We are one month into our summer break and I hope it's treating you right! I've been reading my time away, as usual, and have a variety of recommendations to make for your summer reading enjoyment.
 I'll start with a couple of titles that are just fun reads - something good to take to the pool or beach. First up is Two Summers, by Aimee Friedman. Summer Everett is about to board a plane to France for the summer to visit her artist father when her phone rings. Summer debates whether or not to answer the call - she needs to get on that plane...and here is where the story begins. The author takes on two different journeys - one of what happens if Summer takes the call and the other of what happens if she doesn't. There are both joys and heartaches either way for Summer. Though Summer has some emotional struggles and has to deal with a waning friendship and a family secret, this is really a light-hearted and fun read. I really enjoyed it! You can find it on MCPL's shelves or on Overdrive.
Another entertaining book I enjoyed was This is My Brain on Boys, by Sarah Strohmeyer. Addie is a genius who doesn't believe in love, but despite that, she's in the middle of conducting an experiment to prove that you can simulate falling in love by putting a boy and girl through traumatic experiences together...and her future depends on it. This experiment could win her an award that will pay her way through college, but she has a couple of issues - her sketchy lab partner and the fact that she herself might be falling for one of her research subjects. I really enjoyed Addie's analytical approach to everything she did - this made for a really funny and entertaining read! You can find copies at MCPL or on Overdrive.
I also really enjoyed Stacey Lee's newest book, Outrun the Moon. This is an historical fiction novel set in San Francisco in 1906. If you know your history, you know a huge earthquake hit the area in 1906 causing an incredible amount of destruction and devastation. Our main character, Mercy Wong, is a Chinese American. Though her parents were immigrants, Mercy was born in the US and is a citizen, but that doesn't matter to most. Prejudice against the Chinese runs rampant through the city, but despite this, Mercy is determined to continue her education at the the prestigious St. Clare's School for Girls. She bribes the school board president into to gaining admittance for herself, but things do not go smoothly at school for Mercy...and then the earthquake hits. Mercy has to find a way to pull the girls of the school together to help them survive. This was a great story and I loved the setting. You can find this book on MCPL's shelves and Overdrive. If you like it, you might also want to read Lee's Under a Painted Sky - read a summary here.
If you're into a darker story, you might want to pick up Julie Kagawa's Talon series. You can read about the first two books here. I read the 3rd book in the series, Soldier, recently and it is as packed with action and suspense as the rogue dragons, Talon, and St. George continue to come up against one another. This one ends with a bang that will leave you stunned...in fact, I'm still a little stunned just thinking back on it! You can find this series on MCPL's shelves and on Overdrive.
For a dark, historical fiction read, you might want to check on Kiersten White's And I Darken, the first in her new series (The Conqueror's Saga). This novel is based on the idea of history's Vlad the Impaler as a female, rather than a male. Lada Dragwlya is not your average female in the 1400's - she is fierce and brutal. She and her gentler brother Radu were abandoned by their father to the Ottoman courts as children and Lada knows that she has to be ruthless in order to survive. They become friends with Mehmed, the sultan's son, and know that this relationship is the key to their survival. This book does have a lot about the political and religious goings-on of the time, so be aware of that. It is not a light-hearted or quick read, but believe me, you won't know whether you actually like Lada or hate her...she is definitely an anti-heroine. This book releases on Tuesday, so it's not at MCPL yet, but I expect it will be soon. Thanks to NetGalley, I was able to read an advanced reader's copy.
 Another book I've read recently thanks to NetGalley is In the Hope of Memories, by Olivia Rivers. This book is out, but MCPL does not have it, so if you're interested, you'll have to look for it elsewhere. In this story, 4 friends of a girl named Hope who recently passed away, are brought together after her death through a scavenger hunt in NYC Hope planned for them. They all had a connection to Hope, but none of them knew one another, but Hope knows that they'll need one another to not only cope with her death, but to deal with their own personal struggles. This was a book that had both emotional highs and lows as a reader, but it was overall a really enjoyable read told from the 4 perspectives of Hope's friends.
That's it for now, folks. Even if these titles aren't for you, I hope you're reading SOMETHING this summer!
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I'll start with a couple of titles that are just fun reads - something good to take to the pool or beach. First up is Two Summers, by Aimee Friedman. Summer Everett is about to board a plane to France for the summer to visit her artist father when her phone rings. Summer debates whether or not to answer the call - she needs to get on that plane...and here is where the story begins. The author takes on two different journeys - one of what happens if Summer takes the call and the other of what happens if she doesn't. There are both joys and heartaches either way for Summer. Though Summer has some emotional struggles and has to deal with a waning friendship and a family secret, this is really a light-hearted and fun read. I really enjoyed it! You can find it on MCPL's shelves or on Overdrive.
Another book I've read recently thanks to NetGalley is In the Hope of Memories, by Olivia Rivers. This book is out, but MCPL does not have it, so if you're interested, you'll have to look for it elsewhere. In this story, 4 friends of a girl named Hope who recently passed away, are brought together after her death through a scavenger hunt in NYC Hope planned for them. They all had a connection to Hope, but none of them knew one another, but Hope knows that they'll need one another to not only cope with her death, but to deal with their own personal struggles. This was a book that had both emotional highs and lows as a reader, but it was overall a really enjoyable read told from the 4 perspectives of Hope's friends. 
