What was YOUR Book of the Summer?

I know summer doesn’t technically end until September 22, but for me, the few days after Labor Day are the finale.

It’s still plenty warm, but Joann’s* has Halloween out the wazoo and down the hall, and Costco is already starting to get decorative if you know what I mean, and I think that you do. Alongside the 10 pound bags of Halloween candy (100 Grand or bust!) there’s…signs of sparkle.

But while I think of summer as coming to an end, I do love sitting outside and reading, bugs permitting. This is part of my backyard, and the view from where I’m usually reading (or looking at my phone, or both).

Which got me thinking.

I read a number of books from that viewpoint, but which was my book of the summer?

 Can I narrow it down to one? No, no, I can’t. So I’m going to highlight one nonfiction and one fiction.

In the nonfiction department: Love in the Time of Self Publishing by Dr. Christine M. Larson made me extremely happy to read. I gulped it down in one afternoon and had the greatest time reading a book that was looking at essentially Romancelandia and applying academic analysis to the communities of authors within it and how it works (and sometimes doesn’t). It was wild to read a whole entire academic book about, well, us. (I also interviewed Dr. Larson about it.)

And for romance fiction, I think the book that made my summer extra sparkly was The Love of My Afterlife by Kirsty Greenwood. I read it in part to prepare for a very fun podcast interview, but like the book I just mentioned, I inhaled this story.

It’s like the book version of all the humorous yet macabre posts on social media that arrive for spooky season. There are some heavy moments and honest depictions and navigations of grief, and at the same time, it’s really freaking funny. It was a book I big-gulped and grinned while doing so.

I asked the SBTB reviewers about their book of the summer, and got awesome answers.

Shana:  Only one?!

Tara: Hands down, Loser of the Year by Carrie Byrd. No question.

Sarah: Ha! Tara, I guessed yours! Go me. (Y’all, don’t miss Tara’s review for this book – it’s a terrific review!)

Elyse: Mine was Earl’s Trip by Jenny Holiday. It’s a historical road trip romance with lots of found family.

Shana: I loved All the Right Notes by Dominic Lim. It’s a second chance romance with music, food, and just the right amount of angst.

…

*Also, for no other reason than I HAD TO SHARE THIS.

I found this individual in my local Joann’s and I’m really thinking I might need to buy it and just…put it in different places in the house.

I should buy this, right?

And most importantly: what was your book of the summer? What book rocked your world, or made you so happy to be reading, or made a vacation that much more awesome?