35 Beach Reads to Devour While Soaking Up the Sun This Summer

This charming novel by beloved literary fiction author Emma Straub arrived in April and definitely deserves a spot in your suitcase this summer. It takes place over the course of a four-day cruise, bringing together a ‘90s boy band and thousands of their now-middle-aged fans. One of those nostalgia chasers is Annie, newly divorced and demoted, who unlocks a long-dormant piece of herself while reconnecting with her teenage passion.

This new release, set in the sunshine of California’s Balboa Island in the 1950s, is all about the literal life raft that female friendship can be. It follows three women who are struggling with husbands, finances, and hidden secrets, but who find a lifeline in each other and their regular games of tennis.

Tessa Yang’s debut novel hit shelves in June and will surely be the perfect companion on any beachside travels. It tells the story of a mysterious giant jellyfish that’s terrorizing the residents of an island off the coast of Maine, and the marine biologist who sets out to get to the bottom of the sea monster’s menacing behavior and reconnect with a long-lost friend along the way.

For a summer vacation story that’s more Midsommar than bubbly seaside romp, look no further than this creepy, culty novel. Published in May, it follows a young woman who travels to a mysterious, secluded island that houses an insular community promising healing and transformation...for a cost.

Pulitzer Prize winner Andrew Sean Greer’s latest hilarious, heartwarming novel is a sun-soaked coming-of-age story that centers on a recent college graduate who takes on a job as an assistant to a flamboyant baroness in the Italian countryside. During his time in her over-the-top presence, he’ll find love, excitement, chaos, and, just maybe, a whole new outlook on life itself.

Have you hopped on the Emily Henry train yet? She published several YA novels and then was officially crowned an expert romance writer with the 2020 release of Beach Read. The charming rom-com (and soon-to-be movie) follows polar-opposite writers, January, a romance novelist, and August, a literary fiction author, as they get to know each other and work on their latest projects together when they find themselves in neighboring vacation homes.

If you read Ally Carter’s Gallagher Girls teen spy series growing up, you’ll also love her 2023 adult debut. It's a rom-com that’s basically about a grown-up Gallagher Girl’s amnesiac twin sister. This page-turner is an ideal beach read: It’s fun, funny, and fast-paced, with a hint of spice and a solid dose of nostalgia for anyone who grew up hoping against hope that they’d somehow get to attend the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women.

If you're one to blow through books during the summer, it might be worth starting a series. Sarah J. Maas's A Court of Thorns and Roses will sweep you away to a completely different world, as it's set in the faerie realm of Prythian and follows the adventures and romantic rendezvous of Feyre Archeron, who is swept away to the fantastical world. The books have become a phenomenon on #BookTok and IRL, and are considered among the best erotic novels out there.

You may be well acquainted with Elle Kennedy's Off Campus hockey-romance series, but her Avalon Bay books are especially worth diving into during warmer months. The first entry in the trilogy is Good Girl Complex, about orderly, people pleaser, and trust fund kid Mackenzie "Mac" Cabot, who begrudgingly spends her college break at the beachside town her parents moved to. Feeling alienated from her family and others in the wealthy community, she finds an opposites-attract connection in local bad boy Cooper Hartley, and a summer to remember ensues.

When down-on-his-luck Justin takes to Reddit to share that he believes he's been cursed because every woman he dates meets his soulmate after they break up, Emma surprises him by sliding into his DMs and saying the same. To break the curse, the two hatch a plan to have a fling for the summer—in a private island lake house, no less—to break the curse. Abby Jimenez's novel is from both of their perspectives, so you'll be giddy seeing into each of their psyches as they realize their feelings for each other.

Casey McQuiston is an expert at blending heart and spice—as any Red, White & Royal Blue fan can attest—and this 2024 novel has both in spades, set against the backdrop of a sun-drenched summertime getaway. Exes Theo and Kit end up on the same small-group European food tour, so they do the only logical thing: Start a challenge to see who can hook up with more people throughout the trip. Duh.

Once you get into Emily Henry, you won't be able to stop, and her popular book People We Meet on Vacation is another ideal beach read. It reunites best friends Alex and Poppy, who couldn't be more different but are immensely close and take a yearly trip together until they drift apart. Two years after they stopped taking their vacations, Poppy invites Alex on another, and he agrees, leading to an opportunity for reconciliation (and maybe something more). Bonus: The Netflix movie starring Emily Bader and Tom Blyth is just as charming as the source material.

