SOPHIE LI

Author-illustrator

My Top 5 Summer Reads

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Hello everyone!

Wow, is it summer already!? Summer is absolutely my favourite season of the year. I love basking in the sun! I love walking outside in T-shirt and shorts! I love summer activities like hiking and road trips!

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I am always drawn to reading sweet and light-hearted novels during these warm and sunny months. After reading Kristin‘s posts about her favourite summer reads, I was inspired to create my own list. Let me know what books you love to read during the summer!

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When I first picked up Emmy & Oliver, I stayed up late into the night and couldn’t stop turning the pages. Emmy, Oliver and their group of friends hooked me from page one. I love the relationship dynamics in this book and the hint of romance. I also love that this book takes place in California where there is plenty of sunshine and surfing! If you love the childhood friend trope, then this is the book for you.

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Can we ever talk summer reads and not talk about Simon vs the Homosapiens Agenda? I loved reading about Simon, Leah, Abby and Nick, and I loved the tension and the suspense as Simon tries to figure out Blue’s identity. This book has an impeccable sense of humour and also put me on the edge of my seat. There aren’t many books that I finished in one day, but this is one of them!

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The Upside of Unrequited is another sweet YA romance. I am in love with the cast of diverse characters and the fun and light-hearted vibe that is perfect for the summer. Molly is our adorable female MC who has been unfortunate when it comes to love, and I couldn’t help but root for her to succeed. If you love stories with relatable and realistic characters, this one is for you.

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(Okay, all right. I am cheating a bit because I haven’t even finished reading it yet, but it’s definitely giving me that summer vibe and I can’t not include it.)

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue is about a road trip- the last trip that Monty will have before he is forced to run his father’s estate (his worst nightmare ever.) I love the slow-burning romance and that childhood friend-trope in this book. Monty is lazy, full of himself, and not your conventional hero, but I can’t help but love him and cheer him on!

I feel like I must talk about To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before again and again, but I just love this series so much. Lara Jean is one of the most relatable heroines I’ve read. I love the adorable romance that spans this series, as well as the relationships between Lara Jean and her friends and family.

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What is your favourite season? What books do you plan to read this summer? Any recommendations?

Sophie Li

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50 responses to “My Top 5 Summer Reads”

  1. Somya Sahni Avatar
    Somya Sahni

    Lara Jean is absolutely the best 💙💙💙 I love Peter but if in distant future she ends up with John McLaren I will be fine with that too.

    And you know you are right she was very relatable. Because we teenagers spend a lot of time at home only and that’s okay.

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Sophie Li Avatar
      Sophie Li

      Hi Somya! Yes Lara Jean is such a wonderful series! I also liked John McLaren and at one point I was thinking (and hoping) that Lara Jean would end up with him. However I like Peter as well 🙂
      I am so excited for the Netflix adaptation which is coming out soon!

      Liked by 1 person

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      1. Somya Sahni Avatar
        Somya Sahni

        Yesss. I am super excited for the movie.! And which is your favourite part out of the three books.?

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Sophie Li Avatar
        Sophie Li

        I really enjoyed the first book and the third book. My favourite part is the ending. Even though it is bittersweet, I thought that it is realistic given the circumstances and I wouldn’t have wanted the series to end any other way 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

  2. Somya Sahni Avatar
    Somya Sahni

    Molly. I can till date relate to Molly. I mean my friend was reading the upside of unrequited and the first person she remembered was me.

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Sophie Li Avatar
      Sophie Li

      Hi Somya! Glad to hear that you can relate to Molly as well. She is one of my favourite characters in fiction 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  3. MichaelK Avatar
    MichaelK

    Summer is actually my favourite season for a variety of reasons one of them having some more free time to read. I don’t believe there are summer books but the extra bit of free time allows me to read some of the more long, not easily flowing books.
    I don’t have any recommendations for a perfect summer read but do try some fantasy!

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    1. Sophie Li Avatar
      Sophie Li

      Hello Michael 🙂
      I do see your point of view! It is kind of strange that people associate summer with light-hearted and easy-to-read books right?
      Challenge accepted 🙂 The next Harry Potter book will be my fantasy pick for the summer. I also want to re-read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series sometime soon!
      What books are you reading right now or planning to read? 🙂

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      1. MichaelK Avatar
        MichaelK

        It is indeed strange! I think it’s more a mood thing. The millennium trilogy was fun to read indeed. Harry Potter? That’s a nice starting point but I d love you to go deeper into fantasy after that!

