The 12 best romance beach reads is a list I’ve compiled for summer. Since, the sun is here and people are likely sunbathing in their verandas or in their patios and backyards, here are some romances you’d like.
12 Best Romance Beach Reads
I always do best lists for genres I write. I’m picking my personal favorites. Books that anyone will love and can relax with at the beach. There will be plenty of other genres but I’ll just point out a few contemporary romances that will warm you all over.
1. Sealed With A Kiss
Kate is dumped on her best friend’s wedding day by the world’s most boring boyfriend, Ian. She’s mostly cross because he got in first – until she remembers she’s now homeless as well as jobless. Rather than move back home to her ultra-bossy mother, Kate takes a job on the remote Scottish island of Auchenmor as an all-round Girl Friday. Her first day is pretty much a disaster: she falls over, smack bang at the feet of her grouchy new boss, Roddy, Laird of the Island. Unimpressed with her townie ways, he makes it clear she’s got a lot to prove.
I read this years ago and loved how Rachel Lucas weaves in Scottish details. I didn’t even know what a Girl Friday was until I read this book.
2. I Owe You One
Fixie Farr can’t help herself. Straightening a crooked object, removing a barely-there stain, helping out a friend . . . she just has to put things right.
So when a handsome stranger in a coffee shop asks her to watch his laptop for a moment, Fixie not only agrees, she ends up saving it from certain disaster. To thank her, the computer’s owner, Sebastian, scribbles her an IOU – but of course Fixie never intends to call in the favour.
Soon the pair are caught up in a series of IOUs – from small favours to life-changing debts – and Fixie is torn between the past she’s used to and the future she deserves.
I just read this and it’s a lovely book.
3. One Day In December
Laurie is pretty sure love at first sight doesn’t exist. After all, life isn’t a scene from the movies, is it? But then, through a misted-up bus window one freezing day, she sees a man she knows instantly is the one. Their eyes meet, there’s a moment of pure magic…and then her bus drives away.
Laurie thinks she’ll never see the boy from the bus again. But at a party later that year, her best friend Sarah introduces her to the new love of her life. Who is, of course, the boy from the bus.
Determined to let him go, Laurie gets on with her life. But what if fate has other plans? Following Laurie, Sarah and Jack through ten years of love, heartbreak and friendship
This is a very moving love story and I loved how in the end, despite all the twists, Laurie meets her one true love.
Some might argue that this should not be on a best romance beach reads list because the initial incident happens in December but the love story spans all seasons, ten of them.
4. Rainshadow Road
Lucy Marinn is a glass artist living in beautiful, inspiring Friday Harbour, Washington. Creatively fulfilled and in love, she is content with her life, until she is stunned by the worst kind of betrayal: her boyfriend Kevin announces he’s leaving Lucy to be with her younger sister.
Facing the disapproval of Lucy’s parents, Kevin asks his friend Sam Nolan, one of the owners of the Rainshadow vineyard, to ‘romance’ Lucy and help her get over her anger. But when Sam and Lucy begin to fall in love, things become complicated, especially when Kevin starts to have second thoughts. And when Lucy discovers that the new relationship in her life began under false pretences, her world is shattered, and she is forced to question everything.
This made by best romance beach reads list because I’ve read it so often. I always love reading the story of Lucy.
5. My Perfect Ex-Boyfriend
I’ve met the greatest guy ever.
Noah Walsh is handsome as sin. He’s sweet and smart and successful and sexy–all the best adjectives beginning with “S.” My six-year-old daughter worships the ground he walks on ever since he fashioned her smiley face pancakes out of bananas and blueberries. Oh yeah, and he can cook.
The only problem? I dumped this great guy a decade ago, right after I wrecked his life. And boy, this man holds a grudge.
6. The Summer House
Callie Weaver and best friend Olivia Dixon have finally done it: put their life savings into the beach house they admired through childhood summers, on the dazzling white sand of North Carolina’s Outer Banks.
Callie’s too busy to think about her love life, but when she catches the attention of local heartthrob Luke Sullivan, his blue eyes and easy smile make it hard to say no. He’s heir to his father’s property empire, and the papers say he’s just another playboy, but as they laugh in the ocean waves, Callie realizes there’s more to this man than money and good looks.
Just when true happiness seems within reach, Callie and Olivia find a diary full of secrets… secrets that stretch across the island, and have the power to turn lives upside down. As Callie reads, she unravels a mystery that makes her heart drop through the floor.
7. The Hating Game
Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman sit across from each other every day . . . and they hate each other. Not dislike. Not begrudgingly tolerate. HATE. Lucy can’t understand Joshua’s joyless, uptight approach to his job and refusal to smile. Joshua is clearly baffled by Lucy’s overly bright clothes, quirkiness, and desire to be liked.