This smart take on the classic rom-com genre is basically the thinking woman’s fanfic, starring a writer on a Saturday Night Live-esque show and a musician who some (me) might say sounds a lot like John Mayer, whose romance blossoms over the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. It sounds weird described like that, but trust me, it works. It’s laugh-out-loud funny, relatable, and, ultimately, a very sweet love story.

It’s technically YA, but this 2025 take on Pride & Prejudice is sure to win over readers of all ages. Written by actor Angourie Rice and her playwright mom, it centers on the headstrong Lily, whose plans for a low-key summer on the beach are interrupted by the arrival of superstar Dorian and his posse. She’s initially annoyed by his presence, but can’t seem to stop running into him…wonder what’ll happen next!

This one's a true rom-com for the bookworms. When Samantha spends the summer at Martha's Vineyard and is tasked with watching over her bookish half-brother, who only wants to spend his days at the library, she connects with a charming temporary librarian named Bennett. Sparks fly as they grow closer while Samantha helps Bennett on his quest to research the identity of his father, whom he's never met, and he helps her write her dream cookbook.

All of your summer fling fantasies come alive in this heartwarming book. After two tough years in which hardship has turned professional organizer Ali's life into a mess, she serendipitously meets a man named Ethan who puts her path back on course.

Prepare to get heart palpitations on the beach reading romance novelist Carley Fortune's 2024 release. Set on Canada's Prince Edward Island, tourist Lucy experiences a whirlwind fling with local Felix—who she at first doesn't realize is her best friend Bridget's brother. Every summer, she falls into the same old patterns and sees Felix again, despite their feelings that they should let old flames die. That's especially put to the test when she drops everything to console Bridget for the summer after she calls off her wedding.

The Summer of Perfect Mistakes is a romance that sizzles. Old high school classmates reconnect when former all-American perfectionist Lark takes a leave from medical school after experiencing mental health issues, and she signs up for an art class that just so happens to be taught by a creative boy she grew up with.

Hear me out: Sylvia Plath’s iconic 1963 novel may chart a dark journey into a young woman’s slowly unraveling mind, but, perhaps counterintuitively, that darkness pairs perfectly with a sunny day at the beach or by the pool. That way, the story doesn’t become too overwhelming. Plus, I can personally attest that a candid shot of this book cover next to a cocktail umbrella-topped drink makes for a perfectly #aesthetic summertime social media post.

Emma Cline's 2016 debut, bestselling novel The Girls made her a literary sensation, and she followed it up with another beguiling hit, 2023's The Guest. A week out in the Hamptons has never been so chaotic as it is here. After a young woman is thrown out of her older sugar daddy's home, she traipses around Long Island, pretending she is someone she is not, until tension blows over and she can make an appearance at her beau's Labor Day party.

Acclaimed writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner's follow-up to Fleishman Is in Trouble focuses on the wealthy Fletcher family, whose father was kidnapped and held for ransom for one week in the '80s. While they were quick to move on from the ordeal at the time, as the three children are now well into their adulthood, they realize the entire family never reckoned with what happened in a gripping novel about the commitment and death of the American dream.

If you've read Taylor Jenkins Reid mega-hits like Daisy Jones & the Six and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, you should dive into her 2021 book Malibu Rising. It certainly is one of the most beach-read novels of hers. Inspired by the 1983 Malibu fires and California surf culture, it takes place over one night in which Nina Riva, a famous model and surfer, is hosting her annual end-of-summer party. Her home is engulfed in flames by the end of the night, but before then, tension among her equally talented and renowned family members lights a tense fire of its own.

For those seeking chaos, Margo's Got Money Troubles has more than enough for your fix, and you'll laugh out loud, too. 20-year-old single mother Margo is struggling to get by when her estranged father, a former pro wrestler, reenters her life and asks to move in with her. Inspired by his performative personality, she decides to launch her own OnlyFans, making for a smart, witty look at money, internet fame, and power. Read it now, and then binge the A24-produced series starring Elle Fanning and Nicole Kidman on Apple TV.

I’ll take your smutty poolside rom-com and raise you a talky, intellectual, complex (and still sexy!) take on love. Sally Rooney’s hit novel follows Marianne and Connell’s sometimes-sweet, often-confusing attempts at romance over several years. You’ll root for them, you’ll roll your eyes at them, you just might pull all your hair out as the frustratingly tangly tale unfolds—and I can think of no better way to while away a long, sunny day.