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Sophie Li Avatar
        Sophie Li

        Lol 🙂 I knew you would say something like that about Harry Potter. I admit that I’m not too big of a fantasy reader but I will step up to the challenge in the future 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      3. MichaelK Avatar
        MichaelK

        You know me too well! 😂😂😂

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Sophie Li Avatar
        Sophie Li

        Lol 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

  4. Marie Avatar
    Marie

    Oh Emmy & Oliver, I’m so, so happy you enjoyed that book, it does give all of the summer vibes, right? I loved this book so much ❤ I also really like your other choices there, Lara Jean and Simon vs. are perfect for that time ❤ I can't wait to read The upside at some point, it sounds so good! 😀

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    1. Sophie Li Avatar
      Sophie Li

      It definitely does Marie! I am glad that I read Emmy & Oliver. Thank you for the recommendation ❤
      I am really looking forward to the Lara Jean Netflix adaptation which will be released soon! Do you have Netflix in France?!
      Hope that you'll read The Upside one day. It is one of my favs by Becky Albertalli 🙂

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      1. Marie Avatar
        Marie

        I do have Netflix, yes – but…. I don’t know if it will be available on Netflix France. I hope so. Otherwise, I will find a way, I NEED TO SEE IT!

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Sophie Li Avatar
        Sophie Li

        When there is a will, there is a way 🙂 I am hoping that this movie adaptation will be a good one, either way I am looking forward to seeing it!

        Liked by 1 person

  5. Sieran Lane Avatar
    Sieran Lane

    OMG! I didn’t realize that the Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue was a gay romance! 😀 Okay, now I put it on my to-read list, and will probably buy it later, or at least put it on an Amazon wish list. Yeah, ever since I got into LGBT romances, I have simply lost interest in straight romances–unless one or both protagonists are transgender. Sometimes I feel bad about losing interest in cis straight romances (they just don’t excite me anymore!), but well, our tastes do change over time.

    Recently, I started reading Josh Lanyon’s gay romances, and wow, she likes to write mystery and crime fiction. I love the combination of LGBT romance and mystery. So far, I’ve only read two novellas and one short story by her, but I’m interested in reading her novels too. So much to read!! 😀 Today, I bought and began reading a book that was on my wish-list for a while. It’s Verbalize: Bring stories to life and life to stories by Damon Suede. He was guest-posting on my friend’s blog, so I was curious. Plus, it has been some time since I read a writing craft book. ^^ I’m so excited!!

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    1. Sophie Li Avatar
      Sophie Li

      Yup the Gentleman’s Guide is a gay romance. It is a cute and light-hearted read for the most part. I love the comedic moments. Hope that you enjoy this one when you get the chance to read it 🙂

      Sounds like you are discovering some new authors which is great 🙂 Let me know your thoughts about Josh Lanyon’s novels. I don’t think I’ve read a LGBT romance/mystery before though I would love to give it a try 🙂
      It’s also been a while since I read a book about reading. The only one that I’ve read is Stephen King’s On Writing which is amazing (though the part about publication is slightly outdated). Keep me updated about whether you find Verbalize to be helpful 🙂

      Also, you should have received an invite to our Camp Nano cabin!

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      1. Sieran Lane Avatar
        Sieran Lane

        Just joined your cabin! 😀 I bought The Gentleman’s Guide. ^^ It sure does sound promising.

        Verbalize is interesting, but I don’t agree with some of it. I also think that some parts are too wordy, yet are inadequately explained and lack concrete examples. The author seems to be a bit too in love with his writing, which is understandable, as he is extremely eloquent and uses many metaphors. I like his writing style on the whole, as I enjoy flamboyant prose, but even I’m getting impatient with how excessively verbose it can be.

        However, I am learning a lot through my disagreements with some of his ideas, haha. This is one thing I improved on in fiction-writing: I don’t blindly accept what the authors of writing craft books say anymore! Partly because I’ve seen much more of the literary world and because I’ve become a far more confident writer than before. Soon, I’m going to update my list of specific things learned in fiction-writing, lol.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Sophie Li Avatar
        Sophie Li

        Yay! Glad that you joined us! Hope you enjoy the Gentleman’s Guide!

        Hmm glad to hear your opinions about Verbalize. It makes sense that you question these books more now that you have experience in writing. Do you have any favourites or recommendations when it comes to writing craft books?

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Sieran Lane Avatar
        Sieran Lane

        I read more of Verbalize, and it’s getting better, with some more examples from fiction now. Plus, I realized that for some sections I felt were under-explained, he elaborates on them in later sections… He did mention in the intro that the chapters build on each other, but the average reader would probably expect him to elaborate more the first time he brings up the topic! Still, I’m glad he did explain more later on.

