Catch the Wave with Six Beachy Reads

Summer means beach books, and I don’t mean just fluffy, entertaining reads, I mean books that are actually set at the beach, some even having the word beach in the title. (Hmm… wonder why mountain books for winter have never been a trend? Or how about fall foliage books?)

Seems like there are more of these sandy tomes every year because the beach is a healing place where characters go to heal their wounds. (Unless, of course, they get sunburn or jelly fish stings)

If you’re looking to ride the waves, here’s a few books to tuck into your tote this summer

FOLLY BEACH

Would it be summer without a low country release from Dorothea Benton Frank?

One-sentence summary: A woman returns to the past to find her future in this enchanting new tale of loss, acceptance, family, and love.

Setting: Folly Beach S.C. just outside of Charleston.

SUMMER RENTAL

Not to be outdone by Dot Frank, the saucy Mary Kay Andrews blows into town with Summer Rental.

One-sentence summary: Five people who each need a sea change, and one month in a summer rental that might just give it to them.

Setting: North Carolina Outer Banks

HEAT WAVE

Nancy Thayer continues her run of beachy books with Heat Wave. (Apt title for Thayer who also wrote the Hot Flash Club series)

One-sentence summary: Heat Wave tells the moving story of a woman who, after her seemingly perfect life unravels, must find the strength to live and love again.

Setting: Nantucket

SILVER GIRL

This year Nantucket must be overrun with fictional characters because Elin Hilerbrand also sets her ripped-from-the headlines novel Silver Girl there.

One-sentence summary: Hilerbrand Meredith Martin Delinn just lost everything: her friends, her homes, her social standing - because her husband Freddy cheated rich investors out of billions of dollars.

BEACH TREES

Karen White (who already covered Folly Beach in a previous novel called On Folly Beach) has written Beach Trees.

One-sentence summary: Julie, the main character, begins a long and painful process of healing for leading her to a house on the Gulf Coast, ravaged by hurricane Katrina, and to stories of family that take her deep into the past.

Setting: Gulf Coast

MAINE

A little father north is Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan. You may remember this author from her last novel, Commencement.

One-sentence summary: By turns wickedly funny and achingly sad, Maine unveils the sibling rivalry, alcoholism, social climbing, and Catholic guilt at the center of one family, along with the abiding, often irrational love that keeps them coming back, every summer, to Maine and to each other

Setting: It’s Maine, of course. Specifically Cape Neddick, ME.

Do you have a favorite beach book. (Literally beach?) Do you like to read books set at the beach? Any new beach books I missed you want to tell us about? Will the beach be a part of your vacation plans this year?

Join us tomorrow when girlfriends share their favorite summer reads.