I’m having a moment. For years, I’ve done a most anticipated BEACH READ roundup each Spring. And this year, my book, THE SUMMER I FOUND YOU, made the 2026 list! A few years went by, and I kept hoping and dreaming that someday I’d be able to add my book, and now I can!! I realize this is my own list, but wishful thinking, I’ll make someone else’s. But for now, enjoy these summer books that are standing out to me for spring/summer 2026. Read the FULL BEACH READ LIST HERE.
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A woman is newly engaged to a man she adores when she receives a call from her first love with news that shatters her carefully ordered world, in this emotionally powerful novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Summer Pact.A woman is newly engaged to a man she adores when she receives a call from her first love with news that shatters her carefully ordered world, in this emotionally powerful novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Summer Pact.
A recently divorced single mom returns to her family’s fixer-upper beach house and finds romance amidst the heartbreak—and truths buried under generations of lies—in this summertime romance, perfect for fans of The Beach House and Nora Goes Off Script.
When Dahlia Newberry escapes her terrible marriage and returns to Long Island’s North Fork to put her family’s beach house on the market, she discovers the property has fallen into disrepair, and she has no idea how she’ll get it from fixer to fabulous in a month’s time.
Things start to look up when she discovers her neighbor is Noah, a handsome reality TV star known for his Hamptons-set home renovation series. Noah turns out to be quite handy and pitches in to help Dahlia with the renovations and, as chemistry sparks between them, her self-discovery too.
Meanwhile, Dahlia discovers a letter from her Aunt Lil, whose dying wish was for Dahlia to find a key that unlocks a mystery spanning three generations. Soon Dahlia is unearthing mysterious clues buried in the garden that threaten to upend everything she believes about her world.
The truth is supposed to set her free, but excavated secrets have a way of shattering an already fragile life—unless Dahlia can find a way to bloom into the woman she was always meant to be.
This debut novel by an accomplished home design influencer is perfect for fans of HGTV shows and steamy summer romances.
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Say You’ll Remember Me comes a beautiful, compelling novel that revels in laughter, friendship, and the messy choices life can throw our way.
In everyone’s life, there’s a split-second decision that can change everything…
For Larissa, it came when choosing who to ride home with after a concert. That night, she had no idea she’d met the perfect man. She and Chris are great friends, co-parenting a slightly unhinged rescue Yorkie, sharing their favorite books, and judging bread (pumpernickel for the win!). For the first time amid all her side hustles to scrape by, things finally feel easy.
But she didn’t choose Chris to drive her home all those months ago—she went with his best friend, and he became her boyfriend. All Chris wants is for Larissa to be happy. Standing by on the sidelines is slowly killing him, but making a move would destroy someone else. How can something that feels so right be absolutely impossible?
A woman tests the limits of her so-called amicable divorce when she flies to Paris for the destination wedding of her former sister-in-law, only to butt heads with the deliciously gruff best man, in a poignant and romantic novel from Kate Clayborn.
Physician Layla Bailey has spent over a year telling herself she’s moved on from a painful but amicable divorce from her college sweetheart. Staying friends with her ex seemed like the mature thing to do, but when Layla is invited to her former sister-in-law’s destination wedding in Paris—where Layla once spent her own romantic honeymoon—she knows her commitment to maturity might be her worst enemy…especially since her ex isn’t attending alone.
The only thing that could make the week more difficult is getting through it without the distraction of the wedding…. But when what Layla thought was a harmless conversation about the choices of her younger self leads to the bride getting cold feet, Layla finds herself facing down the groom’s mysterious, taciturn best man, Griffin, who will do anything to make sure this wedding happens.
Since she broke it, Griff demands she help him fix it. Going along with his plan to alleviate the engaged couple’s doubts seems like Layla’s best chance at maintaining a good relationship with a family she once called her own. But as she learns more about the past heartbreak that’s driving Griff to help his friend, she gets closer and closer to confronting the true depth of her own pain…while finding herself more and more willing to risk it all again for Griff.
