Here are seven of the best books I've read this summer

The perfect holiday read is one you're happy to leave behind. Leave behind in the hope that some other person who rents that house might pick it up. Or that some surfer might poke his nose in to the increasing number of street libraries I've noticed in sleepy seaside towns. Books you can leave on buses, in the pocket on the back of the airline seat infront of you, in cafes, even on a post that marks the secret entry to the beach.

I've had a glorious holiday. Plenty of reading, too much sun on my shoulders, plenty of reading on those days when the sun wasn't shining and this summer there have been plenty of those.

Here's what I would have left behind before I remembered I needed to take a photograph.

There's a new epidemic, healthy babies are dying without taking a breath once they're born. The government has passed sweeping new laws to monitor everyone (via something like your iWatch) and several pregnant young women have disappeared without trace. Seventeen-year-old Lainey is in trouble, her mother is a midwife at the heart of the danger. This near future thriller cuts way too close to home. It's got a touch of Handmaid's Tale about it, the references to a society at tipping point, post pandemic, are horrifyng. At it's core it's a story about the power of female friendship and standing up for what you believe in.

I loved McConaghy's The Last Migration so I was keen to get my hands on this one. Inti Flynn arrives in Scotland (where I actually wanted to be these holidays) tasked with reintroducing grey wolves into the remote highlands. Working with her twin sister Aggie, who is dealing with troubles of her own, Inti is out to save the creatures she loves. Things go a little pear-shaped but she's determined to save the wolves and her family. Part thriller, part redemptive love story, while it's not as bleak as Migrations, this one is an affecting novel that will stay with you.

I love these two. The odd couple who've created an empire restoring an old chateau in France. You can catch their many shows on Foxtel, they are actually really good viewing. And this book was fun reading for fans, a behind the scenes look at the hard graft the restoration actually was, away from the cameras and fancy events they held there. Both Angel and Dick have their say, with pages of before and after photographs. Again, I would have rather been holidaying in the Loire Valley and when I picked this book up I was.

I love reading books about picture perfect marriages that are anything but. Call me a cynical old divorced person but no one's marriage is anything like you think it is. Get this. Klara runs a successful cosmetic clinic with her best friend Tomas, she and her adoring husband Dante are trying for a baby. Nope. When Dante is found unconscious in a gay sauna life all their secrets are exposed. Vukasin is an exciting new Australian author. He's a gay man who's a cosmetic surgeon and first generation Serbian-Australia. We can't wait for more books.

Another little dystopian thriller. Josephine is Girl One, the first of nine miracle babies conceived entirely without male aid or intervention who are being raised at the "homestead". After a suspicious fire, the mothers and their children are scattered across the country. Years later Jospehine sets out to find her sisters, but someone is determined to stop her from finding out the truth. It's a twisty read that sits between science fictoin and feminist literature, one that will worry you long after you've finished it.

A great book with a completely unreliable narrator. Marisa hasn't known Jake for long but she's sure he's the one. But when a new lodger, Kate, turns up, she's not so sure. Marisa and Jake are trying for a baby and Kate is taking too keen an interest. Why is she so obsessed by them, why doesn't Jake seem to care. This one will have you guessing to the very very end. Just when you think you have it sorted out, nope. Would make an excellent movie.

Summer isn't summer unless you're holidaying with Jack Reacher. Better Off Dead is number 26 from Lee Child, who is now writing with his brother Andrew. This one's told in the first person, which is rare for a Reacher book, but it works well here. Our boy is down near the Mexican border, working with an army vet keen to find her brother. He stumbles across a situation, trouble ensues. Nothing new. But you wouldn't expect anything more from Reacher.