Summer is the time to kick back, relax, and enjoy some time in the shade. If you’re like me, you like to spend as much of your summer as you can at the beach! Of course, one of the essentials to pack in your bag when going to the beach is a good beach read. What makes a book a good beach read? I don’t really have a set genre of beach reads, just a loose collection of types of books that are perfect to read while sitting out on a beach towel or catching some sun by the pool. For me, this includes books in tropical/beachy locations, books that take place in the summer, sweet romances, short story collections, and books that are easy to lose yourself in (like fantasy, sci-fi, and thrillers). I’ve listed some suggestions below. What do you like to read at the beach?
Summer Days and Summer Nights: 12 Love Stories edited and with a story by Stephanie Perkins
Maybe it's the long, lazy days, or maybe it's the heat making everyone a little bit crazy. Whatever the reason, summer is the perfect time for love to bloom. Written by twelve bestselling young adult writers and edited by the international bestselling Stephanie Perkins, this book will have you dreaming of sunset strolls by the lake. So set out your beach chair and grab your sunglasses. You have twelve reasons this summer to soak up the sun and fall in love.
Hearts, Fingers, and Other Things to Cross by Katie Finn
Gemma and Hallie, enemies to the core, are shocked when they learn that their parents are engaged -- to each other! Nothing in the world could possibly be worse than being stepsisters. Except perhaps being bottled up in a house together during a hurricane, along with two ex-boyfriends, a current crush, and the engaged couple...
Just Kill Me by Adam Selzer
After taking a summer job with a Chicago ghost tour company, eighteen-year-old Megan is interrogated for murder, when the reports of "real" ghost sightings increase along with the number of missing tourists.
Two Summers by Aimee Friedman
Two possible futures face Summer: either she will spend the summer in Provence with her father, uncovering family secrets, and exploring the old world, or she will stay in upstate New York, coping with her mother, and dreaming of her long time crush--and which future unfolds will depend on whether or not she answers a phone call.
A Fierce and Subtle Poison by Samantha Mabry
Spending the summer with his hotel-developer father in Puerto Rico, seventeen-year-old Lucas turns to a legendary cursed girl filled with poison when his girlfriend mysteriously disappears.
No Love Allowed by Kate Evangelista
A wealthy boy's plan to survive the summer social season by hiring a fake girlfriend goes in an unexpected direction when he falls in love with bi-polar artist Didi.
Portrait of Us by A. Destiny and Rhondy Helms
Looking forward to taking summer classes with a famous artist-in-residence, Corinne struggles beside a fellow student whose style clashes with her own, a view that shifts when she learns that they have more in common than she thought.
Frannie and Tru by Karen Hattrup
When fifteen-year-old Frannie's seventeen-year-old cousin Tru moves in for the summer after a bad coming-out experience, Frannie feels desperate to impress her worldly older cousin, only to discover that his charismatic facade may hide a dark secret.
This is the Part Where You Laugh by Peer Brown Hoffmeister
Rising sophomore Travis and his best friend, Creature, spend a summer in a Eugene, Oregon, trailer park dealing with cancer, basketball, first love, addiction, gang violence, and a reptilian infestation.
Before We Go Extinct
by Karen Rivers
After Sharkey's best friend commits suicide (or was it an accident?) in front of him, he spends the summer processing his grief on an abandoned beach resort island where his dad is the caretaker.
How It Feels to Fly by Kathryn Holmes
For as long as Samantha can remember, she's wanted to be a professional dancer. But she's beset by crippling anxiety about her appearance, which threatens to crush her dreams entirely. On her dance teacher's recommendation, Sam is sent to a summer treatment camp for teen artists and athletes who are struggling with mental and emotional obstacles. If she can make progress, she'll be allowed to attend a crucial ballet intensive. But when asked to open up about her deepest insecurities, secret behaviors, and paralyzing fears to complete strangers, Sam can't cope. A compelling novel about body, mind, and the courage it takes to become who you want to be.
A Walk in the Sun by Michelle Zink
While grieving following an unexpected family tragedy, Rose Darrow finds her quiet world turned upside down when Bodhi Lowell is hired to spend the summer working on her family's farm.
Summer of Supernovas
by Darcy Woods
As the daughter of an astrologer, Wilamena Carlisle knows the truth lies within the stars, so when she discovers a rare planetary alignment she is forced to tackle her worst astrological fear--The Fifth House of Relationships and Love--but Wil must decide whether a cosmically doomed love is worth rejecting her mother's legacy when she falls for a sensitive guitar player.
Summer of Sloane by Erin L. Schneider
Seventeen-year-old Sloane McIntyre spends a summer in Hawaii as she deals with being betrayed by both her boyfriend and her best friend, and she and her twin brother, Penn, begin new, complicated, romances.
The Season of You & Me by Robin Constantine
Cassie deals with a breakup by deciding to spend the summer with her father and his family at their Jersey Shore bed-and-breakfast. Bryan, now in a wheelchair after being paralyzed last summer, is back at his camp job. Neither of them is expecting to fall in love.
A Totally Awkward Love Story by Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison
Hannah and Sam are each searching for The One-- but over the summer, a series of hilarious misunderstandings prevent them from realizing that they're It for one another.
The Square Root of Summer
by Harriet Reuter Hapgood
Gottie Oppenheimer, a seventeen-year-old physics prodigy, navigates grief, love, and disruptions in the space-time continuum in one very eventful summer.
Whisper to Me by Nick Lake
Told through letter-writing flashbacks, Cassie is a New Jersey shore teen who over the course of one summer experiences the exhilarating highs of new love, the frightening free-falls of personal demons and family tragedy, and the bumps along the way to forgiveness, acceptance, and self-discovery.
The Haters by Jesse Andrews
For Wes and his best friend, Corey, jazz camp turns out to be lame. It's pretty much all dudes talking in Jazz Voice. But then they jam with Ash, a charismatic girl with an unusual sound, and the three just click. It's three and a half hours of pure musical magic, and Ash makes a decision: They need to hit the road. Because the road, not summer camp, is where bands get good. Before Wes and Corey know it, they're in Ash's SUV heading south, and The Haters Summer of Hate Tour has begun.