20 Must-Read Books Releasing Summer 2023
Whether you're looking for a romance, historical fiction, or murder mystery, you'll find your next page-turner on this list.
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Whether it’s spent at the pool, on a beach, or just curled up on the couch at home, summer is an ideal time to pick up a new book. Between paperbacks, ebooks, and audiobooks, it’s easy to take reading material with you wherever you are. Plus, it’s good for you—reading a book before bed benefits your physical and mental health.
No matter if you’re an avid reader, in a slump, or trying to make reading a habit, you need some good books to get you started. Here are 20 books releasing in summer 2023 to get excited about.
May 2023 Releases
SimonAndSchuster.com
The Nigerwife by Vanessa Walters
Meet the Nigerwives: a community of foreign women married to wealthy Nigerian men. Nicole Oruwari is one, and her life is (purportedly) perfect. She left rainy London (and her troubled past) for sunny Lagos and hasn't looked back. When Nicole vanishes without a trace, her perfect life begins to crack. When the investigation fails, Nicole's auntie Claudine steps in. As she digs through her niece's life, more than just Nicole's secrets threaten to come to light.
PenguinRandomHouse.com
The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks
A World War II soldier, cartoonist, successful movie director, and a superhero movie cast—all connected across decades by a comic. In 1947, a troubled soldier returns from war, meets his nephew, then disappears. Years later, the pair meet again. Inspired, the nephew draws a comic starring his uncle as a World War II hero. Now in the present day, a successful director and colorful cast is bringing the comic to the silver screen.
HarperCollins.com
Yellowface by R. F. Kuang
June Hayward and Athena Liu are both authors, only Athena gets all the glory. When Athena passes away unexpectedly, June is the only one who knows about her latest manuscript. It started out as a writing prompt, with June filling in the gaps in Athena’s masterpiece, until June decides to pass the work off as her own. Athena would have wanted it to be finished, after all. But can June escape Athena’s shadow, especially when her lies threaten to crash down around her?
PenguinRandomHouse.com
The Three of Us By Ore Agbaje-Williams
Three points of view intertwine over the course of a single day. Temi, her best friend, and her best friend’s husband. Temi heads to their house for a lazy afternoon. When the husband comes home, confessions come to light and the wife’s closest companions are forced to fight for their positions in her life.
PenguinRandomHouse.com
That Summer Feeling by Bridget Morrissey
Garland Moore has been invited to sleepaway camp—only this one is for adults. Nestled away in the mountains, Garland is looking forward to a fresh start. Her husband served her divorce papers on Valentine’s Day, but the universe is not done toying with her love life. At Camp Carl Cove, Garland runs into Mason, a man she had a premonition about after a brief meeting. It has to be a sign—until Garland feels an even stronger tug towards his sister, Stevie.
PenguinRandomHouse.com
The Celebrants by Steven Rowley
It’s been 28 years since Jordan and his friends, Jordy, Naomi, Craig, and Marielle, graduated college, and five since they last saw each other. They have a tradition: reunite at Big Sur and throw each other “living funerals” to celebrate that their lives mean something. Only, this reunion is different. They’ve helped each other through a lot—divorces, death, even crime—but now, Jordan has a secret that might destroy their friendship.
June 2023 Releases
PenguinRandomHouse.com
Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monaghan
This may be the ultimate summer beach read. Sam’s life is exactly where she wants it, she thinks. She has a good job, a fiance who’s a doctor, and is about to go tour a wedding venue near her family’s beach house. Only, Wyatt is here. The very same Wyatt who broke her heart at seventeen. But she’s over that, right? When memories of their past come flooding back, Sam will have to choose between her childhood sweetheart and the picture-perfect life she thought she wanted.
PenguinRandomHouse.com
The Last Lifeboat by Hazel Gaynor
It’s 1940, and the threat of Nazi invasion is looming over England. Determined to do her part for the war effort, Alice King decides to put her experience as a school teacher to use and volunteer to help evacuate Britain’s children overseas. Meanwhile, Lily Nichols is faced with an impossible choice: keep her children close or send them far away in a risky evacuation. When the ship taking Alice and the children to Canada is hit with a torpedo, the women, one on land and one at sea, are each other’s greatest hope.
HachetteBookGroup.com
The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand
Hollis Shaw has some cracks in her life. Her strained marriage with her dreamy heart surgeon husband comes to an abrupt end when he’s killed in a car crash, and her relationship with her daughter is…complicated. So, Hollis decides to have a “Five-Star Weekend.” She invites her five best friends from the different phases of her life. However, it isn’t the Hallmark movie she thought it would be. Hollis’s first love, Jack Finigan is there, stirring up old feelings. Her childhood friend Tatum is forced to play nice with abrasive Dru-Ann, Brooke’s husband is cheating on her—again—and Gigi is a stranger to everyone, even Hollis. It’s going to be a weekend to remember.
