My Into Summer Book Club Ideas Blog is guest-written by my sister, Diane, who is a retired Media Specialist. She has put together book club ideas for women in her church community. Start a summer book club with 3 book choices: June, July, and August, and connect with women this summer. If you live in my area, I’d be happy to join you.
This reading guide is a sampling of many genres and authors who write Christian fiction novels. They have been arranged in “flights” of three titles on a topic. You will find mystery, suspense, adventure, romance, historical, time travel, and contemporary stories. Choose and read what interests you. Don’t forget that audiobooks also count as reading! Read or listen to as many as you want this summer!
The public library will also have many of these titles. Don’t forget to check the Libby App for e-book copies. If you have Kindle Unlimited, many of the books can also be found there. I have marked them with KU after the book summary.
It is fun to track your reading! Use a paper tracker or your own tracking system. (I like goodreads.com) Make sure to tell your friends about the great books you are reading! Happy Summer Reading!
Into Summer Book Club Ideas
10 reading flight choices below with 30-40 book ideas. Start Reading In June.
Award Winning Books 2025
The Collector of Burned Books by Rosanna M. White | Christianity Today Best Fiction 2025. In this gripping World War II historical story about the power of words, two people form an unlikely friendship amid the Nazi occupation in Paris and fight to preserve the truth that enemies of freedom long to destroy.
All We Thought We Knew by Michelle Shocklee | Christy Award Best Book 2025. Mattie was so sure she knew her family’s story . . . Now she wonders if she was wrong about all of it. Set on a Tennessee horse farm during WWII and the Vietnam War, family bonds are tested in ways the Taylor family never expected.
Double Take by Lynette Eason | Carol Award Romantic Suspense 2025. Christian suspense novel about PA Lainie Jackson, who is haunted by her supposedly dead, abusive ex-fiancé. When she starts seeing him again, she enlists her childhood crush, detective and PTSD-survivor James Cross, to find out if she is being stalked by a ghost or a living man. Series: Lake City Heroes (4 Books)
Winners for Diverse Voices
An American Immigrant by Johanna Rojas Vann | 2023 Christy Award for Debut. Twenty-five-year-old Melanie Carvajal, a struggling journalist for a Miami newspaper, loves her Colombian mother but regularly ignores her phone calls, frustrated that she never quite takes the time to understand Melanie’s life. When the opportunity arises that might save her flagging career, Melanie follows the story to the land of her mother’s birth. She soon realizes Colombia has the potential to connect her to something she’s long ignored: her heritage, the love of her mother, her family, and the richest parts of herself.
The American Queen by Vanessa Miller | 2024 Christy Amplify Award. There is only one known queen who truly ruled a kingdom on American soil. The American Queen weaves together themes of love, hate, hope, trust, and resilience in the face of great turmoil. With every turn of the page, you will be transported to a pivotal period in American history, where oppressed people become extraordinary heroes.
Bitter and Sweet by Rhonda McKnight | 2025 Christy Amplify Award. A cryptic text message summons sisters to Georgetown, South Carolina, and both assume their ailing grandfather’s health has declined. Instead, the estranged sisters are faced with their grandmother’s undeniable request—save the family’s eighty-six-year-old restaurant. Through letters written by their great-great-grandmother, Tabitha, Mariah and Sabrina learn a heartbreaking yet powerful story of struggle and survival. KU
Minnesota Authors
Codebreaker’s Daughter by Amy Lynn Green. This WWII novel is about Dinah Kendall, who works for the OSS in Washington, D.C., and discovers her mother, Lillian, was a WWI codebreaker, leading them to work together to uncover a threat to the D-Day invasion.
The Fault Between Us by Stephanie Landsem.Three sisters fight for their lives and for each other amid the danger of a cataclysmic earthquake that rips Yellowstone National Park asunder. Based on real events of the 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake and inspired by true stories.
Whispers at Painswick Court by Julie Klassen. Anne Loveday, a surgeon’s daughter, is determined to live a single, useful life. To escape her matchmaking stepmother, she accepts an invitation from an old friend to return to Painswick, the place she and her sister spent many happy summers until that last, fateful year. Soon after arriving, Anne is asked to serve as a sick-room nurse. As an escalating series of mishaps befalls her patient, Anne realizes someone is trying to kill the woman. But who?
