Top 5 summer reads for 2023

Long summer days and relaxing vacations demand great books. That’s why the Blue Print team had compiled our ultimate summer 2023 book list. Do you agree with our pick? Which of these will make your must-read-next pile?

We love a great book here at Blue Print – there’s nothing like the printed word to move you and delight you. Thrilling, lightweight, amusing, emotional, moving – here’s our pick of 2023’s best summer reads.

Book lovers

by Emily Henry

Book Lovers is a rollicking romance on an enemies-to-lovers theme. Nora is a cut-throat literary agent at the top of her game. Charlie is an editor with a gift for creating bestsellers. Set over one sizzling August, the novel is the latest chemistry-filled romcom from the New York Times #1 bestselling author. Her previous romances include the bestsellers Beach Read and You and Me on Vacation, both also worthy beach read picks.

So Happy For You

by Celia Laskey

A novel pitched as “Bridesmaids meets Black Mirror in the most twisted and entertaining thriller you’ll read this year” has to make it onto a beach read booklist. Laskey’s novel explores our preoccupation with the bridal industry and is riveting, unexpectedly poignant depiction of friendship in all its messy glory.

Carrie Soto is Back

by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Carrie Soto is back, for one epic final season. This riveting novel charts an athlete’s emotional return to the game. By the time Carrie Soto retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. Six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her. At thirty-seven years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement and train with a man she once almost opened her heart to: Bowe Huntley. Like her, Bowe has something to prove before he gives up the game forever.

Tom Lake

by Anne Patchett

One of Oprah’s picks for the best summer reads of 2023, Tom Lake is the story of Lara and her three daughters who return to the family’s orchard in Northern Michigan at the start of the pandemic lockdowns in August 2020. Once there, the daughters ask questions about her romance with a famous actor in her youth. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother.

Trust

by Hernan Diaz

Winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and one of Barak Obama’s favorite reads of 2022, Trust is a sweeping novel about power, greed, love and a search for the truth that begins in 1920s New York. The New York Times Book Review said, “Intricate, cunning and consistently surprising … Diaz has the whole literary past at his fingertips … [an] exhilarating and intelligent novel.”

What next?

Need further inspiration for your summer reading list? Why not take a look at some of our other book recommendations and author profiles on our blog?

• Eight books to read on Portuguese Author Day
• Why Printed Books Are Still Our Favorites
• The Magical Success of JK Rowling
• Neil Gaiman, The Storyteller
• 10 reasons why you should join a book club
• How letters play a role in Agatha Christie’s best books
• Top 5 books for personal growth to read in 2023
• Sharalee Howard’s Little Free Library is made from a tree