**Fluffy Feel-Good Contemporaries to Beat the Summer Heat**

As we dive headfirst into the final stretch of summer, I've got just the prescription for you: light-hearted, fun, and utterly engaging contemporaries that will transport you to a world of laughter, love, and self-discovery. In this article, I'll be sharing my top picks for fluffy feel-good novels that are sure to brighten up your reading experience.

**The Misadventures of Dimplex**

First up is "Dimplex" by Priyanka, which explores the story of a young woman from Russia who lives in a society steeped in tradition. Her name, Dimplex, is a nod to her love for dimples - and it's clear that she's no conventional beauty. With her eternal pessimism and independent spirit, she's a far cry from the typical arranged marriage bride. In contrast, her Russian counterpart, Ivan, is bursting with enthusiasm and eagerness to win his future wife over. The ensuing meeting between these two women is a masterclass in humor, wit, and banter. I was thoroughly entertained by this story, and I think it'll have you laughing out loud too.

**For the Love of Video Games**

Next up is "The Common Universe" by Christian McKay Heidi Dicker - an absolute gem that flew under my radar until now. This book follows a boy who ends up in video game rehab, where he's surrounded by like-minded individuals who are just as obsessed with gaming as he is. What's not to love about this setup? The humor and banter between the characters had me grinning from ear to ear, and I found myself nodding along to the references to my own favorite video games (yes, Sims is where it's at for me!). It's clear that Christian McKay Heidi Dicker knows her stuff when it comes to gaming culture, and this book is a must-read for anyone who's ever spent hours on end playing their favorite titles.

**The Loose Ends List**

Now, I know what you're thinking: "A book about death and dying set on a cruise ship? That sounds like the last thing we need right now!" But trust me when I say that "The Loose Ends List" by Carrie Firestone is anything but a downer. The story follows Grandma Belle's journey as she accepts her own mortality and sets out to tie up loose ends with her family. It's a beautifully written exploration of love, loss, and letting go - with just the right amount of humor to keep things light-hearted. I won't lie: I wasn't entirely sold on the romance aspect of this novel (it felt a tad unnecessary at times), but overall, it was a delightful surprise that had me smiling long after I finished reading.

**Dumplin' into Self-Acceptance**

Last but certainly not least is "Dumplin'" by Julie Murphy - a body-positive, feel-good masterpiece that will leave you feeling empowered and uplifted. This novel tells the story of Willowdean 'Dumplin'' Dickson, a teenage girl who enters a beauty pageant to prove a point (or two). With her unconventional style and attitude, she's about to disrupt the status quo and challenge all sorts of stereotypes along the way. I adore how Julie Murphy tackles themes of self-acceptance and body positivity with such care and sensitivity - this book is truly for anyone who's ever felt like they don't quite fit in.