SimonAndSchuster.com
Zero Days by Ruth Ware
If you’re a fan of thrillers, give Ruth Ware’s latest a try. Husband and wife team Jack and Gabe are penetration specialists—they’re hired by companies to break into buildings and hack their security. Jack returns home after a routine assignment gone wrong to find Gabe dead. As the police close in on Jack, she has to decide who she can trust, all while finding Gabe’s killer.
PenguinRandomHouse.com
The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
Clementine’s late aunt had always said her apartment was a pinch in time. When Clementine inherits the apartment and comes face to face with a strange man in her kitchen, she realizes her aunt’s stories may have been true. He’s exactly the type of man she would fall for. The catch? He’s living seven years in the past. This romance novel is all about timing.
SimonAndSchuster.com
The Wife App by Carolyn Mackler
These ex-wives are done being taken for granted. Lauren’s just stumbled upon her husband’s dirty secret, Madeline is about to lose her child to her ex in England, and Sophie is obsessed with her ex’s family 2.0. Enter The Wife App. Lauren, Madeline, and Sophie start it to monetize the mental load of motherhood. When the app takes off, life and love intervene.
July 2023 Releases
SimonAndSchuster.com
Sunshine Nails by Mai Nguyen
Debbie and Phil Tran, Vietnamese refugees, have built their family a comfortable life in Toronto by running a family nail salon. When a new, glamorous nail chain opens up across the street, the Trans have to pull out all the stops to stay in business, even if it means engaging in not-so-honest tactics. Helped by their daughter Jessica (who just returned home from a messy breakup and firing), their son Dustin, and niece Thuy, the Trans devise ways to sabotage their competitor. But is the fight for the salon worth it if it destroys their family?
PenguinRandomHouse.com
Wanderlust by Elle Everhart
Wanting to spice up her life, Dylan Coughlan dials up a radio station and wins a once-in-a-lifetime trip around the world. Only, her travel companion has to be someone randomly selected from her phone contact list. And that person just happens to be Jack, an uptight, posh guy she ghosted. The two couldn’t be more different, but if magazine writer Dylan is able to turn the trip into a successful story, her boss will give her a permanent column. Dylan is desperate to make it a hit, even if it means embellishing her and Jack’s relationship along the way.
SimonAndSchuster.com
The Summer of Songbirds by Kristy Woodson Harvey
It all started with a summer camp. Thirty years ago, June bought Camp Holly Springs. Now, she’s on the brink of losing it. June’s niece, Daphne, also met her two best friends, Lanier and Mary, at the camp. They’ve been through some tough times together. Now, Daphne is facing a past relationship and troubles at work and Lanier is torn between her fiancé and her first love. But when they learn that the camp might close, the women must band together to save it.
SimonAndSchuster.com
Thicker Than Water by Megan Collins
Sienna and Julia are sisters-in-law. Jason, Julia's husband and Sienna's brother, becomes a suspect when his boss is found brutally murdered. To make matters worse, Jason is involved in a car accident that leaves him in a medically induced coma. As both women try to uncover the truth (and find a complicated web of lies), Sienna upholds her brother’s innocence, while Julia is less than certain.
SimonAndSchuster.com
Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong
If you’re looking to escape reality, check out Chloe Gong’s debut into adult fantasy inspired by Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. A dangerous game to the death brings the kingdom of Talin together every year, and Princess Calla is desperate to win. If she wins, she’ll finally get close enough to her reclusive uncle and succeed in destroying the monarchy. Exiled aristocrat Anton wants to win the games to save his childhood love. And there’s Prince August, Calla’s cousin to contend with. When Calla and Anton form an unexpected alliance, Calla is forced to decide if she’s playing for her lover or her kingdom.
SimonAndSchuster.com
Tropicália by Harold Rogers
The Cunha family is no stranger to misfortune. Take Daniel for instance: he was dumped by his pregnant girlfriend, his grandfather just passed away, and his mother, who fled years ago to get married, has returned. And on the anniversary of the drug raid that doomed his aunt and uncle. Now she's back to grieve her father and make amends to Daniel and his sister, Lucia. A fire, a knife, and a death on the Copacabana Beach might be the final straw for the Cunha's.
August 2023 Releases
HarperCollins.com
Canary Girls by Jennifer Chiaverini
Set in England during World War I, Canary Girls follows the “munitionettes,” women who worked grueling shifts in factories handling TNT to build much-needed weapons for the war. April Tipton, a nineteen-year-old former housemaid, and Lucy Dempsey, wife of Olympic football (read: soccer) star are among them. When the other women learn of Lucy’s husband, they invite her to join the Thornshire Canaries, their own ladies’ football club. On the pitch, everything else seems to melt away as these women deal with the unimaginable tragedies brought on by the war.
SimonAndSchuster.com
None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell
Alix Summer and Josie Fair are birthday twins, they discover, after bumping into each other while out celebrating. A few days later, they bump into each other again, and Josie thinks she’d be the perfect subject for Alix’s podcast. Josie’s life is complicated and though Alix finds her a little unsettling, she has to admit: Josie is great for the podcast. But right when Alix uncovers some dark secrets, Josie vanishes, leaving Alix to be the subject of her own true crime podcast.
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