New Summer Reading Recommendations From Our Friends At Wellesley Books

With summer approaching, it is the perfect time to select some books to read on the beach or on the porch with a tall glass of lemonade. With the volume of homework you manage all year it can be hard to find time to read for pleasure. Remember the joy you get from reading a riveting story and not wanting to put it down? Our friends at Wellesley Books offer summer reading recommendations in a range of genres:

Daphne has spent her whole life training to be accepted by the warriors of Sparta. But when Artemis shows up, holding her brother’s fate in the goddesses’ hands, Daphne’s plans come crumbling down. Daphne must now help recover nine items stolen from Mount Olympus – and if she doesn’t, the gods’ powers will fade, the mortal world will fall into chaos, and her brother will die. No pressure. An electric-charged reinterpretation of the Daphne and Apollo myth for fans of fantasy and history alike.

Emilia lives two different lives; by day she’s a field hockey star with a popular boyfriend and a mother obsessed with her academic future. By night, she’s the sole female member of a competitive eSports team. But when a major eSports tournament comes to her city she knows she has to be there. But her perfect balancing act is thrown off-kilter when a member of a rival team recognizes her. A sweet and charming YA romance for gamers and non-gamers alike.

A power outage in the middle of a New York heat wave. Six love stories lighting up the dark – some old, some new, some bitter, some swoon(y). These stories will have you reaching for tissues for tears of laughter, joy, and heartbreak. A powerhouse book of intertwined stories by six award-winning YA authors, full of Black teen joy. This one is for the readers looking for a light in the darkness, and a breeze that brings relief on a static summer night.

Abby’s life is a little fractured at the moment. Just before the start of summer vacation, her grandmother passed, she broke up with her boyfriend, and all her friends are leaving town. But one day, old letters addressed to her grandmother show up from an address in Nantucket. Love letters. So Abby goes off on a mission to Nantucket to find her own adventure and to learn more about her grandmother who fled from the Holocaust when she was a little girl. But the mysteries run deeper and darker than Abby expected. Romance and history and family secrets set to the backdrop of a beach mansion.

Eris is a Gearbreaker, a rebel, taking down the Windup mechas who terrorize the Badlands under false pretenses of their Godhood. Until the day she gets caught and winds up in prison. There she meets Sona, a cybernetically-enhanced Windup pilot. But there’s much more to Sona than meets the eye. A high octane adventure for fans of Pacific Rim about colossal mechas, a tyrannical regime, and two girls on opposite sides of a war who come to realize they’re fighting for the same reasons. And possibly falling for each other.

Harlow wants to get better SAT scores, save West Finch from falling into the sea, and for her best friend Ellis to stick to The Plan. Ellis wants to make varsity track, and to stick to The Plan, more or less. Tommy, Ellis’ twin-brother, wants to not be living any more. Three deeply empathetic teenagers fracture and fall together as they make ill-advised choices and navigate their small-town coastal Maine summer, constantly trying to rewrite, remember, and forget the past while also keeping the future on a narrow track. This book will make your heart clench in the best of ways.

Unlike anything you’ve read before. A story about sisters, climate change, “rights & wrongs,” and being human. Kasey and Cee are not like other girls. For one Kasey, who prefers her own company as opposed to the other students at school, can’t quite get the hang of caring for others as deeply as she cares for her sister, who disappeared three months ago. Not when the daily news reports the constant world-ending disasters. And Cee? Cee is stuck on an abandoned island with only the memory of her sister, Kasey. He’s lyrical and animated narrative style thrums with twists and turns that will have you second-guessing which way is up.

Darius is back in Portland, Oregon. He’s got a boyfriend, he’s on the varsity soccer team, and he’s got an internship at his favorite tea company. But then his grandmothers come to stay with his family. And his internship is more focused on money than the product. And Darius can’t make heads or tails of his teammate, Chip. Because sometimes he seems like he’s flirting, but he’s also still friends with Darius’ bully, Trent. Full of heart, good tea, and the tumultuous joy of defining and redefining yourself.

While this is a companion to Darius The Great Is Not Okay (and you should read it if you have the chance), this book can be read as a standalone.

Daunis Fontaine, an Ojibwe & Italian-American girl, has just graduated high school. But tragedy strikes; Daunis is the eyewitness and she is thrown headfirst into an FBI investigation within the reservation her family lives on and the greater Upper Peninsula area. A nuanced and compassionate look at addiction and the justice system and the risks one girl takes to help her community. With murder, secrets, and a strong exploration of identity politics, Daunis’ story is eye-opening and compelling. Add to the mix, hockey, romance, science nerds, Ojibwe traditions, sassy aunties and grannies, this book has something for everyone.