Best summer books to read: TOP 12 books worth reading this summer

Regardless of the weather, the best books to read on the beach make you feel as if you are enjoying the warm sunshine and a gentle breeze that gives you a pleasant coolness at the most unexpected moment. Even if you don't plan to go to a tropical island this season, but rather relax in your own backyard after completing your work tasks, a good story can be a short "holiday" for your brain.

Bring at least one of the top 12 beach reads with you wherever the sun takes you and enjoy books that are hard to put down.

1. Beatrice Williams, "A Hundred Summers"

"A Hundred Summers" is a very good book for reading on the beach, the events of which take the reader to a coastal town in Rhode Island. Lily Dane, a stylish socialite from New York City, returns to the small state on the Atlantic coast, fleeing from a broken heart and trying to find a new purpose.

The story begins on Memorial Day 1938. The town and Lily herself are preparing for the biggest storm in a century. But at the same time, the young woman's soul is also raging with emotional turmoil, which she must somehow cope with.

An extraordinary story that makes A Hundred Summers the perfect choice for the best summer reading.

2. Elin Hilderbrand, "The Hotel Nantucket"

"The Hotel Nantucket" is a novel by the queen of the best beach literature of this summer. No new season can be complete without light and exciting stories from Elin Hilderbrand.

The book tells the story of Lisbeth Keaton, a girl with a broken heart who becomes the general manager of a coastal hotel located on the historic island of Nantucket. This place looks like a real tropical paradise, but it's not that simple. Lizbeth's employees have a complicated past, and there is even a mysterious stalker - the ghost of a dead maid!

As the reader turns page after page, they are drawn deeper into the twists and turns of Nantucket with secrets that you simply must unravel before the end of this summer.

3. "Bad Summer People", Emma Rosenblum

This "juicy" beach book was inspired by the well-known and somewhat provocative series "White Lotus", which was a huge success. The story is set on Fire Island and the Upper East Side of New York City.

Bad Summer People is a first-person account of the bad behaviour of the beach town's residents. Here you will find typical mothers who cannot express their emotions because of Botox, and fathers who talk only about finances, even when they play golf on the slopes of Aspen.

One of the best books to read on a seaside holiday is a vivid and atmospheric novel about betrayal and family drama, complete with an intriguing murder mystery. You will definitely find it difficult to put it down!

4. Anne Gardner, "And So I Walked: Reflections on Chance, Choice, and the Camino de Santiago"

In her memoir, the author recounts her journey along the 500-mile Camino de Santiago, a road that runs through northern Spain. In this novel from the list of the best summer beach reads, you will learn how the journey changed a woman - internally and physically - as she pilgrimages along the picturesque seaside.

The book harmoniously combines first-person accounts of the difficulties of the challenging journey with emotional overtones and sometimes harsh, sometimes funny and sarcastic self-reflection.

The story inspires travelling and self-discovery, while diving deep into the tangled web of friendships, relationships, marriage, complexes, and much more. We advise you to plan your adventure as soon as possible, pack your bags, not forgetting a great beach book, and go in search of new experiences.

5. "Lucky Girl", Irene Muchemi-Ndiritu

The backdrop of the best summer reading book is New York in the 1990s. "Lucky Girl" is a fascinating story about a young Kenyan woman named Soyla who goes in search of a new life and herself. She leaves Nairobi to go to college. Soyla begins a relationship with an ambitious artist who her mother would not have liked. However, it turns out that identity, love and all other meanings become much more complicated when life is divided between two distant continents...

This story from the top 12 best summer books list will make you cry and laugh, and find something so close and so understandable.

6. "At Sea", Emma Fedor

An intriguing and very entertaining novel is perfect for the best beach read. This is a story about a strong woman in love who is capable of doing anything to save those closest to her. Brendan, Kara's husband, is part of an experimental American unit and has the secret ability to breathe underwater. One day, Brendan and his son suddenly disappear, and the woman begins to doubt the reality of her own world. Five years later, she finds out that a fisherman off the coast of Nantucket Sound spotted two people swimming far away from any ships. Kara sets out to find the truth and her son.

A good beach read that will keep you intrigued until the very last pages!

7. "Beach Read", Emily Henry

Even the title itself screams for the book to be taken with you on a holiday by the water. What is the novel about? Augustus Everett and Genoire Andrews are two authors with completely opposite styles. He writes serious prose, she writes love stories. For one summer, a man and a woman become neighbours on the beach. One day, they decide to swap their writing lives. Of course, this just can't help but ignite a spark that flares up so quickly in the hot summer.

"Beach Read" is a rich and colourful story that makes for a great beach read, and one that can be "devoured" even in one sitting, as it is so engrossing.

8. Richard Russo, "Chances are..."

A story of new discoveries, surprises and suspense - all of this can be found in the book Chances Are....

Three old college friends, now in their 60s, gather on the picturesque island of Martha's Vineyard. Each of the men has his own secrets, and none of them has been able to solve the mystery of the disappearance of the woman they were all in love with. What follows is a fast-paced and intense life story with flashbacks to the past.

We advise you to include Richard Russo's saga in your list of beach books to read, which will inspire your own adventures.

9. "Romantic Comedy", Curtis Sittenfeld

No one knows as much about summer beach books as Sittenfeld. And the book Romantic Comedy is proof of that. The author tells us the story of Sally Mills, a comedy writer who vows to give up love and focus entirely on her own skills during her performance. What will come of it? You'll have to find out during this sweet and funny story during a great summer beach read.

10. "Congratulations, the Best Is Over", R. Eric Thomas

If you're looking for something interesting for a fun beach read, check out this collection of essays from a well-known bestselling author. Funny and insightful stories about how the hero is forced to return home, in this case to Baltimore, where he did not want to go again. Thomas tries to build a new "normal" life after constantly being in the online reality. With wit, laughter and hope for the best, it's a reminder that we can always find our way home, even when things don't go as planned.