When it comes to blogging (and to life in general), I am a bit of a lone ranger: I enjoy writing here in my little corner of the internet, and I don’t spend as much time interacting with other content creators as I could or probably should.

Carol of Reading Ladies is just the opposite: not only does she provide wonderful bookish content for her own readers, she also actively engages with other book reviewers on her own platform AND theirs. Through the years, she’s developed the most wonderful bookish community, and every summer she invites many of us to contribute to an annual roundup of our favorite summer reads.

This summer, I was honored once again to contribute my own MUST READ recommendation to the list. And today, in lieu of sharing a post of my own, I would love for you to head over to Carol’s site to check out the giant list of Not-to-be-Missed reading recommendations from an international group of readers and reviewers. See which book I chose to share, and find some other books to add to your summer TBR (I know I added to mine!).

If you could choose just ONE newly-released book to recommend this summer, what would it be? I stand by my choice (see it here!), but if I could tag two more books to that list I would also add this mystery and this family drama—two books I’ve read in the past three weeks that have landed spots on my Top 5 for 2026!

If you are thirsting for even more book recommendations, I’ve got you covered: I’ll be back here Thursday for a Quick Lit post sharing reviews of all my recent reads.