NEW! 
Best Summer Reads from 2023
By: Angela & Melissa
Updated:
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, we may earn a referral fee from qualifying purchases.Whether you’re relaxing next to the ocean or poolside, your summer reading will be more enjoyable with one of these easy reads in your hand and another in your beach bag.
While we’re also working on a new book list of the best summer reads for 2024, we wanted to make sure you have some great summertime book recommendations from 2023 since your library may have longer holds on the brand-new releases. The titles on this list all have strong summer vibes, sometimes based on the location, sometimes the characters spend the book on a vacation or road trip, and some are clearly set during the summer months.
The Best Beach Read Books from 2023
The Five-Star Weekend
Book Summary
This novel centers around Hollis, a popular food blogger who loses her husband to a car accident. The fight she had with him right before he drove away drives an even deeper wedge between her and her teenage daughter, Caroline.
After learning about a trend called a “Five-Star Weekend,” where one woman organizes a trip for her best friends from each phase of life, Hollis decides to host her own. But gathering her best friend from each decade from childhood through midlife doesn’t turn out to be the joyful Hallmark movie she’d envisioned. But it will definitely be a weekend she’ll never forget.
The Book Girls Say…
Melissa loved this summer novel and agrees that it lives up to its 5-star namesake. While Elin delivers a page-turning beach read, she also provides plenty to think about in your own life. It’s the perfect mix of light reading with some deeper themes of friendship and relationships included to stop it from being too fluffy.
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
Famous in a Small Town
Book Summary
Mary Jackson is from a long line of women who have spent their lives running the Very Cherry General Store in Good Heart, Michigan. Like her lakeside hometown, the store is constantly inundated by tourists and faces threats from developers. She’s in her eighties and ready to retire, but when she was young, a mysterious prediction told her to await the arrival of a stranger—a young woman—to take over the store and carry on her legacy.
Newly 40, Becky Thatcher takes a vacation to Good Heart with her best friend in order to forget about her real-life troubles for a while. After meeting Mary at Very Cherry and listening to the octogenarian talk about destiny, Becky begins to reflect on childhood memories and future goals.
The Book Girls Say…
Viola Shipman, the pen name for Wade Rouse, is one of our favorite authors of feel-good books. We were eagerly awaiting this summer release in 2023, and it did not disappoint! Wade was raised in Missouri and now calls Michigan home for much of the year. His beautiful descriptions of these two states are so vivid that you’ll feel like you are spending your summer alongside his quirky and lovable characters. And, like us, you may also find yourself dreaming up a future trip to northern Michigan!
This is the first Viola Shipman book we’ve read that has a thread of magical realism, and we loved how seamlessly it was woven throughout the story. We also loved that the magical elements did not overpower the very real-life lessons about family and friendship.
You’ll be craving cherries the entire time you read this book – so plan accordingly! 🍒
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
Books Set at Lakes and Lake Houses
Best Magical Realism Books
The 23 Best Books of 2023
The Comeback Summer
Book Summary
Hannah and Libby inherited their grandmother’s PR agency, but they’re rapidly losing clients. If they want to save the company, they’ll need a big-name client that can help them get back on the map.
When they learn that an influential self-help guru, Lou, is shopping for a new agency, they think it could be the answer. But Lou insists that whoever she works with must participate in her 12-week “Crush Your Comfort Zone” challenge. Shy Hannah is challenged to go on 12 first dates, and Libby, who spent her youth avoiding gym class, has to compete in an obstacle race course.
The Book Girls Say…
Ali Brady is the pen name for the BFF writing duo of Alison Hammer and Bradeigh Godfrey. In this book, they alternate chapters, each writing from one sister’s perspective.
This summer read set in Chicago along the shore of Lake Michigan is a great balance of sisterhood, second-chance romance, and found family. Reviewers also love the Jewish representation throughout the book, including cultural and food references throughout.
The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise
Book Summary
After a fall, Louise’s daughter insists that a full-time caregiver move in to assist 84-year-old Louise with daily life. Like many independent seniors, Louise wants no part of this arrangement. She’s still perfectly capable of pouring her own vodka each day.
Tanner is twenty-one and needs a place to live. She’d love to find a way to make a living in her pajamas playing video games instead of dealing with the real world. Since she knows the reality is that she needs money, she takes the opportunity when a chance to be a live-in caregiver falls in her lap.
Tanner and Louise are doing okay as roommates, mostly ignoring each other until Tanner starts noticing questionable things around the house. For example, the garden shed is locked up like Fort Knox, and the news reporting on a jewelry heist with a suspect who looks like Louise.