There's a charm to reading books set in seaside towns in the summertime or on vacation, but there's even more of a delight to reading books about something dramatic that shakes up a picture-perfect community. In Emma Rosenblum's debut, the town of Salcombe on Fire Island, a vacation hotspot outside of N.Y.C., becomes absorbed in a mysterious murder when a body is found on the boardwalk. Centered on socialites Jen and Lauren, their frenemy husbands, and visiting single friend Rachel, secrets and tensions beneath their have-it-all exteriors come to light surrounding the case.

Lovers of thrillers with unreliable narrators, this one’s for you. At its most basic, this book is about a young woman who worms her way into becoming the nanny for a rich, seemingly perfect family. But there’s so much more to it than that, and you’ll be peeling back the layers of this unpredictable story until the very last page. This summer is also the perfect time to devour Count My Lies, before it hits TV screens in a Hulu series starring none other than Lindsay Lohan.

There's a quintessential, nostalgic quality to summer camp—and also the classic horror trope. Liz Moore's widely praised 2024 book The God of the Woods leans into the latter, to eerie effect. Set in 1975 at a camp in the Adirondacks, turmoil and a dark history are unleashed when the 13-year-old daughter of the camp owner and local family dynasty goes missing from her bunk.

Gillian Flynn's 2006 debut is a certified classic thriller that any fan of the genre needs to read. It makes for the perfect day-trip read, too, considering how short it is. It also exudes the dizzying feeling that comes with heat exhaustion, as it unfolds in a small Southern town where reporter Camille returns to investigate a string of girls's murders. Once you start reading, you won't be able to put it down (and then you can get lost in the perfect binge-watch of its perfect 2018 miniseries adaptation).

Let State of Paradise into your life, and its sticky, humid setting and twisty mystery will consume you even more than the dew point outside. The page-turner follows a thriller ghostwriter living out of her mother's Florida home in a town where an odd company called ELECTRA seems to have moved in, taken over, and infiltrated its residences by passing out strange VR devices. When her sister disappears, the writer goes in search of her and finds more than one conspiracy to dig into.

All of Liane Moriarty’s books seem specifically crafted to be thrown in a vacation bag, and you may as well start with her biggest hit that turned into a TV pheneomenon. Big Little Lies’s thrilling plot will reel you in, its broad cast of quirky, sharply written characters will keep you invested, and its smart, darkly comic tone will make it feel like you’re hearing the shockingly twisty story from your best friend.

If you haven’t read Kevin Wilson’s Nothing to See Here, do that first, but then be sure to circle back to Run for the Hills. Wilson has a knack for writing hilariously zany stories that pack a shockingly poignant emotional punch, and Run for the Hills is no different. It follows a pair of half-siblings who embark on a road trip first to round up their other siblings and then to track down the father who abandoned them all, with plenty of hijinks and heartfelt moments along the way.

Often described as a cross between Love Island and Lord of the Flies, this truly unputdownable 2025 book is for those of us who live in the middle of the Venn diagram for reality TV fans and lovers of dystopian literature. It very much works: 20 attractive young people are sent to a remote compound for a competition show where they couple up and complete challenges to earn luxury goods far out of reach in the bleak real world. In the process, they learn just how far they’ll go to earn even more prizes.

If your summer vacay goes a little off the rails, at least you can console yourself with the knowledge that it didn’t take a possibly apocalyptic turn like the one in this book. Amanda and Clay take their kids to a rental house on Long Island, but their seemingly idyllic time off quickly takes a strange and very unnerving turn. And, when you’re done tearing through Alam’s novel at the beach and devising theories about what exactly happened, you can head inside and watch the (very good) Netflix film adaptation, starring Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, and Ethan Hawke.

Popular thriller author Lucy Foley's 2024 novel uncovers the secrets of a mysterious, alluring estate known as The Manor. Owner Francesca Woodland opens The Manor's doors with a meticulously planned summer solstice party, and the night proves stressful for many of the space's employees and Woodland herself when an old friend shows up. But the real melodrama unfolds after the affair, when it turns out that The Manor was burned down and someone died.

If your summer is typically spent tuning into reality shows like Bachelor in Paradise and Love Island, you're going to want to read One Perfect Couple. Bestselling thriller author Ruth Ware's book is inspired by competition and dating series, as it's set on a desolate tropical island where five couples are partaking in a new reality show. While it seems as though they're at first in paradise, a major storm makes the experience a nightmare—especially when it turns out a killer is on the island with them, making their fight for survival all the more terrifying.