I’m a sucker for a reading challenge, as you’ve come to know over the years, but I’m an even bigger sucker for a summer-themed one. Anything to bring me back to the school days! lol. I’ve now written multiple summer bookish posts for 2025: bucket list and TBR, summery reads, and upcoming 2025 summer releases I’m excited about. I think another TTT will be coming in a few weeks too! In any case, I’m signing myself up for two summer reading challenges this year and thought I’d share them for those interested!
The Book Clurb 2025 Summer Reading Challenge is hosted by some friends from high school! They have an in-person book club that they’ve extended online with a fun reading challenge for others to join. I did so on the Storygraph challenges page. I did a lot of scientific analysis to perfectly match books already on my summer TBR to various prompts and make sure I check them all off.
Set during summer: I just finished DEAD OF SUMMER this week and it certainly meets the prompt in a few ways. Really enjoyed it overall.
Less than 250 pages: Pretty easy choice here is to read SAGA vol. 12 since it came out recently and is a graphic novel in the 200 page range. I like to keep up with these every time a new one comes out.
Sports romance: I wasn’t sure what book I was going to do for this since I’m kind of out of my hockey romance era, but then I remembered I have a review copy of ALL’S FAIR IN LOVE AND PICKLEBALL to read!
Brightly colored cover: I didn’t love Poston’s previous release but ALL of her other books have been hits. Fingers crossed the brightly covered SOUNDS LIKE LOVE hits the mark for me.
Recommended by someone: I had a friend recently read TELL ME WHAT YOU DID and generally liked it. Yes, it wasn’t a resounding “you must read this” but it counts enough lol.
Recommended by Booktok or Bookstagram: I am kind of cheating because Kayla (Books and Lala on booktube) is the real source of this one but plenty of people have posted WILD DARK SHORE on their bookstagram.
Color in the title: The word “berry” definitely counts as a color, right? I have to read THE BERRY PICKERS for my August book club meeting I believe.
2025 summer release: While it’s not actually a summery book, I’m sure, NOT QUITE DEAD YET comes out in July. I have it preordered.
Book that made a splash: SANDWICH was all over the place last year. I was on the fence about reading it because the synopsis didn’t grab me, but it’s short and I do love a Cape Cod-focused story.
One-word title: My preorder of ATMOSPHERE just arrived and I cannot wait to dive into TJR’s latest!
Double letter word in the title: THE MEMORY COLLECTORS isn’t the most summery book from what I can tell but I picked it for my BOTM and it comes in soon.
“Sun” “heat” or “beach” in the title: Okay so the title IT’S ALWAY SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA for this book definitely meets the prompt though I’m not sure it will actually be summery!
Illustrated cover: I’m a big Annabel Monaghan fan and am currently reading her new release, IT’S A LOVE STORY. It certainly has an illustrated cover!
On display at the library: I put a placeholder cover here because I think I’ll try to actually go into the library and find a book for this one. We’re moving at the end of this month so I may wait until we have our new library in August and pick something from one of the displays there?
Author who has your first initial: Lisa Jewell became an auto-read author for me after last year’s stellar release, so I hope to read DON’T LET HIM IN as soon as I can.
Been on TBR for over a year: I was hoping to read JACKPOT SUMMER last year but never got to it. Hopefully I can this summer!
First book in series you meant to start: I think MURDER IN CAPE COD could be another good one for this summer. Always good to have a cozy mystery on hand!
Set in a vacation destination you’ve never been to: I’m currently reading NO ONE WAS SUPPOSED TO DIE AT THIS WEDDING and it takes place on Catalina Island.
Author you’ve never heard of: THE OTHER SIDE OF NOW is not a debut so I feel even better about picking this for “unknown author.”
Published in 2022: I have a few options for this one and was thinking I’d go off vibes, but if I read WELCOME TO THE HYUNAM-DONG BOOKSHOP, I can count it for the other reading challenge I’ll be discussing below.
With a number in the title: This feels like it works and is only semi-cheating like the berry color earlier, but “first” in LOVE AT FIRST SIGHTING certainly counts as a number in the title?!
Set in a different country: This one could easily change – I picked it as an option for “author with the same first initial” but then it ended up getting moved here because of Lisa Jewell. We’ll see if another overseas story gets slotted in later, but for now I plan to try out MURDER TAKES A VACATION.
Debut novel: I am suuuuper excited to read NIGHT WATCHER. I’m a fan of her podcast Going West and the premise sounds dang interesting.
More than 400 pages: There was no other logical option for this one since most of my summer reads are shorter and more chill, but we’re reading ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK for my June book club pick.
Tessa at The Lit Homebody is hosting her Summer Reading Challenge again! You can click the link to check her Instagram then sign up to download the PDF guide. I also joined the challenge on Storygraph that someone created for tracking. I’m going off vibes for this one since I know there are some I won’t get to (poetry, loved as a kid, etc.). I thought I’d keep these here and put a few ideas that overlap with books I already plan to read.
Collection of poetry: Leaving this one blank for now since it’s unlikely I complete it!
Not originally written in English: As I mentioned in the other challenge, WELCOME TO THE HYUNAM-DONG BOOKSHOP one fits the bill.
Relative or friend recommended: Same prompt above, using TELL ME WHAT YOU DID.
Been on your TBR for over a year: Same prompt above, using JACKPOT SUMMER.
Genre you don’t normally read: While I do read science fiction/ time travel books sometimes, it’s not one of my top genres in the grand scheme of things. I hope to read THE MEMORY COLLECTORS for this one too.
Part of a series: MURDER ON CAPE COD is the first book in this series and I think, aside from a book I plan using somewhere else, is the only book on my summer TBR in a series?
Loved as a kid: Keeping this one open because I don’t know if I’ll reread anything this summer, though I have thought about a few options!
Pub date 10+ years ago: Another one to keep open – we’ll see.
Set somewhere on travel bucket list: As I mentioned above, NO ONE WAS SUPPOSED TO DIE AT THIS WEDDING takes place on Catalina Island.
Water on the cover: I can see some rough waves on the bottom of the DEAD OF SUMMER cover!
Involves a road trip: I’m kind of cheating with a placeholder that doesn’t exactly fit – surely the train ride on WITH A VENGEANCE does not count as a road trip but we’ll see if another book shakes itself loose for this prompt at some point…
Checked out from local library: Like the library prompt above, let’s see what I can find there!
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