The Best Books to Pack in Your Beach Bag
By Ali Brady
Memorial Day is just around the corner, bringing with it the official start of summer. Or as we like to call it: Beach Read Season!
There’s been a lot of talk around this seasonal genre and whether or not a book has to be set in a tropical location to be considered a beach read. If you ask us, the perfect beach read is one that’s full of summery vibes, no matter where it's located. Even, say, a city like Chicago where our latest release, The Comeback Summer, takes place. While the city does have beaches (with sand and waves and sunbathers!) it doesn’t automatically conjure images of palm trees and piña coladas. Still, it provides the perfect backdrop to our story of two sisters who spend the summer crushing their comfort zones, each finding love along the way.
Speaking of love, beach reads don’t have to involve romance, but it’s always lovely if they do. As long as the pages provide a feel-good escape and make a good poolside companion (fruity drink optional) we think it counts as a beach read. And if you’re looking for a good beach read to pack in your beach bag, here are a few of our favorites!
The Summer List by Amy Mason Doan
Location: A small northern California lakeside town
We love this beautiful story about the power of friendship and forgiveness. It’s full of summery nostalgia, first loves, and the fun backdrop of an annual scavenger hunt.
Best friends Laura and Casey haven’t seen each other in seventeen years following a shocking betrayal. When Laura is pulled home for a reunion she can’t resist, she gets wrapped up in one more scavenger hunt like they used to play when they were kids. Only this time, the clues lead to the sights of their most cherished summer memories. But as the game brings their friendship together, the clues unravel a secret that threatens to tear them apart…
28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand
Location: Nantucket
This beautiful love story spans three decades, and we love the way each chapter takes the reader back in time to the year each chapter begins.
The story begins as a son receives deathbed instructions from his mother to call a phone number on a slip of paper. He’s shocked when Jake McCloud answers, a man whose wife is running for President. Through flashbacks starting the summer of 1993, we follow their relationship over the years as their bond survives marriage (to other people), children, and the ups and downs of life.
Based on the film Same Time Next Year, 28 Summers explores the agony and romance of a one-weekend-per-year affair, and the dramatic ways the relationship complicates and enriches their lives and the lives of people they love.
Last Summer at the Golden Hotel by Elyssa Friedland
Location: The Catskills
If The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Dirty Dancing had a baby, this incredible book would be it! We especially love the Jewish rep and multi-generational family dynamics.
In its heyday, The Golden Hotel was the crown jewel of the hotter-than-hot Catskills vacation scene. For more than sixty years, the Goldman and Weingold families—best friends and business partners—have presided over this glamorous resort which served as a second home for well-heeled guests and celebrities. But the Catskills are not what they used to be, and neither is the relationship between the Goldmans and the Weingolds. As the facilities and management begin to fall apart, a tempting offer to sell forces the two families together again to make a heart-wrenching decision. Can they save their beloved Golden or is it too late?
Love, Lists and Fancy Ships by Sarah Grunder Ruiz
Location: Florida
We love this book, the first in a connected series, that finds a 29-year-old yacht stewardess attempting to complete a bucket list of 30 things she wants to accomplish by her 30th birthday. She was on track to complete the list until she is derailed by a family tragedy.
When her nieces show up unannounced with plans to spend the summer with her, they insist on helping her complete the last eight items—including number five: kiss a stranger. As she confronts her feelings of loss and her growing attraction for this handsome stranger, she must learn to quit playing it safe before she loses what matters most.
Good For You by Camille Pagán
Location: Michigan
We are big fans of Camille Pagán and love her latest which finds Aly, a career-focused woman, in the aftermath of a very public breakdown that was captured on film and went viral. Forced to take a break from her dream job, she heads to the Lake Michigan beach house she inherited from her brother with plans to sell the house and put that part of her life behind her. Only when she arrives, she’s not the only one there.
It turns out her brother left half of the house to his slacker best friend who has no interest in Aly’s goal to sell. Battle lines are drawn, but don’t last long as Aly discovers the plan her brother had all along...
Four Ways to Wear a Dress by Gillian Libby
Location: Peacock Bay, California
This book has all the summer vibes—it’s like The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants meets Gidget, but for adults.
A group of best friends have a Little Black Dress they’ve shared for years. Whenever someone wears the dress, good things happen. And Millie Ward needs something good to happen. She’s recently been fired and decides to take a break from her corporate life in New York City to visit her best friend in California. It’s just a bonus that her best friend’s super-hot surfer brother, Pete, is also there.
The two team up and pretend to date for a month to help Millie start her Influencer career and to help Pete save their suffering family business. This book is as steamy as it is emotional and will make you want to take up surfing. Or at the very least, find a cute surfer to date!
Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
Location: New York City
We love this novel about two writers who reconnect at a literary event. They haven’t seen each other since they spent a crazy seven days together twenty years ago—seven days in which they fell passionately in love, then had a tumultuous breakup.
Ever since then, they’ve been secretly writing to each other in their books, and when they see each other again, the chemistry is palpable. Now they have seven days in the middle of a hot Brooklyn summer to see if they can learn to trust each other and open their hearts to love again. This is a smart, emotional, and captivating story about love, life, and second chances.
Blush by Jamie Brenner
Location: North Fork, Long Island
Nothing says summer like a glass of crisp rose—and this book is all about the wine! Hollander Estates has been the premier vineyard in Long Island for decades, but recently, the family business has not been doing well. This summer’s annual reunion might be the last if the family can’t overcome their patriarchal way of running things.
With three generations of strong women, family secrets, a scandalous book club, this book is all about fighting for what you want, for the life—and the love—you deserve. And yes, it’s best paired with a big glass of rosé!
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Ali Brady is the pen name of writing BFFs Alison Hammer and Bradeigh Godfrey. Their debut novel, THE BEACH TRAP, was published in June 2022. THE COMEBACK SUMMER was recently published by Berkley. Alison lives in Chicago where she works as a creative director for an advertising agency. She has no kids, pets, or plants, but she does have two solo books, YOU AND ME AND US and LITTLE PIECES OF ME. Bradeigh lives in Utah with her husband and four children. She works as a doctor, and her solo debut, IMPOSTER was published in the fall of 2022. Learn more at alibradybooks.net.
