Get your umbrellas and beach chairs ready because its time to relax at the beach with a good beach read! Dig your toes into the sand as you enjoy these new releases.
There is a book here for everyone from edge of your seat thrillers, to heartwarming romance, to riveting nonfiction.
Don’t forget to check off categories on the 2023 reading challenge as you devour books this summer at the beach!
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A Beach Read for Everyone!
Happy Place, by Emily Henry
Pub Date: April 25, 2023
Harriet and Wyn were made for eachother. It was quite literally love at first sight. But when we are introduced them in present time, they are very much separated and their friends think they are still together. So they must spend a week acting like they are in love as they celebrate their best friend’s marriage at a beach house. Can they make it?
We all know shit will hit the fan in this scenario! We’ve got several classic romance tropes in here including one bed, so dive right in to Emily Henry’s latest!
A Most Agreeable Murder, by Julia Seales
Pub Date: June 27, 2023
Beatrice Steele has never fit the definition of a true lady. She hates needlework, isn’t good with music or artwork, but she is obsessed with true crime. She vows to her family to put her obsession behind her especially since the most eligible bachelor has an eye on her and the match could save her family from misfortune. But then said bachelor goes and drops dead in the middle of the ball! Beatrice must give in to her obsession and solve the case before anyone else dies.
This hilarious mystery is a real genre crosser. It’s got humor. It’s got history. It’s got mystery and suspense. The perfect edge of your seat, laugh out loud beach read.
The Last Lifeboat, by Hazel Gaynor
Pub Date: June 13, 2023
Based on a true story, this remarkable tale will keep you glued to your beach chair until it’s finished. During World War II, a young teacher must navigate her children to safety after being left adrift in a lifeboat in the storm-tossed Atlantic. The ship they were on was the S.S. Carlisle filled with children evacuating Europe when a Nazi U-Boat bombed them.
For those who want to read something meaningful and historical, this is the beach read for you.
Same Time Next Summer, by Annabel Monaghan
Pub Date: June 6, 2023
Sam has got her life together. She’s got the perfect job, the perfect fiancee and is touring wedding venues near her family’s Long Island beach house. All of that comes into question though when her first love, Wyatt, is on Long Island too. He broke her heart when she was seventeen, yet their connection is still there, as undeniable as it was all those years ago. What will Sam choose?
This is your classic beachy rom com. You honestly can’t go wrong. Plus extra points for the setting being Long Island, where I’m from!
The Wager, by David Gran
Pub Date: April 18, 2023
If you want some nonfiction that reads like a historical thriller with gripping twists and turns, then go no further than The Wager. The British warship had set out on a secret mission in 1740 to look for treasure. Two years later, a ramshackle, patched-together vessel washes up on the coast of Brazil. Inside are thirty men with a heroic tale of shipwrecks and starvation. However, three more wash up in Chile with a completely different tale of mutiny and murder. So who’s telling the truth?
This sounds more like a novel than an actual real life story. It’s well research from one of the greatest nonfiction writeres, David Grann.
Kat and Blake are instant best friends when they meet at summer camp, but it all falls apart when they find out they’re half sisters. Fifteen years later, their father dies and leaves them the beach house. Together they must decide what to do with it and learn how to become sisters.
This a great beach read for those who want female friendships and a little romance thrown in!
Mortal Follies, by Alexis Hall
Pub Date: June 6, 2023
Meet Miss Maelys Mitchelmore, a lady of good breeding who has more than your normal 19th century difficulties. Besides all the balls and suitors, she must contend with an irritating curse that is only going to get worse if she doesn’t seek out help to have it lifted. In comes Georgianna Landrake, who is rumored to be an evil enchantress that killed her own father and brothers to inherit her fortune. Together they must delve into the world of magic, revealing even more secrets that no one wanted unveiled.
This magical, romantic queer adventure is the perfect pick for a beach read. Alexis Hall is a terrific author and I have already read several of their books and loved them immensely, so this is an automatic read for me!
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Florence Adler Swims Forever, by Rachel Beanland
Pub Date: June 1, 2021
The Adler family spends every summer in an apartment above a bakery in Atlantic City. As Florence prepares to swim the English Channel and her sister Fannie handles bed rest while she waits for her new baby, their father welcomes a stranger into their home who has recently escaped Nazi Germany. When tragedy strikes, a web of secrets within the family grows bigger and threatens to burst. How can the family recover after tragedy and betrayal?
This historical domestic fiction tale will have you on the edge of your seat as you devour the family’s tensions and secret keeping.
Bad Summer People, by Emma Rosenblum
Pub Date: May 23, 2023
Jen and Lauren spend the summer at Fire Island (another Long Island novel!) with their husbands every year and they rule the roost. They are adept at manipulating people to get what they want, and their husbands are no better with the lies and secrets they keep. But is one of them actually capable of murder?
This story is about perfect people in a place where everyone has something to hide. Another thriller to keep you glued to your beach chair. Also it’s quite literally set on the beach!
The Puzzle Master, by Danielle Trussoni
Pub Date: June 13, 2023
Former football star, Mike Brink, suffers a tramatic brain injury and through that injury gains the insight to solve complex puzzles. This new gift also creates trouble connecting with other people, until he meets Jess Price, a woman serving time for murder who has’t spoken a word since her conviction five years ago.
She creates a puzzle for Brink to solve that leads him on a maze of clues where powerful forces are at work and much more is at stake than one women in a prison cell.
There is everything in this book from history to ancient religion and secret societies and races against time. This tantalizing thriller is bound to be on more than one hot beach reads list this summer.
Save What's Left, by Elizabeth Castellano
Pub Date: June 27, 2023
When Kathleen’s husband leaves her to find himself after thirty years of marriage, she is left thinking what to do next. She moves to a little beach town on the east coast and what she finds is not what she expected. Her little beach home is being shadowed by a giant monstrosity under construction and as she gets involved with town politics she realizes Whitbey may not be a fairytale, but it may be what she needed.
This humorous beach town read peels back the layers into the reality of beachside living and is told from a candid irreverent perspective.
Lady Tan's Circle of Women, by Lisa See
Pub Date: June 6, 2023
Inspired by the true story of Tan Yunxian, Lisa See’s latest novel is a captivating tale of strong women and female friendship. Tan Yunxian is raised by her grandmother and trained to be a doctor using the pillars of Chinese Medicine. But as Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, she must find a way to break tradition to treat women and girls from every level of society. Her remedies are still being used today five centuries later, how did she do it? A remarkable tale of resilience and women helping other women.
I love a strong female protagonist and Lisa See has proved to be an amazing historical fiction writer, so this is an automatic read on my summer reading list!
If you want more beach reads, try my list from last year. Or take a look at more book lists!
You might also want some of the Best Beach Snacks to bring with you!
Archive Dive!
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