Summer Escape: Top Beach Reads for Your Book Club in 2025

Say You'll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez

A new romance from the author of Just for the Summer follows two people who make an instant connection .. before one of them moves 2,000 miles away the next day.  Follow grumpy yet adorable vet Xavier and sassy social media manager Samantha from meet not-so-cute to epic first date to trying to make long-distance work.  Their path isn’t always easy – Samantha must navigate the challenges of caring for an aging parent with dementia – but their love story will melt your heart.

Can't Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan

The third book in Ryan’s acclaimed Skyland series follows Hendrix Barry, a driven and successful woman who thinks she has no time or room for romance in her life – until she meets tech mogul Maverick Bell.  Ryan delivers all the hallmarks she’s known for: emotionally mature protagonists (this a beautiful, fully formed, adult relationship), strong female friendships, and heat.

Capture the Moment by Suzanne Woods Fisher

Capture the Moment is a clean, kisses-only contemporary romance for wildlife, travel, and photography enthusiasts set against a stunning Wyoming backdrop.  Kate Cunningham is a zoo photographer, but she has the opportunity of a lifetime to get a photo published in National Geographic.  The catch? She’ll need to capture a photo of a legendary bear in Grand Teton National Park.  Fortunately, she crosses paths with Grant Cooper, a seasonal park ranger who knows the terrain--and the bears--better than anyone.  But they're not the only ones with an interest in the park's most famous bear. And his motives are far from innocent.

One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune

Fortune’s much anticipated follow-up to Every Summer After returns us to the lake.  When photographer Alice’s grandmother breaks her hip, she brings them both back to the magical place they spent a summer in a cabin together when Alice was seventeen.  That’s where she meets Charlie Florek - whose photo she had taken so many years ago.  Crossing off summer bucket list items with Charlie is fun, but will it turn to something more?  

Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

Emily Henry returns with a new novel that combines her trademark romance with an epic American saga.  Optimistic journalist Alice Scott finds herself pitted against Pulitzer-prize winning author (and total grump) Hayden Anderson to write the biography of a woman who claims to be the legendary Margaret Ives: tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the twentieth century.  Everything is not as it seems as the story alternates between Margaret’s past and Alice and Hayden’s attempts to uncover her whole truth – while fighting their budding attraction.

Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory

Bestselling author Jasmine Guillory has written her first queer romance.  Avery is fresh off a breakup and tired of being well-behaved.  She wants to date around but doesn’t have a lot of experience (with men or women) or confidence.  Enter Taylor Cameron, Napa Valley's biggest flirt and champion heartbreaker. She just broke up with her girlfriend and has made a bet she can last two months without sleeping with anyone. Flirting lessons should be a fun distraction.  But when Avery gets what she thinks she wanted, she realizes that now she wants Taylor…

Silver Elite by Dani Francis

This first book of a new dystopian romance series, written under a pen name by a mysterious author, has readers buzzing and has blown up on BookTok.  On the Continent, having psychic abilities is a death sentence, which is why Wren Darlington has spent her whole life hiding them.  She must be even more careful after joining the enemy’s most elite training program (the perfect opportunity to aid the rebel Uprising by striking a blow within their ranks).  Especially since her commanding officer is the ruthless and infuriatingly irresistible Cross Redden.  

First-Time Caller by B.K. Borison

This cozy love story, inspired by Sleepless in Seattle, features a hopeless romantic and a jaded radio host.  Aiden Valentine is the host of Baltimore’s romance hotline with a big problem: he’s fallen out of love with love.  Lucie Stone thought she was doing fine—until her daughter calls into the hotline asking for dating advice for her mom and suddenly the whole city is scrutinizing her love life.  What will be Lucie’s happy ending?  

The Favorites by Layne Fargo

A modern retelling of Wuthering Heights, set in the sparkling, savage sphere of elite figure skating.  Katarina Shaw has always dreamed of becoming an Olympic skater, and she pulls Heath Rocha, a lonely foster kid, into that dream.  Kat and Heath cling to each other as they become champion ice dancers, until it all falls apart at the Olympic Games.  10  years later, a documentary reignites the obsession with the pair, and Kat speaks out to set the record straight.

The Missing Half by Ashley Flowers

A new thriller from the host of the true crime podcast Crime Junkie and author of All Good People Here.  Seven years ago, Nic Monroe’s older sister Kasey vanished without a trace – as did Jules Connor two weeks earlier.  Neither disappearance was ever solved. Now Jules’ sister Jenna walks into Nic’s dead-end life with fresh hope, and the sisters will do anything to find their missing halves.

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers, but with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants. Until, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman mysteriously washes ashore.

Why did she set out for Shearwater? And what secrets of his own is Dominic keeping?  As the storms on Shearwater gather force, they all must decide if they can trust each other enough to put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.  

The Perfect Divorce by Jeneva Rose

In this followup to The Perfect Marriage, it’s been eleven years since high-powered attorney Sarah Morgan defended her husband, Adam, against the charge of murdering his mistress. Sarah has long since moved on, starting a family with her new husband, Bob Miller, and changing careers. Her life is back to being exactly how she always wanted … or is it?

After discovering Bob engaged in a one-night stand, Sarah wastes no time filing for divorce. However, amid their ugly separation, new DNA evidence is uncovered in the case against Adam, forcing the police to reopen the investigation and putting Sarah right back in the spotlight.   But when the woman Bob slept with is reported missing, he and Sarah start to fight dirty, and a high-stakes game of cat and mouse ensues. Filled with page-turning suspense and Jeneva Rose's signature twists and turns, this book will have readers wondering, Can Bob and Sarah achieve the perfect divorce? Or will it be "till death do us part"?

