Sun-sational Beach Reads

the shippers by Katherine Center

After a lifetime of being bad at love, JoJo Burton vows to solve her intimacy issues once and for all at her sister's destination wedding on a cruise ship. Armed with pop psychology, she diagnoses herself with a fixation on the neighborhood guy who was her first crush and first kiss (and who just happens to be a newly-divorced wedding guest). Determined to woo him for closure, she ropes in her childhood bestie, Cooper Watts, as her wingman. Cooper: who RSVPed no, but showed up anyway. Cooper: who moved to London without a word four years ago. Cooper: who broke her heart. Shipboard antics abound in this witty, heart-tugging, childhood-friends-to-lovers romance, as JoJo and Cooper team up, fake flirt, slow dance, share a cabin, sing duets, get jealous, answer long-held questions, and finally, at last, discover truths about each other that will change everything.

our perfect storm by Carley Fortune

Frankie and George have been best friends since they were eight years old. Both passionate, impulsive, and headstrong--they've always clashed . . . and come back together. Until now. It's the eve of Frankie's wedding weekend, and she doesn't know where they stand or even if George will show up as her best man. Then, at the start of the festivities, in walks George. For one glorious evening, surrounded by her loved ones, Frankie's life is finally perfect. But it all comes crashing down when her fiancé dumps her the next morning, leaving only a note as an explanation. Crushed and confused, Frankie returns to her family's home to wallow. But George has a different idea and a plan for healing Frankie's broken heart. He wants her to go on her honeymoon. With him. For one week, to the lush rainforests and misty beaches of Tofino. Frankie agrees, seeing the trip for what it really is: one last chance to repair their friendship. Even if it means unearthing secrets and long buried feelings neither knows how to handle. Even if it means falling apart for good.

june baby by Shannon Garvey

At seventeen, Ruth lost her mother to cancer, and her father, unable to handle his grieving daughter, shipped her off to Block Island with nothing but a name scribbled on the back of a receipt: Diana Beckett. Diana, a renowned photographer, took Ruth in for the summer, and Block Island became Ruth's refuge, a place of beauty and creativity, a place where she could nurture her dreams of being a writer, a place where she could fall in love for the first time--with Diana's nephew, Charlie. Now, at twenty-seven, Ruth has spent the last ten summers living and working among the lucky few who get to vacation in this wealthy beach town, and the rest of the year just scraping by, yearning to return to the place where she feels safe and unburdened. But then Ruth's world is upended by tragedy again. Desperate for an anchor, she reaches for the person she's been pining for since she met him--Charlie--who has his own startling revelation to share. And when another surprise comes in the form of a box left to Ruth by Diana, its contents raise questions about just how well she knew the two women who raised her. Torn between what to believe about her past, and what her future might hold, Ruth is faced with another choice: does she dare to rewrite her story entirely? Both a heartfelt coming-of-age story and a tender exploration of love and grief, set against a backdrop of golden dunes and seaside sunsets, June Baby shows us what it might look like to embrace a life shaped by possibility.

the homemade god by Rachel Joyce

There is a heatwave across Europe, and four siblings have gathered at their family's lake house to seek answers about their father, a famous artist, who recently remarried a much younger woman and decamped to Italy to finish his long-awaited masterpiece. Now he is dead. And there is no sign of his final painting. As the siblings try to piece together what happened, they spend the summer in a state of lawlessness: living under the same roof for the first time in decades, forced to confront the buried wounds they incurred as his children, and waiting for answers. Though they have always been close, the things they learn that summer--about themselves and their father--will drive them apart before they can truly understand his legacy. Meanwhile, their stepmother's enigmatic presence looms over the house. Is she the force that will finally destroy the family for good?

annie knows everything by Rachel Wood

After getting let go from her job and learning her sister is engaged to the worst man alive, Annie needs a win. Filling the open role in her company's data strategy team is just what the doctor ordered. So what if she doesn't know how to write code? How hard can it be? Surely Connor--the team's overworked, aggravating, and distractingly hot interim head--will soon realize how capable Annie is. Annie sets her sights on landing this new job, even if that means ignoring the chemistry building between her and her new boss, and she tries to (gently!) convince her sister to reconsider her engagement. But with sparks flying at work and at home, she begins to see how complicated taking matters into her own hands can be. Maybe, just maybe, Annie doesn't actually know everything.

