Escape with These Timeless Books This Summer

1. The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

Themes: Identity, deception, desire, class

Setting: Sun-drenched Italy — from Rome to the Amalfi coast

This psychological thriller is as elegant as it is unsettling. We follow Tom Ripley, a charming outsider with a dangerous hunger to belong. When he's sent to Italy to retrieve a wealthy acquaintance, he becomes entangled in a life of luxury, lies, and ultimately — something far darker.

Perfect for: Reading on a rooftop patio with a cold drink and a wide-brimmed hat, soaking in the glamour and unease of a golden European summer.

2. A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

Themes: Self-discovery, romance, social convention

Setting: Florence, Italy and the English countryside

A tender, witty story of a young woman awakening to passion, beauty, and independence. Lucy Honeychurch finds herself torn between a life that’s expected of her and the one her heart quietly longs for. Forster’s descriptions of sunlit landscapes, clumsy love, and quiet rebellion are timeless.

Perfect for: Reading in a flower-filled garden, perhaps beneath a tree with petals drifting down, classical music playing faintly in the background.

3. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson

Themes: Childhood, aging, nature, simplicity

Setting: A tiny island in the Gulf of Finland

This quiet, luminous novel follows a young girl and her grandmother through a series of summer days on a remote island. Nothing much happens — and yet everything does. Through small moments, it becomes a meditation on life, death, and connection. Jansson’s prose feels like clear water: still, but full of depth.

Perfect for: Reading on a quiet dock with bare feet in the water, or lying in the grass beside a lake, surrounded by wildflowers.

4. One Golden Summer by Paige Toon

Themes: Friendship, love, change, nostalgia

Setting: The beaches of France, past and present

An emotional, transportive story about a woman returning to a place where everything once changed. It weaves past and present, first loves and second chances, and the sun-soaked days that shape us. It's the kind of book that leaves you feeling tender and full at once.

Perfect for: Reading by the beach, toes in the sand, with the waves echoing the story’s longing and warmth.

5. The Waves by Virginia Woolf

Themes: Time, identity, memory, inner life

Setting: Shifting between coastlines, schools, and interiors of the mind

More poetic than plotted, The Waves follows six characters from childhood to old age in a stream of consciousness style. It captures the rhythm of life — how it moves like the sea, wave after wave. Woolf’s language is immersive, musical, and emotionally rich.

Perfect for: Reading under a tree in the late afternoon light, when shadows stretch long and you’re in no rush to be anywhere else.

6. Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Themes: Beauty, disillusionment, love, fragility

Setting: The French Riviera, 1920s

A hauntingly beautiful novel about a glamorous couple drifting through European resorts, holding onto love even as everything around them begins to unravel. Fitzgerald captures the golden glow of wealth and desire — and the shadows that often come with it.

Perfect for: Reading poolside at sunset, the scent of sunscreen still lingering, with a glass of something cold and bittersweet.

These stories don’t just take place in the summer — they feel like summer. They invite you to slow down, sink in, and let yourself be transported. So pack your bag with books, find your sunny spot, and let these pages carry you away.

With love,

Velvet Brunette