My 20 Books of Summer ’20 tbr!
I found this challenge via Misty’s Book Space, and the creator of this challenge is Cathy from 746 Books thanks to Misty for bringing it to my attention and to Cathy for giving me a 2020 summer challenge. I was hoping Goodreads would do another summer challenge this year, but it doesn’t look like it. It’s sad because I love a good reading challenge.
You can find out more about the #20booksofsummer20 challenge by checking out the original post.
So, today is already June 12th. That means I’m already 12 days into the challenge, but I should be able to read these 20 books until September 1st.
Also, what I like about this challenge is that the host is very flexible when it comes to swapping books. I’m the worst MOOD READER ever and DNF books regularly. I rarely talk about my DNFs or track them, they just disappear and will never be mentioned again. But I realized that the only challenges that work for me are the ones that are open and flexible in regards to change.
My 20 Books of Summer ’20 tbr!

HERE ARE MY TWENTY BOOK CHOICES FOR SUMMER ’20
READING PROGRESS 19.5/20 – FAILED
My 20 Books of Summer ’20 tbr!




With her daughter to care for and her abuela to help support, high school senior Emoni Santiago has to make the tough decisions, and do what must be done. The one place she can let her responsibilities go is in the kitchen, where she adds a little something magical to everything she cooks, turning her food into straight-up goodness. Still, she knows she doesn’t have enough time for her school’s new culinary arts class, doesn’t have the money for the class’s trip to Spain — and shouldn’t still be dreaming of someday working in a real kitchen. But even with all the rules she has for her life — and all the rules everyone expects her to play by — once Emoni starts cooking, her only real choice is to let her talent break free.




He walked into school on his first day and owned it.
I guess that’s what happens when you’re a prick, rich, and you’re best friends with the ruling school’s king.
Also didn’t hurt he’s drop dead gorgeous.
That’s all fine.
I mean, I have nothing to do with them.
I’m a loner, invisible, and that’s how I wanted it to be.
I was even proud of it, until I wasn’t.
Until I saw a girl kneel before him.
Until I couldn’t look away.
Until he caught me watching.
His name is Blaise Devroe. My name is Aspen Monson.
He only knew how to get, command, and demand attention.
I knew how to do everything but that.
And this is our story.




CANDACE: KAT & YASMINE! DO NOT DALLY! Come straight home after work. Kat, don’t take the long route from the subway station just so you can pass by Cute Hot Dog Guy. This is important!
I’ve had THE BEST DAY. You won’t believe it. There I was in my preschool classroom, washing a bit of poo out of some soggy trousers, when this absolute babe came to collect his nephew from my class.




As one of the most popular influencers on social media, Mia Bell has lived her life online for years. With her celebrity dog and gorgeous fiancé, she is planning the ultimate virtual wedding—expensive, elaborate, and entirely paid for by sponsors. But off-camera, her world is far from picture perfect. After being jilted by her fiancé and faking her nuptials to please her sponsors, Mia finally has had enough. She heaves her phone off a cliff, ready to live—and maybe find love—offline for a change. more




In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson explores his childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia. From the memories of getting his teeth kicked out by bullies at age five, to flea marketing with his loving grandmother, to his first sexual relationships, this young-adult memoir weaves together the trials and triumphs faced by Black queer boys. more




Murderbot returns in its highly-anticipated, first, full-length standalone novel.
You know that feeling when you’re at work, and you’ve had enough of people, and then the boss walks in with yet another job that needs to be done right this second or the world will end, but all you want to do is go home and binge your favorite shows? And you’re a sentient murder machine programmed for destruction? Congratulations, you’re Murderbot.
Come for the pew-pew space battles, stay for the most relatable A.I. you’ll read this century.
—
I’m usually alone in my head, and that’s where 90 plus percent of my problems are.
When Murderbot’s human associates (not friends, never friends) are captured and another not-friend from its past requires urgent assistance, Murderbot must choose between inertia and drastic action.
Drastic action it is, then.
READ: ✓
REVIEW




As the hottest bodyguard on Security Force Omega, Oscar Oliveira has no trouble finding a warm body at any odd hour. But he’s ready for more.
And for the first time in this ex-pro boxer’s life, he just got rejected. For a kiss.
Oscar’s friends warned him not to fall for the straight guy, but flirty, sexy-as-hell Jack Highland made that difficult. Now Jack has Oscar’s sweater. His belt. His bandana. And Oscar seriously wants them back. more
READ: ✓
REVIEW




