During the school year, it can be difficult to make time for oneself to sit down and pick up a book. Summer is a great time to pick up a guilty pleasure romance, thriller or fantasy novel that has no other purpose than to entertain. Here is a cultivated list of enjoyable reads with a summer, low-stakes spin.
“One Golden Summer” by Carley Fortune
Nominated for Goodread’s Readers’ Favorite Read of 2025, “One Golden Summer” follows photographer Alice Everly as she returns to the lake house of her childhood summers to aid her grandmother after an accident. However, taking care of Nan isn’t all she gets up to when her childhood enemy, Charlie Florek, floats up in his yellow boat.
“Great Big Beautiful Life” by Emily Henry
Winner for Readers’ Favorite Romance of 2025 and Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Audiobook 2025, “Great Big Beautiful Life” brings two authors to an island to compete for authorship of a “larger than life” biography. Alice Scott and Hayden Anderson find themselves trapped between their professional competition and an intensifying yearning for one another.
“Anywhere With You” by Ellie Palmer
A classic friends-to-lovers story puts a confident woman on a road trip to Minnesota with her “non-committal” childhood best friend. Charley Beekman is an overworked lawyer and recent divorcee who needs a win, yet she never expected to find one in a nomadic, bohemian musician she’s tried to push feelings away from for years.
“My Favorite Bad Decision” by Elizabeth O’Roark
First on the Goodreads favorites list, O’Roark’s novel brings the enemies-to-lovers trope back to life. Kit Fischer is determined to keep Miller West at bay. He’s smug, masculine and notably her sister’s ex-boyfriend; his insistence to protect her while looking amazing makes it impossible to hate him forever.
“Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn
Winner for Readers’ Favorite Mystery & Thriller 2012 and nominee for Readers’ Favorite Goodreads Author of 2012, this “oldie but goodie” is still on the charts. On their fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne finds himself as the prime suspect for the disappearance of his wife, Amy Dunne. With alternating perspectives, questionable narrators, deception and cascading plot twists, readers just can’t put this one down until the last page has turned.
“Black Bag” by Luke Kennard
Released in March 2026, this novel is already receiving critical appraise. An unnamed struggling actor takes a job for a university professor conducting a psychological experiment. Confusing, thrilling and absurdly hilarious, the “Black Bag” is the intersection of humor, love and thrill.
“Fates and Furies” by Lauren Groff
Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Fiction 2015, “Fates and Furies” is a dual perspective from a 10-year married couple, Lotto and Mathilde. For years, they were the envy of their friends, but time is catching up to the couple as the thrilling mysteries of young romance become deep-seated secrets that threaten to destroy their love.
“Not Quite Dead Yet” by Holly Jackson
Winner for Readers’ Favorite Mystery & Thriller 2025, Jackson’s novel is where comedy meets murder mystery. Protagonist Jet Mason is going to die. She’s never been a go-getter or a committed person, but this time is different — she has only 7 days to solve her own murder.