After the worst day in her professional life, burnt-out NICU nurse Daisy Stevens runs to Cape Carolina, North Carolina, looking for a new life—and possibly new romance. On her first day at her “simpler” job, high school baseball coach Mason Thaysden discovers an abandoned baby, sending ripples through the entire tight-knit town of Cape Carolina.
Mason is still struggling to reconcile the scars of the injury that kept him out of the big leagues, stuck in his hometown, and searching for a way out. This newcomer and the child they’ve saved together might be just the motivation he needs to stay put. Sparks fly as Mason acquaints Daisy with Cape Carolina, introducing her to his friends and family, including his batty Aunt Tilley, who is looking for relief from long-buried family secrets and her own fresh start.
But as Daisy becomes increasingly attached to this abandoned child, and begins facing her own demons in the process, a startling discovery is made that threatens to rip the entire town of Cape Carolina apart, placing Daisy, Mason, and Tilley in the center of the storm. In a novel that proves that “Kristy Woodson Harvey is (the) go-to for elevated beach reads” (People), they will each learn that with love, understanding—and a community theater production of Hello, Dolly!—sometimes life conspires to bring us just exactly where we belong.
This is a love story . . . but not the one you’re expecting.
Start at the End is a powerful, soul-stirring, sliding-doors novel from the bestselling author of The Last Love Note and Pictures of You that explores second chances and unwritten endings.
Audrey and Fraser tumble into a romance for the ages. After an unlikely start, they fall deeply in love and dream of the life they’ll build together—until one tragic moment upends everything. Facing the unimaginable and wrestling with guilt, they’re left haunted by “what ifs,” each asking where they would be if fate had spun a different story.
Start at the End is an unforgettable drama of two soulmates who have to find a way to start over when they had only just begun.
From the New York Times bestselling author of In Five Years and Expiration Dates, a novel following a family of women with a singular gift: the opportunity to redo one moment in their lives
Lauren has spent a lot of her life waiting. She spent her childhood on her surfboard, waiting to catch the perfect wave. She waited a long time for her husband Leo. Now she and Leo are together waiting for those two lines on a pregnancy test that will tell Lauren she’s finally pregnant.
But many women wait for those things. Lauren has also spent her life waiting to use the gift that only the women in her family have: the opportunity, just once, to turn back time and reverse a bad decision, or a moment of catastrophic luck. When Lauren was fifteen, her mother Marcella reversed the car crash that killed Lauren’s father, and ever since then, both Marcella and Lauren have been extra cautious around Dave, and perhaps extra brittle with each other. Even though Dave is alive and healthy, and out on the Malibu waves every day.
Lauren and Leo’s marriage has been rock-steady for the three years they’ve been married, but their fertility journey is starting to wear on both of them. When Leo takes a six-week job in New York, Lauren temporarily moves back to her childhood house. She’ll spend time with her dad, spend time on the water, and try not think about the relationship with her mother she wishes she had. What Lauren doesn’t expect is to run into the love of her youth: fellow surfer Stone, back home for the first time in ten years. Since he left and broke Lauren’s heart. Now Lauren’s thinking about all the choices that have brought her to this moment in her life—and wondering if one of them should be undone.
A wise and luminous novel about mothers and daughters, the complexity of marriage, and the choices we make that come to define our lives, Once and Again is Rebecca Serle at her finest.
NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2026 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, TODAY, WOMAN’S WORLD, TOWN & COUNTRY, BRITT & CO., AND MORE!
Best friends have one week in paradise to fix their friendship or fall apart in this heart-stopping, utterly romantic new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Every Summer After and One Golden Summer.
Frankie and George have been best friends since they were eight years old. Both passionate, impulsive, and headstrong—they’ve always clashed . . . and come back together. Until now. It’s the eve of Frankie’s wedding weekend, and she doesn’t know where they stand or even if George will show up as her best man.
