It’s a popular trope in romance, but just what makes a book a ‛summer read’? When the RatR members came up with the topic I sat down to have a good think, and eventually came up with three different reasons a book might be labelled ‛summery’.
One, and most obvious, it’s set during summer, which here in the northern hemisphere is roughly June-September. Obviously in the southern hemisphere summer is during our winter, and closer to the equator it can be summer pretty much all year round, so it’s not necessarily a particularly clear definition.
Two, the book involves things or activities people do in summer, like holidays, camping trips, picnics, BBQs, sport, lounging around on beaches, and anything else that’s easier when it’s warm. Again this is weather dependent and varies depending on the country. Here in the UK summer weather can be pretty miserable so there’s more chance of people jetting off abroad rather than facing weeks of cloud and rain.
Three, heat, in both senses of the word. Summer tends to be associated with heatwaves (particularly at the moment, horrifically), and heatwaves often go hand in hand with lots of steamy sex – maybe just because it’s less of an ordeal taking ones clothes off when the weather isn’t freezing cold!
I managed to combine all three of these in my own book of summer-themed short stories, Heat Haze: Summer Sizzlers. The book features a total of five longish stories, each with a summer and/or heat-related aspect. The title story, Heat Haze, features two men having an adventure in an Arabian desert where everything is very much not what it first seems. Making Waves involves a boat trip to a sea cave on Malta, with a hot young boatman and some jellyfish. Night Music is set in night-time Salzburg, with a passionate encounter during a thunderstorm. In Beach Nuts, two men sunbathing on a beach give an exhibitionist a taste of his own medicine and then get carried away themselves. And lastly, in Drought’s End, one man’s discomfort during a heatwave turns into a fling in an abandoned railway carriage.
I didn’t set out to write a summer anthology, but realised that all five of the stories I’d written had the same thing in common and decided to gather them together. I hope it works as a ‛summer read’, and I also hope that if you try it, you’ll enjoy the heat, in every sense of the word!
Heat Haze: Summer Sizzlers is available on Kindle (and free on Kindle Unlimited) – just click the links below.
And don’t forget to check out what the other RatR authors think about summer reads, including what they are and whether they like them or not.
A L Lester :: Holly Day :: Amy Spector :: Ofelia Grand :: Ellie Thomas :: Addison Albright :: Nell Iris :: K L Noone :: Lillian Francis
FIONA GLASS 
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