every version of you by Natalie Messier

Joey Vasquez's life is the definition of good on paper. At thirty-two, she's a lawyer on the cusp of making partner, she owns her house in Los Angeles, and she almost keeps pace with her doctor sister in her parents' eyes. When she reluctantly arrives at the very couple-y dinner party hosted by Elijah Aarons, the best friend she's secretly pined after for fourteen years, she's dismayed to find that the last person on earth she'd ever want to see again is also there: Alex Aquino. Your basic rich Silicon Beach bro asshole. The night couldn't possibly get worse--and then she dies. When Joey is given a second chance at life, she finds herself eighteen again, the year she first met both Elijah and Alex. Armed with memories from her first life, Joey is certain she's come back to finally convince the one man she ever loved to love her back--so why does she find herself strangely drawn to the man she thought she hated?

the shampoo effect by Jenny Jackson

When Caroline Lash arrives in Greenhead, Massachusetts, she falls head-over-heels for Van Whittaker, a fleece-wearing, litter-collecting, kayak enthusiast with long, floppy hair and the personality of a Border collie. Born and raised in this picturesque coastal village, Van runs with the same crowd he did as a kid: His ex-girlfriend, Bailey, a beautiful girl who attracts men like moths to a flame; Augusta, old money, horsey, and snobbish; and Fran, surrounded by brothers and sons, too fed up with boys to ever consider marrying one. Together, the group runs wild through the marshes, beaches, and bars of Greenhead, drinking on houseboats, spending long afternoons sunbathing with their children, and playing games the way they always have. But when Bailey discovers that she is pregnant with Van's baby, the delicate balance of the group's friendship is thrown off. Soon Caroline is cast out of the circle and what she does next--in a potent mix of fury and heartbreak--exposes long-held secrets and works the entire town of Greenhead into a lather. Dazzlingly funny, sexy, and as juicy as it is astute, The Shampoo Effect is a story of late-night parties, early mornings with small children, the dawn of midlife, and a group of old friends finally growing up despite all their best efforts to the contrary.

when you loved me by Beatriz Williams

Local history insists that a legendary pirate buried his treasure somewhere beneath Windward, the decayed Cooper estate on Winthrop Island, but Lucy Cooper never trusted the fable that broke her family apart. When a widowed Lucy returns with her young daughter to grieve her estranged father, she discovers catastrophe: The property is mired in debt she canʼt repay, and Ben Ressler has unexpectedly turned up on her doorstep. Thirteen summers ago, the teenaged Lucy never meant to fall in love with Ben, a Dartmouth football star vacationing nearby at the Peabody estate and the object of an all-consuming crush by Laura Peabody, Lucy's best friend. Those few weeks were the best and worst of Lucy's life, dooming her friendship with Laura. Now, after a fatal accident ended his dazzling NFL career, Ben has returned to live quietly in the Peabodys' caretaker lodge. He's also the last person who saw Lucy's father alive. As Lucy reconstructs her father's troubling final days, she uncovers his research on the frozen winter of 1717, when a desperately wounded pirate sought refuge on Winthrop Island with an enigmatic healer. To Lucy, this history points the way to a different kind of treasure: how to heal from the fractures of the past and earn a second chance at love. But just as Lucy's long-buried emotions sear to the surface, a shocking turn of events reveals that someone else on the island will do whatever it takes to claim the fabled plunder.

arrivals and departures by Amanda Eyre Ward

The Perkins family has problems. They're scattered across the globe. Lee, a glamorous reality-TV star, is struggling with her mental health in the spotlight. Regan, her younger sister, has fallen for a romance scammer. Cord, their charming brother, is one drink away from losing it all. And their mother, Charlotte, still longs for the love she let slip away a decade ago, a lover who sailed off with her heart to a remote island in Greece. When Regan disappears, Lee flies first-class to Athens to save her family--again. There, against the glittering Mediterranean and the shadow of the Acropolis, Lee contends with emotional nieces, relentless paparazzi, and her own fragile heart. Lee is desperately searching--for her sister, and for the hope and joy she thought was gone forever. Across continents and crises, each member of the Perkins family must face the same question: is it ever too late to choose love?