**Bonus: A Video Production Team?**

Before I wrap up, I want to let you know that these recommendations are just the beginning. I've got a full video production team working on a companion piece that'll take us down a more hard-hitting and emotional path - all things contemporary, of course! Stay tuned for updates, and don't forget to subscribe to my channel for new videos every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. And if you have any favorite fluffy contemporaries or recommendations to share, I'd love to hear them in the comments below. Let's chat!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey everyone its Haley and today I'm going to be recommending some of my favorite feel-good contemporary novels so originally I was only going to do one contemporary recommendations video but I decided to do two because they have some that are more fluffy and fun but then I also have some that are more emotional and hard-hitting so in order to get as many recommendations as I can I decided to split it up into two separate videos but today we're going to be focusing on the feel-good and fun I also have been a little bit of a different filming setup I thought it would be fun to sit in front of my shelves I filmed like this like a year ago but the background was much brighter in that one I feel like this is a little bit of a dark background so I'm sorry but I already had it set up so we're just gonna film here today but today's video is sponsored by Squarespace which is an all-in-one website building platform where you can promote your brand whether you are a youtuber a book blogger have your own business whatever it is Squarespace is perfect for you to easily be able to build a website they have tons of really cool templates that you can choose from and if you're having any trouble which you shouldn't because it's a really easy software to use their customer service is super helpful so they are always there 24/7 to help you out if you need it I will have the link down below for you guys to sign up for a free trial and then when you're ready to purchase you can go to Squarespace calm slash hey Lila blog which will also be down below for you guys and using that you will get 10% off of your first order so getting to my first recommendation that is the lovely Morgan Matson I only have four of her books here because second chance summer is definitely not exactly fluffy and feel good it's much more of an emotionally intense breed but these ones all have a feel-good element to them Amy and Roger kind of is a little bit more intense but it's still lots of fun I would say that's probably my favorite novel by her you got to travel in a and there's tons of fun little extras which a lot of her books have another one of my favorite books by her is the unexpected everything which has all these dogs in it so it is amazing and it features a really cute sweet summer romance and it's all about the main character learning that not everything in her life has to be planned out to a tee next is the first novel that I read by her and that is since you've been gone which I also enjoyed it it's once again a novel about kind of breaking out of your shell but this time it's about a girl learning that she doesn't need her outgoing best friend to be able to have fun in life by all the while she is following a bucket list that her friend made her in the most reason novel I have read by her is save the day this isn't my favorite novel by her but it was a really enjoyable and fun read I loved the fact that it focused on familial relationships and siblings and learning to accept the fact that life changes and not everyone's always going to live at home and things are going to progress but that doesn't mean you're not a family anymore I read this book with the fiction fashion book club which was tons of fun and we were sponsored by Squarespace so thank you so much to them for working with us this month but this is set during the main characters sister's wedding so there is tons of chaos tons of things going wrong basically everything that you could think of going wrong goes wrong and this was a really fun read for me since I had two weddings this year I've been to so many weddings in my life but it was fun to read it when I had been to one recently next I have another author recommendation and that is the lovely becky albertalli all the becky alders Haley's books have a little bit of a punch to them but they still manage to be so much fun her characters are so realistic and so close to my heart my favorite book by her has to be the upside of unrequited just because I identified with the main character Molly so much so I really loved seeing her development throughout this novel but I still love Simon as well as Leah on the offbeat the friend group in these two books just has me like it melts my heart I love them so much and if you haven't seen the movie yet you really need to see it because it is like probably my favorite book to movie adaptation but these honestly are such fun easy and quick reads and I highly recommend them if you need something that's just gonna make you smile the next author recommendation I actually only have read two of her books that I've really enjoyed the other one that I read I didn't like so much but that is Kacey West so I really like to by your side as well as love life in the list these two were really fun she definitely is a very romance heavy author but if you are looking for a fun and fluffy romance I think you should definitely check hers out specifically these two there's a couple that she has that I haven't read yet because she comes out with like two books a year so it's really hard to keep up with it all and like I said I didn't really enjoy the filling boyfriend so much but these ones I loved a lot so by your side is one of my favorite