Book Reccos X Joanie Book Club: Summer Holiday Reading Reccos

We’re Jess and Lauren, the best friends behind @bookreccos, the Instagram and podcast where we provide reading recommendations (or reccos!), and we’ve teamed up with Joanie to keep you all well-read and well-dressed with our suggestions for summer holiday reading!

Now that the temperature is heating up, we’re kicking things off with the most perfect summer holiday reading recco, Welcome To Your Life by Bethany Rutter, a book that explores body positivity, relationships, and living your best life! 

Serena Mills should be at her wedding. But she's not. Instead, she's eating an ice cream sundae and drinking an obscenely large glass of wine in a Harvester off the M25. Everyone thinks she's gone mad.

She's left the man everyone told her she was 'so lucky' to find - because Serena wants to find love. Real love. A love she deserves - not one she should just feel grateful for. So, she escapes to the big city and sets herself a challenge: 52 weeks. 52 dates. 52 chances to find love. It should be easy, right?

A story about love, forging your own path, and falling head over heels - with yourself.

It’s fun, flirty, and totally empowering - ideal for every hot girl’s summer holiday reading list! We couldn’t put it down and got completely lost in the story, so we think it's one you should definitely be packing in your suitcase this summer. 

We interviewed the wonderful author Bethany Rutter on our podcast (Book Reccos: Between the Pages), so if you want to hear a non-spoiler chit-chat about Bethany’s book, you can tune in on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.  

More Summer Holiday Reading Reccos

If you’ve already read this corker of a book, then here are some other reccos that explore similar themes and are perfect for picking up by the pool or in the park. And don’t forget to purchase them via the links below to support independent book shops!

Summer Holiday Reading Recco no. 2: Sunny by Sukh Ojla

Sunny is the queen of living a double life. To her friends, she's the entertaining, eternally upbeat, single one, always on hand to share hilarious and horrifying date stories. But while they're all settling down with long-term partners and mortgages, Sunny is back in her childhood bedroom at thirty, playing the role of the perfect daughter. 

She spends her time watching the Sikh channel, making saag and samosey with her mum, hiding gins-in-a-tin in her underwear drawer and sneaking home in the middle of the night after dates, trying but failing to find 'the one'.

Sunny is well versed in lying to her friends, her family, and, above all, herself. But how long can she keep it up for? Or is it finally time to start being honest?

Get Sunny by Sukh Ojla here via bookshop.org!

Summer Holiday Reading Recco no. 3: Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband? By Lizzie Damilola Blackburn

Yinka wants to find love. The problem is she also has a mum who thinks she's better qualified to find it for her.

She also has too many aunties who frequently pray for her delivery from singledom, a preference for chicken and chips over traditional Nigerian food, and a bum she's sure is far too small as a result. Oh, and the fact that she's a thirty-one-year-old South-Londoner who doesn't believe in sex before marriage is a bit of an obstacle too...

When her cousin gets engaged, Yinka commences Operation Find A Date for Rachel's Wedding. Will Yinka find herself a huzband? And what if the thing she really needs is to find herself?

Get Yinka, Where Is Your Husband? here via bookshop.org!

Don’t forget to check out our Instagram and website for more book reccos, and keep an eye out here on the blog for monthly book club posts full of seasonal recommendations!