Books are always a wonderful thing to add to your summer beach bag. Here are July book releases we can’t wait to dive into.

Afterlove by Tanya Byrne (Young Adult)

A love story set in the afterlife, Afterlove is the lesbian love story you’ll be dying to read! Byrne’s novel takes a story about first love and turns it into a supernatural thriller.

Sixteen-year-old Ash Persaud falls head-over-heels for Poppy Morgan on a school trip. But their romance is cut short when Ash is hit by a car on New Year’s Eve. Suddenly, Ash finds herself trapped in the afterlife as one of three fierce girl-reapers. These girls collect the souls of the city’s dead and take them to their fate.

But, all fierceness aside, Ash can’t forget Poppy. And she’ll do anything to see her again. Dead or alive.

Sounds intense, right? Do you know what else is exciting? The film and TV rights to the book were scooped up by Two Rivers Media (home of Luther) before the book’s release. Looks like we might get a chance to see this unique love story on-screen!

Trejo by Danny Trejo (Memoir)

On-screen Danny Trejo has been stabbed, hanged, chopped up, and even squished by an elevator. Off-screen, Trejo is celebrated by recovery communities and obsessed fans. Before starring in blockbuster films such as Heat, From Dusk Till Dawn, and Machete, Trejo had a heroin addiction and grew up in an abusive home before serving jail time in some of the nation’s most notorious prisons.

In his memoir, Trejo retraces his steps and shares his life experiences. From surviving prison and building a sober life to finding spirituality in solitary confinement and using his personal experience in robbing heists fueled by adrenaline as inspiration for some of his most famous film roles, Trejo is unflinching and honest.

As you can imagine, it hasn’t all been easy, and his story of redemption does not come without much pain and struggle.

I Have Always Been Me: a memoir by Precious Brady-Davis (Memoir)

Right from the start, Precious Brady-Davis’s life was tumultuous. At just two years old, Brady-Davis was taken away from her mother due to neglect. She endured extended stays with relatives and foster parents well into adolescence, and being a biracial, gender-nonconforming teenager in Omaha made the experience even more difficult. Born a biological male, Brady-Davis experimented with her femininity in ways that boosted her confidence and helped her find her way through years of neglect and instability.

By being herself and embracing her identity, Brady-Davis found a voice in high school theater and leadership groups that focused on social justice issues. Soon, she began living as a transwoman and found her place in the LGBTQ+ community, eventually meeting her future husband. Brady-Davis recounts their experience with fertility in the pursuit of their very own family and how it led them to reality TV.

Brady-Davis’s story is for anyone who has ever tried to find their place in the world and celebrates overcoming obstacles to get to the other side.

Funeral for Flaca by Emily Prado (Memoir-in-Essays)

This memoir-in-essays retraces Emily Prado’s coming-of-age as a “prep-turned-Chola-turned-punk” set in the 1990s and 2000s. Prado was a young Chicana growing up in the mostly white suburbs of the San Francisco Bay Area before moving to Portland, Oregon in 2008.

Prado’s memoir covers everything from rejection and adultery to mental illness and sexual assault. She recounts her cycles through a variety of coping mechanisms: love, alcohol, sex, eating disorders, and music. Prado shares the painful reality of losing and finding yourself multiple times over but somehow finding your way back to yourself.

This memoir is for anyone who as a child or as an adult (or both) may have lost their way in the unpredictability of human life.

Rise to the Sun by Leah Johnson (Young Adult)

Olivia, the expert at falling in love, finds herself dumped … again. The fallout of her latest breakup has anointed her with outcast status at school and home. What she really needs is a weekend away from the drama at Farmland Music Festival with her best friend so she can stop worrying about senior year.

Toni is a week away from starting college, and that’s the last place she wants to be. Like most first-year students, she is lost and unsure of how exactly to move forward. Not to mention, she’s still coping with the loss of her musician father. She’s decided to head back to the music festival that changed her father’s life in hopes that it may do the same for her.

And, yep, you guessed it, when Olivia and Toni meet on this serendipitous weekend, their hopes for a relaxing and uncomplicated getaway are squashed. But the two quickly discover that they need each other more than they could ever have anticipated.

A story of irresistible romance and heart, Leah Johnson’s latest novel is a story about grief, love, and the power of music to both heal and connect.