If you haven’t already been to the beach, what are you waiting for? It’s summer!
Here are three recommended reads to keep you comfy company while you pour the frosty beverage of your choice and chill out by your favorite body of water, whether it’s the sea, a lake, a pond, bathtub or back yard pool.
First up is “The Boardwalk Bookshop” (Mira Books) from #1 New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery, a book-about-books story of friends who become family, giving each other courage to start over.
When fate brings three strangers to a charming space for lease on the California coast, the Boardwalk Bookshop is born. Part bookstore, part gift shop, part bakery, it’s a dream come true for Bree, Mikki and Ashley. But while their business is thriving, their personal lives definitely are not.
Bree, wounded by brilliant but cold parents and her late husband’s ultimate betrayal, has sworn to protect her heart at all costs. Even from Ashley’s brother, the first man to see past Bree’s barricades to her true self, which terrifies her.
Mikki has her divorce thing all figured out, until a new man changes how everyone looks at her, and how she sees herself. Meanwhile, Ashley discovers that the love of her life never intends to marry. Can she live without being a wife if it means she can have everything else she’s ever wanted?
As the three friends’ bond grows closer, they challenge one another to become the best versions of themselves in this beautiful story of friendship, sisterhood and the transformative power of love.
Next, Elin Hilderbrand, dubbed “The queen of beach reads” by New York Magazine, delivers “The Hotel Nantucket” (Little, Brown and Company), a satisfying page-turner of a tale about a summer of scandal at a storied Nantucket hotel.
Fresh off a bad breakup with a longtime boyfriend, Lizbet Keaton is desperately seeking a second act. When she’s named the new general manager of the Hotel Nantucket, a once Gilded Age gem turned abandoned eyesore, she hopes that her local expertise and charismatic staff can win the favor of their new billionaire owner, as well as that of the wildly popular Instagram taste-maker who can help put them back on the map.
But there’s a lot of drama behind the scenes. Staff and guests have complicated pasts, and the hotel can’t seem to overcome the bad reputation it earned in 1922 following a tragic fire. With a spectre haunting the hallways, no end of personal secrets, and Lizbet’s own romantic uncertainty, is the Hotel Nantucket destined for success or doom? Filled with the emotional depth and multiple points of view that characterize Hilderbrand’s novels, The Hotel Nantucket offers something for everyone in this compelling summer drama.
Finally, from New York Times best selling author Emily Griffin comes “Meant to Be” (Ballantine Books). The Kingsley family is American royalty, beloved for their military heroics, political service, and unmatched elegance. After Joseph S. Kingsley Jr. is killed in a tragic accident, his charismatic son inherits the weight of that legacy. But Joe III, despite his best intentions, has trouble meeting the expectations of a nation, as well as those of his demanding mother.
Meanwhile, no one ever expected anything of Cate Cooper, until her discovery by a modeling scout at age 16 becomes her ticket out of the cycle of disappointment. Before long, Cate’s face is in magazines and on billboards. Yet she feels like a fraud, faking it in a world to which she’s never truly belonged.
When Joe and Cate unexpectedly cross paths, their connection is instant and intense. But can their relationship survive the glare of the spotlight and the so-called Kingsley curse? Find out, in Griffin’s beautifully written novel that answers the question: Are certain love stories meant to be?
Special thanks to the Doylestown Bookshop (doylestownbookshop.com) for assistance in preparing this edition of Book Talk! Until next time, remember that “It’s always better with a book!”
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