just finished: The Islanders. Mary Alice Monroe, bestselling author of The Beach House series and other adult novels, has joined forces with friend Angela May to write a middle grade book. It’s about three kids on Dewees Island, South Carolina, for the summer, learning all about nature, especially Loggerhead turtles. It’s lovely and heart-warming and will be a favorite of kids for years to come. And this is the week that Ahmed Aziz’s Epic Year comes out, so I am excited to get to talk about that finally.

currently reading: I just started Two Old Men and a Baby, by Hendrik Groen, about how he and his friend Evert get themselves into a jam. I have loved Hendrik’s books for years, so I am looking forward to finding some time to read this one! Also, I just started listening to a YA book, The Girl Most Likely, about a high schooler who accidentally enters a stand-up comedy contest and is encouraged to keep going with it. It’s out later this month, but if you’re a fan of funny YA books, you’ll want to put this one on your radar.

up next: Kate White’s The Fiancée, a domestic thriller about a woman who goes on a family vacation with her husband and their kids and realizes that her brother-in-law’s fiancée is not who she seems. And coming up in July is Liv Constantine’s new The Stranger in the Mirror, about a woman with amnesia. Lots of good thrillers fun for the hot months to come!