        Oh yes, I’m disagreeing on a lot, for example, I think he’s oversimplifying some things. At the same time, I think our different backgrounds predispose us to think in different ways. He spent twenty years or so in writing scripts for movies. I’m a psychology major and a counselling and psychotherapy student. It makes sense, I guess, for him to view characters as forces and devices, and for me to view characters as unique people. A great thing about this book is that my disagreements are triggering so many blog ideas for me!!! I’m learning a lot about writing too. There were some exercises in the book that I found interesting, and through doing them, I feel that I understand my characters even more deeply than I did before.

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      4. Sophie Li Avatar
        Sophie Li

        That’s great that you are finding this book useful even though you don’t agree 100% with this writer’s point of view.
        Very interesting how a person’s area of study or work can affect their approach to writing! I am not surprised that you are a psychology major because of the content on your blog 🙂 Do you feel that having a background in psychology helps you in developing characters? I am a pharmacist which always makes me eager to write about the medical side of things. Sometimes I have to restrain myself haha 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      5. Sieran Lane Avatar
        Sieran Lane

        Yeah I was a double major in psychology and English literature back in undergrad. Even I could see that in my literature classes, I would constantly write papers on psychological stuff, while my classmates might focus on something else, like history, sociology, or politics, lol

        Yes, I’m obsessed with psych, haha, especially in the realms of counselling and psychotherapy (which is why I’m in this program now). I’m taking a long time writing my next blog post, lol! Just writing a tiny bit of it at a time. It’s difficult when I’m trying to write my WIP novel fast. My blog posting speed has gone way down. XD

        Oh definitely. I think psychology majors are extremely fortunate in that almost everything we do involves people, i.e. psychology. Both what I learned from my psych undergrad degree and from my counselling courses, are directly contributing to my knowledge of how to write my characters with more depth and insight. You can even tell from my list of specific skills learned in fiction-writing, that there is a distinct focus on psychological things, haha. It’s not just about the knowledge either. It’s that being a psych major predisposes you to see the world in a certain way. For instance, I can’t stop thinking about how different people’s beliefs influence their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in different ways. So sometimes we would want to change our beliefs to live a happier life.

        This is not to say that folks in the psychology field know more about people than those who are outside the field, though. I think having a psych background would make you have certain biases, assumptions, and blindspots as well that a non-psychology major may not have. (Even in this last sentence, I talk like a psychology major, lol.)

        Liked by 2 people

      6. Sophie Li Avatar
        Sophie Li

        Sounds like you enjoy the field you’re in now which is great. I can feel your passion about psychology in your blog posts and the way you write in general 🙂 That’s great that it helps with crafting characters in your novels. I can imagine that having an interest in understanding people helps you understand your characters as well.

        I am a newbie when it comes to psychology (having taken psych 101 in first-year undergrad haha) but I like to use the MBTI test to get to know my characters better.

        Blogging takes up a lot of time, doesn’t it? I find that I have less time to write now compared to before because of blogging. However now I am trying to strike a good balance because I love both 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      7. Sieran Lane Avatar
        Sieran Lane

        Aw, I’m happy to hear that my love for psychology shows in my posts and even in the way I write. 😁 Yeah I think psychology majors have an edge where we can pull out theories and research findings from our courses to understand our characters! Though again, I’m very careful to emphasize that psych researchers, and certainly psych students, can have some blind spots that people outside the field may see more clearly. For instance, I think many psychology researchers and professors have a tendency to oversimplify things, and they can be very naive when it comes to the vastness of human diversity.

        Oh I love the MBTI! I’ve taken the test many times in my life, and I’m always ENFP, lol. How about you?

        Yeah how do we balance blogging time and writing time? We also need to read novels, and if we want to, read writing craft books.

        Liked by 1 person

      8. Sophie Li Avatar
        Sophie Li

        These days I am INFJ, though in high school I used to be INTJ haha. That’s cool that you’re ENFP 🙂

        Yeah! Being a writer/blogger is hard! I try to plan out the amount of time I spend blogging and writing each week. For example I limit how much I spend on blogging (or else it would suck up all my time!) so I have a bit of time each day to write. Unfortunately on some days writing becomes my lowest priority which makes me sad!

        Liked by 1 person

      9. Sieran Lane Avatar
        Sieran Lane

        Oh I forgot to answer your question. Well, on my Goodreads book shelves, I have one shelf that’s called “story writing or on literature.” Most of the books there are on the writing craft. I think they’re all great in different ways, but I especially liked the Word Painting and Active Settings books, because I find setting descriptions the most challenging, mostly because I’m very impatient and barely describe anything (my visual imagination is also very limited.) But I know that readers would want more details than what I’m offering them, lol.

        We talked about story structure before, and James Scott Bell’s book on plot structure has some good ideas.

        I think I reviewed many, if not most, of these books on Goodreads, so you can see my more detailed thoughts there, lol. Note that my writing beliefs may have changed since I posted these reviews, though.

