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Wave the world and its complications goodbye, and dive headfirst into this crop of new arrivals, all guaranteed to delight, distract and remind you that everything doesn’t have to be terrible all the time. That’s not to say there isn’t a little dramatic tension (or even a good dose of the hard things) in these books, but rather that they share the same warm, deeply humane spirit – and a penchant for a happy ending that results in a deep sigh of contentment, and a wish you could hang around in that fictional world just a little longer.
Summer 2021 books preview: 40 hot reads that will captivate you
To Love and To Loathe
Martha Waters (Atria Books)
Never underestimate the restorative powers of a Regency romp, especially when it’s as clever and emotionally-intelligent as this one, the second in a series we pray continues as long as the Bridgerton series. Diana, a merry young widow, wants to take a lover, while Jeremy, a marquess with a rakish rep, is looking for a lady to restore his confidence after a bad, uh, performance review. Neither is looking for true love, but – horror of horrors – it finds them in this sexy, smart sequel.
Just Last Night
Mhairi McFarlane (HarperCollins)
Fair warning: You might have a cry (or three) throughout this book, especially the first few chapters, which detail the sudden, heartbreakingly random death of Eve’s best friend, Susie. McFarlane – who’s just so good at mixing depth, dark humour and butterfly-building romance – gently shepherds us through this tale of grief, unrequited love (Eve’s in love with her newly engaged best friend, Ed), and missed connections, specifically with Susie’s brooding-but-gorgeous, brother, who may not be the monster Eve always believed he was.
Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead
Emily Austin (Atria Books)
To further prove that not all joyful reads come wrapped in kittens and rainbows, this dryly comedic Canadian debut tells the story of Gilda, whose aimless life path takes her to the door of her local Catholic church, and a job as their receptionist. (That she was a lesbian atheist didn’t come up in the interview, strangely.) It’s not long before she figures out that the previous incumbent, Grace, is recently deceased, potentially at the hands of a serial killer – not that this stops Gilda from embarking on a correspondence, via the church’s e-mail, with a parishioner yet to be informed of this fact.
Asking For A Friend
Andi Osho (HarperCollins)
Three friends – Jemima, Meagan, and Simi – decide to embark upon the ultimate act of wing-womaning: Burned by partners past, and burned out on dating apps present, they decide to start asking people out, on each other’s behalf. The romantic hijinks that ensue are fun, but the warts-and-all, relatable dynamic between the women is this novel’s beating heart, filled with the deep love (usually accompanied by deep exasperation) that comes after decades of knowing each other, self-destructive tendencies, strange foibles and all.
Second First Impressions
Sally Thorne (HarperCollins)
What do an endangered tortoise species, an upscale seniors’ community and a tattoo artist with really, really good hair have in common? Sally Thorne, the wickedly funny composer of this symphony of dissonant objects, who somehow makes something deeply sexy and weirdly moving out of this story, whose heroine Ruthie has clung to the predictable rhythms of her admin job at the Providence Retirement Villa for far longer than she should. (To be fair, her job moderating the fan forum for a long-off-the-air family sitcom keeps her evenings full.) To meet the whirlwind that turns her world upside down, you’ll have to read this one, but, spoiler alert: He drives a motorcycle, and doesn’t take no for an answer.
Made In Korea
Sarah Suk (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
If you’re looking for a genre that specializes in restoring your hope for our planet’s future, you can’t go past YA, with its glimpse at the more compassionate, more inclusive world Gen Z inhabits – and you can’t do better than this Vancouver author’s gorgeable debut. Valerie Kwon runs a beauty business (kids these days!), each sale she makes to her classmates bringing her one step closer to taking her grandmother on a trip to Paris. The only thing in her way? The insufferable Wes Jung, fuelling his own dreams by selling rival K-beauty to their schoolmates. A fun, swoon-worthy mixing of business and (age-appropriate) pleasure.
Anne of Manhattan
Brina Starler (HarperCollins)
While it’s hard to beat the original, this modern retelling of Anne of Green Gables is a nice detour before you cycle back through the L.M. Montgomery series. Set in New York, it’s the very grown-up story (the Edwardians would faint at some passages!) of Anne and Gilbert’s courtship, reimagined as if the rivals-turned-lovers were competitive twentysomething grad students, duking it out for academic supremacy while trying to deny the palpable chemistry that’s troubled them both since they were in high school. Not one for the purists, but a cute, fun way to meet some old characters in a new light.
Yours Cheerfully
AJ Pearce (Scribner)
The welcome sequel to 2018′s Dear Mrs. Bird, this book reunites us with the gang at Woman’s Friend magazine, still doing their best to keep a stiff upper lip as bombs continue to rain down on wartime London. Emmeline still isn’t the war correspondent she’d hoped to be, but she is running the magazine’s advice column full-time – and is about to get her big break writing a series of articles about the women working in munitions factories. That is, of course, if she can manage to toe the Ministry of Information line, and not get too attached to the real life people behind the puff piece. If ever there was a warm cup of tea incarnate in novel form, it’s this reassuring, bracing book.
The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot
Marianne Cronin (HarperCollins)
Lenni is a 17 year old with terminal cancer. Margot is an 83 year old patient at the same hospital. Together, they add up to the titular 100 years, forming the unlikeliest duo the institution’s art therapy room has ever seen. Abetted by Lenni’s allies (the chaplain, Father Arthur, and a hapless but well-meaning palliative nurse), they are determined to see out their dying days in creative ways. Specifically: Creating 100 paintings celebrating 100 moments from their lives, one much shorter than the other. What redeems this from being a saccharine sobfest is the gleefully grim humour Cronin weaves through her unsparingly unsentimental, unforgettably beautiful book.
Instructions For Dancing
Nicola Yoon (PRH Canada Young Readers)
If you’ve read Everything, Everything and The Sun Is Also A Star, you’ll already know that Nicola Yoon is very good at writing the kinds of books that suck you in and keep you glued to the page well past your bedtime. Her third – a delightful when-opposites-attract tale – is no exception. Evie doesn’t believe in love (thanks to a weird thing where she sees a couple, and instantly sees their entire love story play out like a movie, broken hearts and all), while X is head-over-heels for life in general. When they’re paired up for a dancing competition, it’s a classic case of opposites attract.
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