The best summer reads we can't put down

Romance, mystery, and murder. Count us in. These are the Amazon best-sellers you're going to want to read ASAP.

Whilst summer days are usually the days in which you finally get around to ordering the books you've been eyeing up or recommended. Long days spent lounging around a pool or reclining in a deckchair on the beach provide the perfect opportunity to deep dive into the latest and most coveted summer novels.

These are our Editor approved books to add to your 2021 reading list

But, if like me, you've struggled during the pandemic to fully immerse yourself in a novel or, even get past the first chapter. Then this Edit of the most popular books of the summer will hopefully provide the inspiration you need.

From murder mystery to saucy romance novels there is an endless assortment of books ready for you to enjoy. We’ve turned to the best-sellers of Amazon’s self-help list. These are the most popular books people have been reading, re-reading and sharing over the past year. You're going to want to bookmark this page...

Shop the 10 most ready eBooks this summer, according to Amazon.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

What's it about? Between life and death is a library. When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change. The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren't always what she imagined they'd be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger. Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?

Shop: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

What's it about? In a large house in London's fashionable Chelsea, a baby is awake in her cot. Well-fed and cared for, she is happily waiting for someone to pick her up. In the kitchen lie three decomposing corpses. Close to them is a hastily scrawled note. They've been dead for several days. Who has been looking after the baby? And where did they go?

Shop: The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

Choose Me by Tess Gerritsen and Gary Braver

What's it about? When Detective Frankie Loomis arrives on the scene to investigate the girl’s fatal plunge from her apartment balcony, she knows in her gut there’s more to the story. Her instincts are confirmed when surprise information is revealed that could have been reason enough for Taryn’s suicide―or a motive for her murder.

Shop: Choose Me by Tess Gerritsen and Gary Braver

Last Night by Mhairi McFarlane

What's it about? Eve, Justin, Susie and Ed have been friends since they were eighteen. Now in their 30s, the four are still as close as ever, Thursday pub quiz night is still sacred, and Eve is still secretly in love with Ed. Maybe Eve should have moved on by now, but she can’t stop thinking about what could have been. And she knows Ed sometimes thinks about it too. Then one night, in an instant, all their lives change forever. And, as Eve learns she didn’t know her friends as well as she thought, she also discovers she isn’t the only person keeping secrets…

Shop: Last Night by Mhairi McFarlane

Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers

What's it about? 1957, the suburbs of South East London. Jean Swinney is a journalist on a local paper, trapped in a life of duty and disappointment from which there is no likelihood of escape. When a young woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth, it is down to Jean to discover whether she is a miracle or a fraud. As the investigation turns her quiet life inside out, Jean is suddenly given an unexpected chance at friendship, love and - possibly - happiness.

Shop: Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers

A Song for the Dark Times by Ian Rankin

What's it about? Centred on the disappearance of his daughter's husband and a set of family secrets that the maverick detective isn't sure that he wantsto uncover, A Song for the Dark Times is an intensely personal case for John Rebus

Shop: A Song for the Dark Times by Ian Rankin

Her Last Breath by Hilary Davidson

What it's about? When her beloved sister Caroline dies suddenly, Deirdre is heartbroken. However, her sorrow turns to bone-chilling confusion when she receives a message Caroline sent days earlier warning that her death would be no accident. Long used to being a pariah to her family, Deirdre covers her tattoos and heads to Manhattan for her sister’s funeral. The message claimed Caroline’s husband, Theo, killed his first wife and got away with it. Reeling from the news, Deirdre confronts Theo on the way to the cemetery, and he reveals both his temper and his suspicion that Deirdre’s “perfect” sister was having an affair. Paranoid and armed with just enough information to make her dangerous, Deirdre digs into the disturbing secrets buried with Caroline. But as she gets closer to the truth, she realizes that her own life may be at risk…and that there may be more than one killer in the family.

Shop: Her Last Breath by Hilary Davidson

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

What it's about? For years, rumors of the 'Marsh Girl' have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life - until the unthinkable happens.

Shop: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

That Night by Gillian McAllister

What's it about? What would you do for your family? Anything? During a family holiday in Italy, you get an urgent call from your sister. There's been an accident: she hit a man with her car and he's dead. She's overcome with terror - fearing years in a foreign jail away from her child. She asks for your help. It wasn't her fault, not really. She'd cover for you, so will you do the same for her? But when the police come calling, the lies start. And you each begin to doubt your trust in one another.

Shop: That Night by Gillian McAllister

The Serial Killer’s Wife by Alice Hunter

What's it about? Beth and Tom Hardcastle are the envy of their neighbourhood – they have the perfect marriage, the perfect house, the perfect family. When the police knock on their door one evening, Beth panics. Tom should be back from work by now – what if he’s crashed his car? She fears the worst. But the worst is beyond imagining. As the interrogation begins, Beth will find herself questioning everything she believed about her husband.

Shop: The Serial Killer’s Wife by Alice Hunter