Whether you’re packing your suitcase with a polka dot bikini, a pair of sturdy boots, or pack of playing cards, you must also remember to pack a book or two (or five!). Here are some suggestions across a whole lotta genres, that are just out, or coming out over the summer months. Enjoy!

Where better to start than at the seaside!

Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages
By Jenny Colgan
Romance

When 30-year-old Essie Carter moves back in with her mum in the seaside town of Carso, she’s leaving behind both personal and professional disappointments. Her mum, Janey, has a lot to be grateful for, but her confidence is shaken after the end of her marriage.

Scotland’s queen of feel-good romance is back with a mother-daughter tale of thwarted dreams, second chances, good friends & neighbours, rescue dogs, pub quizzes and house renovations.

We carry on with the feel-good stories with a novel described as ‘Normal People with pensioners.’!

Best Friends
By Andrew Meehan
Romance

June is a cleaner; Ray is a janitor. Both have had their ups and downs (mostly downs) when it comes to relationships. However, a tentative friendship starts and grows between them and brings them the joy they have always missed.

Andrew Meehan’s novel has been gathering plaudits from critics and fellow writers and is becoming a bit of a word-of-mouth hit with readers!

If you love the classic enemies-to-lovers romance trope, then we recommend . . .

Cover Story
By Mhairi McFarlane
Romance

Bel and Connor are new starts in the tiny Manchester office of a national newspaper. Headline? They both have a lot to prove and they can’t stand each other. But when they’re thrown together as a loving couple in Bel’s latest undercover operation, sparks fly.

Mhairi McFarlane is back with another sharp, witty rom-com, and her fans include Marian Keyes, Holly Bourne and Jojo Moyes.

And when you can’t decide on a genre for your holiday reading, there’s always a short story collection that includes them all!

And Other Stories
By David Quantick
Short stories

Short ones and odd ones, long ones and scary ones, (and there’s even a Christmas one), all the stories in David Quantick’s collection are entertaining and memorable, a perfect way to punctuate watching the waves in the sunshine!

Lazy holidays are also a great time to catch up with your heroes . . .

Mania: Tartan, Turmoil and My Life as a Bay City Roller
By Stuart ‘Woody’ Wood
Autobiography

Between 1971 and 1977, Edinburgh’s Bay City Rollers achieved ten top-ten hit singles, four top-ten albums, two number-one singles and two number-one albums. Yet, despite their success, the boys in the band soon realised that fame was not all it cracked up to be.

Here is the true story of the sensational highs and horrific lows in the life of one band that defined an era.

Continuing with autobiography, it’s time for a much-anticipated look behind-the-scenes of Scottish politics and the highest level.

Frankly
By Nicola Sturgeon
Autobiography

Whether an independence supporter or not, it cannot be denied that Nicola Sturgeon—the first female and longest-serving First Minister— is one of Scotland’s most influential and successful leaders.

Here she tells her life story with much candour, wit and insight, covering her career’s defining moments including the independence referendum of 2014, Brexit, and the Covid pandemic.

It’s not only those with public personas with important stories to tell . . .

Drystone: A Life Rebuilt
By Kristie De Garis
Memoir

When Kristie De Garis moved to rural Perthshire, she thought she was leaving a life of chaos behind. What she found in the peaceful countryside—and in the craft of drystone walling— was the time and space to confront everything in her past she was trying to escape: racism, trauma, undiagnosed ADHD, addiction, and the realities of motherhood.

Honest, funny, direct and moving, this is a memoir of resilience and finding the life that suits you.

We carry on with a memoir on the wonder and importance of nature . . .

The Edge of Silence: In Search of the Disappearing Sounds of Nature
By Neil Ansell
Memoir

Acclaimed nature writer Neil Ansell has suffered from progressive hearing loss his whole life. As his world became ever more silent, he encountered an unexpected sound – the call of a great northern diver – and set off on a journey to discover more sounds from creatures he had never heard before. Many of the animals in this moving memoir are close to extinction, and Neil writes brilliantly on a future we must all fight to keep hearing.

Now we turn to the past and a collection of enthralling historical fiction . . .

Shiaba No More
By Willie Orr
Historical Fiction

Willie Orr continues his masterful exploration of love, resilience, and the fight for justice in the Scottish Highlands through the MacGillvray family. In this novel, we follow Mary MacGillvray as she ventures over the water to Jamaica to work for the wealthy Buchanan family. There she becomes involved in a slave rebellion, and on her return to the Highlands is drawn into the struggles of the crofters against their exploitative landlords.

