15 Beach Reads for Summer

Summer is on the horizon and with the onset of warm weather and lots of beach and pool time, my desire to dive head-first into easy, breezy beach reads skyrockets. I love a fun, romantic book in the summertime — a book that feels like an escape but with enough intrigue to keep me fully entertained.

Enter: Today’s roundup of beach reads! I can fully vouch for every single book on this list as I’ve only included books I’ve read and loved below. My criteria for this roundup of beach reads is less about books with a summery, beachy theme and more about including books that feel like an escape and simultaneously don’t feel too intense or stressful. If you’re looking for a book that will keep you engaged and feel like a breath of fresh air with a little romance peppered in, keep on scrolling!

Beach Reads

• Twice in a Blue Moon by Christina Lauren (Tate Jones is the long-lost daughter of the most famous actor on the planet. Following a scandal, Tate is whisked away to a small town where she is raised in a place where no one other than her best friend knows her true identity until she reveals it to her first love during a whirlwind vacation in London. When her secret is revealed to the media, she is livid and her heartbreak and anger come flooding back when she runs into her first love on the set of a movie she’s set to star in 14 years later.)
• A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams (Lily Dane returns to the seaside town where she summered for generations, only to find her former best friend, Budgie, and former fiancé, Nick, now married to each other, will be spending the summer in Seaview as well. The book flip flops from the past – when Lily and Nick first met and fell deeply in love – to the present, a time filled with secrets and scandal.)
• Golden Girl by Elin Hilderbrand (Golden Girl begins with the shocking hit-and-run death of Vivian “Vivi” Howe, a prominent author of more than a dozen Nantucket-based beach reads. Since her death was a shock, when she ascends to the Beyond, she’s granted three “nudges” to help alter life on earth for those she cares for deeply — namely her three adult children, all of whom are struggling in one way or another. Who killed Vivi? Are Vivi’s three nudges enough to keep her children off a path of destruction? And will the truth Vivi’s been hiding her entire life suddenly come to the surface when a man from her past reads her final book?)
• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by  Taylor Jenkins Reid (Monique Grant, a talented but relatively unknown young writer, is selected by iconic actress Evelyn Hugo to write her biography. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime and one Monique is determined to do well. As Evelyn begins to tell her story to Monique, we learn all about her life, including the details behind her marriages and secret loves. The book is filled with scandal in a way that doesn’t feel cheap or cheesy and it’s a book I’ve recommended for years!)
• The Secret Life of Violet Grant by Beatriz Williams (I absolutely loved the main character, Vivian, in this book because she really is a character. She’s funny, kind of ridiculous, intelligent, unconventional and her voice is amusing and fun. The book follows Vivian Schuyler, a recent college graduate and member of a wealthy New York City family, as she works at a magazine and goes against the Schuyler family grain. Vivian’s life takes a turn when a package containing her aunt’s suitcase from 50 years ago — an aunt thought to have murdered her husband before she mysteriously disappeared — shows up on her doorstep. The book goes back and forth from following Vivian’s life in 1964 and the life of her disappearing aunt Violet Schuyler Grand, a scientist who moved to Europe, entered into a disastrous marriage with a notable scientist and went missing.)
• Meet Me In Monaco by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb (Set in the 1950s, Meet Me in Monaco takes place in the middle of the paparazzi mayhem surrounding the wedding of 26-year-old actress Grace Kelly to Prince Rainier. Though Grace Kelly is a focal point of the story, we see glimpses of the soon-to-be princess through the lens — literally — of James, a photographer sent to capture images of Grace Kelly during her visit to Cannes during the famous film festival where she first met the prince and the woman who immediately catches his eye, Sophie, an ambitious but struggling perfumer whose chance meeting with Grace strikes up a life-long friendship.)
• Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren (The story goes back and forth from the past to the present as Macy Sorensen is recently reunited with her first love, Elliot Petropoulos. The two first met as young teenagers and bonded over a love for reading, a bond that turned into much more as they grew up together… before one night changed everything and they stopped speaking for more than a decade.)