romancing novels because so cute and fun and it's set in a library is so like that is a recipe for success in my books that was a good pun didn't even intended but it does still manage to have some substance to it which is what I like from my romances and love life in the list is kind of the same thing it deals with art and learning to break out of your shell which is a trope that I really enjoy because it's hard to break out of your show so reading books about that really helps me this one definitely isn't as romance heavy as by your side but I still enjoyed both of them a lot next up I have a few travel novels so first is I see London I see France by Sarah and I now ski I talk about this book I feel like fairly often and that's because I don't ever see anyone else talking about it but I enjoyed it so much I love the fact that this has an older protagonist so they are in college and they are going on a backpacking trip across Europe which is something that is very near and dear to my heart but reading this book was honestly like reliving the experiences of my sister and I when we went on our own trip and it was so fun to revisit those places some of the characters in this book were really annoying I will admit but I think that the travel aspect was very well done and I enjoyed the fact that it was older characters this one is definitely a really fun fluffy easy read and if you want to travel this summer but can't afford it then definitely check out this book because it feels like you are travelling without leaving the comfort of your bed which is the best next is lemon lock by Jenna Evans well - this is the sequel companion novel 211 gelato some of the characters from lemon gelato do show up here so if you want to read both of them you will want to read that one first but it will still make sense without having read that one this is a book set in Ireland and you get to travel through all of the landmarks of Ireland and it was so fun I enjoyed this one even more than lemon gelato that's why this one is on this list and it once again deals with families at the forefront which is something that I really love what it reminds me of save the date in a way because they both deal with brother-sister relationships specifically and kind of a relationship that has been fractured by it is currently on the mend throughout the novel but once again if you want to travel but don't want to spend the money check this one out - I really should have said check this one out when I was talking about by your side by Casey West because library pun again but that was just a missed opportunity next is wonder loss - by Jen Malone I read this awhile ago it is all about this girl who ends up having to go in her sister's place to lead this tour group of elderly people across Europe and since she's not expecting to do that she's totally ill-prepared and she ends up having this Rowand romance as she is exploring Europe with all of these older people and it was just so much fun so cute and once again like revisiting all the places that I loved in Europe next is always never yours by Emily Webb early in Austrian seidman Broca I can never remember their names cuz one there's two of them and two his name is so long so I'm very sorry about that but this is a really cute life story written by two people who are in love themselves which I just love oh so cute and it is set against the backdrop of Romeo and Juliet so I'm just like yes all the Shakespeare references all of the cutesy notes please but once again this is a book that has some substance to it the main character is always the girl before who she's dating finds there one and she's kind of accepted thy and in that way the story was almost like a backstory to Rosalind or Rosslyn I can never remember from Romeo and Juliet so it was very interesting and tons of fun to read next is when dimple Petra she by Sundy ma9 this book like blew up on all bookish social media when it first came out and even before it came out so there was a ton of hype surrounding it and it didn't entirely live up to the hype to me but I did still really enjoy it this was about dimple in Russia who are set to be in an arranged marriage and they end up meeting a little bit earlier than their parents had expected them to when they both go to a summer camp for aspiring web developers I love the fact that that is the backdrop for this novel because it's very unique and interesting but I especially loved the fact that you have a female character like dimple going to something like that because there are so many females in tech and they need to be represented too but dimple in Russia could really not be more different dimple is much more like me as she is an eternal pessimist doesn't really believe in all of the arranged marriage love nonsense she's just independent and wants to go her own way but Russia totally believes in it and he is so excited and gung-ho to woo his future wife so the ensuing meeting and story of their relationship is a ton of fun to read and I think it will have you laughing because it definitely made me laugh next is for the common universe by Christian McKay hi dicker this is another book that I feel like doesn't get talked about a lot but I recommend this to people at work all the time a lot of times I'll have customers who come in and they don't read a lot but they want to read so I'm like do you like video games and most of the time they say yes and then this is my go-to recommendation and nine times out of ten they go with it this book is all about a boy who ends up going to videogame rehab and if that is not the setup for a great fun novel I don't know what is the funniest part of it is finally a girl who has asked out has said yes to him but he can't go because he's going to be in video game rehab so you got to follow his experiences through