelot. Determined to master the skills of knighthood, he begins training in tandem with the handsome Galehaut. As the two become inseparable, they guide one another toward their truest selves. But no matter how tightly they cling to one another, each has a role to play in the wizard Merlin’s grand prophecies.  

When Lancelot is forced to follow Merlin to Camelot, he fights to protect his heart while seeking the fabled grail alongside King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. But when Roman legionaries encroach on their kingdom, their quest takes on new urgency, as does Lancelot’s explosive secret—the truth of what he left behind on the Isle of Women.  

Steeped in rich medieval lore, The Lost Book of Lancelot is at once an immersive, a poignant love story and an epic, unforgettable tale of a vulnerable boy who is forced to rise to the occasion amid a battle between the old world and the new.

The Broken Hearts Agency by Clarence A. Haynes (June 23)

Evelyn Kendricks is having a day. An overworked manager, she’s been dumped by her toxic boyfriend while struggling to cope with the recent ghost invasion that’s shocked the world. Devastated, she is mysteriously summoned to an eerie townhouse where she meets Linda Villaneuva, a private investigator who runs a secret mystical detective agency. She’s able to sense the emotions of others, especially those suffering from heartache.

Linda would like nothing more than to help her latest client, but she soon makes a gruesome discovery: People are losing their memories and wandering DC streets in a zombie-like daze. Their eyes, demon red. Their skin, blistered, burning… and no one understands why. Panic has begun to consume the city as more folks succumb, putting Evelyn and other residents at risk.

In the biggest case of her life, Linda follows a trail of clues to unearth an evil force far deadlier than anything she could’ve imagined. And all the while, she must reckon with the tragedies of her past and the price she’s paid for her supernatural gifts.

Fair Chase by Travis Mulhauser (April 28)

There hasn’t been a gray wolf in Michigan’s lower peninsula in over 100 years, but when one migrates onto the Sawbrook family’s vast acreage, the small community of Cutler finds itself in the throes of a panic. A trail of mutilated chickens and barn cats have peppered the area’s remote outskirts, and concerns about safety are accompanied by the economic and political cost of an endangered species’ uninvited return to northern Michigan. The Sawbrook siblings—Lucy, Buckner, and Jewell—find themselves at odds with locals, property owners, and the state’s department of resources.  

When fourteen-year-old runaway, Delos Harris, arrives on the family property claiming to be the siblings’ second cousin, and to have knowledge of the wolf’s exact location, the Sawbrooks are skeptical, but desperate, and can’t deny something about the boy seems oddly familiar. With time running out, they forge ahead together against gathering threats.  

The state wants the wolf moved, the locals and the developers want it dead, and the Sawbrooks see its return as a decisive victory in their battle to preserve the natural world in northern Michigan. But when a poacher is hired to settle the matter permanently, the Sawbrooks must fight to protect each other, their land, and the brave child whose mysterious connection to the wolf will either save them all, or deliver the Sawbrooks to their final ruin. 

Girls Like Us by Jennifer Dugan (May 5, 2026)

Ruby and Morgan fell for each other during their senior year of high school, and now, almost a year later, they are determined to keep their spark alive, even while they are apart. Morgan is studying public policy on a track scholarship at a university several hours away, while Ruby stayed in their hometown and is exploring her love of mechanics in the automotive engineering program at the local community college.

Despite their best efforts, the space between them begins to weigh on the girls, with new friendships and flirtatious classmates adding complications. Still, the two are counting down the days to a spring break getaway and the bliss of a whole summer vacation together. But when Morgan discovers she’s a finalist for the perfect internship and Ruby gets a shot to appear on her favorite automotive TV show, their plans are thrown into question. With both girls unwilling to stand in the way of each other’s future, they wonder: Can their relationship still go the distance even if they’re on separate paths?

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Which book are you most interested in picking up? Let us know in the comments!

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