Who needs Calgon to take you away when we’ve got fabulous books to help you escape. Whether you like female main characters who kick a$$ and take names, over-protective sexy hottie male characters who love strong women, assassins, magic and monsters, love stories or spice, we’ve got your summer Rx for distraction. Don’t worry, we believe the spicier the better! 🌶️🌶️🌶️
I have this completely unscientific opinion that you’re either born a reader or you aren’t. Kind of like you’re either a beach lover or a lake lover, but not both. My husband and daughter are good examples of those who are just never going to be readers. She’s 21 and the only books that she’s ever read are because school forced her to, and she complained about each and every one. Ironically, she loved being read to as a child. That seems to have translated into podcasts and audiobooks which are her favorite ways to consume information for the purpose of entertainment. My husband and I have been married 23 years, and I’ve seen him read ONE book. ONE. BOOK.
I don’t even know how to wrap my brain around that. I’ve been an avid reader for as long as I can remember. I can gobble up a book in no time – I read one book every 3 – 4 days on average and I read all year long. I often wonder if it’s an introvert thing. I love immersing myself in the characters, their worlds, their drama and their success as if I’m right there in the story with them. I always mourn at the end of a book or series, bummed that I won’t be able to “interact” with the characters any more. I literally MISS them, like they were part of my life as much as I was part of their world. Avid readers call this a “hangover.”
My workday is filled with stress, facts and figures, strategy and planning, business analysis and a never-ending stream of decisions that have to be made while navigating a complex business world and layer after layer of people and processes. It’s mentally exhausting, and the stress and long hours become physically exhausting too. Stress accelerates aging (as we explained Ways You Can Relieve Stress And Pamper Yourself)which is definitely not something I want to make worse. So when my workday ends, I crave an escape. It’s my own personal form of meditation. It’s how I de-stress, how I soothe my anxiety. You’ll rarely see me reading non-fiction. You won’t find me scouring over any of the business journals or inspirational speakers in my free time. NOPE, no way, no how. That would just feel like more work to me, and I work too much as it is.
When I read, I want to escape reality. I want to disappear into a world that isn’t anything like the one we live in. I want to go on adventures, become best friends with the characters, discover new worlds and be amazed by the limitless creativity of the author. I want a distraction that consumes me so deeply that it’s like an off-switch for the logical side of my brain. Oh, and I want 🌶️ spice🌶️. The spicier the better. 🌶️🌶️🌶️
I think because I’m drowning in all things logic during the day, I skew heavily toward the paranormal / fantasy / supernatural genres because my brain is craving a creative outlet. I spend most of my reading time there, but when I need a break (avid readers call this a palate cleanser, LOL) I will switch gears to a really good mystery. I don’ do sappy. I don’t like sappy love stories on tv (the Hallmark channel? No freaking way). I don’t do rom-coms, or lost loves. I don’t want to read anything that makes me sad or makes me cry. I made the mistake of watching Marley and Me once, and sobbed for days afterward. I end up getting sucked into those ESPN segments about an athlete’s tragedy, and I spend the rest of th weekend crying. (I like sports, so yes, ESPN). When it comes to sappy – uhm, no thanks. I’ll stick with my freaky weird genre where the strong female character slays all the bad guys and wins the heart of the hot, sexy highlander hero. Can you say🌶️?
Regardless of genre, I prefer a series versus a one-and-done book. I get too attached to the characters, I need multiple books to feed my habit and I’ve got to see it through to the very last book. I can’t hop around in different series. I keep a cloud-based note file on all of my devices that’s a running list of “Mom’s List of Books To Read.” (I know, right? Not a very creative title for someone who loves to read and always wanted to be an author. Sigh.)