Love, Mom by Iliana Xander

When a bestselling-thriller author dies in a suspicious accident, her daughter Mackenzie receives a mysterious letters containing pages from her mother's diary. The shocking revelations lead Mackenzie to investigate old family secrets. As more letters arrive signed "From #1 fan," Mackenzie realizes there are sinister lies her family has lived with for years, and that her mother's path to fame may have involved murder, or worse...

Heartwood by Amity Gaige

In this compelling but tender novel, experienced hiker Valerie Gillis vanishes on the Appalachian Trail in Maine, 200 miles from her destination. As game warden Beverly leads the ground search and elderly birdwatcher Lena becomes an armchair detective, the investigation reveals Valerie's disappearance may not be accidental. Meanwhile, alone in the wilderness, Valerie writes fractured, poetic letters to her mother while battling the elements and struggling to survive.  The mystery inspires larger questions about the many ways in which we get lost, and how we are found.

Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney

The Queen of Twists, Alice Feeney, returns with a gripping and deliciously dark thriller about marriage …and revenge.  Author Grady Green's wife Abby disappears after a phone call, leaving only her abandoned car by a cliff with headlights on and door open. A year later, still consumed by grief and unable to write or sleep, Grady travels to a Scottish island to recover. There he sees the impossible—a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife, forcing him to question everything he thought he knew about Abby's disappearance.

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

In Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, the author of The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires delivers a historical fiction novel with elements of witchcraft, lots of body horror, and an indictment of the treatment of young women in the 1970s.

In 1970s Florida, pregnant teenagers are sent to Wellwood House to secretly give birth and surrender their babies under strict supervision. When 15-year-old Fern and the other girls discover an occult book about witchcraft, they gain power for the first time in their controlled lives. But as they learn to harness their newfound abilities, they discover that power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it always comes with a price.

Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray

Victoria Christopher Murray, coauthor of The Personal Librarian, returns with a new historical novel based on the extraordinary true story of the woman who ignited the Harlem Renaissance.  Jessie Redmon Fauset arrives in Harlem in 1919 as the new literary editor of The Crisis.  Jessie is eager to prove herself, discovering exciting new talent like finding sixteen-year-old Countee Cullen, seventeen-year-old Langston Hughes, and Nella Larsen, who becomes one of her best friends.  At the same time, she is carrying on a tumultuous affair with her boss, W. E. B. Du Bois, the founder of The Crisis.  Blending history and passion, Harlem Renaissance paints a vibrant portrait of Harlem and of an unsung woman who gave her all to literature.

Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

A love triangle with the pacing of a thriller, Broken Country has captivated readers and was selected for Reese’s Book Club.

Beth and her husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But everything changes when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep–a dog that belonged to Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager and who broke her heart years ago.  Toggling between the past and the present, Broken Country is a story of impossible choices and the far-reaching consequences of first love.

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six is back with a new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s space shuttle program.

Joan Goodwin’s life changes when she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program.  A professor of physics and astronomy, she is selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980.  As the new astronauts prepare for their first flights, Joan finds unlikely friends and a love she never imagined.  Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, it all changes in an instant.

The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick

By 1960s standards, Margaret Ryan is living the American woman's dream. She has a husband, three children, a station wagon, and a home in the suburbs. On paper, she has it all. So why doesn't that feel like enough?

Margaret concocts a book club get-together as an excuse to enter the orbit of a new and intriguing neighbor.  As the women share secrets, cocktails, and their honest reactions to the controversial bestseller The Feminine Mystique, they begin to discover that the American dream they'd been sold isn't all roses and sunshine--and that their secret longing for more is something they share.

The Book Club for Troublesome Women is a humorous, thought provoking, and nostalgic romp through one pivotal and tumultuous American year--as well as an ode to self-discovery, persistence, and the power of sisterhood.

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

Collins is back with the fifth book (and second prequel) in the Hunger Games series: Haymitch’s story, set 24 years before the events of the first novel.

When Haymitch Abernathy is selected as a tribute in the fiftieth annual Hunger Games along with three other District 12 youth (twice as many as usual in honor of the Quarter Quell), he can feel all his dreams break. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he's been set up to fail. But there's something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.

Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson

The author of Black Cake returns with the story of Ebby, who flees to France to escape the fallout from the end of a high profile romance. While there, she thinks about a fateful day from her family’s history 18 years ago.  That’s the day her brother Baz was shot in a still unsolved crime.  It’s also the day that a stoneware jar that has been in her family for generations was shattered. The connection between the two losses will impact Ebby’s future in ways she never expected.

Isola by Allegra Goodman

In this historical survival story, inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine, a young woman and her lover are marooned on an island.  Marguerite was heir to a fortune, until her life takes a series of unfortunate turns.  She is orphaned, her guardian spends her inheritance, and then, in the midst of a journey to New France, she is accused of betrayal and abandoned on a small island. As the weather turns, Marguerite must fight for survival and discover a new faith.

James by Percival Everett

The novel that everyone’s been reading and talking about. If you have yet to read this  winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, now may be the time.  It’s fast-paced, adventurous, funny, and incisive at the same time.  Percival Everett reimagines Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the enslaved Jim's point of view. Full of humor, heart and trenchant commentary, Everett has created a new American classic.