15 Best Summer Books Recommended By Reese Witherspoon

Okay, let’s be honest…  

…if you’re not already following Reese’s Book Club, what are you even doing? Reese Witherspoon has this uncanny ability to find books that feel like they were written specifically for women who want to feel seen, entertained, and a little emotionally wrecked all at once. Whether you’re hauling a tote to the beach, curling up on the porch with a glass of sweet tea, or sneaking chapters during your lunch break, summer is the perfect excuse to finally tackle that summer TBR pile.

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I went deep into the Reese’s Book Club book list and pulled together the absolute best picks for summer so you can find exactly what you’re looking for this season. From page-turning thrillers to slow-burning love stories, this list has something for every kind of reader. Grab a bookmark (or your phone, no judgment), because things are about to get very good.

Best Young Adult Pick

Twelfth Knight by Alexene Farol Follmuth

If you loved The Bachelorette and Shakespeare in equal measure, this one is going to be your summer obsession. Twelfth Knight is a charming, witty retelling of Twelfth Night set in the world of online gaming, and it absolutely delivers on both the banter and the romance. The female lead is refreshingly confident and nerdy in the best way, and the slow-burn tension between the two main characters had me reading “just one more chapter” at midnight way too many times. It’s fun, it’s smart, and it’s the kind of medium-paced YA that makes you feel like a teenager again in the very best way.

Trigger Warning: Misogyny, sexism, injury detail, sexual harassment, racism, cursing, homophobia, abandonment, gaslighting

Best Book of the Year

The Cliffs by J. Courtney Sullivan

J. Courtney Sullivan is one of those authors who makes you feel like you’re living inside the story rather than reading it, and medium-paced The Cliffs is no exception. Set against the moody backdrop of coastal Maine, this novel weaves together past and present in a way that keeps you completely hooked. It’s the kind of book that makes you want to cancel your plans, pour a big glass of something cold, and disappear into it for an entire afternoon.

Trigger Warning: Alcoholism, child death, colonisation, death of a parent, dementia, infidelity, suicidal thoughts, slavery, genocide

The Cactus by Sarah Haywood

This one doesn’t always get the attention it deserves, and that needs to change immediately. The Cactus follows Susan, a fiercely independent and hilariously self-unaware woman who is forced to confront her perfectly ordered life when everything starts shifting at once. It’s funny in a dry, British sort of way, but there’s also so much warmth buried underneath the wit. If you’re looking for a medium-paced book that sneaks up on you emotionally, put this one at the top of your list.

Trigger Warning: Alcoholism, death of a parent, pregnancy, fatphobia, emotional abuse, body shaming, abortion, adult/minor relationship, child abuse

Whisper Network by Chandler Baker

Whisper Network is one of those fast-paced books that feels urgently relevant from the very first page. Set in a corporate law firm where the women have been quietly protecting each other from an open secret, this novel is sharp, timely, and completely absorbing. Chandler Baker writes female solidarity and workplace tension like no one else, and the ending will have you thinking about it for days. It’s the kind of book you’ll want to press into the hands of every woman you know.

Trigger Warning: Sexual harassment, sexual assault, sexism, rape, suicide, death, vomit, murder

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

If you have never read Kate Quinn, The Alice Network is the place to start …

…and if you have, you already know why it’s on this list. 

Based on a real network of female spies during World War I, this dual-timeline medium-paced novel is gripping, emotional, and wildly well-researched. The characters feel so real and so fierce that it’s genuinely hard to believe parts of the story aren’t true. Clear your weekend, because once you start, you are absolutely not putting this down.

Trigger Warning: Torture, war, violence, abortion, sexual content, suicide, child death, suicide attempt, rape

Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell

Rainbow Rowell is a master at writing love stories that feel honest rather than glossy, and medium-paced Slow Dance is one of her best. This is a second-chance romance about two people who never quite figured out their timing, and it is achingly good. Rowell has a way of capturing all the small, specific feelings of falling in love…

… the nervousness, the hope, the fear …

… that makes her books feel less like fiction and more like a memory you didn’t know you had.

Trigger Warning: Sexual content, infidelity, medical content, pregnancy, abandonment, cursing, war, child abuse, alcoholism

Cassandra in Reverse by Holly Smale

Cassandra can rewind time…

… but she keeps using that power to try to fix a breakup, which goes about as well as you’d expect. 

Cassandra in Reverse is delightful, original, and quietly tender in a way that sneaks up on you. Holly Smale writes a neurodivergent main character with so much authenticity and care that the medium-paced book feels like a love letter to everyone who has ever felt a little out of step with the world.