Big Little Lies meets Presumed Innocent in this riveting novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Reconstructing Amelia, in which a woman’s brutal murder reveals the perilous compromises some couples make—and the secrets they keep—in order to stay together.
Lizzie Kitsakis is working late when she gets the call. Grueling hours are standard at elite law firms like Young & Crane, but they’d be easier to swallow if Lizzie was there voluntarily. Until recently, she’d been a happily underpaid federal prosecutor. That job and her brilliant, devoted husband Sam—she had everything she’d ever wanted. And then, suddenly, it all fell apart. more
READ: ✓
REVIEW




Mary B. Addison killed a baby.
Allegedly. She didn’t say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: A white baby had died while under the care of a churchgoing black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official. But did she do it? She wouldn’t say. more
READ: ✓
REVIEW




Felix Love has never been in love—and, yes, he’s painfully aware of the irony. He desperately wants to know what it’s like and why it seems so easy for everyone but him to find someone. What’s worse is that, even though he is proud of his identity, Felix also secretly fears that he’s one marginalization too many—Black, queer, and transgender—to ever get his own happily-ever-after. more
My 20 Books of Summer ’20 tbr!




Real love…as seen on TV
Bea Schumacher is a devastatingly stylish plus-size fashion blogger who has amazing friends, a devoted family, legions of Insta followers–and a massively broken heart. Like the rest of America, Bea indulges in her weekly obsession: the hit reality show Main Squeeze. The fantasy dates! The kiss-off rejections! The surprising amount of guys named Chad! But Bea is sick and tired of the lack of body diversity on the show. Since when is being a size zero a prerequisite for getting engaged on television? more
READ: ✓
REVIEW




April May and the Carls are back in the much-anticipated sequel to Hank Green’s #1 New York Times bestselling debut novel, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing.
The Carls disappeared the same way they appeared, in an instant. While they were on Earth, they caused confusion and destruction without ever lifting a finger. Well, that’s not exactly true. Part of their maelstrom was the sudden viral fame and untimely death of April May: a young woman who stumbled into Carl’s path, giving them their name, becoming their advocate, and putting herself in the middle of an avalanche of conspiracy theories. more
READ: ✓
REVIEW




Beauregard “Bug” Montage: husband, father, honest car mechanic. But he was once known – from North Carolina to the beaches of Florida – as the best getaway driver on the East Coast. Just like his father, who disappeared many years ago.
After a series of financial calamities (worsened by the racial prejudices of the small town he lives in) Bug reluctantly takes part in a daring diamond heist to solve his money troubles – and to go straight once and for all. However, when it goes horrifically wrong, he’s sucked into a grimy underworld which threatens everything, and everyone, he holds dear . . .
READ: ✓
REVIEW




Scarlet Reed has returned to Polson Falls, convinced that twelve years away is long enough to shed her humiliating childhood identity as the town harlot’s daughter. With a teaching job secured and an adorable fixer-upper to call home, things in her life are finally looking up.
That is, until she finds out that Shane Beckett lives next door.
Shane Beckett, the handsome and charismatic high school star quarterback who smashed her heart. The lying, cheating player who was supposed to be long gone, living the pro football dream and fooling women into thinking he’s Prince Charming. Shane Beckett, who is as attractive as ever and flashing his dimples at her as if he has done no wrong. more




Run, run, as fast as you can!
When life throws her one setback too many, midwife and young widow Tess Hartsong takes off for Runaway Mountain. In this small town high in the Tennessee mountains, surrounded by nature, she hopes to outrun her heartbreak and find the solace she needs to heal.
But instead of peace and quiet, she encounters an enigmatic artist with a craving for solitude, a fairy-tale sprite with too many secrets, a helpless infant, a passel of curious teens, and a town suspicious of outsiders, especially one as headstrong as Tess. Just as headstrong, is Ian North, a difficult, gifted man with a tortured soul—a man who makes Tess question everything.
In running away to this new life, Tess wonders— Has she lost herself . . . or has she found her future?