villa coco by Andrew Sean Greer

An aspiring archivist determined to begin a "serious" life after an undistinguished undergraduate career takes up residence in the Italian countryside. Here, he becomes the all-purpose assistant to the Baronessa, known to her friends as Coco, a defiantly youthful and naturally flamboyant woman of ninety-two. Amid a chaotic and colorful milieu of gin-swilling princesses, incomprehensible handymen, roaming boarhunters, nuns, and other local wildlife, our young man does his best to catalog the villa's extensive collection of art and antiques--although he notices that things seem to go missing from right under his nose. Despite himself, he tumbles into an affair with a married man, complicating his future plans considerably. And when the Baronessa loses someone close to her, he becomes an unwitting accomplice in the acceleration of Coco's great and final plan: to locate the love of her life and be reunited before it's too late. Told with the signature wit, charm, and humanity that made Less an international phenomenon, Villa Coco is a dazzling, sun-soaked ode to life itself, a meditation on how seriously we ought to take ourselves, and a bawdy Mediterranean ballad about becoming who we've always wanted to be.

the missed connection by Tia Williams

Sasha Cruz knows types. As a booked-and-busy casting agent, she's always casting--at happy hour, the grocery store, everywhere. She's all about finding the perfect person to slot into the perfect role. What she doesn't do, however, is relationships. Too much energy, not enough time. On a flight to Paris for work, a chance encounter with her type changes everything. Sasha's seated next to a broodingly attractive mystery man, and sparks fly--but they never exchange contact information. Convinced she's lost out on her soulmate, Sasha emails her work friend for help, but accidentally writes to the entire company worldwide! The international manhunt to find Seat F begins. Meanwhile Sasha takes matters into her own hands. She hires a smoldering detective she knew in another lifetime--who complicates matters in unforeseen (and irresistible) ways. With a worldwide search underway, will love take flight for Sasha?

alan opts out by Courtney Maum

Alan Anderson is a powerful advertising executive who has built a successful life and thriving business by making people buy stuff they don't actually need. He's up for the biggest pitch of his career and the account everyone wants, US Dairy: cow's milk sales are plummeting, and the C-Suite wants to see trendy oat milk kicked to the curb. But when an anarchist farmer tanks Alan's presentation, Alan bombs the pitch but ends the day with an epiphany. No longer will he exploit the insecurities of others in the service of capitalism. Alan is opting out. This development is anathema to his wife, Vivian. She's just a few positive affirmations, a swimming pool, and an exacting series of social tests away from finally becoming part of the elite women's club, the Queen Annes, in their adopted town of Greenwich, Connecticut. As if contending with a daughter who wants to write plays (!) and another who has an unnatural empathy with animals isn't enough to manage, she can only watch as Alan moves into their backyard playhouse to live off the land and--worse--spend time with the family. But instead of shocking the neighbors, Alan's commitment to a less-is-more lifestyle seems to be catching on. Could everyone want what Alan's not selling?

the jellyfish problem by Tessa Yang

Dr. Jo Ness prefers jellyfish to people. Her best friend, Aldo, was the exception, but he died seven months ago. So she spends her days hidden away at an underfunded aquarium with her specimens and a draft of the jellyfish guide she and Aldo had been working on together. His voice is alive in the notes in the margins, and it's enough. Almost. Until she receives a call from Nadia, one of the few other humans she's loved but whom she hasn't heard from in years, asking for her help. Nadia tells her a grand tale of a giant jellyfish terrorizing her tiny island off the coast of Maine and sends a grainy video of the creature. Frankly, the footage looks fake, but Jo drops everything to fly across the country to see Nadia again, and to find this supposed sea beast. She couldn't save Aldo, but perhaps she can help Nadia. But when Jo arrives on Shattering Point, Nadia is nowhere to be found, and the islanders she meets each have something different to say about the creature they've dubbed Clementine . . . a jellyfish who changes all who see it.

