Summer Poolside/Beach Reads

Atlanta, GA • July 15, 2023

This post may contain affiliate links, earning me a small commission if you click, at no additional cost to you.

Summertime is my favorite time to catch up on one of my favorite pastimes…READING! Summer is the slowest season of the year for most moms since there are less sports and school activities and more days spent lounging at the pool/beach. For me it’s the perfect time to grab a margarita and a book while soaking in that glorious vitamin D! Currently I have an ever-growing list but these are at the top of my summer reading list. I’m not sure I will finish all 6 of these books by the end of summer but I’m definitely going try!

“Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people ... people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book.”

- E.B. White

TWEET THIS

things we never got over

Naomi wasn’t just running away from her wedding. She was riding to the rescue of her estranged twin to Knockemout, Virginia, a rough-around-the-edges town where disputes are settled the old-fashioned way…with fists and beer. Usually in that order.

Too bad for Naomi her evil twin hasn’t changed at all. After helping herself to Naomi’s car and cash, Tina leaves her with something unexpected. The niece Naomi didn’t know she had. Now she’s stuck in town with no car, no job, no plan, and no home with an 11-year-old going on thirty to take care of.

the infinity between us

Eighteen years of summers spent in a beach house in Ogunquit, Maine, have brought Violet Mitchell and Will Seaberg together. For two perfect, beach-filled months every year, they spent every waking minute together. First as friends, until one summer changed everything. But before the two even had a chance to claim the love they’d spent their entire lives creating, disaster struck, tearing the two lovers—and their families—apart.

only love can hurt like this

When Wren realizes her fiancé is in love with someone else, she thinks her heart will never recover. On the other side of the world, Anders lost his wife four years ago and is still struggling to move on. Wren hopes that spending the summer with her dad and step-family on their farm in Indiana will help her to heal. There, amid the cornfields and fireflies, she and Anders cross paths and their worlds are turned upside-down again.

But Wren doesn’t know that Anders is harboring a secret, and if he acts on any feelings he has for Wren it will have serious fall-out for everyone.

the brightest light of sunshine

Determined to walk away from a traumatic past, 22-year-old Grace Allen feels ready to take the next step in her healing journey—dipping a toe into the dating pool. Although she should probably start by making a friend or two, right?

Samuel ‘Cal’ Callaghan isn’t who she had envisioned as her first male friend in… well, forever. With an intimidating build, tattoos everywhere, eight years her senior, and a little sister under his care, the last thing she expected was to warm up to him so easily. As their friendship evolves, Grace can’t help but wonder if Cal is exactly who she’s been looking for all this time.

the girls of summer

Rachel has been in love with Alistair for fifteen years. Even though she’s now married to someone else. Even though she was a teenager when they met. Even though he is twenty years older than her.

Rachel and Alistair’s summer love affair on a remote, sun-trapped Greek island has consumed her since she was seventeen, obliterating everything in its wake. But as Rachel becomes increasingly obsessed with reliving the events of so long ago, she reconnects with the other girls who were similarly drawn to life on the island, where the nights were long, the alcohol was free-flowing and everyone acted in ways they never would at home.

my magnolia summer

In New York City winter never seems to loosen its hold and for South Carolina transplant Maggie (born Magnolia after the fairest summer flower) the balmy beach weather of April back home on Sullivan’s Island feels like a distant memory. Until a phone call from her sister, Violet, changes everything.

Gran, the treasured matriarch, has fallen into a coma after a car accident caused by Maggie’s troubled mother, Lily. But once Maggie returns, she finds that her hometown of Sullivan’s Island holds even more secrets. The Magic Lantern, the restaurant owned and run by generations of women in her family, is now rudderless, and her sister seems headed for a savage breakup.

looking for spicy reads???

Check out the “Breathless” series by Maya Banks. While none of these books are summer themed as they all take place during Thanksgiving/Christmas, they are excellent books if you like spicier books. The trilogy follows three billionaire best friends and their stories on finding their true loves. Similar to 50 shades in plot I really enjoyed the storyline of each book and read the entire series in under 2 weeks!