My July TBR: Summerween Starts Now

Okay, we need to talk about June. It was rough — my worst reading month in two years, and I'm not exaggerating. But July? July is already looking better.

I'm joining several buddy reads with our community this month, and — I'm just going to say it — I'm kicking off fall vibes early with Summerween. I know, I know, a few of you just rolled your eyes. "Why can't you just enjoy summer?" Because I love fall. The pumpkin flavors, the cute ghosts, the grim dark vibes, the Twilight reading playlists — I want all of it, and I'm not waiting until September to have it.

Quick reminder before we get into it: this isn't a to-do list or a homework assignment. I treat my TBR like a menu — I pick what sounds good, I don't have to finish everything on it, and I go at my own pace. So in no particular order, here's what I want to read this July.

Tempting Venom by Rina Kent

Genre: Dark MM Romance / Sports Romance

Series: ⚠️ Book 3 of the Vipers series — read Beautiful Venom and Sweet Venom first

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Trigger Warnings: graphic violence, power dynamics, dubious morality, past trauma

This is my most anticipated book of the entire month and I am starting my month here. Rival hockey captains... yes please!

Preston Armstrong has been my favorite character in this series since he showed up. He is unapologetic, unhinged, and exactly the kind of morally gray chaos I fall for every single time. Now he finally gets his own book.

Two ruthless enemies. A rivalry that turns into something neither of them can walk away from. Rina Kent does not miss with this world and I fully expect this to wreck me in the best way.

This is Mia's book club pick and if you want to join us you are invited. All of our Fable book clubs — Mia's included — live on the buddy read page, so go find your next read.

Tropes: enemies to lovers, rivals to lovers, hockey romance, forced proximity, power imbalance, morally gray

It's Not Her by Mary Kubica

Genre: Thriller

Series: Standalone

Spice: 🌶️ — this is a thriller, not that kind of book

Trigger Warnings: murder, missing child/teen, family secrets, violence

Mary Kubica is one of my favorite thriller authors and any chance I get to read her with the community, I am taking it. This one is going to be our Summerween read and I could not be more excited.

Two families. One secluded lake resort. A scream that shatters the morning and a double murder that Courtney Gray walks straight into. Her niece Reese is missing. Her nephew is upstairs, unharmed, and everyone in this family has been hiding something. The story moves between Courtney's present-day search for the truth and Reese's perspective in the days leading up to the killings, and from everything I have heard, the twist is not one you see coming.

You know how I feel about spoilers. Go in blind. This is the perfect eerie, twisty pick to kick off Summerween together.

Tropes: family secrets, dual timeline, small town suspicion, missing persons, unreliable narrators

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Series: Standalone

Spice: 🌶️ — no romance here, this is atmosphere and dread

Trigger Warnings: violence, mental illness themes, war content, institutional abuse

Kat and I are so excited to read this together this month. Join her book club if you can.

I have watched the movie already but I have never read the book, and this is a brand new author for me. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner arrive at Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane to investigate an impossible disappearance — a patient who escaped a locked cell with no explanation — right as a hurricane bears down on the island. Everyone at the hospital is a little too polite, a little too evasive, and Teddy starts to believe there is something much bigger going on than a missing patient.

Gothic, claustrophobic, and apparently the kind of book that messes with your head in a way the movie only hints at. I am fully invested.

Tropes: locked room mystery, unreliable narrator, isolated setting, psychological suspense, atmospheric horror

The Locked Door by Freida McFadden

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Series: Standalone

Spice: 🌶️ — not the point of this one

Trigger Warnings: serial killer content, graphic violence, child endangerment, mentions of animal cruelty

I am reading this with Don's book club this month — you can join too. This one sounds so eerie and spooky and perfect for Summerween.

Nora Davis is a successful surgeon with one secret: her father was a notorious serial killer, and she has spent her entire adult life making sure no one finds out. Then one of her patients turns up dead, killed in the exact same way her father used to kill his victims. Daughter of a serial killer, a body count that will not stop, and a woman who insists she is nothing like her father. This one should be really twisty and I am so ready.

