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If you're already planning what books you'll be packing in your beach bag this summer, you're in good company. Vacation is just around the corner, and our reading list is as ready as we are. There are lots of new beach reads by some of our favorite authors coming out this summer, with a few gathered from the past few years too. From debut writers and perennial favorites, there's no lack of new stories coming out to keep us busy all summer long. If you're still looking for a few good books, check out some of our favorite beach reads, and get that summer reading list in order. Beach days will be here before you know it—and if you're also still booking your travel, check out The South's Best Beach Towns and The South's Best Resorts for some of our best summer ideas and favorite vacation spots to inspire your travels with family and friends this season.
A family of actors encounter more than they bargained for during a summer on Block Island, which finds them mounting a production while dealing with secrets, ambition, and self-discovery.
A late-night comedy writer named Sally Milz knows all about rom-coms and has written them off as pure fiction. When a pop star comes to the show and hits it off with Sally, however, she finds herself in just the sort of situation she has always been skeptical of.
Rather than telling their friends they've broken up (and potentially ruining their annual group trip to a cottage in Maine–the last one in fact, as the cottage will soon be sold), an ex-couple pretends to still be together while on vacation. What could go wrong?
This story, the debut novel of Atlanta-based writer Deepa Varadarajan, is a heartwarming journey of self-discovery that finds each member of a family setting out on their own new paths. Suresh and Lata Raman are divorcing and embarking on new relationships after a decades-long arranged marriage, and their children have their own challenges in love.
A former pop star who's perfectly fine with her ordinary life is tempted back onto the stage with an offer to star on Broadway. The only catch is that the show involves the man with whom she feuded years earlier. Their chemistry is still palpable, but will things work out this time?
Elizabeth Acevedo's new novel tells the story of the lives of several women in a family–sisters, aunts, nieces–one of whom has a gift that prompts her to gather these women together for a living wake, a celebration that might prove life-changing for them all.
In Stephen Rowley's new novel about friendship, loyalty, and the twists life takes, college friends reconnect years after their last gathering and nearly three decades after their graduation.
A book editor looks back at her life when she chooses to spend one last summer at her family's beloved Fire Island cottage in this new novel about moving on (in more ways than one).
Ten years ago, Fern Brookbanks spent a day on a fateful adventure with Will Baxter. Now she is running her mother's lakeside resort, and nothing in her life is what she'd planned. Cue Will's re-entry; as he shows up in her life again, she might just find a new way forward.
Set among the monied and privileged families of New York City, this novel explores the life of a family–the Stocktons–that is filled with memorable characters. Following three distinct women in this group, it explores love, relationships, and family crises with a strong dose of humor.
A family teeming with tensions and difficult memories converge at Riptide, the Darling Family's beach house, on the eve of a wedding. Multiple generations are poised to reconnect until a secret resurfaces, threatening to change things for good.
If you like your beach reads with plenty of suspense, try Elizabeth Day's novel Magpie, a story about a couple who takes in a lodger, Kate, while trying to start a family. They soon find Kate's behavior worrying, leading them to believe all is not as it seems.
After tragedy strikes and her family life grows ever more complicated, a food blogger decides to organize a "five-star weekend" in which she invites friends from different decades of her life to spend time with her. All does not go according to plan, however, when unexpected visitors arrive and secrets begin to surface.
In a Long Island enclave on the Sag Harbor sands, a community must challenge the interests of real estate developers who want to change the landscape of their seaside oasis. Fleeing personal turmoil, Olivia Jones moves there for the summer and develops life-changing relationships with the people she meets.
Equal parts moving and nostalgic, Kristy Woodson Harvey's latest novel is a story of four friends who unite to save a summer camp and find out much more about friendship, love, and their own lives in the process.
Women representing three generations of a Southern family are at the heart of this upcoming novel by Victoria Benton Frank, which is set on Sullivan's Island in South Carolina's Lowcountry. In it, histories are uncovered, relationships explored, and new beginnings found.
When her life begins to stall, Heather Willette decides to start over by renting a cottage in Nantucket. Her son's girlfriend, who lives nearby, is less than pleased that Heather will be down the road, since the two don't get along. Things might just turn around, though, during this pivotal summer.
Everything is going wrong in Dr. Briana Ortiz’s life when she meets a fellow doctor whose terrible first impression eventually gives way to charming letters, lunch dates, and an offer to save her brother's life. Will things begin to around in her life at last?
In Elizabeth Castellano's debut novel, Kathleen Deane gets a new start in a tiny beach town, but the prospect of an idyllic life there turns out to be a bit more complicated than she'd anticipated.
After her grandmother passes away, Melanie Simpson uses her inheritance to buy a beach house in Rosemary Bay. It's in need of major work, and as she embarks on the renovation, she meets a man and discovers an array of old letters that reveal secrets long hidden.
A retired tennis player who sacrificed a lot to attain her accolades sees her records smashed by another player just six years after she hangs up her racket. She decides to come out of retirement for one last attempt at regaining her title in this recent novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
Jasmine Guillory's perfectly plotted reads have earned tons of fans, and this recent one, By the Book, tells the story of a woman on a mission to secure a manuscript from a high-profile author—though complications arise as deadlines encroach.
Take a trip to the Amalfi Coast in Rebecca Serle's novel One Italian Summer, which is a heartwarming love story about a mother, daughter, and the magic of the Italian seaside.
This funny and charming novel tells the story of a divorced screenwriter who pens a script about her failed marriage and finds that it might just provide the fresh start she's looking for.
This fun and funny campus novel is set at Whitewell University, where Kiki Banjo, the host of the student radio show Brown Sugar, is determined to help other students find their way through the mess of university dating. Much to her dismay, she soon finds herself in just the kind of romantic situation she opposes.
Professional matchmaker Sophie Go has her work cut out for her when she moves home to Toronto and tries to find work as a matchmaker. She soon meets a group of septuagenarian bachelors and learns about love, loss, and starting over.
A literary agent heads to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina, with her sisters for a much-needed getaway but finds more than she bargained for in this much-loved novel by Emily Henry.
This smart and funny novel by Tahmima Anam is set in the world of tech startups and explores the pressures of love and fame, as well as the challenges of marriage, in an ever-more-modern world.
If you like your rom-coms set in the medical field (a la Grey's Anatomy), you'll love Shirlene Obuobi's book On Rotation, which finds med student Angie being tested on all fronts as she navigates friendship, love, and family.
This romance read tells the story of an ER doctor from the city who falls for a small-town carpenter ten years her junior as they navigate their differences and try to find a way to bring their worlds together.