There's nothing quite like a good book to escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life. This summer, we've been diving into a stack of page-turners that have left us wanting more. Here are a few of Booxies' favourites that we think you'll love too.

From heart-pounding thrillers that will keep you guessing until the final page to heartwarming romances that will melt your heart, this summer's reading list has something for everyone. Whether you prefer historical fiction, science fiction, or contemporary drama, you're sure to find a book that will transport you to another world.

Your Ultimate Summer Reading List:

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali

From the author of The Stationery Shop of Tehran, a heartfelt, epic new novel of friendship, betrayal and redemption set against three transformative decades in Tehran, Iran.

Someday, you and me – we’ll do great things. We’ll live life for ourselves. And we will help others. We are cubs now, maybe. But we will grow to be lionesses. Strong women who make things happen.

1950, Tehran. Seven-year-old Ellie lives in comfort, wanting for nothing, until the death of her father brings a drastic change in fortune. At school, she meets Homa. Together, the girls
play games, wander through the Grand Bazaar and share their ambitions of becoming ‘lion women’ and the first generation of women fully working in Iran.

Opportunity allows Ellie and her mother to return to their bourgeois life, and Ellie’s memories of Homa fade. But years later, her sudden reappearance in Ellie’s privileged world alters the course of both of their lives.

As the political turmoil in Iran builds to a breaking point, one earth-shattering betrayal will have enormous consequences.

Written with Marjan Kamali’s signature prose, The Lion Women of Tehran is a sweeping exploration of how profoundly we are shaped by those we meet when we are young, and the way love and courage transform our lives.

The Wedding Forecast by Nina Kenwood

Anna was never going to have an easy time at her best friend’s wedding. She’s the bridesmaid; her ex, Joel, is a groomsman. But she’s determined to get through the festivities with a smile on her face. Despite the fact that Joel is bringing his new partner, Bianca. Despite the fact she’s stuck sharing a house with the newly in-love couple. And despite the fact Anna has just turned thirty and her life is not exactly where she thought it would be by now. Anna has all her feelings completely under control—right up until the moment Joel drops a bombshell that rocks her to her core.

She needs a distraction, and Patrick, the wedding photographer, just might be the solution. Everyone has decided he is perfect for her. He is perfect for her. But the arrival of Mac, a not-quite-famous actor who has flown in from New York, complicates everything.

Much-loved YA author Nina Kenwood hits the spot with her first novel for adults. Laugh-out-loud funny with chemistry that jumps off the page, The Wedding Forecast will be the feel-good romcom of the summer.

Fire by John Boyne

From internationally bestselling author John Boyne, a challenging and visceral narrative that asks the question: can one cataclysmic moment turn someone into a monster?

On the face of it, Freya lives a gilded existence, dancing solely to her own tune. She has all the trappings of wealth and privilege, a responsible job as a surgeon specialising in skin grafts, a beautiful flat in a sought-after development, and a flash car. But it wasn’t always like this. Hers is a life founded on darkness.

Did what happened to Freya as a child one fateful summer influence the adult she would become – or was she always destined to be that person? Was she born with cruelty in her heart or did something force it into being?

In Fire, John Boyne takes the reader on a chilling, uncomfortable but utterly compelling psychological journey to the epicentre of the human condition, asking the age-old question: nurture – or nature?

Madam by Antonia Murphy

What would you do if your husband suddenly left you with two kids to support? Go back to school? Go into real estate?

Or start a new career as a pimp?

Upon discovering that sex work is decriminalised in New Zealand, Antonia Murphy decides to build her own business: an ethical escort agency. It seems like a good idea, but she isn’t sure how it’s done, so she connects with the online sex worker community.

MadamAntonia: Hi! I’m new to all this, and I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about being a sex worker?

phryne: Well. There’s sex and there’s sex. What do you plan to offer?

These smart, sassy women teach her more than she could have dreamed of – the importance of pineapple juice, how to remove chilli oil from, ahem, sensitive places, and what ‘Greek’ means (hint: there are no togas).

Januaries by Olivie Blake

A sensational collection from internationally bestselling author Olivie Blake.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, the spirit tethered to a magical bridge rapidly approaches burnout – and craves her freedom. Elsewhere, Congress enacts a complex auditing system designed to un-waste your youth. We also follow a banished fairy, as she answers a Craigslist ad. And we meet a Victorian orphan, who gains literacy for her occult situationship. In another time and place, a multiverse assassin contemplates the one who got away.

Escape the slow trudge of mortality with these magical ruminations on life, death and the love (or revenge) that outlasts both. This collection also features modified fairy tales, contemporary heists, absurdist poetry and at least one set of actual wedding vows.

A Thousand Feasts by Nigel Slater

From award-winning writer Nigel Slater, comes a new and exquisitely written collection of notes, memoir, stories and small moments of joy.

'Nigel Slater’s prose is the rarest delicacy of all: exquisite yet effortless, filled with heart, tenderness, yearning and humour' ELIZABETH DAY

For years, Nigel Slater has kept notebooks of curiosities and wonderings, penned while at his kitchen table, soaked in a fisherman’s hut in Reykjavik, sitting calmly in a moss garden in Japan or sheltering from a blizzard in a Vienna Konditorei.

These are the small moments, events and happenings that gave pleasure before they disappeared. Miso soup for breakfast, packing a suitcase for a trip and watching a butterfly settle on a carpet, hiding in plain sight. He gives short stories of feasts such as a mango eaten in monsoon rain or a dish of restorative macaroni cheese and homes in on the scent of freshly picked sweet peas and the sound of water breathing at night in Japan.

This funny and sharply observed collection of the good bits of life, often things that pass many of us by, is utter joy from beginning to end.

‘I loved this. It is a secular book of hours – thoughts and pleasures beautifully cadenced and generously placed’ Edmund de Waal

The Close-Up by Pip Drysdale

Sometimes dreams come true - but so do nightmares ... An electrifying, dark and twisty new thriller from the bestselling author of The Sunday Girl, The Strangers We Know and The Next Girl

'Drysdale shows once again that she is the undisputed queen of the sexy-cool thriller' Hayley Scrivenor

Things have not been going well for Zoe Ann Weiss. Once a young novelist full of promise, now she has a failed debut under her belt, a mountain of debt, a dead-end job, and an agent who's about to drop her if she doesn't write something new and brilliant soon.

Worst of all, she's blocked. Can't-write-a-word blocked. But all that changes one night when she runs into her old flame, Zach Hamilton. It's like no time has passed at all. They start casually dating, and Zach makes her feel like anything is possible. Like the stars have finally realigned themselves in her favour.

Best of all, her writer's block has disappeared.

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But hey there is no way we could put all the amazing books in this one blog so head to our website and check out all the recent book releases and get them with your favourite drink or snack this summer