Skip to main content

Summer Reading 2018: May Prize Books

Special Feature

Summer Reading 2018: May Prize Books

Summer will be here before you know it! At Bookreporter.com, this means it's time for us to share some great summer book picks with our Summer Reading Contests and Feature. We will be hosting a series of 24-hour contests for these titles on select days through August 24th, so you will have to check the site each day to see the featured prize book and enter to win. We also will be sending a special newsletter to announce the day's title, which you can sign up for here.

See the prize books being awarded in JuneJuly and August.

A Nantucket Wedding by Nancy Thayer - Fiction

A few years after losing her beloved husband, Alison is doing something she never thought she would do again: getting married. While placing the finishing touches on her summer nuptials, Alison is anxious to introduce her fiancé, David, to her grown daughters: Felicity, a worried married mother of two, and Jane, also married but focused on her career. The sisters have a somewhat distant relationship, and Alison hopes that the wedding and the weeks leading up to the ceremony will give the siblings a chance to reconnect, as well as meet and get to know David’s grown children. As the summer progresses, it is anything but smooth sailing.

Beach House Reunion by Mary Alice Monroe - Fiction


Cara Rutledge returns to her Southern home on the idyllic Isle of Palms. Only through reconnecting with family, friends and the rhythms of the lowcountry can Cara release the hold of the past and open herself to the possibility of a new love, career and hope for the future. Meanwhile, her niece Linnea, a recent college graduate, leaves her historic home in Charleston and heads to her aunt’s beach house. On the island, she is part of the freer, natural ocean lifestyle she loves, rejoining the turtle team, learning to surf and falling in love. Remembering the lessons of her beloved grandmother, Lovie, Linnea rediscovers a meaningful purpose to her life and finds the courage she needs to break from tradition.

The Book of Summer by Michelle Gable - Fiction


For the first time in four years, physician Bess Codman visits Cliff House, the compound her great-grandparents built almost a century before. But due to erosion, the once-grand home will soon fall into the sea. It’s not just memories of her family home Bess must face, though, but also an old love that might hold new possibilities. In the midst of packing, Bess rediscovers the forgotten family guest book. Ruby, Bess’ grandmother and primary keeper of the book, always said Cliff House was a house of women, and by the very last day of the very last summer at Cliff House, Bess will understand the truth of her grandmother’s words in ways she never imagined.

Campaign Widows by Aimee Agresti - Fiction

Cady Davenport is in a new city, with a new job and even a new fiancé. But when her husband-to-be hits the road for the upcoming presidential election, Cady realizes she’s on her own --- and that her dream life might not be all she’d imagined. Until she finds herself thrust straight into the heart of the most influential inner circle in Washington, DC: the campaign widows. As friends, they’re an unlikely group, but they share one undeniable bond: their spouses are all out on the trail during a hotly contested election season.

Everything That Follows by Meg Little Reilly - Psychological Suspense


Around midnight, three friends take their partying from bar to boat on a misty fall evening. Just as the weather deteriorates, one of them suddenly and confusingly goes overboard. Is it an accident? The result of an unwanted advance? His body disappears quickly, silently, into the dark water. The circumstances are murky, but what is clear is that the other two need to notify the authorities. Minutes become hours become days as they hesitate, caught up in their guilt and hope that their friend has somehow made it safely to shore. As valuable time passes, they find themselves deep in a moral morass with huge implications as they struggle to move forward and live with their dark secret.

My Ex-Life by Stephen McCauley - Fiction


David Hedges’ life is coming apart at the seams. His job helping San Francisco rich kids get into the colleges of their (parents’) choice is exasperating; his younger boyfriend has left him; and the beloved carriage house he rents is being sold. The last person he expects to hear from is Julie Fiske. It’s been decades since they’ve spoken, and he’s relieved to hear she’s recovered from her brief, misguided first marriage. To him. Julie would like David’s help organizing college plans for her 17-year-old daughter, Mandy. When David flies east, they find themselves living under the same roof (one David needs to repair). David and Julie pick up exactly where they left off 30 years ago. But there’s one broken bit between them that no amount of home renovations will fix.

The Favorite Sister by Jessica Knoll - Thriller


Brett and Kelly have always toed the line between supportive sisters and bitter rivals. Growing up, Brett was the problem child, in the shadow of the brilliant and beautiful Kelly. In adulthood, all that has changed. Kelly is a struggling single mother, and Brett has skyrocketed to such meteoric success, which has been chronicled on a reality TV show called “Goal Diggers.” When Kelly manipulates herself onto the show and into Brett’s world, Brett is right to be threatened. Kelly, and only Kelly, knows her younger sister's appalling secret, and it could ruin her. Still, when the truth comes out in the explosive final weekend of filming, neither of them ever expected that the season would end in murder.

Harbor of Spies: A Novel of Historic Havana by Robin Lloyd - Historical Fiction


HARBOR OF SPIES is a historical novel set in Havana in 1863 during the American Civil War, when the Spanish colonial city was alive with intrigue and war-related espionage. The protagonist --- a young American ship captain named Everett Townsend --- is pulled into the war, not as a Naval officer, as he had once hoped, but as the captain of a blockade-running schooner. The rescue of a man outside Havana harbor sets in motion a plot where Townsend finds himself trapped by circumstances beyond his control. He soon realizes how this good deed has put his own life in danger, entangling him in a sensitive murder investigation.

Harry's Trees by Jon Cohen - Fiction


Thirty-four-year-old Harry Crane works as an analyst for the US Forest Service. When his wife dies suddenly, Harry, despairing, retreats north to lose himself in the remote woods of the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania. But fate intervenes in the form of a fiercely determined young girl named Oriana. She and her mother, Amanda, are struggling to pick up the pieces from their own tragic loss of Oriana’s father. Discovering Harry while roaming the forest, Oriana believes that he holds the key to righting her world. Harry reluctantly agrees to help Oriana carry out an astonishing scheme inspired by a book given to her by the town librarian, Olive Perkins. Together, Harry and Oriana embark on a golden adventure that will fulfill Oriana’s wild dream --- and ultimately open Harry’s heart to a new life.

Shelter in Place by Nora Roberts - Romantic Suspense

It is the Saturday after the 2016 presidential election, and in a plush weekend house in Connecticut, an intimate group of friends, New Yorkers all, has gathered to recover from what they consider the greatest political catastrophe of their lives. They have just sat down to tea when their hostess, Eva Lindquist, proposes a dare. Who among them would be willing to ask Siri how to assassinate Donald Trump? Liberal and like-minded --- editors, writers, a decorator, a theater producer, and one financial guy, Eva’s husband, Bruce --- the friends have come to the countryside in the hope of restoring the bubble in which they have grown used to living. Yet with the exception of one brash and obnoxious book editor, none is willing to accept Eva’s challenge.