Summer is my favorite reading season of the year. I tend to read the most during summer between the time off from school and reading alongside my favorite summertime activities, aka going to the beach & hanging by the pool. I also really dive into contemporaries I’ve been holding off from reading to save as the perfect summertime reads! With the exception of a few summer-like days, fall weather has arrived where I live. My friends and I are planning a weekend to go apple or pumpkin picking! I made the most delicious apple pie with coffee crumb topping from apples I picked last year, and I cannot wait to recreate it. 

With fall officially starting  tomorrow, I wanted to take some time to reflect on my summer reading with the End of Summer Book Tag. I saw this tag on Kristin Kraves Book, and I thought it was the perfect way to wrap up my summer reading without listing all the books I read or choosing 20 favorites (see the end of this post for some favorites though). While my summer definitely starts in May and does wrap up in September, today’s books are from the summer months, June, July, & August. During Summer 2020, I read 44 books! 

The End of Summer Recap Book Tag was created by Faith of You Are What You Read.

What book can you not stop thinking about?

If there’s one book that I can’t stop thinking about because I’m trying to get all my friends IRL to read it, it’s none other than Kate Stayman-London’s One to Watch. If you’ve been on the blog this year, you’ll know that for better or worse, I got into The Bachelor franchise. I loved this book’s Bachelor vibes – picture Bachelor meets Love Island with a female lead who’s a blogger & plus-sized. One to Watch felt so relevant to the conversations and issues surrounding diversity on Bachelor. As soon as I finished One to Watch, I immediately texted my friends in our Bachelor group chat and told them to pick it up. Otherwise, I’m thinking this might be everyone’s holiday gift in December? 

Which book would you rather not have read?

I thought I was going to LOVE Tessa Bailey’s Fix Her Up because so many people I know have adored this one, but I really wish I had actually DNF’ed it. Never have I ever disliked a male romance protagonist so much…. until I picked up the sequel companion, Love Her or Lose Her, and disliked that lead even more… 

What genre did you read the most?

Contemporary as usual! I haven’t tracked my reading stats in a spreadsheet (yet), but after doing a quick tally, I did read more adult & new adult contemporary than YA this summer. 

Which book surprised you the most?

Maybe it’s because its election season and let’s face it, an extremely heated political time in the U.S. right now, but I can’t stop thinking about Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld. I wasn’t necessarily surprised that I loved it, but I’m still in awe of how this book felt so real and was based on Hillary Rodham Clinton’s life, but at the same was fictional and had so, so many what-if moments.

Which book disappointed you the most? 

I was the most disappointed by Abigail Hing Wien’s Loveboat, Taipei. I saw so many positive reviews for Loveboat, Taipei when it came out earlier in 2020, then the pandemic began and my library closed, then my library opened and I checked it out ASAP, and then… I was disappointed by it. The lead protagonist was definitely on the less mature side of YA protagonists, and this book has honestly made me wary of any Crazy Rich Asians comparisons because this book was not the YA version of CRA at all. 

What was your favorite cover? 

Hannah Orenstein has some of the best covers in the contemporary romance game, with Playing with Matches as no exception. 

What was your favorite summer release?

Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan’s The Heir Affair was one of most anticipated books of the year. Honestly, I had been waiting for a sequel since I read The Royal We in 2015 and was too impatient to wait for a physical copy that I borrowed the ebook version from the library. I didn’t know what to expected in The Heir Affair sequel, but I lovvveeeeddd everything! These books are definitely long, but I love it because the authors really get to explore the characters over time and we truly see their growth – I’m also just obsessed with this fictional royal family and I’ll read anything about them. What can I say other than I’ll gladly take a third book! 

What book did you plan on reading, but never got around to? 

I feel like I should’ve picked up The Guest List by Lucy Foley because I saw it EVERYWHERE this summer, but I also think it could be a really atmospheric read for the fall or winter. 

What books do you plan on reading this fall? 

I currently have Running by Natalia Sylvester and Bookish and the Beast by Ashley Poston sitting on my nightstand checked out from the library. I have a book to read for review this week, but I plan on reading one of them or both by this weekend. I also can’t wait to get my hands on Snapped by Alexa Martin and Crazy Stupid Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams. They both come out in October, so I can see myself either immediately picking them up or waiting a bit so I don’t rush into them? My library has understandably been a little slow getting new releases in this year, but I’m hoping my hold for The Invisible of Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab comes in fairly soon after it’s released. 

Although I said this post wouldn’t turn into a long favorites list and you’ll more likely than not be hearing about a bunch of these in my 2020 favorites posts, here are some more books I loved this summer: 

What were your favorite books you read this summer? Have you read any of the books I mentioned? What books do you think I should pick up this fall? Share in the comments!