Here are 9 of the best books we have been reading this July

The sun is shining and the weekend is here which means it’s the absolute perfect time to sit outside in the garden and crack open a new book.

With so many brilliant books being published each and every day, it can get a bit tricky deciding which one to go for. Do you pick up a classic romance? A page-turning thriller? An enlightening memoir? The options are endless!

That’s why we’ve put together this little list of just some of the books which we’ve been loving this month and others which we can’t wait to get our hands on. No matter your preference, there’s sure to be something for everyone. 

Happy reading!

About Us by Sinéad Moriarty – out now

Three couples. One therapist's couch … Alice and Niall used to be lovers, best friends and parents, in that order. Now they're no longer on the same page or even reading from the same book. Ann thought when she and Ken retired, it would be their second spring. Instead, it feels more like an icy winter. Orla is falling in love with boyfriend Paul, but her complicated past makes her unsure if she can ever be intimate with anyone. 

Three couples find themselves telling a stranger about the most private part of their lives – their hopes, their disappointments, their awkward realisations. Can they learn to be honest with each other? And what life-changing decisions will be made when they do?

Hide and Secrets by Sophie McKenzie – out now

A lonely girl, a missing father and a trail of lies. From the bestselling author of top-ten blockbuster Girl, Missing comes an explosive new teen thriller, Hide and Secrets will have you looking for answers in every corner.

Fourteen-year-old Cat is facing a lonely summer. Her father is missing – presumed dead – her mother has retreated into her own world and her little sister, Bess, refuses to speak. But when a boy and his father come to stay nearby for the holidays, Cat finds herself opening up to the handsome Tyler. Discovering some long-buried information, Cat and Tyler begin to unravel the trail of lies around her father’s disappearance – a journey that will take them cross-country, uncover a dangerous gang, and a plot to steal a priceless jewel. With secrets exposed, will Cat be able to begin to mend her family?

Keep the Receipts – out now

Brought to us by the three brilliant women behind the The Receipts podcast, this book is all the conversations and advice you've had in the club toilet, finally in one place.

Crying over that situationship and needing someone to remind you you're a bad bitch?

In a dilemma with your friends and not sure the best way forward?

Can't figure out how to dump the boyfriend who has never made you orgasm?

The Receipts girls have got you!

Join your girl Tolly T, Audrey, formerly known as Ghana's Finest, and your mamacita Milena Sanchez as they get super honest about their life experiences and lessons. From their different approaches to love to their wise advice on building strong friendships; from those conversations about sex we never have, to how to enjoy life as a Black woman or a woman of colour, The Receipts girls always keep it real, authentic and fiercely funny.

This book is a celebration of the wonderful messes, mistakes, successes, highs and lows of three audacious women who are still trying to get it right and live their best lives.

You and Me on Vacation by Emily Henry – out now

You and Me on Vacation is a love story for fans of When Harry Met Sally and One Day. Get ready to travel the world, snort with laughter and – most of all – lose your heart to Poppy and Alex.

Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell – out now

The third installment in Rainbow Rowell’s queer young-adult urban-fantasy series is finally with us, and I for one, couldn’t be more excited.

Any Way the Wind Blows takes the gang back to England, back to Watford, and back to their families for their longest and most emotionally wrenching adventure yet.

This book is a finale. It tells secrets and answers questions and lays ghosts to rest.

Carry On was conceived as a book about 'Chosen One' stories; Any Way the Wind Blows is an ending about endings. About catharsis and closure, and how we choose to move on from the traumas and triumphs that try to define us.

The Comfort Book by Matt Haig – out now

The Comfort Book is a collection of consolations learned in hard times and suggestions for making the bad days better. Drawing on maxims, memoir and the inspirational lives of others, these meditations celebrate the ever-changing wonder of living. This is for when we need the wisdom of a friend or a reminder we can always nurture inner strength and hope, even in our busy world.

A book of timeless comfort for modern minds.

How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie – out now

• Kill my family

• Make a claim on their fortune

• Get away with the above

• Adopt a dog

Meet Grace Bernard: daughter, sister, colleague, friend, serial killer… Grace has lost everything. And now she wants revenge.

How to Kill Your Family is a fierce and addictive novel about class, family, love… and murder.

Such A Quiet Place by Megan Miranda – out now

Welcome to Hollow's Edge – a picture-perfect neighbourhood where everyone has each other's backs. At least, that's how it used to be, until the night Brandon and Fiona Truett were found dead… Two years ago, branded a grifter, thief and sociopath by her friends and neighbours, Ruby Fletcher was convicted of murdering the Truetts. Now, freed by mistrial, Ruby has returned to Hollow's Edge. But why would she come back? No one wants her there, least of all her old housemate, Harper Nash. 

As Ruby's return sends shockwaves through the community, terrified residents turn on each other, and it soon becomes clear that not everyone was honest about the night the Truetts died. When Harper begins to receive threatening, anonymous notes, she realizes she has to uncover the truth before someone else gets hurt… Someone like her.

The Troubles with Us by Alix O'Neill – out now

Growing up on the Falls Road in 1990s Belfast, Alix O'Neill has seen it all – burnt-out buses blocking the route to school, the police mistaking her father for a leading terrorist and a classmate playing hide and seek with her dad's prosthetic hand (blown off making a device for the IRA). Not that she or her friends are up-to-speed with the goings-on of the resistance. They're too preoccupied with the obsessions of every teenage girl – booze, boys and Boyzone – to worry about the violence on their doorstep. Besides, the odd coffee jar bomb is nothing compared to the drama about to explode in Alix's personal life. 

Desperate to leave Northern Ireland and the trials of her mother's unorthodox family – a loving yet eccentric band of misfits – behind, she makes grand plans for the next stage. But it's through these relationships and their gradual unravelling that Alix begins to appreciate not only the troubled history of where she comes from, but the strength of its women.

Warm, embarrassing, and full of love and insight, The Troubles With Us is a hilarious and moving account of the madness and mundanities of life in Northern Ireland during the 30-year conflict. It's a story of mothers and daughters, the fallout from things left unsaid and the lengths a girl will go to for fake tan.