7 Spicy Summer Book Series
1. 1000% my favorite series of late is actually multiple series that are all linked together by author Stacey Marie Brown. Nobody does 🌶️🌶️🌶️ like she does (just her instagram page alone is worth ogling…I mean following.) Her series have strong central female characters, hottie over-
protective jerks as central male characters who end up loving that the strong female character can take care of herself, mystery, paranormal fantasy world-building, and storylines and characters that are intricately interwoven. You get it all with her books – magic, fae, shifters, druids, monsters. She has a wicked sense of humor. Emphasis on wicked. Reading order matters with her series since they’re all intertwined across many story-years. Begin with book 1 in the Lightness series: Book 1 from The Lightness Saga: The Crown Of Light
2. The Kingmaker Chronicles: Cat Fisa is a true badass female character, and her main squeeze Griffin is swoon-worthy for sure. I loved the adventure in this series as well as the nod to mythology (which I’m obsessed with). Highly recommend! The Kingmaker Chronicles by Amanda Bouchet – Book 1: A Promise of Fire
The 3. The Immortals After Dark Series by Presley Cole: There are actually 21 books in this series and counting. I love a 🌶️ book that is also laden with snarky humor and unexpected twists. My family hates watching movies with me because I figure out how it’s going to end within the first 5 minutes and shout out my theory to all of them. I’m pretty much always right, and so they’ve begun to uninvited me to family movie night. Kresley Cole’s characters surprise me in a way that I can’t always figure out where the story will go. My favorite characters are Nucking Futs Nick (yes, I spelled that correctly), Lothaire The Enemy Of Old, and Regin The Radiant. Hold on to your horses, this
series has Valkyrie, Vampires, Lykae, Demons, Witches, Furie and Siren. Cole has a delicious sense of dark humor, but with pranksters around every corner. And 🌶️. Did I mention 🌶️? Book 1 in the Series: The Warlord Wants Forever
4. The Dark Kings & Dragon Kings Series by Donna Grant: Uhm….Sexy immortal men who run a world-renowned whisky distillery in Scotland who also happen to be dragon shifters tasked with protecting humans from the bad supernatural world? Sexy!
There are probably ~30 books in the two series that are connected – Dark Kings and Dragon Kings. My favorite characters are Rhi – her sexy heroine persona who also loves badass heels and OPI nail polish speaks to my soul. And then there’s Constantine, who oozes sex and power. Dark Kings Series By Donna Grant, Book 1: Darkest Flame
5. Blood and Ash Series by Jennifer Armentrout: I’m so in love with Poppy and Casteel, and Jennifer Armentrout does an amazing job of building new worlds that are gritty and dangerous and believable. This is a MUST read – you’ll get so caught up in it that you might want to put on sunscreen to avoid inadvertently baking in the sun until you get to the last page. Book 1: From Blood And Ash
6. SJ Maas: Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorn And Roses Series: Often abbreviated as TOGS and ACOTAR, the world has lost its mind over these series (me included). If you grew up wishing you were Wonder Woman or The Bionic Woman or even Sydney Bristol in Alias, then you would love the main character of TOGS – Celaena Sardothien. She’s an assassin, and she’s awesome. A girl who’s not afraid to have a variety of love interests, she definitely keeps you guessing and cheering her on to conquer the bad guys. You’ll get controversial responses to the reading order, so just pick one and run with it. You can’t go wrong. TOGS Book 1: Throne of Glass by SJ Maas
7. JR Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood Series: There are over 20 books in this series and I’ve gobbled them all down as fast as she can can publish them. You can get the reading order from her site here BDB Reading Order. The BDB is a society of vampire warriors who protect humans. The world-building is unique – a parallel society that lives in plain sight in the human world. You really
can’t help but fall in love with the entire brotherhood and their strong, stubborn female love interests. And oh yeah, major 🌶️🌶️🌶️ , hubba hubba! Book 1 In Black Dagger Brotherhood By JR Ward: Dark Lover.
I hope these recommendations give you a reason to be hot and sweaty this summer that doesn’t involve menopause.
Happy drooling reading, lovelies!