Historical Fiction
The Lumber Baron’s Wife by Lynn Austin. When the young wife of a powerful lumber baron vanishes into the wilds of frontier Michigan, her friend is left to unravel the truth. In the present day, the lumber baron’s historic mansion is being renovated, and secrets are uncovered.
The Fur Trader’s Lady by Gabrielle Meyer. To escape her guardian’s plans to marry her, Lady Charlotte Fairfax steals away to Montreal to locate Reid McCoy, a fur trader who owes her fiancé a debt for saving his life. Even though European women are forbidden from entering the interior, she is desperate to get to her fiancé deep within the northwestern wilderness. Series: Ladies of the Wilderness (3 Books) KU
Of Love and Treason by Jamie Ogle | Christy Award 2024 Historical Romance. Valentine defies the emperor and becomes a hero… and the most wanted man in the empire. Compelled by his faith, he has nothing to lose, until a chance encounter with the daughter of a Roman jailor changes everything.
Summer Books
The Summer of You and Me by Denise Hunter. Maggie Reynolds is finally ready for love again–until the past shows up in the form of someone who may or may not be the late husband she thought she’d lost.
On Moonberry Lake by Holly Varni.Cora Matthews has long wondered why her mother stopped taking her to visit her grandparents’ lodge in the small Northwoods Minnesota town of Moonberry Lake. Now, after burying her mother and breaking off her engagement just two weeks before her wedding, Cora has a chance to find out. Once there, she is stunned to learn that the old lodge is her inheritance–with a surprising condition attached. Series: Moonberry Lake (2 Books)
Memory Lane by Becky Wade. After surviving a trauma several years back, Remy Reed relocated to a cottage on one of Maine’s most remote islands. She’s arranged her life just the way she wants it, spending her time working on her wood sculptures and soaking in the beauty of nature. It’s quiet and solitary—until the day she spots something bobbing in the ocean. Series: Sons of Scandal (3 Books) All three books on KU
Multigenerational
The Forgotten Life of Eva Gordon by Linda MacKillop | 2023 Christy Award Winner Best First Novel. Failing memory has forced Eva Gordon to move in with her granddaughter, Breezy. All Eva wants to do is move back to her quiet, cozy Cape Cod home and be left alone. Then Breezy announces she’s getting married, and they’ll be moving to her new husband’s rundown family farm, where he lives with an elderly uncle. They’ll be one big family–but only Breezy and Brent think it’ll be a happy one.
The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip by Sara Brunsvold | 2023 Christy Award and Carol Award First Novel. Even as she enters hospice care, spunky 79-year-old Clara Kip has so much life to live — and to give, particularly to the young reporter who has come to interview her.
Where the Blue Sky Begins by Katie Powner | 2023 Christy Award General Fiction. When confident and handsome Eric Larson is sent to a rural Montana town to work in the local branch of his uncle’s financial company, he’s determined to exceed everyone’s expectations, earn a promotion, and be back in Seattle by the end of summer. Yet nothing could prepare him for the lessons this small town has in store.
Finding Family
He Should Have Told the Bees by Amanda Cox. Beekeeper Beckett Walsh works alongside her father in their apiary until his untimely death sends her world into a tailspin. She suddenly finds she must deal with a new part-owner of the family business–one who is looking to sell the property. Beck cannot fathom why her father would put her in a position to lose everything they built together
Fairest of Heart by Karen Witemeyer. Beauty has been nothing but a curse to Penelope Snow. When she becomes a personal maid for a famous actress whose troupe is leaving Chicago to tour the west, she hides her figure beneath shapeless dresses and keeps her head down. But she still manages to attract the wrong attention while her jealous mistress plots her demise. This book is an enchanting Western take on the classic Snow White fairy tale. Series: Texas Ever After series (3 Books)
Welcome to the Honey B & B by Melody Carlson. Jewel McKerry is unraveling as she heads home to Oregon to help care for her father, who has early-onset dementia. Her thirteen-year-old daughter is upset about the move. Her beekeeper dad is a humorous handful. Her mom is overworked, and finances are stretched tight. And, according to her father, the neighbors are nothing but trouble. Despite all of these challenges, Jewel convinces her parents to turn their decrepit farmhouse into a B&B in order to make some needed money.