We stay in the Highlands for our next novel . . .

Whispers in the Glen
By Sue Lawrence
Historical Fiction

In Sue Lawrence’s latest novel, is a tale of sisterhood, heartbreak and resilience of the Scottish women on the home front during World War Two.

Sisters Nell and Effie live together in the North-East of Scotland, and though they love each other, there is a distance between them, and unspoken secrets, and when a soldier knocks on their door with a photo from the past, their secrets just might spill out into the open.

Next, we head to Scotland’s capital city . . .

25 Library Terrace
By Natalie Fergie
Historical Fiction

The stories the walls of an old tenement can tell are explored in this intriguing and charming novel that follows generations of women living at one address. We start before World War One with Ursula, a budding Suffragette, and move through the decades until the 2020 pandemic. Each character embodies something of the times they lived in but they also deal with issues – love, loss, family – that are familiar to anyone at any time.

We stay in Edinburgh, but explore it’s darker side with the final instalment of the bestselling Raven & Fisher mysteries . . .

The Death of Shame
By Ambrose Parry
Historical Crime Fiction

In 1854, respectable faces hide private sins. When a young lady fails to turn up to her new job at a prestigious household, Sarah Fisher discovers the plight of poor girls ensnared to the city’s brothels. Then a prominent, successful Edinburgh citizen is found dead at the Scott Monument. Are both these occurrences related?

Ambrose Parry finish the adventures of Sarah Fisher and Will Raven in thrilling style, capturing Victorian Edinburgh and its shady corners with wit and and pace.

We head West for another Victorian death by misadventure . . .

Love and Other Poisons
By Lesley McDowell
Historical Crime Fiction

Based on a true story of scandalous love, death by poisoning, and an infamous ‘not proven’ verdict, young socialite Madeleine Smith’s life in Glasgow is turned upside down and she must flee the city she grew up in. In the early 20^th century, a film scout believes he has found her in America and is desperate for her to tell her tale.

This is seductive, sensational storytelling, full of period detail, twists, turns and thrills.

We stay with crime, we stay in Glasgow, we venture into the here and now. . .

The Search for Othella Savage
By Foday Mannah
Crime Fiction

Scotland’s Sierra Leonean community finds itself in a state of shock when a young woman from their church is found in a boot of a car, then another young woman goes missing.

Hawa Barrie is unsatisfied with the police investigation and decides to search for clues herself, worried for her friend’s life.

This is a novel that keeps the suspense high, the pace fast, and explores corruption both political and religious, as well as the power of friendship.

Here’s another crime debut that will keep you on the edge of your seat. . .

Five by Five
By Claire Wilson
Crime Fiction

Kennedy Allardyce works in one of Scotland’s toughest prisons, monitoring the staff as well as the criminals. She has one guard in her sights, suspected of corruption, but is also distracted by a new, young recruit, the beautiful Molly. But she cannot afford to lose focus on such a dangerous enemy. . .

Taut, tense, brutal, and written by an former prison officer, this is crime fiction that will take your breath away and make your heart beat faster.

We now turn to a more established name, and a master of his craft . . .

The Good Father
By Liam McIllvanney
Crime Fiction

Gordon and Sarah Rutherford have a good life – good jobs, good friends, good neighbours and a son they love. Then their son goes missing. As the days pass, their hope transforms into suspicion of everyone they know and secrets begin to emerge.

A clever, emotionally-resonant psychological thriller that will stay with you long after the last page has turned, this is crime writing at its very best.

Next, we continue with pacy mysteries, but with a side order of aliens. . .

The Transcendent Tide
By Doug Johnstone
Science Fiction

This ambitious novel is the final part of Doug Johnstone’s entertaining Enceladons Trilogy, and Sandy, his peaceful octopus-like alien is behaving strangely while he hides from the US military in Greenland with his human friend, Heather. And there are other strange occurrences when sea creatures start to attack boats in the open seas. A showdown is coming, the future of life on earth is at stake; who will survive?

Staying with the fantastical, here is a fine folklore-inspired slice of gothic . . .

