SUMMER BOOK CLUB

NEW for Summer - introducing the Kiss the Moon Book Club. Our favourite relaxing reads for Summer nights, chosen by the Kiss the Moon Dream team. Find all these titles available to buy in our Book Club Shop here

 

It's the opportunity of a lifetime: Feyi is about to be given the chance to escape the City's blistering heat for a dream island holiday: poolside cocktails, beach sunsets, and elaborate meals. And as the sun goes down on her old life our heroine also might just be ready to open her heart to someone new.

The only problem is, she's falling for the one man she absolutely can't have

 

2. The Summer Place: the perfect beach read to get swept away with this summer by Jennifer Weiner

When Veronica Levy bought her dream house on the Outer Cape, she imagined a place where generations of her family would gather for years to come

Now, forty years later, with her children barely speaking to each other, or to her, Veronica has decided, reluctantly, to put the place on the market. She'll invite the family to gather one last time (and insist on their good behavior) at her granddaughter Celia's wedding. She'll spend one last summer by the beach, with her daughter Sarah, her son Sam, and whichever grandchildren can be coaxed into making the trip. Then she'll say goodbye to the house she's loved for forty years

But three months is a long time. Time enough for an old love to reappear, for secrets to come to light, and for three generations of Levy women to decide what kind of lives they want to live, in the summers they have left

 

 

3. The Lido: The most uplifting, feel-good summer read of the year by Libby Page

Rosemary has lived in Brixton all her life, but everything she knows is changing. Only the local lido, where she swims every day, remains a constant reminder of the past and her beloved husband George

Kate has just moved and feels adrift in a city that is too big for her. She's on the bottom rung of her career as a local journalist, and is determined to make something of it

So when the lido is threatened with closure, Kate knows this story could be her chance to shine. But for Rosemary, it could be the end of everything. Together they are determined to make a stand, and to prove that the pool is more than just a place to swim - it is the heart of the community

 

 

4. Heatstroke: a dark, compulsive story of love and obsession by Hazel Barkworth

Rachel and her daughter have never had secrets. Until now. Lily is somewhere she shouldn't be. With someone she shouldn't be with. Mia misses her best friend. But she let her down.

In the middle of a stifling heatwave, Rachel, Lily and Mia stand on the edge of irrevocable change. Soon, just one burning question will remain... how could they let things go this far?

 

 

5. The Dance Tree by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Strasbourg, 1518. In the midst of a blisteringly hot summer, a lone woman begins to dance in the city square. She dances for days without pause or rest, and as she is joined by hundreds of others, the authorities declare an emergency. Musicians will be brought in to play the Devil out of these women

Just beyond the city's limits, pregnant Lisbet lives with her mother-in-law and husband, tending the bees that are their livelihood. And then, as the dancing plague gathers momentum, Lisbet's sister-in-law Nethe returns from seven years' penance in the mountains for a crime no one will name

It is a secret that Lisbet is determined to uncover. As the city buckles under the beat of a thousand feet, she finds herself thrust into a dangerous web of deceit and clandestine passion, but she is dancing to a dangerous tune . . .

Set in an era of superstition, hysteria, and extraordinary change, and inspired by the true events of a doomed summer, The Dance Tree is an impassioned story of family secrets, forbidden love, and women pushed to the edge

 

6. Klara and the Sun: The Times and Sunday Times Book of the Year by Kazuo Ishiguro

From her place in the store, Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, watches carefully the behaviour of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass in the street outside. She remains hopeful a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change for ever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans

 

7. Blood Sugar: The refreshingly different thriller you need to read this summer by Sascha Rothchild

When Ruby was a child growing up in Miami, she saw a boy from her school struggling against the ocean waves while his parents were preoccupied. Instead of helping him, Ruby dove under the water and held his ankle down until he drowned. She waited to feel guilty for it, but she never did

And, as Ruby will argue in her senior thesis while studying psychology at Yale, guilt is sort of like eating ice cream while on a diet - if you're already feeling bad, why not eat the whole carton? And so, the bodies start to stack up

Twenty-five years later, Ruby's in an interrogation room under suspicion of murder, being shown four photographs. Each is a person she once knew, now deceased. The line-up includes her husband Jason. She is responsible for three of the four deaths... but it might be the crime that she didn't commit that will finally ensnare her

 

8. Exactly What You Mean by Ben Hinshaw

Surrounded by the dramatic beauty of Guernsey, a teenager discovers a secret and finds his betrayal has the power to ruin adult lives. In London, a marriage shot through with infidelity leads to a quest for revenge, resulting in a series of simultaneously comical and catastrophic events. And in California, as wildfires threaten landscapes and lives, a young veteran struggles with the trauma of war, seeking solace at a local ranch

 

9. The Man Who Died Twice: (The Thursday Murder Club 2) by Richard Osman

Elizabeth has received a letter from an old colleague, a man with whom she has a long history. He's made a big mistake, and he needs her help. His story involves stolen diamonds, a violent mobster, and a very real threat to his life

As bodies start piling up, Elizabeth enlists Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron in the hunt for a ruthless murderer. And if they find the diamonds too? Well, wouldn't that be a bonus? But this time they are up against an enemy who wouldn't bat an eyelid at knocking off four septuagenarians

Can the Thursday Murder Club find the killer (and the diamonds) before the killer finds them?

 

10. Fight Night: 'A Gem: humour and hope in the face of suffering' Observer by Miriam Toews

You are a small thing, and you must learn to fight. Swiv has taken her grandmother's advice too literally. Now she's at home, suspended from school. Mom is pregnant and preoccupied - and so Swiv is in the older woman's charge, receiving a very different form of education from a teacher with a style all her own

Grandma likes her stories fast, troublesome and funny. She's known the very worst that life can throw at you - and has met it every time with a wild, unnamable spirit, fighting for joy and independence every step of the way. But will maths lessons based on Amish jigsaws and classes on How to Dig a Winter Grave inspire the same fire in Swiv, and ensure it never goes out?

Time is running short. Grandma's health is failing, the baby is on the way, as a family of three extraordinary women prepare to face life's great changes together