Travel Adventure
Tea with Elephants by Robin Jones Gunn. Ever since they met as teenagers on a mission trip in Costa Rica 20 years ago, Fern Espinoza and Lily Graden have shared a close friendship, even though they live in different states. They can hardly believe it when their teen dream of traveling to Africa together becomes a reality.
Suitcase Sisters (3 Books)
Capture the Moment by Suzanne Woods Fisher. Kate Cunningham is facing the opportunity of a lifetime. As a zoo photographer, she’s spent years photographing animals, but now National Geographic has dangled an irresistible prize: If Kate can snag a unique photo of a legendary bear in Grand Teton National Park, they might publish it. It’s the kind of challenge Kate has been waiting for, and she’s eager to prove herself in the wild. Series: National Parks Summers (2 Books)
The Roads We Follow by Nicole Deese | 2025 Christy Award Contemporary Romance. The youngest daughter of a country music legend, Raegan Farrow, longs to publish her small-town romances under a pen name. She hears a rumor regarding a tell-all being written about the Farrow family. Raegan keeps the tell-all a secret from her sisters as they embark on a two-week cross-country road trip and makes it her mission to expose the identity of the author. A Fog Harbor Romance (3 Books)
Cool Reads for Hot Days
Baby, It’s Cold Outside by Susan May Warren. When a blizzard of the decade traps Dottie in her home, along with three strangers and a wandering child in need of rescue, everyone must band together to survive. And in doing so, they might discover the magic of Christmas and a miracle that will heal all their hearts.
Hidden Danger by Jerusha Agen. Cora Isaksson’s guilt has shadowed her life ever since drugs ensnared her brother and he disappeared. When Bradley suddenly returns, Cora and her narcotics detection K-9 are thrust into a battle against the drug cartel that wants him back. Series: Guardians Unleashed (5 Books)
Cold Light of Day by Elizabeth Goddard | 2023 Christy Award Suspense. Police Chief Autumn Long is fighting to keep her job in the quiet Alaska town of Shadow Gap when an unexpected string of criminal activity leaves her with a wounded officer, unexplained murders, and even an attack on her own father. Despite her mistrust of outsiders, she turns to Grier Brenner, a newcomer who seems to have the skills and training Autumn needs to face this threat to her community. Series: Missing in Alaska (3 Book
Series to Binge
Into a Golden Era by Gabrielle Meyer. Book # 7 As a time crosser, Ally lives in two worlds. In 1849, during the California Gold Rush, she was forced to take shelter in a hotel run by an infamous gang member. When history changes around her, she must use her time-crossing gift to find answers. In 1929, her family’s film studio was on the brink of ruin. To ensure their success, she agrees to stage a fake romance with a notorious Hollywood heartthrob, but risks her heart in the process.
Series: Timeless (7 Books) Books 1, 2, and 3 KU
My Beloved by Jan Karon. Book #15- When Father Tim’s wife, Cynthia, asks what he wants for Christmas, he pens the answer in a love letter that bears his most private feelings. Then the letter goes missing and circulates among his astonished neighbors. So much for being private. Can a letter change a life? Ask Helene, the piano teacher who has avoided her feelings for a lifetime. Ask Hope, the village bookseller who desperately needs something that’s impossibly out of reach. Or, if you’d like to know how a brush with death can be the portal to a happy marriage, Cynthia will tell you all about it
You will have Many, Many options for 3 books this summer, better yet, keep reading all year long. Thank you to my sister, who reads and reads and is always excited to share a good book with others. Let me know on Instagram, blog comments, or Facebook if you plan to start a book club this summer. Get reading with the Into Summer book club ideas.
If you would like some summer book ideas for your kids, here are some of the favorites my kids have read. Summer reads for the Family. Follow me on IG and Facebook, and my Newsletter will be coming back soon. Anna
