Summer Book Recommendations | Small Town Hearts Blog Tour (+Giveaway!)

Hi friends! I am so happy to be on the blog tour for Lillie Vale’s debut novel, Small Town Hearts. I am currently reading this book, and so far, it’s really adorable.

As Small Town Hearts takes place during the summer, I’ve compiled a post with some of my favorite summer books (accompanied by aesthetics!) in honor of its recent release.

You can find these recommendations below, along with some more information about Small Town Hearts and a giveaway for a signed copy of the book! Enjoy!

Note: book titles link to their respective Goodreads pages.

Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour

Everything Leads to You is a beautiful story of love and filmmaking, set during the summer in LA. Making this aesthetic was super fun, in part because the book is one of the artsiest, most aesthetic books ever. It’s also super well-written and just generally very enjoyable.

Read my review of Everything Leads to You

Summer of Salt by Katrina Leno

Summer of Salt is another novel that’s super atmospheric, but in a totally different way—though it still takes place during a summer, it’s kinda spooky. It also has a prominent sister relationship, small town vibes, discussions about sexual assault, and LGBTQ+ rep. It’s an incredibly powerful book and I highly recommend it!

Read my review of Summer of Salt

The Last Summer of the Garrett Girls by Jessica Spotswood

Ah, The Last Summer of the Garrett Girls! In case you haven’t heard me squeal about this book already: it’s a quadruple-perspective contemporary novel that follows four very different sisters over the course of (you guessed it!) their last summer together. It’s fun and has heartwarming family vibes and it was one of my favorite books of last year!

Read my review of The Last Summer of the Garrett Girls

Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch

Love & Gelato is an adventure and romance story set against the backdrop of an Italian summer. The book touches on themes of grief, as the main plotline revolves around the protagonist reading an old journal that belonged to her late mother, but many parts of the book remain light and cute and adventurous.

About Small Town Hearts

Small Town Hearts
Lillie Vale
Published March 19th, 2019 by Swoon Reads
Young Adult | Contemporary | Romance

Diversity Rep: bisexual main character

Rule #1 – Never fall for a summer boy.

Fresh out of high school, Babe Vogel should be thrilled to have the whole summer at her fingertips. She loves living in her lighthouse home in the sleepy Maine beach town of Oar’s Rest and being a barista at the Busy Bean, but she’s totally freaking out about how her life will change when her two best friends go to college in the fall. And when a reckless kiss causes all three of them to break up, she may lose them a lot sooner. On top of that, her ex-girlfriend is back in town, bringing with her a slew of memories, both good and bad.

And then there’s Levi Keller, the cute artist who’s spending all his free time at the coffee shop where she works. Levi’s from out of town, and even though Babe knows better than to fall for a tourist who will leave when summer ends, she can’t stop herself from wanting to know him. Can Babe keep her distance, or will she break the one rule she’s always had – to never fall for a summer boy?

You can enter for the chance to win a signed copy of Small Town Hearts HERE! (Make sure to enter before the giveaway closes on April 5th, 2019.)

(US only)

You can find the schedule for the rest of the blog tour for this book here!

Lillie Vale, upon discovering she could not be one of Santa’s elves or attend Hogwarts, decided to become a writer to create a little magic of her own. Enjoying the romantic and eerie in equal measure, she’s probably always writing a book where the main characters kiss or kill. Born in Mumbai, she has lived in many U.S. states, and now resides in an Indiana college town where the corn whispers and no one has a clue that she is actually the long-lost caps lock queen. Follow her on Twitter here.