Then, at the start of the festivities, in walks George. For one glorious evening, surrounded by her loved ones, Frankie’s life is finally perfect. But it all comes crashing down when her fiancé dumps her the next morning, leaving only a note as an explanation.
Crushed and confused, Frankie returns to her family’s home to wallow. But George has a different idea and a plan for healing Frankie’s broken heart. He wants her to go on her honeymoon. With him. For one week, to the lush rainforests and misty beaches of Tofino.
Frankie agrees, seeing the trip for what it really is: one last chance to repair their friendship. Even if it means unearthing secrets and long-buried feelings, neither knows how to handle. Even if it means falling apart for good.
A hardworking single mom returns to her seaside hometown and stumbles into a fake dating situationship with a wealthy, workaholic scion, from the New York Times bestselling author of Nora Goes Off Script.
“This book is like a spicy margarita…sweet and a little salty, tart and hot…I have fallen in love with Dolly and with funny, fizzing Annabel Monaghan!” —Catherine Newman, New York Times bestselling author of Sandwich
If they start by pretending, can they end with something real?
Dolly Brick has never met a problem she couldn’t solve. Not when her mom left when she was twelve, and not at thirty-nine when she moves with her son back to Whitfield, Rhode Island, for the summer to keep her dad and brother from losing the family home.
So when she comes across Stewart Whitfield—annoyingly handsome scion of the Whitfield family—with a flat tire and at the wrong end of a very public, very humiliating breakup, it’s in her nature to help. But Stewart’s proposed arrangement ends up being more than either of them bargained for, because as public dinners and high-society benefits turn into sunset boat rides and kisses that hit her bloodstream like a ghost pepper, Dolly starts to feel something more than helpful. She’s never relied on anyone besides herself—can she really start now?
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Elsie Silver comes a small-town, forbidden, rivals-to-lovers romance, the first book in the brand-new Western romance series Emerald Lake. Professional bull rider Emmett Bush is not looking for love. He’s looking for a paycheck to save his family’s farm from bankruptcy. So, when he agrees to be the leading man on a hot new reality dating show, Romance Ranch, he’s already decided it’s all one big performance. Until Julia Silva walks onto his property. Smart, snarky, beautiful, and off-limits in more ways than one. As the location consultant on set and the little sister of his most bitter professional rival, she’s the last woman who should pique his interest. Julia has been warned about Emmett. She knows better than to fall for his cocky swagger, broad shoulders, and smoldering good looks. Plus, she’s sworn off relationships. But as Julia and Emmett work together, mutual distaste grows into an unexpected connection and then… something more. Soon, they find themselves searching for excuses to spend time together and out of reach of the cameras. Knowing glances. Stolen kisses. Secret rendezvous. Still, Emmett signed up to play the role of an eligible bachelor searching for the one. His family’s land and legacy depend on him completing the show. The problem is, he’s already fallen in love. Just not with a contestant.
In the summer of 2000, AJ Graves dreams of writing for Saturday Night Live; instead, she’s stuck working in a video rental store, with slim odds of escaping her small Massachusetts town. Then in walks Noah Drew, the enigmatic and intense scion of the Drew acting dynasty, and her life changes forever. Despite wildly different upbringings, the two forge a deep, cosmic bond, first as friends, then as acting partners—until one day, Noah disappears without a word.
Seven years later, in New York City, AJ is shocked to find herself cast in the same intergalactic TV production as Noah, by then a well-known Hollywood heartthrob. As their on-screen characters grow closer every day, the lines between reality and acting begin to blur. Unable to stay away from each other, AJ and Noah are forced to confront the truth of what happened years ago—and the devastating secret that will send their lives careening apart, even as fate continues to draw them together.
Blending unforgettable characters, explosive chemistry and yearning, and profound emotion, Into the Blue is a journey unlike any other—one that asks: What does it mean to diverge from the script to forge your own story?
