Dead of Summer by Jessa Maxwell

 

 Orla O’Connor hasn’t been to the isolated New England enclave of Hadley Island since she graduated from high school a decade ago. As a teenager, her best friend Alice disappeared from its shores without a trace—but with plenty of rumors.

Now, Orla returns to her family’s beachfront home to clean it out before her parents sell it. The island and her best friend’s house next door, abandoned after her family left in grief, are stirring up memories she would like to avoid. Then there are the locals, always gossiping and watching Orla’s every move. Worst of all, David, Orla’s childhood crush and son of a wealthy Manhattan family, is back for the summer with his new, impossibly pretty girlfriend, Faith.

Faith suspects that David is going to propose but as soon as she settles into his family’s sprawling Hadley Island estate, she feels out of place. She anticipated a luxurious summer of fun and romance, but David is never around—lured into business conversations with his entrepreneur father from dawn to dusk. With nothing else to do, Faith begins to investigate the island’s dark past, curious about what really happened to Alice all those years ago.

Meanwhile, local Henry hasn’t left his house since the young girl went missing, in an attempt to let the accusations against him die down. Except they never have. For years, Henry has had an endless supply of time to pursue his only hobby, watching the island from his telescope and recording the activities of its inhabitants. But Orla’s return has shaken him and lately he’s been seeing strange things: shadowy figures walking on the beach in the middle of the night and a light on in the upstairs window of the long-abandoned house of the missing girl.

When there’s another disappearance on the island, all three find themselves pulled into an eerie and twisty mystery that will haunt them for the rest of their lives. -Simon & Schuster 

 

I loved the last book I read by Jessa Maxwell, I Need You to Read This so I was delighted to receive a free digital ARC of her newest novel, Dead of Summer courtesy of Netgalley and the publisher, Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review.

I also love books set in vacation resort communities that feature the charms of the island as well as the conflict between the locals and vacationers and the haves and the have-nots.  I also love a good mystery about a family with potentially dark secrets.  Dead of Summer featured a lot of my favorite thriller ingredients and while I was able to figure out one of the smaller plot twists early on, it didn’t spoil any of the story for me and I still had a great time trying to solve the main caper and what motives were at play.  Dead of Summer is the perfect mystery to read at the beach.  Definitely grab a copy at your local bookstore or library and consider checking out Maxwell’s earlier books as well. 

A quick aside, Faith’s drink of choice has me both curious and disgusted.  LOL  Read Dead of Summer to see what I mean then come back to this post and let me know what your thoughts are. 

 

 Thanks again to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

 

Say Everything by Ione Skye

 

In 1987, sixteen-year-old Ione Skye skyrocketed to fame with the breakout role of Diane Court, the dream girl who inspires John Cusack’s iconic boombox serenade in the hit Cameron Crowe film, Say Anything. While Skye seemed perfectly typecast as an aloof valedictorian, she was anything but.

Deserted by her dad, the folk singer legend Donovan, Skye dropped out of school in ninth grade and sought validation through her Hollywood career, working alongside iconic costars like Keanu Reeves, River Phoenix, Matthew Perry, John Cusack, and Robert Downey Jr. But like her sixties It Girl mom, Skye’s greatest weakness was musicians.

On the heels of a toxic relationship with Red Hot Chili Peppers’s frontman Anthony Kiedis, which began when she was just sixteen and he was twenty-four, the actress leapt into wedded bliss with her first great love, Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz.

But marriage was not the magical hall pass to adulthood Skye had imagined. Awakening to her bisexuality and desperately insecure, she risked her fairytale marriage for a string of affairs with gorgeous nineties “bad girls.” The dream marriage imploded, and Skye’s trust in herself and her future went with it.

Set against the backdrop of rock royalty compounds, supermodel cliques, and classic late-century films like River’s Edge, Gas Food Lodging, and Wayne’s World, Say Everything is a wild ride of Hollywood thrills as well as lyrical reflection on ambition, intimacy, and a messy, sexy, unconventional life. -Simon & Schuster

 

“Please don’t tell me if it turns out John Cusack is a jerk,” was what my good friend Ann-Marie said to me when we were shopping at Barnes & Noble.  Ione Skye is famous for her many film roles but perhaps most notable is her role as Diane Court opposite John Cusack as Lloyd Dobler in Say Anything (1989).  My friend Ann-Marie has been crushing on Cusack since the 80s and fortunately for her, Ione spills a lot of tea on her past relationships and people she’s worked with but at least according to Ione, Cusack is a nice guy. 

