I don’t know what it is about summer, but it always makes me want to re-evaluate everything to do with my life. Something about not being in class, and the prospect of a new school year, makes me feel like I need to get back to basics.

For the last four years, that’s meant reading Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen.

Dessen is one of my favorite authors. She writes teen romance, but the kind of teen romance that’s more about a character and her life, of which romance happens to be a part.

I always learn something when I read one of Dessen’s books.

In Along for the Ride, Auden is an insomniac overachiever who goes to stay with her dad at his beach house for the summer. While there, yes, she does meet a guy (Eli) with a complicated past, but more than that, she learns that what she thought was true about her family is more complicated than she expected.

Every assumption she makes about who other people are, including who she is herself, is tested. She learns that what people seem to be on the surface is rarely who they are under the surface.

And every summer I get to join her in this lesson. 

One of the things I love about this book is the concept of “questing,” as Auden goes on a quest with Eli to do all the things she never got to do as a kid, including learning how to ride a bike (hence the title). It’s this notion that has led me to stay up late to stargaze, finally try a Big Mac, and do things that scare me in summers past.

Reading it every year is like a reset button for my brain, reminding me that there’s more to life than just school and being accomplished on paper — and by the same token, there’s always more to learn about other people

In addition to this, my favorite summer read, I have compiled a list of six other books perfect for the summer.

Table of Contents

5. Lovely, Dark and Deep by Amy McNamara

Though I’m not sure it’s clear what time of year this book is set in, I get a strong summer vibe from Lovely, Dark and Deep, probably because it’s about self-discovery.