Now they’re up for the same promotion and Lucy, usually a determined people-pleaser, has had enough: it’s time to take him down. But as the tension between Lucy and Joshua reaches its boiling point, it’s clear that the real battle has only just begun . . .
8. Wild Man Creek
Colin Riordan came to Virgin River to recuperate from a helicopter crash, the scars of which he bears inside and out. Although he has the support of his family, it is through art he finds he can truly be at peace.
After an ill-advised affair that hurt her personally and professionally, PR agent Jillian Matlock has rented an old Victorian house with a large garden in Virgin River, where she can re-evaluate her life and the difficult decisions that lie ahead.
Both are looking to simplify, not complicate, their lives, but when Jillian finds Colin at his easel in her yard, there’s an instant connection. And sometimes when difficult decisions need to be made love is the simplest choice of all…
All of the Virgin River books could be classified as best romance beach reads. It’s unfair to pick one.
9. Cottage By The Sea
Annie Marlow has been through the worst. Rocked by tragedy, she heads to the one place that makes her happy: Oceanside in the Pacific Northwest, the destination of many family vacations when Annie was a teenager.
Once there, Annie begins to restore her broken spirit, thanks in part to the folks she meets: a local painter, Keaton, whose large frame is equal to his big heart—and who helps Annie fix up her rental cottage by the sea; Mellie, the reclusive, prickly landlord Annie is determined to befriend; and Britt, a teenager with a terrible secret.
Then events threaten to undo the idyll Annie has come to enjoy. And when the opportunity of a lifetime lands in her lap, she is torn between the excitement of a new journey toward success and the safe and secure arms of the haven—and the man—she’s come to call home.
10. The Lemon Sisters
Brooke Lemon has always led the life she wanted, wild adventures—and mistakes—included, something her perfect sister, Mindy, never understood. So when Mindy shows up on Brooke’s doorstep in the throes of a break-down with her three little kids in tow, Brooke’s shocked.
Wanting to make amends, Brooke agrees to trade places, taking the kids back to Wildstone for a few days so Mindy can pick up the pieces and put herself back together. What Brooke doesn’t admit is she’s just as broken . . . It doesn’t take long for Brooke to come face-to-face with her past, in the form of one tall, dark, sexy mistake. But Garrett’s no longer interested. Only his words don’t match his actions, leaving Brooke feeling things she’d shoved deep.
Soon the sisters begin to wonder: Are they lemons in life? In love? And when secrets surface, they’ll have to learn that sometimes the one person who can help you the most is the one you never thought to ask.
11. Breathing Room
She’s Dr. Isabel Favor, America’s diva of self-help.
He’s Ren Gage, Hollywood’s favorite villain.
In a matter of weeks, it all comes crashing down. She loses her money to an unscrupulous accountant, her fiancé to a frumpy older woman, and her reputation to headlines denouncing her as a fraud. America’s diva of self-help soon discovers she can fix everyone’s life but her own. Broke, heartsick, and soul-weary, she heads for Italy in search of a little breathing room.
Lorenzo Gage makes his living killing people… on the silver screen, that is. He’s viciously handsome and sublimely talented. But as he begins his vacation in Italy, he’s also vaguely dissatisfied. Being a villain with a face to die for has its rewards, but he hates the feeling that everything he’s neglected in life is catching up with him. Then he spots Isabel sipping a glass of wine in a sidewalk café. A good guy wouldn’t think of seducing such a tidy-looking woman… but he’d never seen the fun in playing the hero.
12. In Other Words
Trish Holt is a pianist, living in picturesque Boothbay Harbor, Maine. She is stunned and blindsided by the most bitter kind of betrayal: her boyfriend of three years has left her. His new lover is her manager. Her bitterness is compounded by the fact that Trish has made bad choices when it comes to past relationships. Much of it stemming from her own issues as an adopted child from Korea. She holds herself partly responsible for the breakdown in their relationship as she tries to fit into the stereotype of the ‘All American’ girlfriend.When she moves out to a new home, she encounters Michael Quentin. Not only is he her neighbor but also a local chef on the island, who romances her and helps her get over the betrayal. As Michael and Trish fall in love, their childhood issues resurface.
Can Trish stop herself from loving Michael whose own family’s dark past is holding him back?
Can she ignore his love for tradition and roots?
Tell Me Your Favorite Beach Reads
If you love reading, please let me know what your favorite romance beach reads are. I’d love to hear what sweet love stories make you LOL on the sand. Next month we’re going to do a beach read giveaway, don’t forget to subscribe.