When a Hollywood starlet is unexpectedly reunited with the costar who broke her heart, their chemistry has her questioning what’s reel and what’s real in this heartfelt summer romance about first loves and second chances.
It’s been ten years since the fateful summer Scarlett Everhart filmed The Lost Letter, the tearjerking romantic drama that catapulted her to worldwide fame and set her on a collision course with Ryder Perry, the movie’s intense, irresistible leading man. The pair’s fiery onscreen chemistry captured audience’s hearts—while their whirlwind affair offscreen shattered Scarlett’s into a million pieces. Determined to move on, she made a vow: to focus on her career, leave Ryder in her past, and never, ever look back.
A decade later, Scarlett’s kept that promise. She’s become one of Hollywood’s most bankable leading ladies and is on the cusp of the biggest role of her career. And if she’s been unlucky in love, at least she’s managed to put her ill-fated relationship with her former costar—and the public’s obsession with the pair’s star-crossed romance—behind her. That is, until a sudden twist of fate thrusts her and Ryder back together in the seaside South Carolina town where they first fell in love, then fell dramatically apart.
As old sparks reignite, Scarlett is swept back into the love story that once defined her life, forcing her to reckon with the choice that tore them apart…and the devastating secret she’s been keeping since their breakup all those years ago.
Bailey Jones is known for writing happy-ever-afters. But she’s never had her own. Not since him.
Rhett Monroe was her first love. The boy who tossed her into the lake every summer. The man who walked away without a second glance.
Now he’s back — ex-Navy SEAL turned security specialist. Focused. Intense. And definitely not here for the memories.
Because someone is watching Bailey. Sending messages that feel too personal. Too obsessed.
To keep her safe, Rhett takes Bailey to the one place a stalker can’t find her — Cedar Shores. But sharing a cabin with the man she never stopped loving is a different kind of danger for Bailey. Especially when Rhett’s protective gaze follows her like she’s something worth guarding. Like she’s his.
He’s looking for the perfect wife. She’s looking for the perfect one-night stand.
Literary agent Zoey Moody doesn’t like small town life, but here she is: exiled from Manhattan’s publishing scene and trapped in a tiny Pennsylvania town with her BFF and only remaining client, Hazel. The problem? She’s totally broke.
All she needs is for Hazel’s next romance novel to become a gigantic hit, and Zoey will be back in New York. Nothing will stand in her way. Nothing except her six-foot-two-inch landlord, Gage Bishop. He’s smart, serious, and sexy. Worst of all, he’s ready to settle down.
Zoey might be the most beautiful woman Gage has ever met, but it’s clear they’re all wrong for each other. She’s allergic to commitment and can’t work a calendar app; he’s looking for a wife and has the next five years all planned out. She’s afraid of animals. He lives in a literal barn. But when Gage’s world is rocked by a devastating family secret, he turns to Zoey for one night to forget everything. That one night just might change everything…or ruin it.
Renley Gossage has one shot to prove she’s more than Cape Meril’s favorite cautionary tale: restore her favorite candy shop before the town writes her off like they did her father. No help, no shortcuts, and definitely no rich men wielding engagement rings and making things messy.
Theo Williams never planned on ending up in Cape Meril. A drunken game of truth or dare turned into a botched online engagement, and now he’s across the ocean, escaping his father’s control with nothing but designer shoes, misplaced confidence, and a rental next door to Renley.
She’s practical, stubborn, and covered in paint. He’s posh, persistent, and willing to use a sander if it means earning her trust.
Between collapsing drywall, gossiping neighbors, and the chaotic schemes of Renley’s aunt, their forced proximity turns into something dangerously close to real.
But Renley’s future depends on standing on her own two feet, and Theo’s past isn’t done with him yet. By the time the candy shop doors open, they’ll have to decide if this is just a summer fling―or the happily ever after neither of them saw coming.
Happy reading, friend!