I didn’t know too much about Ione going into her memoir.  I of course knew her as Diane Court, but I also loved her in a little indie film, Gas Food Lodging (1992).  I just always had the sense that she was a very cool talented woman that I could be friends with and wanted to know more about her.  It  turns out I was right, and she is even cooler than I thought, her memoir is very honest and self-reflective not just about her accomplishments but also her faults and her complicated relationship with her father.  Her memoir reads just like you’re sitting down with a good friend for drinks and sharing your life with them - both the good and bad parts. 

I got my copy of Say Everything at Barnes & Noble.  You can pick up a copy there, or at your favorite local bookstore, library or online shop.  You can also visit the publisher's website linked above for more information.

 

 

The Favorites by Layne Fargo

She might not have a famous name, funding, or her family’s support, but Katarina Shaw has always known that she was destined to become an Olympic skater. When she meets Heath Rocha, a lonely kid stuck in the foster care system, their instant connection makes them a formidable duo on the ice. Clinging to skating—and each other—to escape their turbulent lives, Kat and Heath go from childhood sweethearts to champion ice dancers, captivating the world with their scorching chemistry, rebellious style, and roller-coaster relationship.

Until a shocking incident at the Olympic Games brings their partnership to a sudden end.

As the ten-year anniversary of their final skate approaches, an unauthorized documentary reignites the public obsession with Shaw and Rocha, claiming to uncover the “real story” through interviews with their closest friends and fiercest rivals. Kat wants nothing to do with the documentary, but she can’t stand the thought of someone else defining her legacy. So, after a decade of silence, she’s telling her story: from the childhood tragedies that created her all-consuming bond with Heath to the clash of desires that tore them apart. Sensational rumors have haunted their every step for years, but the truth may be even more shocking than the headlines. laynefargo.com

I love figure skating, especially Ice Dancing and I also love a romance story that’s a little dark and complicated.  The Favorites by Layne Fargo throws these two elements together to create one of my favorite books not just of 2025 but it’s going on my mental list of favorite books ever.  I could tell Fargo was a fan of skating just by the level of depth she describes the world – the drama, the personalities, the sacrifice and the breathtaking skill and talent needed to excel at the Olympic level.   The story is told through varying timelines with transcripts from a documentary of Shaw and Roca’s career.  However it’s never confusing as to the who and where we are in the story.  The relationship between Kat and Heath is inspired by Wuthering Heights which is passionate and complicated but the real love story on display here is the love of skating.  Your heart will race and break multiple times through this book.  I could see it all so vividly in my head and hope that someone adapts this for the screen.

I got my copy of The Favorites through my local library via the Libby app. I will definitely be purchasing a physical copy to add to my permanent library though.  You can pick up your copy at your local library, bookstore or online shop.  

 

Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley

 

It’s a Friday night in a campus bar in Berkeley, fall of 2000, and Percy Marks is pontificating about music again. Hall and Oates is on the jukebox, and Percy—who has no talent for music, just lots of opinions about it—can’t stop herself from overanalyzing the song, indulging what she knows to be her most annoying habit. But something is different tonight. The guy beside her at the bar, fellow student Joe Morrow, is a songwriter. And he could listen to Percy talk all night.

Joe asks Percy for feedback on one of his songs—and the results kick off a partnership that will span years, ignite new passions in them both, and crush their egos again and again. Is their collaboration worth its cost? Or is it holding Percy back from finding her own voice?

Moving from Brooklyn bars to San Francisco dance floors, Deep Cuts examines the nature of talent, obsession, belonging, and above all, our need to be heard.  penguinrandomhouse.com

I've read a lot of great books lately but Deep Cuts was truly one of the best books I've read in a long time.  I devoured it in just two days and contemplated reading it again immediately after I turned the last page.  I wanted to live in this book and be friends with Percy.  Like Joe, I too could listen to her talk music all night.  Deep Cuts isn't just a love story between two people, it's a love story to music itself.  Every chapter is titled by the name of a popular song relevant to the chapter and I could hear all of these amazing songs in my head as I read along.  I wish this book came with a mixtape.  I also wish mixtapes were still at thing!  

I purchased my copy of Deep Cuts at Barnes & Noble on that shopping spree I had a few weeks ago.  You can pick up yours there or at your favorite bookstore or online shop.  For more information, check out the publisher's website linked above.

 

The Unraveling of Julia by Lisa Scottoline (publication date 07/15/2025)

 

Lately, Julia Pritzker is beginning to think if she’s cursed. She’s lost her adoptive parents, then her husband is murdered. When she realizes that her horoscope essentially foretold his death, she begins to spiral. She fears her fate is written in the stars, not held in her own hands.

