If you’re currently compiling your summer reading list, you might want to choose some of the popular books from May.
While we haven’t had time to read all of these ourselves, we have spent time researching the book releases that were popular with readers.
With big new releases from such writers as Stephen King, John Grisham, and Harlan Coben, there was something for readers of all tastes within the May lineup.
So, here’s our list of 10 of the most popular books from May 2024. Have you read any of these? Have we missed a book that you think deserves a recommendation? Let us know in the comments below.
You Like It Darker
by Stephen King
Synopsis:
‘Two Talented Bastids’ explores the long-hidden secret of how the eponymous gentlemen got their skills. In ‘Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream’, a brief and unprecedented psychic flash upends dozens of lives, Danny’s most catastrophically.
In ‘Rattlesnakes’, a sequel to Cujo, a grieving widower travels to Florida for respite and instead receives an unexpected inheritance – with major strings attached.
In ‘The Dreamers’, a taciturn Vietnam vet answers a job ad and learns that there are some corners of the universe best left unexplored.
‘The Answer Man’ asks if prescience is good luck or bad and reminds us that a life marked by unbearable tragedy can still be meaningful.
Buy Now: Amazon UK / Amazon US
This Summer Will Be Different
by Carley Fortune
Synopsis:
This summer they’ll keep their promise. This summer they won’t give into temptation. This summer will be different.
The first time Lucy and Felix met she was on vacation on Prince Edward Island. And a tour of the beaches wasn’t the only thing he showed her. But when she discovered his true identity as her best friend, Bridget’s brother, their electric night should have become a distant memory…
Each year with Lucy and Bridget’s return for a summer escape, she promises herself she won’t end up in Felix’s arms, but it’s easier said than done.
Not this year though. This year it will be different. With Bridget facing the biggest crisis of her life, Lucy must join her for one last trip to the island.
But Felix’s sparkling eyes and flirty quips have been replaced with something new, something more and Lucy’s beginning to wonder just how safe her heart truly is.
Buy Now: Amazon UK / Amazon US
The Ministry of Time
by Kaliane Bradley
Synopsis:
A BOY MEETS A GIRL. THE PAST MEETS THE FUTURE. A FINGER MEETS A TRIGGER. THE BEGINNING MEETS THE END. ENGLAND IS FOREVER. ENGLAND MUST FALL.
In the near future, a disaffected civil servant is offered a lucrative job in a mysterious new government ministry gathering ‘expats’ from across history to test the limits of time-travel.
Her role is to work as a ‘bridge’: living with, assisting and monitoring the expat known as ‘1847’ – Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to find himself alive and surrounded by outlandish concepts such as ‘washing machine’, ‘Spotify’ and ‘the collapse of the British Empire’. With an appetite for discovery and a seven-a-day cigarette habit, he soon adjusts; and during a long, sultry summer he and his bridge move from awkwardness to genuine friendship, to something more.
But as the true shape of the project that brought them together begins to emerge, Gore and the bridge are forced to confront their past choices and imagined futures. Can love triumph over the structures and histories that have shaped them? And how do you defy history when history is living in your house?
Buy Now: Amazon UK / Amazon US
If Something Happens To Me
by Alex Finlay
Synopsis:
The crushing blow to the head. Hands yanking him from the vehicle. His girlfriend’s piercing scream.
For the past five years, Ryan Richardson has relived that terrible night. With no trace of Ali after she is abducted, a cloud of suspicion hangs over him, though he is never charged. Trying to put his past behind him, Ryan changes his name and enters law school.
It’s on a summer trip to Italy that he gets the call: his missing car has finally been found, submerged in a lake in his hometown. But inside the car are two dead men. The only trace of Ali is a cryptic note, the envelope in her handwriting stating If something happens to me…
Reeling from the news, Ryan sees the man who has haunted his nightmares since the night Ali was taken. But how could that be possible, so far from home? His search for answers leads him to England and France, but the truth may lie in the shape of two very different people back in the USA.
Buy Now: Amazon UK / Amazon US
Think Twice
by Harlen Coben
Synopsis:
How can a man who’s already dead be wanted for murder?
This is the question sports agent Myron Bolitar asks himself when two FBI agents visit him in New York.
The man they are looking for is Myron’s former client and rival, Greg Downing. Greg’s DNA has been found at the scene of a high profile double-murder, and he is now the FBI’s main suspect.
But Greg died three years previously, Myron says. He went to his funeral and gave the eulogy.
The FBI are disbelieving, and Myron knows he has to find some answers – and quickly.
Could Greg Downing still be alive?
The more Myron and his close friend Win dig into what really happened, the more dangerous their world becomes . . .
Buy Now: Amazon UK / Amazon US
Camino Ghosts
by John Grisham
Synopsis:
Dark Isle off the Florida coast is said to be cursed: drownings, disappearances and hauntings have been the fate of intruders. The people who lived there were once enslaved. Now abandoned, it is the target of greedy developers.