Leading Ladies do not end up on tabloid covers.
After a messy public breakup, soap opera darling Jasmine Lin Rodriguez finds her face splashed across the tabloids. When she returns to her hometown of New York City to film the starring role in a bilingual romantic comedy for the number one streaming service in the country, Jasmine figures her new “Leading Lady Plan” should be easy enough to follow—until a casting shake-up pairs her with telenovela hunk Ashton Suárez.
READ:
REVIEW




A feminist, sex-positive, and hilarious rom-com about a girl in 1970s Chicago trying everything she can to score—on and off the soccer field.
It’s 1979—the age of roller skates and feathered bangs, of Charlie’s Angels and Saturday Night Fever—and Susan Klintock is a junior in high school with a lot of sexual fantasies…but not a lot of sexual experience. No boy, at least none she knows, has ever been worth taking a shot on.
That is, until Bobby McMann arrives.
READ: ✓
REVIEW




Beyah comes from a life of poverty and neglect; Samson from a family of wealth.
When the two find themselves spending the summer as neighbors, they soon realize money is one of the few things they don’t have in common.
Their bond is too intense to ignore, but with only ten weeks separating them from the start of their new lives on opposite ends of the country, Beyah and Samson decide to stay in the shallow end of a summer fling.
What they don’t realize is that a rip current is coming and it’s about to drag both their hearts out to sea.
READ: ✓
REVIEW




Breen Kelly had always been a rule follower. So when her father left when she was twelve years old, promising to return, she waited. Now, more than a decade later, she needs to move forward. She can wait no longer. A summer trip to Ireland seems like the perfect next step. She never dreamed it would lead her through a portal to another world, where her latent powers of magick will be awakened, her true ancestry revealed and an epic battle against evil fought.
READ: ✓
REVIEW




When the Supernatural nations of the world meet up to negotiate an end to ongoing hostilities, Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard, joins the White Council’s security team to make sure the talks stay civil. But can he succeed, when dark political manipulations threaten the very existence of Chicago–and all he holds dear?
Have you read any of these yet?
My 20 Books of Summer ’20 tbr!
A really nicely mixed summer tbr. I cannot with that new Tijan title! – Micky x
Thank you Micky, I’m looking forward to it too. Her books are always on the very top of my tbr. 😀
This looks like a fun challenge! I can’t wait to read Faked, Charming Like Us, and Heart Bones. Those are all on my TBR for this summer.
All three are on the very top of my list – I CAN’T WAIT TO READ THEM 😀
A great mixed list 🙂 I’ve read A Good Marriage and The Guest List and am looking forward to The Shadows and The Girl with the Louding Voice! Happy summer reading!
Thank you:D I tried to keep a good mix of genres, plus some BIPOC authors as well. I’m looking forward to tall of them – we’ll see how it goes.
Oh looks like a great list. I hope you enjoy all of them.
Thank you 😀 I’m excited!
You have such a great list here….KA Tucker is also on my list for my summer reading, but I also have been intrigued by Tijan and Jim Butcher. Hope you have a blast with all of these.
Thank you ? I think the KA Tucker and Tijan book are my most highly anticipated books this month. And Jim Butcher has been an author I’ve read for a few years now, and we’ve been waiting for a new books for a long time, 2020 is the year when we are getting TWO 😀
A very diverse list Corina. Hope you enjoy all these. 🙂 🙂
It is 😀 I’m always all over the place with the books I like, but it keeps things interesting.
I’m a mood reader so I also always make sure my TBRs are diverse. Aaaand because of you and Misty, I’m going to join this challenge as well. Hehe.
Woohoo!!! Can’t wait to see your list. And I’ve noticed keeping my tbr diverse is really keeping the reading slump away.
Good luck with this challenge! 🙂 I’ll also be participating and some of the books you mentioned are also on my TBR!
yay Alex, I’ll be checking out your list 😀
Good luck with your challenge! ? I’ve only read With the Fire on High, but it was amazing! ?
Thank you ? I’m glad to hear it, it sounds fantastic, and I’m excited to get my hands on it
There’s a wonderful variety of books here. Good luck with the reading challenge (: I’ve only read With The Fire On High from this list so far but I do have a couple of the others on my TBR. I’m most excited to get to Allegedly (although I am leaning towards picking up Monday’s Not Coming by the author first) and The Shadows. I hope you end up enjoying all of these (:
I have Monday’s Not Coming on my tbr too, but had not idea it’s from the same author as Allegedly ? – I”m looking forward to both. It’s an exciting list, I see how far I’ll get.
Great mix of genres! I have a few of these on my list too although I’m not sure if I’ll get round to them this summer. Happy reading and good luck with the challenge!
Thank you ?, I enjoy mixing things up. And it will be interesting to see how far along I’ll get with this list.