• Overdue Life of Amy Byler by Kelly Harms (The husband of an exhausted and overworked librarian returns after abandoning her and her two children for three years. When Amy sees John at a local convenience store, she doesn’t know what to think. When he tells her he wants to spend a week with the teenage children he’s abandoned while she can take a week “off” from work and motherhood, she’s even more confused… but very intrigued. Amy soon finds herself saying goodbye to her children as she heads off to New York City for a librarian conference that morphs into a journey of self-discovery, adventure and, most surprising to Amy, love.)
• The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty  (Cecilia Fitzpatrick, a successful business woman and devoted wife and mother, opens a letter from her husband, a letter meant to be read following his death… but he is still very much alive. The letter reveals shocking secrets that have repercussions that go far beyond impacting only Cecilia’s life.)
• Matchmaking for Beginners by Maddie Dawson (Marnie MacGraw recently became engaged to Noah, a man she’s convinced will give her the ordinarily wonderful life she’s always wanted. When Marnie’s marriage explodes after only two weeks, she’s left devastated and blindsided when she learns she’s inherited her ex-fiancé’s seemingly crazy great-aunt Blix’s Brooklyn townhouse after Blix passes away.)
• The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren (I loved the geeky premise of this one and thought the concept of genetically matching with your soulmate was really creative and very cool. The book centers around the unheard of “Diamond Match” connection between River, the introverted and mysterious founder of GeneticAlly, a DNA-based matchmaking company, and freelance statistician Jess, a single mom who has all but sworn off dating. The match is shocking to everyone but no one is more surprised than Jess and River, as their interactions up to this point have been anything but pleasant and very far from romantic.)
• The Violets of March by Sarah Jio (Emily Wilson, a recently divorced young woman, books a flight to visit her Aunt Bee to spend the month of March on Bainbridge Island in Washington. While there, Emily begins reading a diary written much like a novel from the 1940s that she finds in the nightstand of one of the guest rooms in her aunt’s house. She becomes completely immersed in the story of Esther and her complicated and tumultuous love life, noticing parallels between Esther’s story and the things going on around her on the island. Emily finds herself constantly wondering how Esther’s life intertwines with her own.)
• Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren (BFFs Hazel and Josh, a pair with completely opposite personalities set each other up on a double blind date. It’s a disaster but they have fun — with each other at least — and try again. And again. And again. As they continue to search for partners for each other and insist they have no interest in dating despite increasing feelings of attraction on both sides, their plan to find a special someone for each other sounds less and less appealing, especially when one of their exes shows up on one of the dates with the potential to change everything.)
• American Royals by Katharine McGee (American Royals follows the royal family of America as the author creates an alternate universe where a monarchy rules America and the royal family is packed with drama. From an all-to-perfect princess set to be queen with a secret that could threaten the crown to forbidden romances and betrayal, American Royals is an intriguing read that made me feel like I was curling up on the couch to watch a guilty-pleasure TV show.)
• Summer of ’69 by Elin Hilderbrand (I loved the fact that the novel is set in 1969 in the midst of man’s first walk on the moon, Ted Kennedy’s Chappaquiddick scandal, the civil rights movement and more. The novel takes place on Nantucket and follows the Levin family and the family’s four children. Blair, the oldest daughter, is in a rocky marriage and pregnant with twins. Tiger, the only boy in the family, was recently deployed to Vietnam. Kirby, the middle daughter, decides to exercise her independence and spend her summer on Martha’s Vineyard where she stumbles upon an unexpected romance with a man whose mother knows about her troubled past. Jessie, the youngest at only 13 years old, is coming of age and forced to spend the summer with her secret-keeping mother and grandmother. The book was filled with enough intrigue to keep me engaged the entire time. It was predictable without feeling overly contrived and I looked forward to reading this novel before bed every night.)

Additional Book Posts

• Book Recommendations by Category (December 2021)
• 10 Books I Recently Read and Loved (July 2021)
• 10 Books I Recently Read and Loved (November 2020)
• 10 Books I Recently Read and Loved (June 2020)
• 15 Books I Recently Read and Loved (February 2020)
• 12 Books I Recently Read and Loved (September 2020)
• 10 Books I Recently Read and Loved (February 2019)

Question of the Day

What are some breezy beach reads you’ve read and loved? Please share any recommendations below!