When Louise packs a bag and insists she and Louise must leave town in the middle of the night, they begin what might be the most incredible adventure of their lives.
The Book Girls Say…
This well-rounded and humorous book crosses genres from contemporary fiction to mystery and romance.
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
Happy Place
Book Summary
Picture-perfect couple Harriet and Wyn met in college and have been an inspirational duo ever since. But, as their annual week-long Maine vacation with their best friends approaches, they have a big decision to make. Do they finally confess that they broke up six months ago and still haven’t managed to tell their best friends?
The cottage they visit each year is being sold, and it’s the last time they’ll all be together in their sacred spot. It feels wrong to ruin the whole mood with their bad news. So Harriet and Wyn decide they can surely fake being in love for one week. After all, they’ve had years of practice.
This book alternates between chapters titled “Happy Place,” through which you see Harriet and Wyn’s relationship from and grow through the years, and chapters titled “Real Life” where you see them in the current broken-up status.
The Book Girls Say…
We can always count on Emily Henry for a perfect new summer title, and this year is no exception. In Happy Place, she tackles one of our favorite tropes – fake dating. We absolutely loved the vivid descriptions of Maine that captured not only the sights but also the tastes and smells!
We both rated this one 4.5 stars. Book Lovers and Beach Read still remain our favorite Emily Henry titles, but we enjoyed every minute of Happy Place.
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
Good for You
Book Summary
Aly is six months into her dream job as the editor-in-chief of All Good magazine when she overhears her coworkers belittling her. This leads to a very embarrassing and very public meltdown. She agrees to take a month of unpaid leave to save her job. Unsure where to go or what to do with herself, she retreats to the Lake Michigan beach house she inherited from her brother, Luke. But when she arrives, she discovers that her brother’s best friend, Wyatt, also inherited a stake in the house.
She sees Wyatt as nothing more than an unkempt and unmotivated slacker standing in the way of her selling the beach house. But like her, he’s still processing his grief from losing Luke. As they spend more time under the same roof, they may discover that’s not the only thing they have in common.
The Book Girls Say…
If you need a quick read, this might be the perfect book. At just over 250 pages, it’s fun and fast, with a good balance of emotion and depth. Like most of Pagan’s books, this one combines women’s fiction and romance.
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
The Beach at Summerly
Book Summary
Emilia Winthrop lives on the stunning Summerly, an idyllic seaside estate. But Emilia is not in the main house, she’s the daughter of the year-round caretaker and a descendant of Winthrop Islands’ original settlers. In June 1946, the first summer after the war, glamorous Olive moves into the guest house. Her life couldn’t be more different than Emilia’s. While Olive was traveling the world, marrying men, and being involved in politics, Emilia was caring for her incapacitated mother.
As Olive and Emilia’s friendship grows, Olive encourages Emilia to find more adventure in life. However, an FBI agent shows up, claiming someone is transmitting vital intelligence to the Soviets from inside the estate.
Eight years later, Emilia is a professor at Wellesley College when Washington comes knocking again. Now the traitor she helped convict is being swapped for an American spy. She must finally confront the decisions from her past.
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
The Summer Skies
Book Summary
Armchair travel to Scotland this summer with Morag McGinty, a third-generation pilot who runs puddle-jumper flights to the tiny, windswept northern islands. Together she and her grandfather deliver mail, packages, tourists, medicine, and even sheep. It’s a vital lifeline that all the residents rely on, but Morag’s boyfriend from flight school, Hayden, wants her to move to Dubai with him.
Morag is on the verge of upending her life for Hayden when a rough landing in a storm maroons her on Inchborn Island. This off-the-grid island has a population of one. Gregor, an ornithologist from Glasgow, is there for the bird-watching station. But he might be the one person who can give Morag the perspective she needs.
The Summer of Songbirds
Book Summary
It’s been nearly thirty years since June bought Camp Holly Springs. June’s niece, Daphne, met her two best friends, Lanier and Mary, at that camp and they’ve been helping each other through lifes up and downs ever since. But now June is in danger of losing the camp that means so much to all of them, and Daphne is facing an impossible situation at her law firm. Lanier and Mary are facing personal problems of their own.
Despite all of the challenges these four women are up against, they agree that nothing is more important than saving Camp Holly Springs. Along the way, they may just set the stage for their next chapters.
The Book Girls Say…
This book contains alternating points of view between Daphne, Lainier, and June.