The Bone Diver
By Angie Spoto
Historical Gothic Fantasy

The only daughter in a family of Scottish seal-hunters, Kier Sealgair is becoming a burden. She cannot kill, and the family are facing hard times now that her father is ill. Her neighbours, the rich and influential Erskines, give her an offer that seems to good to be true. Should she trust them? Are there secrets to uncover.

The Bone Diver is period gothic tale inspired by the myth of the selkies that is moody, magical and mysterious!

We stay with the Selkie in another gothic roomed romance . . .

On a Northern Shore
By Janis McKay
Gothic Romance

On Hogmanay, lobster fisherman Rob pours a lonely dram into the North Sea, an old family tradition. Then he meets the mysterious Mairi, sent to his village on a quest for revenge. He is beguiled and confused by this newcomer. Is she a safe bet for his heart?

This is a haunting, haunted love story steeped in Celtic mythology destined to enthrall every reader.

Next, we look to a fantasy superstar at the top of their game . . .

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
By V. E. Schwab
Horror Fantasy

Three women across three centuries and three countries. Maria, Charlotte, Alice. Medieval Spain, Victorian London and modern-day Boston. Stories of love, hunger and rage; of dreaming, desperation and defiance; of escape, desire and revenge.

In her latest novel, the bestselling V. E Schwab gives us an epic vampiric fantasy that will mesmerise with its lush, poetic language and thrill like all the best pageturners.

We leave fiction now to focus on a collection of smaller delights . . .

Goonie
By Michael Mullen
Poetry

Whether exploring queerness through fierce lyrical poetry or celebrating Mullen’s beloved Scotland through vernacular vignettes, Goonie‘s main preoccupation is with how we form community around us and how community, in turn, forms us.

You’ll be taken round a campfire, a living room ceilidh, a hairdresser’s chair with joy, humour, exuberant language and raw emotion in this brilliant debut collection.

Howzabout some recommendations for our Young Adults?

Wish You Were Her
By Elle McNicoll
YA Romance

Enemies-to-lovers? Tick! Small-town romance? Tick! Mistaken identity? Tick! Yes, there may be much-loved tropes here, and shades of classic rom-coms Notting Hill and You’ve Got Mail but when they’re done with the care, warmth and fun —and with a feel-good factor turned up to 11—then you get a novel that is irresistible.

But if your teenager is looking for something a little less cosy . . .

No One Keeps a Secret
By Denise Brown
YA Crime

Teenagers Haigh, Cherry and Sunrise track down a missing dog in an abandoned theme park close to their sleepy village, and in finding a chihuahua, discover something else that isn’t quite a cute—a dead body. Now embroiled in a murder case, their town becomes less cosy and full of hidden secrets. . .

And for even younger readers . . .

Shadow Thieves
By Peter Burns
Middle Grade Adventure Thriller

In an alternate London, orphan and pick-pocket Tom Morgan escapes a destiny at the brutal workhouse. But his friends aren’t so lucky. Then he is recruited into an international elite boarding school for spy thieves, The Shadow League. He soon finds himself at the centre of a incredible world of danger and intrigue full of thrilling heists, sensational cons and ancient secrets. Can Tom keep up? And can he save his friends?

A proper rip-roaring, edge-of-your-seat adventure story full of fun, action and atmosphere. A new children’s hero is born!

And if your child prefers adventure away from dry land . . .

Uncle Pete and the Undersea Adventure
By David C. Flanagan
Middle Grade Adventure

Uncle Pete’s plane has been shot down into the sea and his usual squirrel crew members are on a well-earned holiday. That means he’ll have to adventure into the sea without them, which is trickier than he thinks! And when a curious and clever octopus discovers the plane himself, he might be unwilling to give it back to its original owner!

This is a charming tale of talented animals working together with a big dollop of laughter and silliness.

But we know that not everyone loves the sunshine weather, and many of you are looking forward instead to cosy autumnal evenings. So we’ll leave you with this final recommendation . . .

Fireworks
By Bonnie Woods
Romance

Pack up your summer clothes and order that pumpkin-spiced latte for this spicy romance set in the Scottish Highlands as the weather turns. Eiley is a broken-hearted bookseller and Warren is a flirty fireman and newcomer to town. Eiley finds him annoying and self-important, yet so very handsome. And then they have to team up together to save her bookshop. Sparks are going to fly!

Happy Holiday Reading Everyone!