What better place to kick back, relax and enjoy a good story than a peaceful water-front perch? From funny women, single ladies and horrid bosses to new friends, ex-best friends and tight sisterly bonds, we’ve gathered a few of our favorite summer novels that will soon be stashed in our carefully-packed beach bags. Download the ebook versions or, for those of you along 30A, browse local favorites Sundog Books in Seaside or Hidden Lantern Gallery in Rosemary Beach to flip through these this summer:
A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams
Socialite Lily’s ex-fiancé and ex-best friend return to a 1930s beach town, bringing a storm of emotions and drama to the summer social scene.
Revenge Wears Prada: The devil returns by Lauren Weisberger
Andy and Emily are back to (gasp!) join forces for a new wedding magazine called The Plunge. Cue Miranda Priestly’s icy return.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
An addictive thriller about a seemingly perfect marriage gone terribly wrong when trophy-wife Amy disappears without a trace and husband Nick is left to explain what happened to her family and the cops.
The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls
When their mother abandons two sisters, 12 and 15, in a small 1970s town, they take off on their own, working to survive and attend school despite adversity and injustice.
BossyPants by Tina Fey
Full of laughs and hilarious stories, Tina Fey’s memoir (so far) covers her awkward adolescence, path to fame by way of Saturday Night Live and the real-life inspiration for 30 Rock.
Seating Arrangements
by Maggie Shipstead Despite seeming to have everything a person could hope for, Winn Van Meter finds himself dissatisfied in an affluent Nantucket-like beach town.
The Widow Waltz by Sally Koslow
Manhattan attorney Ben dies suddenly leaving his wife Georgia and two daughters with no funds to maintain the posh life they’re used to.
Ladies’ Night by Mary Kay Andrews*
After catching her husband cheating, Grace moves in with her mother, attending meetings that quickly go from court-mandated “divorce recovery” to ladies’ night fun.
*Side Note: Mary Kay Andrews is no stranger to 30A, having vacationed in Grayton Beach as a child and written the quaint beach town into one of her earlier novels, Hissy Fit. Read an excerpt here:
“This, my darlin’ niece, is a teaspoon of sand from Grayton Beach, Florida.
My dear, dear client Bizzy Davis wants me to find a paint color that is an exact match to this, so that when she lies in bed at her house down there, she’ll see a seamless stretch of sand, from her bedroom walls, right down to the sparkling turquoise waters of the Gulf of Mexico.”