The summer novels everyone will be reading on holiday this year

You need to add these novels to your summer reading list

There are three novels, all written by Irish authors, that are at the very top of my summer reading list, and you'll regret not picking these up for your summer holidays.

Love Scene by Anna Carey (Published May 7th)

Anna Carey's Our Song was one of my favourite novels of 2025, so I've got high hopes for her upcoming novel, Love Scene.

Writing for an iconic soap opera was supposed to be a dream come true. But Annie's boss is a tyrant, the actors are out of control, and there are rumours that Northside will soon be cancelled. The worst part of all of it: Annie has to share an office with her nemesis, Art Sullivan. Talented-and-he-knows-it Art was once the Next Big Thing with a promising Hollywood career. So why is he back in town, writing for a show he's never seen a single episode of? Annie tries to ignore Art, who still knows exactly how to push her buttons - and is still distractingly hot. But when she suspects someone's sabotaging Northside, she realises she'll need Art's help to stop them. If they can quit arguing long enough to work together, there might just be another plot twist ahead...

Pre-order here.

Anywhere But Here by Vicki Notaro (Published July 23rd)

Is it really summer without a Vicki Notaro novel to read? The author is back with another heartwarming and poignant novel, and you are going to love it just as much as her previous two books, Reality Check andLong Story.

Three friends at life-changing crossroads . . . Matilda: Living the dream: presenting breakfast TV in Dublin and married to a man with a mega media career in the UK. But when she turns up in their London flat to surprise him for his birthday, it’s she who gets the surprise – a bad one. Sadie: In the business she always loved – journalism – but it’s dying on its feet.

Meanwhile, her house is falling apart, her romantic life is just as ramshackle and nasty, and flashbacks to her past are becoming more than just a nuisance. Jess: The one who was sorted early - married a lovely man, had two gorgeous babies. But with a distant husband and teenage twins who think she’s tragic, nothing she believed about herself makes sense any more. Matilda, Sadie and Jess take off to Donegal to do some serious soul-searching. But maybe the answers to their problems lie closer to home?

Pre-order here.

Our Deadly Summer by Emer McLysaght & Sarah Breen (Published May 21st)

Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen are back, and I couldn't be happier about it.

Laura and Dee haven’t spoken since the day they buried a body together. It was supposed to be the best summer of their lives. A break from university, from parents, from wasting their time on Irish boys with farmer’s tans. They’d imagined flirting with Ryan Phillippe on a New York rooftop. Instead, with summer jobs waitressing at a country club on Long Island, pickings are slim. Mikey is a bully. Marco is off limits. Jose is angry. Mr Haight is a sleaze. Josh is too keen. And Other Josh… he’s something else entirely. It’s a miracle only one of them ends up dead. Dee is pretty sure she didn’t mean to kill him. Laura, to her credit, never asked. Not until she sends an email, out of the blue, more than twenty years later. It’s finally time to mend the biggest heartbreak of that summer; Laura wants her best friend back. 

Pre-order here.

These are three summer novels we cannot wait to get our hands on. What other books should we add to our summer reading list?