Then a letter arrives out of the blue, informing her that she has inherited a Tuscan villa and vineyard – but her benefactor is a total stranger named Emilia Rossi. Julia has no information about her biological family, so she wonders if Rossi could be a blood relative. Bewildered, she heads to Tuscany for answers.

There, Julia is horrified to discover that Rossi was a paranoid recluse with delusions of grandeur, who believed herself to be a descendent of Duchess Caterina Sforza, a legendary Renaissance ruler. Julia is stunned by her uncanny resemblance to Rossi and even to Caterina, then she unearths eerie parallels between them, including an obsession with astrology.

Before long, Julia suspects she’s being followed, and strange things begin to happen. Not even a chance meeting with a handsome Florentine can ease her disturbed mind. When events turn deadly, she breaks with reality.

Julia’s harrowing struggle becomes a search for her identity, a race to save her sanity, and ultimately, a question of her very survival. - scottoline.com

 

This thriller starts slow but the then creepy factor really starts to build and gets under your skin.  I love when I can predict a few of the twists in a thriller along the way but still be surprised by some of them too and this book kept me guessing.  This book also has a lot of heart mixed into the mystery.  Julia's struggles with heartbreak and grief as she mourns the loss of her husband and works to rebuild a new life are relatable to anyone who has experienced loss.  However what really makes this book shine are Lisa's beautifully immersive descriptions of Italy and the food.  When this book wasn't giving me the chills from reading about the scary things Julia is witnessing at the vineyard, I was salivating over the delicious meals she was enjoying. the wine and finally understanding why my coworker runs off to Italy every summer for a long vacation - it's just gorgeous.  

The Unraveling of Julia is a great summer read.  It's got a little bit of everything; a thrilling mystery with a dash of romance, adventure and the supernatural.   

I was lucky enough to get an advanced reader copy of The Unraveling of Julia thanks to the publisher, Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  This book will be released on Tuesday, July 15th but it's available for pre-order now.  Visit Lisa's website for more information on pre-orders, her upcoming book tour and a "Behind the Book" video series.   

 

 

 

The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner

 

Sisters Cassie and Zoe Grossberg were born just a year apart but could not have been more different. Zoe, blessed with charm and beauty, yearned for fame from the moment she could sing into a hairbrush. Cassie was a musical prodigy who never felt at home in her own skin and preferred the safety of the shadows.

On the brink of adulthood in the early 2000s, destiny intervened, catapulting the sisters into the spotlight as the pop sensation the Griffin Sisters, hitting all the touchstones of early aughts fame—SNL, MTV, Rolling Stone magazine—along the way.

But after a whirlwind year in the public eye, the band abruptly broke up.

Two decades later, Zoe’s a housewife; Cassie’s off the grid. The sisters aren’t speaking, and the real reason for the Griffin Sisters’ breakup is still a mystery. Zoe’s teenage daughter, Cherry, who’s determined to be a star in spite of Zoe’s warnings, is on a quest to learn the truth about what happened to the band all those years ago.

As secrets emerge, all three women must face the consequences of their choices: the ones they made and the ones the music industry made for them. Can they forgive each other—and themselves? And will the Griffin Sisters ever make music again? -jenniferweiner.com

 

Whew did this book pack in a lot in just 384 pages!  You’ve got a searing look into the high stakes and pitfalls that come with sudden fame and the pressures of the music industry, plus a look into complicated and sometimes messy family dynamics between mothers and daughters and sisters.  But wait there’s more!! Do you remember those God awful tabloid headlines from the early 00s tearing apart young female celebs? Griffin Sisters takes a look back at that too plus there’s romantic drama galore.

The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits was one of the best books that I’ve read this summer and one of Jennifer Weiner’s best in my opinion.  Despite packing so much in just 384 pages, nothing felt skimped on.  All the characters were fully developed and you feel for all of them including Zoe who I thought was actually kind of a self-absorbed menace, LOL.   I also wanted to hug Cassie multiple times and be the good friend she needed.  The book also jumps from present day to the early 00’s with varying POVs but it was all easy to follow.  I devoured this book in just 3 days. I couldn’t put it down and didn’t want it to end!

I got my copy of The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits at Barnes Noble and it’s this beautiful edition with splayed edges that are all the rage right now.  That edition is still available as of this writing on their website.   You can pick up your copy there or standard editions at your favorite local bookstore, online retailer or library.

***I am not getting any compensation for referencing Barnes & Noble in any of my recent posts.  I went on a little spree a few weeks ago and picked up a lot of great books.***