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
Halfway to You
Book Summary
After a Mediterranean adventure forty years ago, Ann Fawkes wrote her first novel. It became an instant bestseller, but she never wrote another book. She now lives a reclusive life in the San Juan Islands off of the Washington coast.
Podcaster Maggie Whitaker wants to interview Ann, but Ann will only agree if Maggie agrees to keep her story off the record. As Maggie listens to the story of Ann’s life – and specifically the love affair that inspired the novel – Maggie realizes that Ann’s story intersects with her own in a way she could never have imagined.
The Book Girls Say…
This sweeping novel spans both decades and continents. While this is a more emotional book than many of the beach reads on our list, armchair travelers will love the beautiful imagery of Greece and Italy. And the twists and turns will keep you turning the pages.
The Bookshop by the Bay
Book Summary
Jess thought she had the perfect life in Charleston, but when she finds out that her husband has been cheating on her, she leaves behind her job as a high-profile lawyer and returns to her childhood home on Cape Cod. The best part is that this puts her closer to her lifelong friend, Allison.
Allison loves her career as a magazine editor, but with circulation dwindling, she’ll soon be forced to find a new direction. When she learns that the owner of her beloved local bookstore is looking to sell, it’s the perfect opportunity. Allison and Jess decide that they, together with their adult daughters, should take over the shop.
In the process of reopening the bookstore to their community, they also open themselves up to the possibility of romance and second chances.
Someone Else’s Bucket List
Book Summary
Jodie is the shy twenty-something sister of hugely successful outgoing influencer, Bree. While Bree seems to have life figured out, Jodie is anxious and unsure of what to do with her life. Sadly, Bree has Leukemia and prepares for her death by recording a series of videos for her sister.
She asks Jodie to complete the final 6 items on her bucket list and let the world watch as she completes each item. The list includes terrifying tasks like flying over Antarctica and having a cameo in a Broadway musical. Jodie is compelled to agree by more than her sister’s dying wish. If she can keep Bree’s followers, a corporate sponsor will pay off the family’s medical debt. And if she can gain followers, more people will benefit by having their own medical debt covered.
While this is largely a book about finding yourself, one of the bucket list items is to fall in love, so there is a romance thread as well.
The Book Girls Say…
This is a heartfelt book that may bring some tears, but reviewers say you’ll also be smiling as characters embrace life and any sadness leads to a beautiful ending. You will need to suspend your disbelief at times and just sit back to enjoy the story without thinking about the likelihood of it happening.
Hotel Laguna
Book Summary
During the War, Hazel left her Kansas home to become one of the “Rosie the Riveters” at Douglas Aircraft. But when the war ended, she was dismissed so a man could have her job. After her taste of a different lifestyle, she doesn’t want to return home to be a typical 1940s housewife. Instead, she takes a job for famous, but cantankerous, artist named Hanson Radcliff.
As Hazel thrives in Laguna, she hasn’t let go of her dream of returning to work with airplanes. But along the way, her life moves on and she befriends Jimmy, a hotel bartender with the potential to become more than a friend. This life would be a dream for many, but is it enough for her?
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
The True Love Experiment
Book Summary
Fizzy is the best-selling author of romance novels, but feels lost in her own life. While she’s felt lust, she’s never experienced the true love she writes about in her books. The more she considers this disconnect, the more she worries she’s been telling readers about something that doesn’t exist.
Connor is a documentary filmmaker and loves that his work lets him live near his daughter. But when his boss wants him to make a reality TV show, he’s not sure he can pull it off. After a chance run-in with Fizzy, he has an idea. What if the lead in his new show is the queen of romance novels?
The Book Girls Say…
In “The Soulmate Equation,” Fizzy is the hilarious and beloved best friend of the main character, so you can get to know her a little before she gets her own story in The True Love Experiment. Christina Lauren books are perfect when you’re looking for a quick read.
Mrs. Nash’s Ashes
Book Summary
Millicent never expected to be traveling to Key West with a portion of the ashes of her elderly best friend in her backpack. But before Mrs. Nash died, Millie promised that she would reunite her with the woman she loved 80 years earlier.
She also didn’t expect to be on a road trip with a cynical writer. Millie met Hollis through her ex’s MFA program and was surprised to find him also stranded at the airport due to flight cancellations. They agree to make the long drive together, getting to know each other. While Mille thought this trip was about Mrs. Nash’s love story, maybe it’s really about her own.
