Tag: Suspense

The Ultimate 2026 Summer Reading Guide

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Every year before Memorial Day weekend, I put together a giant summer reading guide filled with the books I’m most excited to recommend and this year’s guide might be my biggest one yet.

This guide is divided into four categories:

  • cozy mysteries
  • romance
  • thrillers
  • beach reads

…and each section includes both recommendation picks and books currently sitting on my summer TBR.

I wanted this year’s guide to feel like a mix of everything I personally crave during summer reading season: fun escapist stories, bingeable thrillers, emotional romances, cozy comfort reads, and books that feel perfect to toss into a beach bag or bring along on vacation.

Whether you’re looking for:

  • a messy popcorn thriller
  • a charming small town romance
  • a cozy mystery series to binge
  • or a layered beach read full of family drama and summer nostalgia

…there’s a little bit of everything here.

💘 ROMANCE RECS + TBR

Summer and romance books just belong together. This section includes a mix of beachy small town romances, emotional second chances, destination settings, funny rom coms, and addictive contemporary romance picks. Some are light and playful, while others bring a little more emotional depth—but all of them feel perfect for summer reading season.

🏖️ BEACH READ RECS + TBR

This category is always the hardest for me because I read so many summer/beachy books every year, but it’s also one of my favorite sections to curate. I tend to gravitate toward ensemble casts, family drama, emotional storylines, travel settings, and books with strong summer atmosphere—not necessarily just straightforward romance.

This year’s mix includes nostalgic summer stories, escapist vacation reads, emotional contemporary fiction, and a few hidden gems I’m especially excited about.

🔪 THRILLER RECS + TBR

For the thriller section, I focused mostly on fast paced, popcorn style suspense and domestic thrillers, the kind of books you can absolutely devour in a day by the pool. Think vacation disasters, messy relationships, simmering secrets, and books that make summer feel just a little dangerous.

🔍 COZY MYSTERY RECS + TBR

This was my newest category addition this year and honestly one of the most fun to put together. Cozy mysteries are perfect summer reads because they’re quick, entertaining, comforting, and incredibly bingeable. I leaned heavily into foodie mysteries, small town settings, and charming amateur sleuth energy for this section.

Summer reading season is officially underway, and I’m so excited to spend the next few months diving into all of these stories. I’d love to know what books are on your own summer TBR—or which category from this guide you’re most excited about.

Happy summer reading ☀️📚🌊

Audiobook Review: Here Lie All the Boys Who Broke My Heart by Emma Simmerman

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Goodreads

Release date: February 3, 2026

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Publisher: Harper Audio

Synopsis:

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder meets Tell Me Lies in this binge-worthy debut murder mystery about a college student whose senior year takes a deadly turn when her exes start turning up dead…

Every time a guy breaks my heart, I write him a eulogy in my journal. It’s kind of my thing—closure through creative mourning. They don’t actually die… or, at least, they didn’t.

Now? These guys aren’t just dead to me, they’re dead to everyone. And I’m the prime suspect.

With my senior year at Pembroke College—and my entire future—on the line, I’ve got no choice but to play detective. Unfortunately, that means teaming up with my long-standing frenemy, Asher, who is insufferable and somehow always there when I need him the least. We bicker, we banter, we occasionally almost hook up, but with the body count rising and my name all over the suspect board, there’s no time to get distracted.

Between college parties, messy exes, suspicious deaths, and a murder investigation I never asked to be a part of—one thing’s for this is not how I thought my last year would go.

Here’s to hoping I can find out who the real killer is… before someone ends up writing my eulogy.

Review:

Here Lie All the Boys Who Broke My Heart by Emma Simmeman is one of those audiobooks that grabs you immediately and refuses to let go. Narrated by Andi Arndt and Aaron Shedlock, this was an instant binge for me. Andi Arndt is a true comfort narrator—her voice is soothing, grounded, and somehow calming even when she’s describing murder, toxic relationships, and spiraling college chaos. She brings so much depth and emotional clarity to Sloane, a protagonist who is messy, flawed, and deeply cathartic to follow.

Sloane’s coping mechanism (writing eulogies for her exes as a form of closure) is morbid, creative, and surprisingly relatable. Many of these relationships were unhealthy and toxic, and the story doesn’t shy away from portraying that reality. When those exes start turning up actually dead, the book leans hard into suspense territory, with a smart, compelling mystery at its core. If you like college kids behaving badly, poor decisions stacking on top of each other, and consequences lurking around every corner you’ll like this and I can easily see why it’s being compared to Tell Me Lies and A Good Girls Guide to Murder. 

The enemies to lovers dynamic between Sloane and Archer adds another delicious layer of tension that is banter filled, sharp, and just toxic enough to fit the overall vibe. These characters aren’t trying to be good people, and that’s what makes the story so fun. The energy is campy, juicy, and chaotic in the best way, with a solid mystery threading it all together. This audiobook fully embraced the mess, the drama, and the suspense, and I had a blast listening from start to finish.

Overall rating: 4/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.