10 Trending Fiction Books of Summer ’21

Check out the top 10 trending fiction books of Summer. A huge number of both new contemporary and classic fiction books have been trending this summer. Let’s check out Read our list of brand new reads trending at World of Books!

1. Invisible Girl – Lisa Jewell

Lisa Jewell has done it again, keeping the literary world in her grasp with her dark tales full of curious twists and turns. Invisible Girl is her 2020 novel, and although she has released a new book since and soon to publish another, this one has not left the reader’s consciousness!

When Saffyre Maddox was ten, something terrible happened, and she’s carried the pain of it ever since. The man who she thought was going to heal her didn’t, and now she hides, learning his secrets, invisible in the shadows.

Owen Pick is invisible too. He’s never had a girlfriend; he’s never even had a friend.
Nobody sees him. Nobody cares.

But when Saffyre goes missing from opposite his house on Valentine’s night, suddenly the whole world is looking at Owen. Accusing him. Holding him responsible for Saffyre’s disappearance…

2. Nine Perfect Strangers – Liane Moriarty

Hulu has taken the task of adapting Nine Perfect Strangers into a series, the first episodes of which are available now. They’ve already done a hugely successful job with Moriarty’s novel Big Little Liars, creating a miniseries that has not stopped being talked about since! These adaptations which work so closely with the authors are impressing us all, turning bookworms into TV lovers and vice versa, not to mention making general conversation much more accessible!

Nine perfect strangers, each hiding an imperfect life.

A luxury retreat cut off from the outside world.

Ten days that promise to change your life.

But some promises – like some lives – are perfect lies . . .

3. Queenie – Candice Carty-Williams

Carty-Williams is making a huge impression across the arts. Early this summer, it was announced that she’s working on a drama called ‘Champion’, commissioned by the BBC. It’s to be set in South London and is an homage to Black British music while discussing the consequences of fame colliding with family. But! While we wait in anticipation, we’ve returned to her instant bestselling novel, Queenie.

Meet Queenie.

She just can’t cut a break. Well, apart from one from her long term boyfriend, Tom. That’s just a break though. Definitely not a break up. Stuck between a boss who doesn’t seem to see her, a family who don’t seem to listen (if it’s not Jesus or water rates, they’re not interested), and trying to fit in two worlds that don’t really understand her, it’s no wonder she’s struggling.

She was named to be queen of everything. So why is she finding it so hard to rule her own life?

4. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry – Rachel Joyce

This book is soon to be on the big screen with the director of Sally Rooney’s Normal People TV adaptation. Jim Broadbent will lead the cast in what is expected to be a big hit!

When Harold Fry nips out one morning to post a letter, leaving his wife hoovering upstairs, he has no idea that he is about to walk from one end of the country to the other.

He has no hiking boots or map, let alone a compass, waterproof or mobile phone. All he knows is that he must keep walking. To save someone else’s life.

Harold Fry is the most ordinary of men. He just might be a hero for us all.

5. Perfume – Patrick Suskind

Far Out magazine recently published an article discussing how Kurt Cobain’s favourite novel inspired the Nirvana song, Scentless Apprentice. The book itself is a difficult read for some, but certainly unforgettable, not unlike the story of the legend Cobain himself.

Survivor, genius, perfumer, killer: this is Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. He is abandoned on the filthy streets of Paris as a child, but grows up to discover he has an extraordinary gift: a sense of smell more powerful than any other human’s.

Yet there is one odour he cannot capture. It is exquisite, magical: the scent of a young virgin.

6. The Sentinel – Lee Child

The latest adventure of Jack Reacher. His 25th, in fact! Everyone’s been dying to get their hands on a copy of Lee Child’s latest novel. This one has made a particular splash as it was co-written with his brother, under his co-alias of Andrew Child.

Jack Reacher gets off the bus in a sleepy no-name town outside Nashville, Tennessee. He plans to grab a cup of coffee and move right along.
Not going to happen.
The town has been shut down by a cyber attack. At the centre of it all, whether
he likes it or not, is Rusty Rutherford. He’s an average IT guy, but he knows more than he thinks.

As the bad guys move in on Rusty, Reacher moves in on them . . .
And now Rusty knows he’s protected, he’s never going to leave the big man’s side.
Reacher might just have to stick around and find out what the hell’s gone wrong . . . and then put it right, like only he can.

7. The Keep of Lost Things – Ruth Hogan

Topping bestseller lists since its publication, Ruth Hogan’s feel-good read is a clear summer favourite. As a popular book club read and a great holiday read, we are not surprised this charming book is trending once again.

Meet the ‘Keeper of Lost Things’…
Once a celebrated author of short stories now in his twilight years, Anthony Peardew has spent half his life collecting lost objects, trying to atone for a promise broken many years before.

Realising he is running out of time, he leaves his house and all its lost treasures to his assistant Laura, the one person he can trust to fulfil his legacy and reunite the thousands of objects with their rightful owners.

But the final wishes of the ‘Keeper of Lost Things’ have unforeseen repercussions which trigger a most serendipitous series of encounters…

8. It – Stephen King

The King of Horror has just published his latest novel, Billy Summers. With very mixed reviews so far, readers are flocking to an old favourite, the most hated clown in fiction, to satiate their thriller needs.

On the surface, Derry in Maine seems like a pretty ordinary American town. However, what lies beneath its surface is something much, much more sinister. In the storm drains, in the sewers, It lies waiting for his moment to rise up and turn into a person’s worst nightmare.

It takes the form of Pennywise the Clown most frequently in the story. However, whatever frightens you most, whatever your deepest, darkest, most unthinkable terror – that’s what you will be confronted with when It appears.

9. The Fellowship of the Ring – J R R Tolkien

Amazon Studios are currently working on a TV show set in the Tolkien universe. This has inevitably caused a huge rise in interest in the incredible Lord of the Rings trilogy, and no one is complaining!

Sauron, the Dark Lord, has gathered to him all the Rings of Power – the means by which he intends to rule Middle-earth. All he lacks in his plans for dominion is the One Ring – the ring that rules them all – which has fallen into the hands of the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins.

In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.

10. Normal People – Sally Rooney

In preparation for Rooney’s new novel soon to be published, people are returning to one of her most loved stories so far. Normal People made Sally Rooney a household name after its TV adaptation, and brought many new readers back to paper and ink.

Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small town in the west of Ireland, but the similarities end there. In school, Connell is popular and well-liked, while Marianne is a loner. But when the two strike up a conversation – awkward but electrifying – something life-changing begins.

Normal People is a story of mutual fascination, friendship and love. It takes us from that first conversation to the years beyond, in the company of two people who try to stay apart but find they can’t.