The Book Girls Say…
Millie and Hollis encounter entertaining oddities all along their east coast road trip, from peculiar bed-and-breakfasts to unusual small-town festivals. This book strikes the right balance between humor, romance, and emotions.
At times, this book is steamier than the cover indicates, so skip it if you’re looking for a clean read.
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
When the Rain Ends
Book Summary
Dani has built a beautiful life in the Outer Banks as an artist. However, only months after the death of her husband, she begins losing her vision. So, on a whim, she sells her waterfront home and plans a move with her pre-teen daughter to an old Virginia farm. While this move feels necessary to Dani, her daughter disagrees.
Throughout the summer, they put their efforts into turning an old silo into an art studio, which helps create new friendships in town. Along the way, the mother-daughter duo works to find peace amid their stormy season of life as they each endure new challenges and continue healing from past grief.
The Book Girls Say…
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
Summer at the Ice Cream Café
Book Summary
Growing up, Beca’s grandparents owned an ice cream parlor in her seaside hometown. After a decade in the city chasing her career dreams, Beca decides to move home. She’s upset to discover that the new owner of the ice cream shop, who just happens to be her ex-boyfriend, has stripped the place of all its heart.
Beca decides to honor her family’s legacy by opening an ice cream shop of her own using a long-forgotten recipe book. The rivalry is fierce, but then disaster strikes and forces Beca to question what will really make her happy.
All the Days of Summer
Book Summary
Heather’s marriage has fizzled out, and her only child, Ross, is graduating from college, so she realizes it’s time to step back and figure out what she really wants from her life. She’s found a cottage to rent for the summer on Nantucket, and things are going well until her son announces that he’ll also be moving to the island to work for his girlfriend’s family business.
Kailee, the girlfriend, was excited to move back home with Ross until she found out his mother would be on Nantucket. She’s clashed with Heather from their first meeting. But maybe the magic of a summer on the island will be just what they both need to reconcile and find the futures they each want.
Same Time Next Summer
Book Summary
Everything is falling into place for Sam – she’s 30 years old, she has a great job in NYC, she’s engaged to a doctor, and she’s planning a wedding near her family’s Long Island beach house. But then she bumps into her first love, Wyatt – the guy who broke her heart when she was 17.
It’s been more than a decade since they’ve seen each other, but in a moment, all the memories come flooding back. After all, he wasn’t just any high school boyfriend – he was the boy she spent every summer with from the time she was five.
The Celebrants
Book Summary
The Celebrants focuses on a group of five college friends who are now approaching their 50s. Right before graduation, they lost the 6th member of their friend group, and the tragedy has had a lasting impact on each of them. During the memorial, the group made a pact that each person could summon the group together once with no prior planning. As part of the gathering, whoever has gathered the group gets a living “funeral” to remind them that life is worth living.
Twenty-eight years later, Jordan has a big secret that may destroy their nearly three-decade-old pact.
The Book Girls Say…
While this book has some hard themes and deals with grief, the character-driven story is wrapped in Steven Rowley’s signature wit and heart. However, If you’re looking for a book that makes you smile as often as The Guncle, you’ll want to reset expectations before picking up The Celebrants. It leans further into grief and harder moments of life.
The friendships aren’t perfect, and neither are the individual characters. And because the timeline is non-linear, it may take a bit longer to connect with them. However, if you know anyone who lost a friend during the pivotal period of life around high school and college, Melissa found the ongoing impact represented in this book to be very accurate.
A Note About Diversity in Beach Reads
We strive to include diverse authors and characters on each of our book lists. However, while the publishing industry has improved in recent years, there are still noticeable gaps within some sub-genres, including summery books. We see people of all backgrounds on our summer vacations and would love them to be better represented in our beach reads. Feel free to leave book suggestions in the comments below the post of any books we missed during our research.
More Books to Add to Your Summer Reading List
If you love reading light and fun romantic comedy books in the summer as much as we do, you can browse lots of great rom-com book recommendations all in one place.
- Summer Books to Read on the Beach in 2024
- Best Summer Reads from 2023
- Books Set on Lakes and at Lake Houses
- Mysterious Thriller Books Set on Islands
- Books That Take Place On an Island
- Summer Mystery Books & Beach Thrillers
- Summer Cozy Mysteries Set on the Beach
- Mary Kay Andrews Books: The Ultimate Author Guide
- Summertime Reads for Historical Fiction Fans
- Elin Hilderbrand Books: The Ultimate Author Guide
Have you read any great books for summer this year? Share them in the comments below!
