Your Summer Destination: Books Set at the Beach
As the days turn warmer, you might be starting to think about where you want to spend your summer. And more importantly, what books you want to pack with you for your trip. If your ideal trip involves lying on a towel in the sand (preferably with a cocktail in hand), then you’ll love this list of books set at the beach.
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Add to BookshelfUntamed Shore
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Baja California, 1979: Viridiana spends her days under the harsh sun, watching the fishermen pulling in their nets and the dead sharks piled beside the seashore. Her head is filled with dreams of romance, travel, and a future beyond this drab town where her only option is to marry and have children. When a wealthy American writer arrives with his wife and brother-in-law, Viridiana jumps at the offer of a job as his assistant, and she’s soon entangled in the glamorous foreigners’ lives. They offer excitement, but when one of them dies, Viridiana, eager to protect her new friends, lies — but soon enough, someone’s asking questions. It’s not long before Viridiana has questions of her own about the identities of her new acquaintances.
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$18.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Sag Harbor
by Colson Whitehead
Benji Cooper is one of the few Black students at an elite prep school in Manhattan. But every summer, Benji escapes to the Hamptons, to Sag Harbor, where a small community of Black professionals have built a world of their own. The summer of ’85 won’t be without its usual trials and tribulations, of course. There will be complicated new handshakes to fumble through and state-of-the-art profanity to master. Benji will be tested by contests big and small, by his misshapen haircut (which seems to have a will of its own), by the New Coke Tragedy, and by his secret Lite FM addiction. But maybe, just maybe, this summer might be one for the ages.
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$18.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Beach Read
by Emily Henry
Even if you can’t escape to the coast, this book will instantly transport you! In this charming romantic comedy, a romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.
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$16.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Malibu Rising
by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Malibu: August 1983. It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-the-summer party. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. But over the course of 24 hours, the family drama that ensues will change their lives forever.
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$18.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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How Stella Got Her Groove Back
by Terry McMillan
Stella Payne is 42, divorced, a high-powered investment analyst, mother of 11-year-old Quincy — and she does it all. But when Stella takes a spur-of-the-moment vacation to Jamaica, her world gets rocked to the core — not just by the relaxing effects of the sun and sea and an island full of attractive men, but by one man in particular. He’s tall, lean, soft-spoken, Jamaican, smells of citrus and the ocean … and is half her age. The tropics have cast their spell and Stella soon realizes she has come to a cataclysmic juncture: not only must she confront her hopes and fears about love, but she must question all of her expectations, passions, and ideas about life and the way she has lived it.
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$17.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Sex and Vanity
by Kevin Kwan
Kevin Kwan loves to take his readers to far off destinations. This time he is taking us to the beautiful island of Capri! Here we meet Lucie Tang Churchill, a socialite who has always favored her white side over her Asian heritage. But on vacation, she meets George Zao who threatens to upend her life, her heart, and her sense of identity. A fun ride from start to finish!
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Until August
by Gabriel GarcĂa Márquez
Sitting alone beside the languorous blue waters of the lagoon, Ana Magdalena Bach contemplates the men at the hotel bar. She has been happily married for 27 years and has no reason to escape the life she has made with her husband and children. And yet, every August, she travels by ferry here to the island where her mother is buried, and for one night takes a new lover. Across sultry Caribbean evenings full of salsa and boleros, lotharios and conmen, Ana journeys further each year into the hinterland of her desire and the fear hidden in her heart.
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$22.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Simmer Down
by Sarah Echavarre Smith
When Nikki DiMarco quit her job to help out on her mom’s food truck in Maui, she had no idea the competition would be so intense, especially when British food truck owner Callum James sets up shop right next to her on the most coveted stretch of beach on the island. The solution? Let the upcoming Maui Food Festival decide their fate. But when Nikki starts to learn more about Callum, will she be brave enough to call a truce? Or will trusting him with her heart mean jumping from the frying pan into the fire?
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Whale Fall
by Elizabeth O'Connor
In 1938, a dead whale washes up on the shores of a remote Welsh island. For Manod, who has spent her whole life on the island, it feels like both a portent of doom and a symbol of what may lie beyond the island’s shores. A young woman living with her father and her sister, Manod can’t shake her welling desire to explore life beyond the beautiful yet blisteringly harsh islands that her hardscrabble family has called home for generations. With shimmering prose tempered by sharp wit, Whale Fall tells the story of what happens when one person’s ambitions threaten the fabric of a community, and what can happen when they are realized.
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$27.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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The Sea, the Sea
by Iris Murdoch
Charles Arrowby, leading light of England’s theatrical set, retires from glittering London to an isolated home by the sea. He plans to write a memoir about his great love affair with Clement Makin, his mentor, both professionally and personally, and amuse himself with Lizzie, an actress he has strung along for many years. None of his plans work out, and his memoir evolves into a riveting chronicle of the strange events and unexpected visitors — some real, some spectral — that disrupt his world and shake his oversized ego to its very core.
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$20.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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A Walk Along the Beach
by Debbie Macomber
After their mother died when they were young, sisters Willa and Harper have had to rely on each other to get by. Even though the girls are perfect opposites. Willa, ever the nurturer, always puts others first and rarely steps outside of her comfort zone. Where Harper never stops moving, even though she might be pushing herself too hard after recovering from an illness. Together these sisters will need to learn from each other’s strengths and trust in the redeeming power of love, because even in the darkest moments, family is everything.