Trigger Warning: Panic attacks/disorders, ableism, death of a parent, sexual harassment, grief, car accident, sexual content, stalking, alcohol

Yellowface by R. F. Kuang

Yellowface is the kind of fast-paced book that makes you deeply uncomfortable in the most necessary way. It’s a razor-sharp satire about racism in the publishing industry, told through the perspective of a white author who steals a Chinese American writer’s manuscript and then watches her career implode in spectacularly terrible ways. R.F. Kuang is brutally honest and darkly funny, and this book will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about who gets to tell whose stories.

Trigger Warning: Racism, death, cultural appropriation, rape, sexual assault, suicidal thoughts, death of a parent, war

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Ann Patchett is one of the great American novelists working today, and Tom Lake might be her most quietly perfect medium-paced book. Told over one summer as a mother shares the story of a long-ago romance with her three daughters, it’s a novel about memory, regret, love, and what it means to have lived a life that looks different than the one you once imagined. It is slow and beautiful and completely devastating in the most gentle way.

Trigger Warning: Alcoholism, death, epidemic, infidelity, abortion, cancer, child death, mental illness

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

Do not let the beautiful Cape Cod setting fool you…

… The Paper Palace is a lot to handle, in the absolute best way. 

Over the course of one summer day, a woman must decide between two versions of her life, and the story is told in flashing back and forth through decades of love, loss, and complicated choices. It’s lush and absorbing and the kind of medium-paced book that leaves you staring at the ceiling long after you’ve turned the last page.

Trigger Warning: Rape, sexual assault, child abuse, cancer, death, child death, miscarriage, terminal illness, infertility

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

A remote island. A wedding. A body. The Guest List is the kind of medium-paced thriller that grabs you by the collar on page one and doesn’t let go until the final reveal. Lucy Foley is brilliant at building tension and layering secrets in ways that feel both completely surprising and utterly inevitable in hindsight. This is peak summer thriller reading…

…perfect for a long flight or a lazy day at the pool when you want to forget the world exists.

Trigger Warning: Self-harm, murder, bullying, abortion, suicide, child death, drug use, vomit, infidelity

Best Of BookTok

Honey & Spice by Bolu Babalola

Witty, warm, and genuinely swoon-worthy, Honey & Spice is the romance novel you need this summer. Set on a British university campus, it follows a love-skeptic who hosts a popular relationship advice show…

… until she finds herself falling for the one person she’s publicly dismissed. 

Bolu Babalola writes with so much joy and specificity that this medium-paced book feels like a celebration of love, community, and finding your people.

Trigger Warning: Sexual content, sexual harassment, racism, sexual assault, misogyny, toxic relationship, cancer, infidelity, toxic friendship

Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

A mother watches her son commit a murder outside their home…

… and then wakes up the next morning to find it’s the day before. 

Wrong Place Wrong Time is one of the most original medium-paced thrillers to come out in years, and it absolutely lives up to the hype. Gillian McAllister uses the time-loop device to build a mystery that gets more intense, not less, with every chapter. Read it in one sitting if you can.

Trigger Warning: Murder, death of a parent, kidnapping, violence, suicide, sexual content

Still Lives by Maria Hummel

If you love the art world, literary mysteries, and morally complicated characters, slow-paced Still Lives was written specifically for you. When a famous artist’s most controversial work disappears and a museum publicist starts digging into the truth, things get very dark very fast. Maria Hummel writes beautifully about obsession, creativity, and the price of ambition.

Trigger Warning: Murder, death, violence, stalking, torture, suicide attempt, pregnancy, sexual content, miscarriage

The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

Ruth Ware is one of the queens of the psychological thriller genre, and medium-paced The Lying Game is a brilliant example of why. Four childhood friends, bound by a lie they told years ago, are pulled back together when the past catches up with them in the worst possible way. The atmosphere is thick, the pacing is relentless, and the ending is deeply satisfying.

Trigger Warning: Suicide, death of parent, drug use, addiction, murder, eating disorder, child abuse, animal death

Best Young Adult

Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean

Tokyo Ever After is pure joy wrapped in gorgeous Tokyo scenery and the kind of fish-out-of-water medium-paced story that never gets old. When a California girl discovers her father is actually the Crown Prince of Japan, she’s whisked into a world she’s completely unprepared for…

… and falls for someone she absolutely shouldn’t. 

It’s sweet, funny, and deeply charming, and the sequel is just as good.

Trigger Warning: Bullying, racism, alcohol, xenophobia, sexism, vomit, dementia, sexual harassment, sexual assault

Whether you’re building your summer TBR from scratch or just looking to add a few more gems to the list, you really can’t go wrong with Reese Witherspoon’s book club recommendations. She has an extraordinary eye for stories about women who are messy, brilliant, complicated, and completely worth reading about …

…and honestly…

… That’s exactly the energy we all need this summer.

Happy summer reading! 📚

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