        Liked by 2 people

      10. Sophie Li Avatar
        Sophie Li

        I’ll take a look 🙂 Sounds like you’ve read quite a few books on writing craft which is great. So far I’ve been relying on a steady stream of youtube videos on writing, but I think reading some writing craft books can be helpful for me! I’ll have to work on settings, descriptions and plot structure as well 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      11. Sieran Lane Avatar
        Sieran Lane

        Yeah I read way too many writing craft books in my teens, such that I spent less time actually reading and writing novels, lol. There were some writing craft books I read that I don’t remember the title of, so they aren’t on my Goodreads shelf. But now I spend most of my time reading and writing stories.

        Liked by 1 person

      12. Sophie Li Avatar
        Sophie Li

        I think nothing beats practice when it comes to becoming a better writer!

        Liked by 1 person

      13. Sieran Lane Avatar
        Sieran Lane

        Yeah my dad, and some other people, believe that you can become a great writer just by reading tons of books… No. You need to ACTUALLY WRITE a lot too, lol. It’s good that you and I know this, haha. Practice makes perfect!

        Liked by 1 person

      14. Sophie Li Avatar
        Sophie Li

        Definitely 🙂 We have to read a lot and write a lot to become good writers.

        Liked by 1 person

  6. Beware Of The Reader Avatar
    Beware Of The Reader

    These all seem like great choices Sophie!!!

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Sophie Li Avatar
      Sophie Li

      Thank you!!

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  7. ✨The Reading life✨ (@_AnneBlogger) Avatar
    ✨The Reading life✨ (@_AnneBlogger)

    Are you excited about the fact that the Jenny Han books are now in motion pictures with Netflix?

    http://anneclarence.wixsite.com/thereadinglife/single-post/2018/06/28/Blog-Tour-Review-of-Bring-Me-Their-Hearts-by-Exclusive-Giveaway

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    1. Sophie Li Avatar
      Sophie Li

      Omg I had to google it when you mentioned this! I knew there was going to be a Netflix adaptation but I didn’t realize it was going to be released so soon!! I am SO excited to see it 😀 Now I have to get Netflix again haha….

      Like

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  8. Hufflepuff27 Avatar
    Hufflepuff27

    As I said before I’ve been waiting to read Simon vs. I also like the look of The Upside of Unrequited. xxx

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    1. Sophie Li Avatar
      Sophie Li

      The Upside is one of my favourites by Becky Albertalli 🙂 Hope that you’ll enjoy Simon vs!
      By the way, we’ve just sent you the cabin invite for Camp Nano!

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      1. Hufflepuff27 Avatar
        Hufflepuff27

        Thanks xxx

        Liked by 1 person

  9. Reach Avatar
    Reach

    Great reads here. It’s so hard for me to pick just one season! But I’m prepared to read Lindsey Duga’s debut, Kiss of the Royal this summer. Have you seen the cover?!

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. Sophie Li Avatar
      Sophie Li

      Hello 🙂
      I haven’t read Kiss of the Royal but it sounds like an interesting one! The cover looks great 🙂 Hope you enjoy this book and wishing you a wonderful summer.

      Liked by 1 person

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  10. kristinazilieva Avatar
    kristinazilieva

    I loooove Becky Albertalli and Jenny Han 💖

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. Sophie Li Avatar
      Sophie Li

      Hello 🙂 Glad to hear that you are also a fan of these authors!

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  11. Beth (Reading Every Night) Avatar
    Beth (Reading Every Night)

    The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue is a perfect summer read. It’s the road-trip and all the travel Percy, Monty and Felicity do that make this an ultimate summer read for you (and now you’ve read it/are reading it you agree even more right?!)
    Also yes to Simon Vs. and The Upside of Unrequited. YA contemporary is always perfect for the summer and Becky Albertalli is one of my favourite YA contemporary authors!
    Great list Sophie. 🙂 ❤

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Sophie Li Avatar
      Sophie Li

      I just finished the Gentleman’s Guide today! It was a fun read and I am glad that I gave it a try. It definitely made me want to go on a road trip myself haha 🙂 Thank you for the recommendation Beth ❤

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      1. Beth (Reading Every Night) Avatar
        Beth (Reading Every Night)

        Yay, oh that’s great to hear, and in that case I’ll be looking forwards to seeing your review for it Sophie! 😀 ❤

        Liked by 1 person

  12. Stefanie Avatar
    Stefanie

    I need to see if my teen has read all of the Han series as there’s a movie on the first book coming out.

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    1. Sophie Li Avatar
      Sophie Li

      Yes!! I heard about the movie and I am so excited for it 🙂 Hope that your daughter is enjoying this series so far.

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