Tropes: buried family secrets, unreliable narrator, copycat killer, small circle of suspects, dark family history

Harvest Season by Brynne Weaver

Genre: Dark Romance / Romantic Thriller

Series: ⚠️ Book 2 of The Seasons of Carnage Trilogy — read Tourist Season first

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Trigger Warnings: serial killer content, graphic violence, death, substance abuse, past abuse

Tourist Season was my favorite Brynne Weaver book by far and it is not close. The woman who made serial killers romantic is back, and I am ready to get off the cliffhanger from book one.

Harvest Season picks up right where Tourist Season left off. Cape Carnage is full of secrets, a true crime fan club has descended on the town looking for answers, and everything Harper and Nolan built together is about to be tested in ways neither of them saw coming. The banter in Tourist Season made my face hurt from smiling and the romance had no business being as tender as it was considering what these two do for a living. I need this book immediately.

Tropes: villain x villain, forced proximity, he falls first, touch her/him and die, grumpy/grumpy, small town romance

Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher

Genre: Dark Fantasy

Series: Standalone

Spice: 🌶️🌶️ — one fade to black scene, mostly slow burn tension

Trigger Warnings: death of a child (discussed, not on-page), poison and medical detail, mild violence

Any chance I get to read T. Kingfisher with our community, I am taking it. We have the most fun with this author's books, every single time. Join us in reading this one if you can. This is Kye's book club.

Healer Anja regularly drinks poison — not to die, but to save the people everyone else has given up on. When the king shows up and tells her he has just murdered his wife, and that his surviving daughter Snow may be next, Anja gets pulled into a mystery that leads her straight into a secret world hidden inside a magic mirror. A Snow White retelling that barely resembles Snow White at all, a narcissistic one-eyed cat, a taciturn guard, and Kingfisher's signature blend of dark humor and genuine dread. This is exactly the kind of fun, weird, slightly unhinged fantasy I want from her.

Tropes: fairytale retelling, found family, slow burn, mystery, dark academia-adjacent, morally complex villain

Avalon Tower by C.N. Crawford and Alex Rivers

Genre: Romantasy

Series: ⚠️ Book 1 of the Fey Academy for Spies trilogy — start here

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Trigger Warnings: death, murder, war, parental loss/neglect

This is Brigette's book club pick and I have not read from these authors before, so I am really excited to check it out.

Nia is a bookseller who saved up for years for her dream vacation, and instead she gets kidnapped by a lethal, tattooed fey named Raphael and dragged into Camelot's elite academy for spies. She has a rare power everyone wants to use. Romance with her mentor is strictly forbidden. Naturally, that is exactly the tension I am here for. Fourth Wing meets Arthurian legend is the comp and honestly, that is all I needed to hear.

Tropes: forbidden romance, trainer/trainee, enemies to lovers, forced proximity, academy setting, chosen one

The Faraway Inn by Sarah Beth Durst

Genre: Cozy Fantasy / YA

Series: Standalone

Spice: 🌶️ — this is YA, sweet and low-heat

Trigger Warnings: grief/heartbreak themes, family estrangement, mild peril

I am a huge Sarah Beth Durst fan already — The Spellshop is one of my favorite reads and Caz might be one of my favorite literary characters ever, so this one has been sitting in my TBR pile calling my name.

Calisa gets her heart broken right before summer, so her parents ship her off to her great-aunt's rundown B&B in rural Vermont to regroup. Except Auntie Zee never actually agreed to have her there, the inn is falling apart, and nothing is quite what Calisa expected. Then the strange details start piling up — guests who are a little too eccentric, doors that don't lead where they should — and Calisa realizes the inn is hiding a magical secret of its own.

This is giving me all the cottagecore, found-family, healing-era vibes I want for a cozy summer read. Grumpy aunt, sweet caretaker's son, whimsical magic — I am ready to curl up with the cats and read this one.

Tropes: cozy fantasy, coming of age, found family, healing after heartbreak, magical secrets, small-town setting

That is the full July list. Something for every mood, every book club, every Summerween mood board. Twisty at a lake resort. Unhinged in Cape Carnage. Locked in a spy tower. Healing at a faraway inn.

I could not ask for more.

Find me on TikTok most nights this week — we are doing bookish slumber party livestreams and I would love to see you there. And if you want to read any of these alongside a community, every one of our Fable book clubs — Mia's, Kat's, Don's, Brigette's, and the rest — are in the Buddy Reads tab. There is always room for one more.

Happy Reading.