Beach Reads
It’s spring break, and I am devouring summer rom-coms. You know the ones: set on vacation, often at a beach, they feature a gorgeous and aspirational setting, two likable characters with solvable problems and fun hi-jinks. It’s best if these books come in paperback, the better to toss in a bag and carry anywhere. And I just can’t get enough.
It helps that these aren’t the old romances I used to see in the grocery stores when I was growing up. They have fun covers with bright colors where everyone is mostly clothed, and the storylines are less heaving bosoms and more characters searching for answers. At least, this is the case for the ones I love.
Almost as much as I love reading these books, I love re-reading them. Here are a handful I’ve been re-reading lately that should be good companions whether you’re heading for the beach or are bound for your couch.
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld. Sally Milz writes for The Night Owls, a comedy show that mimics Saturday Night Live. She would describe herself as the perfectly average girl living her dream life, and she’s not looking anymore for love. Enter Noah Brewster, the pop star who arrives to be the week’s host for TNO, and who asks Sally for help writing a sketch. Sparks fly, but a gorgeous pop star would never pick an average woman to date…or would he? Despite this description, this was one of the most realistic love stories I had read in a long time, and its setting during the pandemic only highlighted that for me. Sittenfeld is a great writer, and I can’t wait to see what she writes next.
Book Lovers by Emily Henry. When January shows up at her father’s beach house, a house that she didn’t even know existed until he died and his also-secret mistress gave her the key, she expects to put her head down, grieve his loss and his lies, and write her novel which is overdue to her publisher…if she can even figure out what it’s about. She doesn’t count on her new neighbor being Gus, her college nemesis who is also working on his own novel with its own challenges. This is one of my favorite rom-coms, and I couldn’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve read it. Part commentary on what it’s like to write, particularly to write women’s fiction, and part absolutely sizzling love story, it’s on my list of re-reads pretty much every year. Her new book comes out at the end of April, and it’s sure to be a delight.
Practice Makes Perfect by Sarah Adams. This closed-door romance centers on Annie, the younger sister in a Kentucky family readers first met in Adams’s first novel, When in Rome. Annie runs a flower shop and is looking for help to overcome her shyness and find her husband, with whom she plans to settle in her hometown and never leave. But when Will comes back into town and more directly into her life, her plans–and her understanding of herself–grow and change. I re-read this book last week and was struck a second time just how absolutely joyous it was, how completely feel-good all the way through. Her next book comes out on April 2, and I can’t wait for that one either.
Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monnaghan. After being dumped by her boyfriend Wyatt, the summer boy next door for all her life, before college, Sam has worked to reshape her life and protect her heart, so that she won’t be crushed again. But when she brings her fiance to her family’s beach house to look at a possible wedding venue, she finds that Wyatt is back, and that her understanding of their breakup had some serious flaws. More importantly, she starts to see how her attempts to protect her heart have blocked her from being the person she always wanted to be, and from the place she has always felt most at home. Annabel Monnaghan books are an autobuy for me, and they are just as good the second time around. Check out her new book, releasing in June–you better believe I will be.