As a child, August always meant vacation—so when I became an adult, imagine how happy I was to learn that while I might have to put away most childish things, I did not have to put away August.
Come to find out not only does much of Europe take the entire month off but so does much of the New York publishing world. It is as if the civilized world agreed that the only logical response to the calendar’s hottest month is to head for the beach or the mountains — and failing that, to a shady porch, ideally with a good book and a glass of ice tea at the ready.
Yes, the heat of August can make you swoon, but the wise reader knows it is best to leave the swooning to that last page-turning novel of summer.
So as you prepare for the day coming all too soon when you will be called to climb off that porch swing or out of that beach chair, here are a few swoon-worthy novels — some new, some not — to finish first.
New York Times Bestselling Author Amanda Quick travels to the cozy confines of a seaside village for a love story between one of the world’s most mismatched couples in Ravished. Miss Harriet Pomeroy prides herself on being something of a fossil expert, so when thieves begin hiding their loot in the caves where she plies her hobby, the rector’s daughter summons the notorious Gideon Westbrook, Viscount St. Justin, to bring a stop to the intrusions. No one is more surprised than Harriet when she begins to see something more in the man they call the Beast of Blackthorne Hall.
Last year, NPR.org polled its readers for swoon-worthy summer reads, and it found New York Times Bestselling Author Lisa Kleypas’s Secrets of a Summer Night to be a voter favorite. Though known for her contemporary romances, this 2004 book kicked off her Wallflowers Series about a quartet of 19th-century beauties who band together to help each other find a husband . . . no matter what it takes.
And for a contemporary swoon, one need look no further than Julie James’s Something About You, which sees a murder throw Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron Lynde together with FBI agent Jack Pallas, a man who still carries a grudge from the last time they worked together.
May your August give you something to swoon about—be it on the pages of one of these books . . . or in the flesh.
—Jeanne Devlin