Summer isn’t my favorite season (I’m a big autumn person), but it does have a surreal feeling of adventure and whimsy (Usually. I don’t really know what that is this year). Today I’m going to list some really fun books that really capture that feeling regardless of what season they take place in or genre they depict. Note that these are not in any kind of order.
1. Shadow Frost by Coco Ma
Genre: Fantasy
Page Count: 400 pages
Short Summary: Shadow Frost is about the journey of Asterin, a gutsy princess instructed by her mother to use her powers and team to kill an indestructible demon destroying villages. Asterin and the rest of the gang are so much fun and I think a lot of people can relate to Asterin’s obsession with chocolate cake. Every character has many facets, but all have an amazing sense of humor and a love of adventure.
2. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Genre: Contemporary
Page Count: 359 pages
Short Summary: Anybody who’s read pretty much any non-fantasy review on this blog knows that I’m not a realistic fiction person. Aristotle and Dante was just so different. Most of the book takes place during summer, but it could really be any time of year and still have the same feeling. Something about the characters in this incredible book makes me so happy even when their stories are so bleak at times. This is truly a book that I’d recommend to anyone, but the impossibility of summer that it portrays makes it perfect in my eyes for exactly that.
3. All the Stars and Teeth by Adalyn Grace
Genre: Fantasy
Page Count: 373 pages
Short Summary: Princess Amora has very powerful and violent magic, some that only her family possesses. She must demonstrate her magic for all to see in order to claim her throne as High Animancer, but Amora is imprisoned after her demonstration goes awry. Amora realizes that things go on in her kingdom that she’s never known about and to fix her reputation and kingdom, she escapes with Bastian, a pirate looking for his own magic (I love Bastian more than anything.).
The Keel Haul crew is just incredible. They forge a powerful bond of friendship together and go through so much. This book had such daring characters that I couldn’t help but be wrapped up in the journey. My heart burns for the sequel…
4. The Fence Comics by C.S. Pacat (illustrated by Johanna the Mad)
Genre: Contemporary, Sports, Comic/Graphic Novel
Page Count: 121 pages per volume (four issues per volume)
Short Summary: The Fence comics are primarily about Nicholas Cox, the bastard son of Olympic fencing legend, Robert Coste. After losing spectacularly to rival fencer Seiji Katayama at a regional competition, both boys end up at Kings Row, the very private school that Robert Coste attended. I’ve only read two volumes so far, but the first three seem to cover the tryouts for the fencing team at Kings Row.
I despise sports and hadn’t read a graphic novel in years before these, but wow. Reading these just gave me a feeling of happiness and I could never hold back a smile. This really captures excitement, both at the competition elements and the lives of the main characters. Vol. 3 isn’t getting delivered to me for another few days but I have no doubt that I’ll be trying to reread and recapture that same feeling in these graphic novels until then.
5. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Page Count: 409 pages
Short Summary: This might be my favorite series but I’m terrible about summarizing it because it’s SO CHAOTIC. Blue Sargent is the only non-psychic in an entire family of clairvoyants. One night when taking down the names of the dead of the coming year, she sees one of the spirits, meaning that the boy, Gansey is either her true love or the person she kills. When Blue meets Gansey in real life, she sees that he’s one of the cocky students of Aglionby Academy, the private school for only the richest among the people of Henrietta. However, Gansey is different and he is on a quest to find the Welsh king Glendower along with friends Adam, the boy from the trailer park who detests the rich boys he goes to school around, Ronan, the stubborn and emotionally-stunted rebel, and Noah, the quiet, kind boy who prefers watching to listening.
This series really has the chaos, adventure, and in general the same vibes as summer. I love the humor and simultaneous understanding of the direness of all of the situations. The characters have so much depth (my favorite being Ronan) and it’s so hard to say what my favorite things about this book and the rest of the series are because there’s so much I love. All of the characters are so adventurous and whimsical, capturing summer really well.
There you go! Please excuse my incredibly crappy summaries, but read these books! They’re worth it any time of year, but this season in general is really perfect for it. Make sure to like this post and follow this blog for two reviews a week and more lists like this one!
The Fiction Feature 