where you have and it is just a really enjoyable and fun read it sounds like it would be way more intense than it is but there's just tons of fun video game references and I'm not really into video games apart from Sims which I haven't stopped playing for the past like two weeks but I did still have a ton of fun reading this next is the loose ends list by Carrie Firestone this feels like an odd placement on this list it feels like it should be on the next contemporary recommendations video that I'm doing but I think it belongs here more so but I say that it's kind of odd on this list because it is set on a cruise ship where everyone on the cruise is dying or they have a family member or friend who is dying and they are traveling with them so this is about the main characters grandmother who is dying and wants to die on her own terms and in his Belle our protagonist accepting that fact and learning to find solace and her family and the whole thing just ends up being a lot of fun because it's so weird it does still have that emotional impact and I will say I wasn't a big fan of the romance in here I found it a bit unnecessary overall it was a very unique read and I found myself smiling a lot of the time which I was not expecting but it was a welcomed unexpected reaction do you never start a sentence not knowing where it's gonna end because that just happened to me but it found its way in the end so that was good moving on the final recommendation that I have for you guys is dumplin by Julie Murphy this is such a fun story it's very body-positive all about accepting who you are and being comfortable in your own skin the main character enters this beauty pageant but she's not the typical pageant contestant and she is determined to blow them all away wait do you know where that's from if you do let me know but it is set against the backdrop of the deep south where pageants aren't just something that you enter to have fun it is a way of life so reading this and having a main character who is so not a typical pageant queen but is really disrupting the status quo and in such a fun and enjoyable way it's just great I also visited the movie set for this novel which was tons of fun I don't know when the movie is coming out or when I'll be able to post that video but it was a great experience so those are all of my recommendations for fluffy feel-good contemporaries just in time for the end of summer I'm sorry I should have gotten this up before then but hey what can you do but please let me know if you have read any of these books your thoughts on them or your own favorite fluffy contemporaries and like I said I will have a video going up I don't know when but hopefully soon that is more hard-hitting and emotional contemporaries so if you would like to see that sooner rather than later then let me know down below but if you guys enjoyed this video don't forget to subscribe and click that little Bell icon so you'll be notified whenever I post I put up new videos every Monday Wednesday and Friday you can also follow me on all of my social media all of my handles links all that fun stuff will be down below for you guys so thank you so much for watching and I will see you in my next video bye youhey everyone its Haley and today I'm going to be recommending some of my favorite feel-good contemporary novels so originally I was only going to do one contemporary recommendations video but I decided to do two because they have some that are more fluffy and fun but then I also have some that are more emotional and hard-hitting so in order to get as many recommendations as I can I decided to split it up into two separate videos but today we're going to be focusing on the feel-good and fun I also have been a little bit of a different filming setup I thought it would be fun to sit in front of my shelves I filmed like this like a year ago but the background was much brighter in that one I feel like this is a little bit of a dark background so I'm sorry but I already had it set up so we're just gonna film here today but today's video is sponsored by Squarespace which is an all-in-one website building platform where you can promote your brand whether you are a youtuber a book blogger have your own business whatever it is Squarespace is perfect for you to easily be able to build a website they have tons of really cool templates that you can choose from and if you're having any trouble which you shouldn't because it's a really easy software to use their customer service is super helpful so they are always there 24/7 to help you out if you need it I will have the link down below for you guys to sign up for a free trial and then when you're ready to purchase you can go to Squarespace calm slash hey Lila blog which will also be down below for you guys and using that you will get 10% off of your first order so getting to my first recommendation that is the lovely Morgan Matson I only have four of her books here because second chance summer is definitely not exactly fluffy and feel good it's much more of an emotionally intense breed but these ones all have a feel-good element to them Amy and Roger kind of is a little bit more intense but it's still lots of fun I would say that's probably my favorite novel by her you got to travel in a and there's tons of fun little extras which a lot of her books have another one of my favorite books by her is the unexpected everything which has all these dogs in it so it is amazing and it features a really cute sweet summer romance and it's all about the main character learning that not everything in her life has to be planned out to a tee next is the first novel that I read by her and that is since you've been gone which I also enjoyed it it's once again a novel about kind of breaking out of your shell but this time it's about a girl learning that