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$8.99Buy from Other Retailers:
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Maine
by J. Courtney Sullivan
This breakout New York Times bestseller from the celebrated author of Commencement and The Engagements, introduces four unforgettable women and the abiding, often irrational love that keeps them coming back, every summer, to Maine and to each other.
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$18.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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The Romantic Agenda
by Claire Kann
Joy has been secretly in love with her best friend Malcolm for as long as she can remember. So, she is crushed when Malcolm unexpectedly announces that he has fallen in love … with a girl named Summer. When they all go on a weekend trip together, Joy sees it as her last opportunity to try and make Malcolm finally notice her. When she meets the ultra-sexy Fox, he agrees to help her try and make Malcolm jealous. What could possibly go wrong?
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$16.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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A Hundred Summers
by Beatriz Williams
As the 1938 hurricane approaches Rhode Island, Lily Dane has returned to Seaview, Rhode Island, where her family has summered for generations. It’s an escape not only from New York’s social scene but from a heartbreak that still haunts her. Here, among the seaside community that has embraced her since childhood, she finds comfort in the familiar rituals of summer. But this summer is different. Budgie and Nick Greenwald — Lily’s former best friend and former fiancé — have arrived, too, and Seaview’s elite are abuzz. Under Budgie’s glamorous influence, Lily is seduced into a complicated web of renewed friendship and dangerous longing.
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Monkey Beach
by Eden Robinson
Tragedy strikes a Native community when the Hill family’s handsome 17-year-old son, Jimmy, mysteriously vanishes at sea. Left behind to cope during the search-and-rescue effort is his sister, Lisamarie, a wayward teenager with a dark secret. She sets off alone in search of Jimmy through the Douglas Channel and heads for Monkey Beach — a shore famed for its sasquatch sightings. Infused by turns with darkness and humor, Monkey Beach is a spellbinding voyage into the long, cool shadows of B.C.’s Coast Mountains, blending teen culture, Haisla lore, nature spirits, and human tenderness into a multi-layered story of loss and redemption.
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The Summer We Started Over
by Nancy Thayer
Eddie Grant is happy with her life and her work as a personal assistant to Dinah Lavender, one of the most famous and renowned romance authors in the business. But being a spectator to notoriety and glamour isn’t as fulfilling as she once thought. Thankfully, Eddie has the perfect excuse for a vacation: Her hardworking younger sister, Barrett, is opening her gift shop on Memorial Day weekend and could use all the help she can get. But going home to the beautiful island of Nantucket means facing the family’s difficult past. In The Summer We Started Over, beloved storyteller Nancy Thayer transports readers with a moving story about family, courage, and the resiliency of young women.
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$29.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Blush
by Jamie Brenner
This stunning novel takes place at the beach and at a winery. Yes please! For generations, the Hollander family has run the premier winery on Long Island’s North Fork. But times are tough, and there are worries that this summer season could be their last. Gathered together to try and enjoy one last summer, they uncover journals from the matriarch’s old book club dedicated to scandalous novels of decades past. Reviving the “trashy” book club, the Hollander women find that the stories hold the key to their fight not only for the vineyard, but for the life and love they’ve wanted all along.
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When We Left Cuba
by Chanel Cleeton
The Cuban Revolution took everything from sugar heiress Beatriz Perez – her family, her people, her country. Recruited by the CIA to infiltrate Fidel Castro’s inner circle and pulled into the dangerous world of espionage, Beatriz is consumed by her quest for revenge and her desire to reclaim the life she lost. But the wrong move could cost Beatriz everything – not just the island she loves, but also the man who has stolen her heart.
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The Vacationers
by Emma Straub
Emma Straub’s delightful novel follows the Post family as they travel to Mallorca with their extended family. This is the story of the sides of ourselves that we choose to show and those we try to conceal, of the ways we tear each other down and build each other up again, and the bonds that ultimately hold us together. With wry humor and tremendous heart, Straub delivers a richly satisfying story of a family in the midst of a maelstrom of change, emerging irrevocably altered, yet whole.
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Seating Arrangements
by Maggie Shipstead
The Van Meters have gathered at their family retreat on the island of Waskeke to celebrate the marriage of daughter Daphne – seven months pregnant–to the impeccably appropriate Greyson Duff. The weekend is full of champagne and salt air, but long-buried discontent and simmering lust stir beneath the surface. This is an irresistible story of a summer New England wedding weekend gone awry and a deliciously biting satirical glimpse into the lives of the well-bred and ill-behaved.
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The Great Reclamation
by Rachel Heng
Ah Boon is born into a fishing village amid the heat and beauty of 20th-century coastal Singapore in the waning years of British rule. He is a gentle boy who is not much interested in fishing, but when he discovers he has the unique ability to locate bountiful, movable islands that no one else can find, he feels a new sense of obligation and possibility. An aching love story and powerful coming-of-age, The Great Reclamation confronts the wounds of progress, the sacrifices of love, and the difficulty of defining home when nature and nation collide, literally shifting the land beneath people’s feet.
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The Au Pair
by Emma Rous
Seraphine Mayes and her twin brother, Danny, were born in the middle of summer at their family’s estate on the Norfolk coast. Within hours of their birth, their mother threw herself from the cliffs and the au pair fled. Now an adult, Seraphine uncovers a family photograph that raises dangerous questions. It was taken on the day the twins were born, and in the photo, their mother, surrounded by her husband and her young son, is smiling serenely and holding just one baby. Who is the child, and what really happened that day?
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$17.00Buy from Other Retailers:
