Summer 2022 Book Haul: Vacation Book Buying

Happy Tuesday y’all! This week’s topic for Top Ten Tuesday, Jana from over at That Artsy Reader Girl, wants us to share books we’ve read on vacation. A great idea! BUT there’s a slight problem with that, at least for me. What is the problem, you may ask? I rarely get to read on vacation, as we typically drive where ever we go. Guess who the driver is? That’s right, me! But this summer, I did manage to go book shopping, both on and off vacation. So, I am finally going to share my summer 2022 book haul!

My favorite bookstore is the Book Outlet. Yes, the one a lot of people order online from. But there is a brick-and-mortar storefront. It’s just outside Niagara Falls, ON, if you’re ever in the area. This summer, I got to make a couple of trips down there. I’m proud that I controlled myself and didn’t buy every book I wanted, just enough! Interestingly, most of my summer 2022 book haul contains Christmas books.

All titles will lead to Goodreads.

Let’s get to why we’re all here- my summer 2022 book haul!

Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall

Following the recipe is the key to a successful bake. Rosaline Palmer has always lived by those rules—well, except for when she dropped out of college to raise her daughter, Amelie. Now, with a paycheck as useful as greaseproof paper and a house crumbling faster than biscuits in tea, she’s teetering on the edge of financial disaster. But where there’s a whisk, there’s a way, and Rosaline has just landed a spot on the nation’s most beloved baking show.

Winning the prize money would give her daughter the life she deserves—and Rosaline is determined to stick to the instructions. However, more than collapsing trifles stand between Rosaline and sweet, sweet victory. Suave, well-educated, and parent-approved Alain Pope knows all the right moves to sweep her off her feet, but it’s shy electrician Harry Dobson who makes Rosaline question her long-held beliefs—about herself, her family, and her desires.

Rosaline fears falling for Harry is a guaranteed recipe for disaster. Yet as the competition—and the ovens—heat up, Rosaline starts to realize the most delicious bakes come from the heart.

Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore

It’s New Year’s Eve, 1982, and Oona Lockhart has her whole life before her. At the stroke of midnight, she will turn nineteen, and the year ahead promises to be one of consequence. Should she go to London to study economics or remain at home in Brooklyn to pursue her passion for music and be with her boyfriend? As the countdown to the New Year begins, Oona faints and awakens thirty-two years in the future in her fifty-one-year-old body. Greeted by a friendly stranger in a beautiful house she’s told is her own, Oona learns that with each passing year, she will leap to another age at random. And so begins Oona Out of Order.

Hopping through decades, pop culture fads, and much-needed stock tips, Oona is still a young woman on the inside but ever-changing on the outside. Who will she be next year? Philanthropist? Club Kid? World traveler? Wife to a man she’s never met?

A Very Merry Match by Melinda Curtis

This holiday season, kindergarten teacher Mary Margaret Sneed never imagined she’d be unwrapping herself. But a burlesque side gig is the young widow’s only hope of paying off her late husband’s substantial debt. With her reputation and career on the line, she performs in disguise under the stage name Foxy Roxy. But her secret identity is threatened when Roxy’s biggest fan turns out to be Mary Margaret’s biggest crush — the handsome-as-sin mayor of Preston!

Newly divorced single dad Kevin Hadley is prepping to make the jump from mayor to state assemblyman. He knows he should be settling down with someone quiet and practical, someone like Mary Margaret Sneed. The last thing Kevin needs right now is a steamy scandal. But he just can’t stop thinking about Foxy Roxy, and if Preston’s matchmaking Widows Club has their way this Christmas, Kevin won’t have to.

A Deadly Affair by Agatha Christie

Love can propel us to our greatest heights and darkest depths. In this new collection of Agatha Christie short stories, witness the dark side of love—crimes of passion, games of the heart, and deadly affairs. This pulse-pounding compendium features beloved detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, master of charades Parker Pyne, the enigmatic Harley Quin, and the adventurous Tommy and Tuppence, all on the ready to solve a tantalizing mystery.

Summer Days and Summer Nights by Stephanie Perkins

Maybe it’s the long, lazy days, or maybe it’s the heat making everyone a little bit crazy. Whatever the reason, summer is the perfect time for love to bloom. Summer Days & Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories, written by twelve bestselling young adult writers and edited by the international bestselling author Stephanie Perkins, will have you dreaming of sunset strolls by the lake. So set out your beach chair and grab your sunglasses. You have twelve reasons this summer to soak up the sun and fall in love.

A Country Village Christmas by Suzanne Snow

Can the magic of Christmas and the community of Thorndale bring two lost souls together in love?
Olivia doesn’t have time for Christmas or for romance – she’s got a demanding career and has been burned before when it comes to love. This year, she’s spending the festive season in her dad’s old house, packing it up now that he’s moved out. Her dad failed to mention she wouldn’t be spending her time there alone.

The last thing Olivia expects is for her surprise guest to be the very man who literally ran from her after an evening of mutual flirtation. But Tom has nowhere else to go, and Olivia is determined to forget the disappointment she felt at his abandonment and instead help him find his way again.

As heavy snow keeps them inside the cottage, will their enforced confinement spark romance once again – or will it push them further apart?

A Very Merry Manhattan Christmas by Darcie Boleyn

Lucie Quigley hates Christmas. It’s the time of year when everything goes wrong in her life. So this year, when she’s asked to be a bridesmaid at her friend Petra’s Manhattan wedding, she jumps at the invitation to escape the festivities.

Dale Treharne has been best friends with Lucie for as long as he can remember. He’s used to looking out for his oldest friend, and when she asks him to be her plus one, he can’t seem to find a reason to refuse. Instead, he sees it as a way to help Lucie get through what is, for her, the most miserable time of the year.

In New York, as the snow starts to fall, Lucie and Dale start to realize that their feelings run deeper than just friendship. But can they overcome their pasts and make it a very merry Manhattan Christmas?

Make Do and Mend in Applewell by Lilac Mills

Can their marriage be mended in time for Christmas?

Lottie has always been thrifty. As a mother of three, it’s even more important that she stretches the household budget as far as possible. Luckily, Lottie’s penchant for taking broken items and upcycling them has worked wonders for living on a shoestring.

Henry can’t face telling Lottie he’s been made redundant. Instead, he pretends to go to work as usual while frantically job hunting. The race is on to find another role before Lottie discovers he’s another useless item for her collection – one that is beyond repair.

Christmas is a time for giving, but will Lottie give Henry another chance if she learns about his lies? And can Henry give Lottie and their kids the life he so desperately wants them to have? 

The War Outside by Monica Hesse

It’s 1944, and World War II is raging across Europe and the Pacific. The war seemed far away from Margot in Iowa and Haruko in Colorado–until they were uprooted to dusty Texas, all because of the places their parents once called home: Germany and Japan.

Haruko and Margot meet at the high school in Crystal City, a “family internment camp” for those accused of colluding with the enemy. The teens discover that they are polar opposites in so many ways, except for one that seems to override all the others: the camp is changing them, day by day and piece by piece. Haruko finds herself consumed by fear for her soldier brother and distrust of her father, who she knows is keeping something from her. And Margot is doing everything she can to keep her family whole as her mother’s health deteriorates and her rational, patriotic father becomes a man who distrusts America and fraternizes with Nazis.

With everything around them falling apart, Margot and Haruko find solace in their growing, secret friendship. But in a prison the government has deemed full of spies, can they trust anyone–even each other?

Christmas at Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan

In the Cornish coastal village of Mount Polbearne, the Christmas season has arrived. It’s a joyous time for family, friends, and feasting as decorations sparkle along the town’s winding streets and shop windows glow with festive displays. And in Polly’s Little Beach Street Bakery, the aroma of gingerbread cookies and other treats tempts people in from the cold.

Though Polly is busy keeping up with the demands of the season, she still makes time for her beekeeper boyfriend, Huckle. She’s especially happy to be celebrating the holiday this year with him and can’t wait to cuddle up in front of the fireplace with a cup of eggnog on Christmas Eve.

But holiday bliss soon gives way to panic when a storm cuts the village off from the mainland. Now it will take all of the villagers to work together in order to ensure everyone has a happy holiday.

Procrastibaking: 100 Recipes for Getting Nothing Done in the Most Delicious Way Possible by Erin Gardner

Sometimes you need to take a mini vacation from the demands of daily life, and the kitchen is the best space for it. How can you return those emails when there’s dough on your hands? It would be counterproductive to handle clean laundry after dipping chocolates all afternoon, right? It’s no coincidence that apple season coincides with tax time (for us extension filers, of course)—the universe is sending you a very clear message.

Pastry chef and beloved blogger Erin Gardner provides the ultimate guide to procrastibaking with pride and purpose in this inspired collection of 100 recipes, from easy one-hour projects to weekend affairs. From Case-of-the-Mondays Morning Treats to Late-for-Everything Loaf Cakes and Fear-of-Success Snack Cakes, this book has a chapter for every procrastibaking need and recipes to satisfy any craving for distraction. Not feeling that work project? Work on some Peanut Butter S’more Bars instead. Term paper due tomorrow? Making some No-Bake Cookies-n-Cream Pie will get the creative juices flowing. Does your mother-in-law have you channeling Scrooge? This calls for a procrasti-masterpiece, like a Gingerbread House…from scratch.

So don’t be ashamed. Put down the laundry basket. Ignore the emails.

It’s time to procrastibake.

And that’s my Summer 2022 book haul! Have you read any of these books? What did you buy recently? What was your summer 2022 book haul like?

Looking for some more books to read? Check out my other bookish lists, book reviews, and monthly reading wrap-ups.