she doesn't need her outgoing best friend to be able to have fun in life by all the while she is following a bucket list that her friend made her in the most reason novel I have read by her is save the day this isn't my favorite novel by her but it was a really enjoyable and fun read I loved the fact that it focused on familial relationships and siblings and learning to accept the fact that life changes and not everyone's always going to live at home and things are going to progress but that doesn't mean you're not a family anymore I read this book with the fiction fashion book club which was tons of fun and we were sponsored by Squarespace so thank you so much to them for working with us this month but this is set during the main characters sister's wedding so there is tons of chaos tons of things going wrong basically everything that you could think of going wrong goes wrong and this was a really fun read for me since I had two weddings this year I've been to so many weddings in my life but it was fun to read it when I had been to one recently next I have another author recommendation and that is the lovely becky albertalli all the becky alders Haley's books have a little bit of a punch to them but they still manage to be so much fun her characters are so realistic and so close to my heart my favorite book by her has to be the upside of unrequited just because I identified with the main character Molly so much so I really loved seeing her development throughout this novel but I still love Simon as well as Leah on the offbeat the friend group in these two books just has me like it melts my heart I love them so much and if you haven't seen the movie yet you really need to see it because it is like probably my favorite book to movie adaptation but these honestly are such fun easy and quick reads and I highly recommend them if you need something that's just gonna make you smile the next author recommendation I actually only have read two of her books that I've really enjoyed the other one that I read I didn't like so much but that is Kacey West so I really like to by your side as well as love life in the list these two were really fun she definitely is a very romance heavy author but if you are looking for a fun and fluffy romance I think you should definitely check hers out specifically these two there's a couple that she has that I haven't read yet because she comes out with like two books a year so it's really hard to keep up with it all and like I said I didn't really enjoy the filling boyfriend so much but these ones I loved a lot so by your side is one of my favorite romancing novels because so cute and fun and it's set in a library is so like that is a recipe for success in my books that was a good pun didn't even intended but it does still manage to have some substance to it which is what I like from my romances and love life in the list is kind of the same thing it deals with art and learning to break out of your shell which is a trope that I really enjoy because it's hard to break out of your show so reading books about that really helps me this one definitely isn't as romance heavy as by your side but I still enjoyed both of them a lot next up I have a few travel novels so first is I see London I see France by Sarah and I now ski I talk about this book I feel like fairly often and that's because I don't ever see anyone else talking about it but I enjoyed it so much I love the fact that this has an older protagonist so they are in college and they are going on a backpacking trip across Europe which is something that is very near and dear to my heart but reading this book was honestly like reliving the experiences of my sister and I when we went on our own trip and it was so fun to revisit those places some of the characters in this book were really annoying I will admit but I think that the travel aspect was very well done and I enjoyed the fact that it was older characters this one is definitely a really fun fluffy easy read and if you want to travel this summer but can't afford it then definitely check out this book because it feels like you are travelling without leaving the comfort of your bed which is the best next is lemon lock by Jenna Evans well - this is the sequel companion novel 211 gelato some of the characters from lemon gelato do show up here so if you want to read both of them you will want to read that one first but it will still make sense without having read that one this is a book set in Ireland and you get to travel through all of the landmarks of Ireland and it was so fun I enjoyed this one even more than lemon gelato that's why this one is on this list and it once again deals with families at the forefront which is something that I really love what it reminds me of save the date in a way because they both deal with brother-sister relationships specifically and kind of a relationship that has been fractured by it is currently on the mend throughout the novel but once again if you want to travel but don't want to spend the money check this one out - I really should have said check this one out when I was talking about by your side by Casey West because library pun again but that was just a missed opportunity next is wonder loss - by Jen Malone I read this awhile ago it is all about this girl who ends up having to go in her sister's place to lead this tour group of elderly people across Europe and since she's not expecting to do that she's totally ill-prepared and she ends up having this Rowand romance as she is exploring Europe with all of these older people and it was just so much fun so cute and once again like revisiting all the places that I loved in Europe next is always never yours by Emily Webb early in Austrian seidman Broca I can never remember their names cuz one there's two of them and two his name is so long so I'm