down with the shipmans by Meg Mitchell Moore

It's the week after Fourth of July, and the Shipman sisters are returning to their picturesque summer home on the New Hampshire coast for what they believe is a family reunion, the first without their late mother. However, their tranquil setting quickly becomes a stage for drama when their father, Calvin, drops the bombshell news that he plans to sell the cherished beach house. Mae, the youngest daughter, who has a newfound penchant for attracting trouble, is distraught, already dealing with her own emotional scars and a problematic rescue dog. Natalie, the middle sister and social media darling known for her seemingly idyllic life as a tradwife, is equally anxious, especially since her flawless public image is on the verge of imploding. Meanwhile, Jordan, the eldest, a high-powered crisis communications expert, is ready to be rid of the house so she can tend to her own professional disaster. As old memories are stirred up and the sisters navigate both the packing of the house and their personal crises, the arrival of Calvin's new wife pushes Jordan, Natalie, and Mae to decide how far they're willing to go to preserve the Shipman bond.

leave your mess at home by Tolani Akinola

A warm, funny and tender debut about the uncomfortable, unbreakable ties of family as four adult siblings come home to confront the state of their own lives and each other The Longe siblings are really botching their parents' American Dream. Sola Longe, eldest daughter, estranged from the family, is secretly back home in Chicago for the first time in a decade. She's a newly single and recently disgraced influencer trying to quietly put her life back together again. But Sola's unexpected return sets her on a crash course toward her other three adult siblings. And when the four of them finally find themselves together again at their Nigerian immigrant parents' Thanksgiving table, a decade's worth of secrets and a lifetime of resentments explode to the fore. But Sola is not the only Longe whose life is a total mess. The other three aren't doing much better: Anjola is in love with her best friend, who just got engaged to someone else; Karen, a college junior and the youngest, is grappling with her sexuality and self-image; and Ola, the golden child with his own baby on the way, is questioning his marriage and how to raise a Black son in America. In the wreckage of their fateful reunion, each Longe is forced to reckon with the past, take stock of what really matters, and find a way back to each other. Big-hearted, hilarious, and poignant, Leave Your Mess At Home is an insightful debut about forgiveness, unconditional love, and becoming who you want to be. It's a novel that asks: what do we owe to our families, and what do we owe to ourselves?

take me with you by Steven Rowley

College professor Jesse del Ruth has been abandoned. Thirty years into their relationship, Jesse witnesses his husband, Norman, get out of bed late one night, walk into their Joshua Tree backyard, step into a strange beam of light and . . . disappear. How could Norman desert him after a lifetime together? Where did he go? And, most confoundingly . . . will he ever return? Jesse knew they were both feeling stuck, longing for something they couldn't quite name. But was their rut so deep that Norman's only option was to leave Jesse behind? As Jesse struggles to understand Norman's disappearance, he tries to piece together his new reality. Is he expected to wait patiently for a partner who may never come back? Or is this an opportunity for reinvention? He is, after all, alone for the first time in his adult life. Should he return to the classroom? Put in a pool? Get a dog? Call his estranged mother? What does it mean to be alone when you've always been one half of a whole? When Norman's sister, Lally, lands on Jesse's doorstep with an urgent request, Norman's absence becomes even more profound. Add to Jesse's grief and confusion a conspiracy-theorist neighbor, a strange man following him, and suspicions that he may have had a hand in Norman's disappearance, and Jesse starts to crack under the pressure. With his husband missing and the world closing in, all eyes are on Jesse. Before he can understand how Norman could leave it all behind, Jesse must confront what it means to stay.

