Summer Reads 2021 from Publishers Weekly Publishers Weekly

How to Survive a Scandal

Samara Parish (Forever)

Escape to the English countryside with Parish’s refreshing Regency debut. Lady Amelia Crofton is poised to become a duchess, until an accident leaves her reputation compromised. To save her good name, she must marry titleless stranger Benedict Asterly. Both halves of this unlikely duo bring a heavy load of preconceptions about the other to their union, and it’s a delight to watch them work through their differences and lower their guards as love takes flight.

Read the Full Review

Buy this book

The Mixtape

Brittainy Cherry (Montlake)

Single mother Emery Taylor is rock star Oliver Smith’s biggest fan—so imagine her surprise when the grieving Oliver wanders into her bar and picks a drunken brawl. When she saves him from the crowd, it sparks an undeniable connection. Cherry handles the pair’s slow evolution from friends to lovers with impressive skill and emotional nuance, expertly tugging readers’ heartstrings as both Emery and Oliver reckon with their painful pasts in hopes of a brighter future.

Read the Full Review

Buy this book

Neon Gods

Katee Robert (Sourcebooks Casablanca)

Ancient Greek gods get down and dirty in Robert’s sizzling Dark Olympus series launch. Socialite Persephone Dimitriou runs away from a proposed political marriage to the tyrannical Zeus—and straight into the arms of brooding bad boy Hades. They agree to a winter’s long torrid affair that’s sure to drive Zeus crazy—but neither expects to fall in love. Just as swoon-worthy as it is kinky, this page-turning romance will have readers hooked.

Read the Full Review

Buy this book

One Last Stop

Casey McQuiston (Griffin)

McQuiston follows smash hit Red, White & Royal Blue with another incandescent queer rom-com—with a time-travel twist. Brooklynite August Landry has a crush on Jane Su, a punk lesbian she sees on her daily Subway ride. But Jane’s no ordinary commuter—she’s displaced in time from the 1970s and doomed to ride the Q train in a never-ending loop. The ensuing romance is just as clever, quirky, and cute as McQuiston’s fans would expect.

Buy this book

The View Was Exhausting

Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta (Grand Central)

Clements and Datta offer readers a peak at the truth behind the tabloids in this sparkling fake relationship romance set on the French Riviera. British Indian movie star Win Tagore relies on white playboy Leo Milanowski, her longtime on-again, off-again publicity boyfriend, to help control her image in the eyes of the racist media. The staged summer fling they’re orchestrating now shouldn’t be any different—but as real feelings bubble up, so do devastating secrets.

Read the Full Review

Buy this book