The Best Summer Beach Reads Worth a Spot in Your Vacation Bag

This is the third installment and conclusion to Kennedy Ryan’s Skyland series, and it was well worth the wait. Hendrix is the main character in this book, and it was really refreshing to read about a character who is childfree by choice.

In true Kennedy Ryan style, this is a romance that tackles heavier topics, including dealing with a family member who has Alzheimer’s and becoming their caretaker. Between the steamy romance and the emotional family issues that Hendrix faces, there’s plenty to discuss after reading.

—Nnenna Odeluga, book content creator at Notes By Nnenna

This is such a cute rom-com. The lakeside small town was the perfect summery setting, and I loved that these characters had a brief romantic history. They were each other’s first kiss at 13?! Swooooon.

Both main characters are messy in their own ways, which felt super relatable to me. Their chemistry was electric and the spice was spicing!

—Serena, book content creator at Serena Erin Reads

Tradwife murder mystery? Say no more. Jo Piazza’s latest is an incredibly spot-on thriller-slash-satire of our current obsession with homemaker influencers.

Lizzie is a journalist struggling to stay afloat in her struggling industry, and has been obsessively watching her former college friend Bex online. Bex, now known as Rebecca Sommers, has completely reinvented herself as a tradwife, raising five kids on a farm with her husband, Gray, and has millions of followers salivating over every sourdough loaf she makes. But when Bex reaches out to Lizzie with the opportunity that could kick-start her career, she is drawn into the darker reality behind the feed. You’ll spend the pool day devouring this one, then go on IG to immerse yourself even further in #tradwife content.

—Stephanie McNeal, senior editor

In Pursuit of Beauty is the kind of beach read that stays with you long after you’ve turned the final page. The story centers on Wes, a magazine journalist, and his subject Roya, a disgraced Beverly Hills plastic surgeon whose reckless attitude toward insurance claims earned her the nickname “the Robin Hood of Plastic Surgery” and...also some jail time.

Gary Baum’s prose is sharp (he’s a magazine journalist in real life, after all), and the story goes down easy. But the subject matter—the morality of plastic surgery and the pursuit of beauty—is as relevant as ever.

—S.R.

Set in sunny San Diego, this is a fun and hilarious take on the movie classic You’ve Got Mail. Work enemies Emmy and Gabe are after the same baseball-data-analyst job. One night, Emmy receives a text from an unknown number claiming, “Last night was fun :).” A flirty texting relationship ensues, and the two texters decide to meet IRL, only for Emmy and Gabe to discover that they’ve been texting each other the whole time.

With a sexy Mexico destination-wedding backdrop and a big declaration of love in front of thousands of baseball fans, the character development and discovered love between Emmy and Gabe were perfect.

—Sasha

Thelma and Louise meets Wedding Crashers in this fun and original thriller following the exploits of two friends, Kayla and Zorie. To help with their dissatisfaction from their day job as housekeepers at a hotel and to pay the bills, the duo spend their weekends crashing wealthy weddings and stealing the gifts to pawn.

However, when one of their schemes goes awry, the friends are forced to go on the run. It’s a tale of toxic friendships between women, race, and class in the South, and of course, lots of twists.

—S.M.

Emma Rosenblum has become the queen of reads about wealthy East Coast women behaving badly, and her latest is no exception. This time, she’s set her sights on the absurd and cutthroat world of Manhattan private school parents, following the lives of four moms at the prestigious Atherton Academy as they one-up, lie, and maybe even sabotage one another.

It’s silly and salacious, and it contained some twists at the end that were genuinely juicy. Plus, it has a few veiled references to real NYC socialites. Can you spot them all?

—S.M.

Moms Like Us is one of those satirical reads about the modern age of wealthy parenthood that I personally love to tear through. But this one puts the moms in question in such absurd situations that I genuinely laughed out loud multiple times.

All the moms at the center of this tale—Milly, Jillian, Dawn, and Heather—are dissatisfied in their own way and similarly uniquely desperate. They’re willing to do anything to ensure the success of their children, all of whom attend the same elite Los Angeles private school. There’s secrets, affairs, and a glamping trip gone awry. Truly, what more could you ask for?

—S.M.

This is such a perfect vacation read. The Maui setting was gorgeous, and this spin on workplace rivals was so much fun! These two had amazing tension; there was tons of banter and plenty of steam. If you’re looking for a fun beach read, make sure you pick this one up!

—Serena

The romantic interest of this book, Scotty, is prickly, unfiltered, and crass but also insanely lovable. It’s perfect for you if you like second-chance romance, a cast of unique characters, and a single-dad trope.

—Stef and Ash, book influencers @youhavetoreadthisnow

The way that Carley Fortune can bottle up the feeling of summer and put it into a book needs to be studied. Her books are so transportive! In One Golden Summer, we’re back in the beautiful Canadian lakeside setting of Barry’s Bay. Our female main character, Alice, is there for a bit of a reset when she encounters Charlie, the golden boy she had a crush on when she used to visit the lake as a kid.

I enjoyed watching Alice come out of her shell as she’s on the journey of finding herself again, and she and Charlie have such great banter.

—N.O.

What is it about the summer months that makes me want to read about rich people behaving badly? Not quite sure, but I tore through Party of Liars, which centers around one sweet-16 party where secrets of a Texas family are about to be revealed.

Our cast of characters all revolve around Sophie, the 16-year-old popular girl throwing the over-the-top bash at her new-money father’s house. There’s Dani, the father’s new wife struggling with postpartum depression following the birth of her daughter, and Kim, Sophie’s bitter and cynical mother, who would like nothing more than to see her ex-husband fall. Then there’s Mikayla, Sophie’s best friend, with secrets that are about to come spilling out; and Orlaith, Dani’s daughter’s nanny, who may not be exactly who she seems. I was genuinely surprised by some of the twists in this one, which keep coming until the last page.

—S.M.

Who doesn’t love a second-chance romance? In Lana Schwartz’s new novel, the trope gets new life as it follows the tale of Jack and CJ, who connect at a bar for one memorable night of romance but lose touch after.

Five years later, Jack, an actor, is shocked to arrive on set of his new Great Gatsby adaption to find CJ, who is working on the film as a production designer and is now a single mom to a four-year-old. Can these two rekindle what had been a beautiful night of chemistry? We are guessing yes, but you’ll have to read it to find out.

—S.M.

There’s nothing I love more than a good twisty thriller on vacation, especially one with a slightly deranged villain. The latest from Samantha Downing, who is no stranger to characters who you love to watch behaving badly, introduces us to Lottie, a grandmother who moonlights as a serial killer—and is forced to come out of retirement due to a series of unfortunate events.

Unfortunately for Lottie, one complication leads to another, and another, and another, until she’s involved in an ever-ballooning race to keep her murderous past under wraps. Is it bad that every time she kills someone, I’m definitely rooting for her to get away with it?

—S.M.

Jeff Weiss transports readers back to the early 2000s, offering an exaggerated chronicle of Britney Spears’s rise and journey through fame. Weiss knows a thing or two as he’s a former tabloid journalist who was on the rise at the same time as Britney. The book serves as both a personal memoir and a pop-culture critique.

Weiss does a masterful job of navigating our celebrity-obsessed world and the complexities that come with it. I, for one, could not put it down, especially thanks to all the Y2K references that made the inner 2000s kid in me jump for joy.

—Chantal Waldholz, global senior director, audience development