11 Summer Reads to Add to Your Beach Bag
The following is a guest post by Marina Kendrick
What’s the most essential item to pack in your beach bag? A good book, of course! We’ve made finding your next beach read easy with these top book picks. With themes that include, finding yourself in your mid-twenties, sacrificing everything for a friend and even a sassy satirical novel about magic potion that turns women into society’s standards of “pretty,” these reads will surely make your day at the beach even better.
The Regulars by Georgia Clark
Best friends Evie, Krista and Willow are just trying to make it through their mid-twenties in New York. They’re regular girls with average looks worried about common problems: making it in the corporate world, figuring out online dating and making rent. Everything changes when they come across Pretty, a magic mixture that makes them gorgeous. The sudden change in their looks cause some big changes in their lives. But they learn that Pretty has a dark side and are left to figure out: what would you sacrifice to be Pretty?
25 Sense by Lisa Henthorn
Claire Malone has just left her California home to begin her dream career as a TV writer in New York. When her boss Sean Vared starts sending flirty emails and things go a little too far, she realizes that sleeping with her boss wasn’t the smartest decision. Claire wakes up on her 25th birthday to realize she’s in love with Sean only to find out that he’s already moved on. Claire must decide if staying at this job is worth it plus, what if someone finds out about what happened between them? Anyone who has ever felt lost as a millennial career girl will devour Lisa Henthorn’s reflective and charming 25 Sense.
Santorini Sunsets: A Novel by Anita Hughes
Not only is Brigit Palmer getting married to Hollywood hunk Blake Crawford, the ceremony is taking place on the Greek island of Santorini. The guests are arriving and everything is going perfectly. Until Brigit discovers a reporter from HELLO! Magazine, who happens to be her ex-husband, has been hired by Blake to write about their wedding. After learning some other surprises about Blake, Brigit begins to question what love really is and if she might be better off without him.
The Choices We Make by Karma Brown
Though they have been as close as sisters since fifth grade, Hannah can’t help but feel envious of her best friend Kate and her family, complete with a loving husband and two little girls. Hannah and Ben have been trying to have kids for years and when she receives news that she’ll likely never get pregnant, hope is lost. In an incredible act of friendship, Kate offers to be Hannah’s surrogate and even offers to use her own eggs. The Choices We Make follows two families on an incredible journey, and tells what happens when tragedy puts everything at risk, along with the chances we take to help those we love.
One Less Problem Without You: A Novel by Beth Harbison
Prinny is the owner of Cosmos, a shop that specializes in crystals, potions and a special cocktail that can be a romance potion or mend a broken heart. Chelsea is a living statue at tourist spots in Washington, D.C., and works part-time at Cosmos. Her dreams of becoming an actress seem further away than ever and will she ever find love? Diana is married to a charismatic man who’s not faithful but can’t decide whether she would rather be single and alone or married and lonely. In One Less Problem Without You, three very different women find themselves thrown together and it will take love, strength and a little magic to help them figure out what path to choose.
Hitched by Kendall Ryan
An NYC ladies’ man turned business mogul is on track to inherit a billion dollar company and marry the girl of his dreams, but there’s a catch: his new wife hates him and to inherit the company they must produce an heir. Over the course of the next ninety-nine days, he’s determined to win over his new fake wife and save his father’s business. A sexy story filled with love and laughs, Hitched will have readers begging for more.
The Assistants by Camille Perri
Tina Fontana is the executive assistant to an international media conglomerate. After 6 years of pouring drinks and making reservations, the glamour of working at a media company in New York is fading fast but her student loan debt has not. Tina has always played by the rules but when a technical error in her boss’s expense report gives her the chance to pay off her college debt, she takes it. As she gets deeper into her ethically questionable plan, other overlooked assistants want in. Soon, Tina is at the front of a movement that affects far more than they thought possible.
Luck, Love & Lemon Pie by Amy E. Reichert
When Milwaukee mom and wife MJ Boudreaux notices her husband is more interested in going to the casino than spending time with her, she takes up poker as a way to reignite their marriage. After discovering she has a knack for the game, she finds more comfort at the tables than in her hectic life as a mom and wife. Soon, she is playing in Las Vegas and getting attention from an attractive poker star. The stakes get even higher when she’s forced to choose between her family and the fast-paced world she’s found so much independence in.
Losing the Light by Andrea Dunlop
Thirty-year-old Brooke unexpectedly runs into a man from her past and she’s plunged into memories she’s tried to forget from the year she spent in France after a disastrous affair with a professor. Young Brooke in the picturesque city of Nantes finds a friend in Sophie, a blonde American whose confident façade covers up an emotional fragility. They become inseparable and find themselves intoxicated by their French surroundings. They meet French student Veronique and her sexy cousin Alex and Sophie and Brooke are launched into a world of art, money and decadence. The only problem: a disastrous love triangle that consumes them and possibly their friendship.
A Wife of Noble Character: A Novel by Yvonne Georgina Puig
Thirty-year-old Vivienne Cally was orphaned as a child and raised by a cold but regal aunt but her family name is a wealthy one, which is of some importance in Texas tradition. Taught to rely on her beauty, Vivienne is expected to marry a wealthy and respectable man who will honor the Cally name. Preston Duffin has known Vivienne since childhood and although he’s always admired Vivienne’s charm and grace, he’s not sure he belongs in such a traditional life. A Wife of Noble Character combines the pressures of traditional values and coming of age in the modern world. This Texas love story will speak to anyone who has ever struggled to find his or her way in life and in love.
Gridley Girls by Meredith First
In 1978, highschoolers Meg, Anne, Jennifer and Tonya were know as “The Group” in their hometown of Gridley, California. Now years later, Meg is hosting Anne’s wedding, and their friendship is strong as ever. But when tragedy strikes, the girls are forced to revisit the past that was filled with more secrets and betrayal than they ever realized.
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