rules for the summer by Meghan Quinn

Renley Gossage has one shot to prove she's more than Cape Meril's favorite cautionary tale: restore her favorite candy shop before the town writes her off like they did her father. No help, no shortcuts, and definitely no rich men wielding engagement rings and making things messy. Theo Williams never planned on ending up in Cape Meril. A drunken game of truth or dare turned into a botched online engagement, and now he's across the ocean, escaping his father's control with nothing but designer shoes, misplaced confidence, and a rental next door to Renley. She's practical, stubborn, and covered in paint. He's posh, persistent, and willing to use a sander if it means earning her trust. Between collapsing drywall, gossiping neighbors, and the chaotic schemes of Renley's aunt, their forced proximity turns into something dangerously close to real. But Renley's future depends on standing on her own two feet, and Theo's past isn't done with him yet. By the time the candy shop doors open, they'll have to decide if this is just a summer fling--or the happily ever after neither of them saw coming.

summer state of mind by Kristy Woodson Harvey

After the worst day in her professional life, burnt-out NICU nurse Daisy Stevens runs to Cape Carolina, North Carolina, looking for a new life--and possibly new romance. On her first day at her "simpler" job, high school baseball coach Mason Thaysden discovers an abandoned baby, sending ripples through the entire tight-knit town of Cape Carolina. Mason is still struggling to reconcile the scars of the injury that kept him out of the big leagues, stuck in his hometown, and searching for a way out. This newcomer and the child they've saved together might be just the motivation he needs to stay put. Sparks fly as Mason acquaints Daisy with Cape Carolina, introducing her to his friends and family, including his batty Aunt Tilley, who is looking for relief from long-buried family secrets and her own fresh start. But as Daisy becomes increasingly attached to this abandoned child, and begins facing her own demons in the process, a startling discovery is made that threatens to rip the entire town of Cape Carolina apart, placing Daisy, Mason, and Tilley in the center of the storm. In a novel that proves that "Kristy Woodson Harvey is (the) go-to for elevated beach reads" ( People), they will each learn that with love, understanding--and a community theater production of Hello, Dolly!--sometimes life conspires to bring us just exactly where we belong.

Book Jacket: This Weekend Doesn't End Well for Anyone

this weekend doesn't end well for anyone by Catherine Mack

Eleanor Dash can never catch a break. Not only has she had to solve two real-life murder plots in the past year, but both times it was when she was meant to be on vacation. Now she's finally got a ticket to a relaxing weekend--an all-inclusive resort at the Bahamas where she's speaking at a conference for murder mystery writers--but she arrives to find a body on the floor of her hotel room. Because of course she does. With plenty of familiar faces at the resort, any one of them could have been the intended target or the culprit behind it all. Was it Oliver Forrest, Eleanor's dashing boyfriend who's in danger of getting dropped by his publisher because his sales are dwindling? Or Connor Smith, Eleanor's infuriating ex-lover-turned-bestselling-rom-com-author with a sordid past of his own? Or her sister Harper, whose own stilted writing career has been a sore point for years as Eleanor's has soared? Perhaps it's one of the other writers also in attendance, as friends, frenemies and foes from Eleanor's past all seem to be invited to the island. Surrounded by mystery writers who know all too well the many ways to craft the perfect crime, Eleanor is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery and do whatever it takes to get out of this weekend alive.

Book Jacket: Ms. Mebel Goes Back to the Chopping Block

ms. mebel goes back to the chopping block by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Retirement should mean long-awaited trips to the sapphire waters of Santorini or careening down a sand dune in Dubai. For sixty-three-year-old Mebel, retirement means her husband of more than forty years announcing that he's leaving her for their private chef. Mebel isn't sure who's the bigger loss. Not to worry, Mebel has the perfect plan: she's going to win back her husband. No one knows what he needs better than her--after all, she's been anticipating his needs their whole marriage. And if he wants a wife who can cook (why else would he leave her for a chef?), she will simply go to cooking school. And where better to learn to cook for your husband than France, the most romantic country in the world? However, Mebel quickly learns that she has mistakenly enrolled in a culinary school not in glamorous Paris but rather in England--and in some small village outside of Oxford no less. Despite the less-than-warm welcome from her much younger classmates, Mebel manages to befriend Gemma, the breakout star of the program. And this unlikely friendship starts to show Mebel that maybe there's more to her than being the perfect trophy wife...

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