Hang on to summer with these romance novels that'll combat school anxiety
The Sunday scaries might be back in session now that school is, but there’s nothing like a good book to curl up with to make them a little bit better.
Whether you’re stressed out about classes or can’t seem to finish that one assignment, a comfort read might be just what you need to get your brain back in the swing of things. Summer might be fading, but these four summer rom-com reads will stick with you throughout the fall.
“Every Summer After” by Carley Fortune is a whirlwind childhood friends-to-lovers romance that will have you hooked from the first line. As Fortune’s debut novel, “Every Summer After” will have you laughing and it'll have you crying — you might even catch yourself wanting to read it again.
The protagonist, Persephone (Percy) Fraser, grapples with the worst mistake of her life when she's forced to face someone from her past. Throughout the story, the audience gets to experience the blooming friendship between Percy and her best friend, Sam Florek.
Once they reconnect, Percy wonders if she can still be forgiven and whether her past mistakes can be forgotten. Fortune uses a dual timeline, taking place over the course of six summers from their childhood and one weekend in the present.
The second book that's a must-read is “The Summer I Turned Pretty” by Jenny Han. You’ve probably seen loads of content on TikTok over the summer as it was recently created into a TV series for Amazon Prime. If you’ve seen season one but haven’t yet made a decision about team Conrad or Jeremiah, you definitely shouldn’t sleep on the books.
Sixteen-year-old Belly Conklin has spent every summer at her mother’s best friend’s beach house. Her sons, who she’s known since birth, may as well be considered her brothers, right? Wrong. Despite the fact that Belly has had a massive crush on older brother Conrad Fisher, she finds herself conflicted this summer between a new flame, her former crush and… his brother?
Belly’s summer in Cousins Beach will have you in emotional turmoil trying to decide between team Conrad, team Jeremiah or team Cam Cameron. Give this book series a try if you want to stay in that summer headspace as fall approaches.
Lacie Waldon’s sophomore novel, “From the Jump” is another exciting friends-to-lovers romance that's just dying to be read. It follows a graphic designer Liv Bakersfield who lives her life by the rules: be financially responsible, eat healthy, work out and work hard.
After Liv finally decides to say no to the rules and joins her friends on an excursion to South Africa, she finds that maybe she has been missing out on life — and love — all along. As her friend, Lucas Deiss, starts to make Liv question everything, she vows to stay away from him to keep her friend group alive.
Liv soon realizes that her leap of faith might not have been worth it after everything starts crashing down around her, sending her right back to the person she has been trying to avoid: Lucas Deiss.
For anyone that's been lucky enough to stumble upon BookTok, you've probably heard of Emily Henry. More importantly, you might have come across her title “People We Meet on Vacation.”
Poppy and Alex are complete opposites, but one spontaneous car ride home from college has brought them closer than ever. Now, every summer for the past decade, the two have planned a week-long vacation together. That was until two years ago when they ruined everything.
Since then, it's been nothing but silence. Poppy is supposedly living her best life but realizes she isn’t when asked the last time she was happy. Poppy decides vacationing with Alex was it, so she convinces him to go on one more vacation together.
Now she has one week to fix everything that went wrong between them — and maybe avoid the elephant in the room that broke their friendship in the first place.
Whether you’re not quite ready for summer to be over or you just need something to calm the nerves, each of these summer rom-com books will have your heart warming and give your mind a vacation.