very sorry about that but this is a really cute life story written by two people who are in love themselves which I just love oh so cute and it is set against the backdrop of Romeo and Juliet so I'm just like yes all the Shakespeare references all of the cutesy notes please but once again this is a book that has some substance to it the main character is always the girl before who she's dating finds there one and she's kind of accepted thy and in that way the story was almost like a backstory to Rosalind or Rosslyn I can never remember from Romeo and Juliet so it was very interesting and tons of fun to read next is when dimple Petra she by Sundy ma9 this book like blew up on all bookish social media when it first came out and even before it came out so there was a ton of hype surrounding it and it didn't entirely live up to the hype to me but I did still really enjoy it this was about dimple in Russia who are set to be in an arranged marriage and they end up meeting a little bit earlier than their parents had expected them to when they both go to a summer camp for aspiring web developers I love the fact that that is the backdrop for this novel because it's very unique and interesting but I especially loved the fact that you have a female character like dimple going to something like that because there are so many females in tech and they need to be represented too but dimple in Russia could really not be more different dimple is much more like me as she is an eternal pessimist doesn't really believe in all of the arranged marriage love nonsense she's just independent and wants to go her own way but Russia totally believes in it and he is so excited and gung-ho to woo his future wife so the ensuing meeting and story of their relationship is a ton of fun to read and I think it will have you laughing because it definitely made me laugh next is for the common universe by Christian McKay hi dicker this is another book that I feel like doesn't get talked about a lot but I recommend this to people at work all the time a lot of times I'll have customers who come in and they don't read a lot but they want to read so I'm like do you like video games and most of the time they say yes and then this is my go-to recommendation and nine times out of ten they go with it this book is all about a boy who ends up going to videogame rehab and if that is not the setup for a great fun novel I don't know what is the funniest part of it is finally a girl who has asked out has said yes to him but he can't go because he's going to be in video game rehab so you got to follow his experiences through where you have and it is just a really enjoyable and fun read it sounds like it would be way more intense than it is but there's just tons of fun video game references and I'm not really into video games apart from Sims which I haven't stopped playing for the past like two weeks but I did still have a ton of fun reading this next is the loose ends list by Carrie Firestone this feels like an odd placement on this list it feels like it should be on the next contemporary recommendations video that I'm doing but I think it belongs here more so but I say that it's kind of odd on this list because it is set on a cruise ship where everyone on the cruise is dying or they have a family member or friend who is dying and they are traveling with them so this is about the main characters grandmother who is dying and wants to die on her own terms and in his Belle our protagonist accepting that fact and learning to find solace and her family and the whole thing just ends up being a lot of fun because it's so weird it does still have that emotional impact and I will say I wasn't a big fan of the romance in here I found it a bit unnecessary overall it was a very unique read and I found myself smiling a lot of the time which I was not expecting but it was a welcomed unexpected reaction do you never start a sentence not knowing where it's gonna end because that just happened to me but it found its way in the end so that was good moving on the final recommendation that I have for you guys is dumplin by Julie Murphy this is such a fun story it's very body-positive all about accepting who you are and being comfortable in your own skin the main character enters this beauty pageant but she's not the typical pageant contestant and she is determined to blow them all away wait do you know where that's from if you do let me know but it is set against the backdrop of the deep south where pageants aren't just something that you enter to have fun it is a way of life so reading this and having a main character who is so not a typical pageant queen but is really disrupting the status quo and in such a fun and enjoyable way it's just great I also visited the movie set for this novel which was tons of fun I don't know when the movie is coming out or when I'll be able to post that video but it was a great experience so those are all of my recommendations for fluffy feel-good contemporaries just in time for the end of summer I'm sorry I should have gotten this up before then but hey what can you do but please let me know if you have read any of these books your thoughts on them or your own favorite fluffy contemporaries and like I said I will have a video going up I don't know when but hopefully soon that is more hard-hitting and emotional contemporaries so if you would like to see that sooner rather than later then let me know down below but if you guys enjoyed this video don't forget to subscribe and click that little Bell icon so you'll be notified whenever I post I put up new videos every Monday Wednesday and Friday you can also follow me on all of my social media all of my handles links all that fun stuff will be down below for you guys so thank you so much for watching and I will see you in my next video bye you\n"