Everyone travels differently. Some enjoy constantly moving and others enjoy relaxing all day in a lounge chair. Whichever way you travel most people bring a book along. These are the books we have packed for our travels and not regretted it!
Katie:
My first pick for the beach is Homicide in Hardcover by Kate Carlisle. It is a murder mystery book, but not heavy or complicated, and perfect for the beach. The whole series is fun and interesting. I learned things about books and enjoyed the mystery and romance plots.
My second pick for the beach is This Earl of Mine by Kate Bateman. You can’t beat a good romance novel for beach reading, and this is one of my new favorite romance novels. The romance between the main characters is friendly and real, yet steamy and fun to read. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.
Jessie:
Jacqueline: What do I look for in a so-called beach read? I suppose that first and foremost it needs to be fun and engrossing. But not so engrossing that I can’t put it down. I need to be able to put it down and easily pick back up where I left off. There are a lot of distractions at the beach! I disagree with Kellie in that I think Agatha Christie novels are perfect beach reads, but perhaps we’ll cover that in a different post. Here are my non-Agatha picks:
“The Royal We” by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan: I don’t consider myself a hardcore royalist. I’ve never woken up early to watch any of the royal weddings and I certainly don’t pay close attention to British tabloids. But I’m not immune to a good “Megxit” headline or a roundup of Kate Middleton’s best outfits. For anyone who agrees, this is the book for you. It’s basically Will and Kate fanfiction – reimagined if Kate was an American. At some point in our lives, we’ve all imagined ourselves as a princess. This book does that without the fairytale aspect. But don’t worry, there’s still a lot of romance. And a sequel just came out! TBD if the sequel will be on next year’s beach read list.
“Daisy Jones & The Six” by Taylor Jenkins Reid: This book about a fictional band is told in such a compelling and realistic format that a lot of people had to google it to figure out if it was a real band or not. It’s not. But that compelling and realistic format also makes it an ideal beach read. Told through short, interview-style blurbs it’s easy to digest, even when the subject matter gets a little tougher. Read it now so you can form your own image of Daisy (she looked remarkably like myself in my head…) and Billy because it’s being turned into a movie!
Kellie:
When I’m picking a book to read at the beach I need it to be one that I don’t have to pay super close attention to for me to understand the story. So for instance I started to read Agatha Christie by the pool and had to stop because it was important that I know where each character had breakfast or sat on a plane.
My first choice for a book is “Written in the Stars” by Alexandria Bellefleur. This is a light homage to Pride and Prejudice with the main characters Darcy and Elle. Darcy is strict and rigid, she has order in her life and does not believe in astrology. Elle does, in fact astrology is her life. Elle runs an astrology blog and her career is on the rise. The two are set up by Darcy’s brother and they don’t hit it off. Then a few white lies later they find themselves fake dating. As always with fake dating, real emotions tangle things up. This book is so much fun to read and it sucked me in from the beginning.
My second pick is “I Owe You One” by Sophie Kinsella. This book is so heartwarmingly sweet. It is about Fixie, a woman who can’t help but fix things and the scrapes this gets her in. Fixie’s flirting and romantic endeavors makes you cringe at some points, but in the best way. For me it made me feel better about my flirting ability. Fixie really grows as a character and it is so nice to see the progress.
Kathy:
What better book to read on the beach than “Beach Read” by Emily Henry? It is a quick read, a romance, and set at the beach, a trifecta in my opinion. It also is captivating and the quips, quirks and insecurities of the characters are so much fun!