Lovely Jackson is the last survivor and claims to be its legal owner. But there is not a shred of evidence to prove that is true.
It’s unlikely that the developers will be deterred by the claims of one old woman. They have millions; Lovely only has Steve Mahon, a pro bono environmental lawyer, and Mercer Mann, a floundering novelist, to fight in her corner.
With the court case looming and the bulldozers waiting to roll in, Steve and Mercer are in a race against time to unearth the truth behind Lovely’s story and save the legacy of the island.
Buy Now: Amazon UK / Amazon US
Lies and Weddings
by Kevin Kwan
Synopsis:
Rufus Leung Gresham, future Earl of Greshamsbury and son of a former Hong Kong supermodel, is drowning in debt. The only solution, according to his mother, is for him to attend his sister’s wedding and seduce a woman with money.
Will it be the French hotel heiress with a royal bloodline? The venture capital genius who passes out billions like lollipops? Or will Rufus betray his family and confess his love for his best friend and ‘girl next door’ Eden? But when a volcanic eruption burns through the nuptials and a hot mic exposes a secret tryst, the Gresham family plans – and their reputation – go up in flames, making Rufus’ choice all the more impossible.
Taking us from the sand beaches of Hawaii to the skies of Marrakech, from the glitzy bachelor pads of Beverly Hills to the inner sanctums of England’s oldest family estates, Kevin Kwan has written a juicy, hilarious and sophisticated tale of love, money, murder, sex, and the lies we tell about them all.
Buy Now: Amazon UK / Amazon US
The Return of Ellie Black
by Emiko Jean
Synopsis:
It’s been twenty years since Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s sister vanished when they were teenagers, and ever since she’s been searching: for signs, for closure, for other missing girls. But happy endings are rare in Chelsey’s line of work.
Then a glimmer: local teenager Ellie Black, who disappeared without a trace two years earlier, has been found alive in the woods of Washington State.
But something is not right with Ellie. She won’t say where she’s been, or who she’s protecting, and it’s up to Chelsey to find the answers. She needs to get to the bottom of what happened to Ellie: for herself, and for the memory of her sister, but mostly for the next girl who could be taken–and who, unlike Ellie, might never return.
Buy Now: Amazon UK / Amazon US
When Among Crows
by Veronica Roth
Synopsis:
We bear the sword, and we bear the pain of the sword.
Pain is Dymitr’s calling. His family is one in a long line of hunters who sacrifice their souls to slay monsters. Now he’s tasked with a deadly mission: find the legendary witch Baba Jaga. To reach her, Dymitr must ally with the ones he’s sworn to kill.
Pain is Ala’s inheritance. A fear-eating zmora with little left to lose, Ala awaits death from the curse she carries. When Dymitr offers her a cure in exchange for her help, she has no choice but to agree.
Together they must fight against time and the wrath of the Chicago underworld. But Dymitr’s secrets―and his true motives―may be the thing that actually destroys them.
Buy Now: Amazon UK / Amazon US
The Five Year Lie
by Sarina Bowen
Synopsis:
What if you got a text from the love of your life… five years after he died?
On an ordinary Monday morning, Ariel’s phone buzzes with a text: Something’s happened. I need to see you. Meet me under the candelabra tree ASAP.
Her heat skips a beat. The message is from Drew, the only guy she’s ever loved. The father of her child. The man who up and left five years ago without a word. The man who died shortly after in a motorcycle accident.
The text upends everything she knew about the day he vanished. Only two things are clear: everything she was told back then is a lie, and someone is still deceiving her today.
The truth is out there, and Ariel will do anything to find it. But she has no idea that if it finds her first, she and her four-year-old son will be in terrible danger.
Buy Now: Amazon UK / Amazon US
Perfect Little Monsters
by Cindy R.X. He
Synopsis:
Someone has murdered the queen bee of Sierton High School. All the dead girl’s friends are suspects. And each one has a reason for wanting her to die.
Ella Moore was the most popular girl in school…and also the most hated. When she’s murdered at her own party, there are too many suspects to count. And too many people who think she deserved it.
The police’s prime suspect is the new girl, Dawn Foster. Dawn was the last to hand Ella a drink on the night she died. Plus, all of Ella’s friends with a motive for wanting Ella dead are more than willing to throw Dawn under the bus, if it means keeping the heat off themselves.
But Dawn refuses to go down without a fight. She’s determined to clear her name. As she delves deeper into the past, she discovers that Ella and her friends had major enemies, and someone is out for revenge. Dawn must uncover the truth before the police arrest the wrong suspect… and before the next person dies.
Buy Now: Amazon UK / Amazon US
How many of these books will you be reading? Which books do you recommend? Let us know in the comments below.