Welcome to this week’s edition of Friday Book Round-Up. Tomorrow is June 1 and all my thoughts tend to be filtered through a summer vibe. I’m on the hunt for the must-read to take on vacation and an armful of reads to tackle over the next few months. Since this is the last Friday Book Round-Up until August, I thought I’d share my top ten beach reads. The term beach-read varies for each reader but for me conjures up an image of me sitting out in the sun reading a great book. It doesn’t have to a certain genre but it does have to be on the lighter side. So check out my list and see if it matches your own.
Love at First Like: A Novel by Hannah Orenstein
From the author of Playing with Matches, the rollicking tale of a young jewelry shop owner who accidentally leads her Instagram followers to believe that she’s engaged—and then decides to keep up the ruse. Eliza Roth and her sister Sophie co-own a jewelry shop in Brooklyn. One night, after learning of an ex’s engagement, Eliza accidentally posts a photo of herself wearing a diamond ring on that finger to her Instagram account beloved by 100,000 followers. Sales skyrocket, press rolls in, and Eliza learns that her personal life is good for business. So she has a choice: continue the ruse or clear up the misunderstanding. With mounting financial pressure, Eliza sets off to find a fake fiancé. Fellow entrepreneur Blake seems like the perfect match on paper. And in real life he shows promise, too. He would be perfect, if only Eliza didn’t feel also drawn to someone else. But Blake doesn’t know Eliza is “engaged”; Sophie asks Eliza for an impossible sum of money; and Eliza’s lies start to spiral out of control. She can either stay engaged online or fall in love in real life. Written with singular charm and style, Love at First Like is for anyone growing up and settling down in the digital age.
Say You Still Love Me: A Novel by K.A. Tucker
The bestselling author of The Simple Wild and Keep Her Safe and “master of steamy romance” (Kirkus Reviews) delivers a sizzling novel about an ambitious and high-powered executive who reconnects with her first love: the boy who broke her heart. Life is a mixed bag for Piper Calloway. On the one hand, she’s a twenty-nine-year-old VP at her dad’s multibillion-dollar real estate development firm, and living the high single life with her two best friends in a swanky downtown penthouse. On the other hand, she’s considered a pair of sexy legs in a male-dominated world and constantly has to prove her worth. Plus she’s stuck seeing her narcissistic ex-fiancé—a fellow VP—on the other side of her glass office wall every day. Things get exponentially more complicated for Piper when she runs into Kyle Miller—the handsome new security guard at Calloway Group, and coincidentally the first love of her life. The guy she hasn’t seen or heard from since they were summer camp counselors together. The guy from the wrong side of the tracks. The guy who apparently doesn’t even remember her name. Piper may be a high-powered businesswoman now, but she soon realizes that her schoolgirl crush is still alive and strong, and crippling her concentration. What’s more, despite Kyle’s distant attitude, she’s convinced their reunion isn’t at all coincidental, and that his feelings for her still run deep. And she’s determined to make him admit to them, no matter the consequences.
That Long Lost Summer by Minna Howard
A gorgeous and bittersweet romance set in the South of France, about an old passion rekindled and the choice between family loyalty and a great love.
Flora and Hugo are devoted to their children, but when their girls leave home for university, their lives seem empty. Hugo is cold and distant, leaving Flora unsure what their future holds. When they are invited to a friend's villa in the South of France, Flora hopes the summer sun and gorgeous setting may bring them closer together. In a crumbling, picturesque villa in the luscious French countryside, they are introduced to Susie, Matt and their friends. Flora is surprised to meet Xavier, her old flame, who she fell in love with one long lost summer when she was eighteen. They parted suddenly all those years ago, leaving Flora wondering, what if...
Handsome, passionate, sensitive, Xavier is so different from her reliable, predictable Hugo. Both Flora and Xavier have moved on with their lives, but is there something that still lingers between them? Or will Flora's devotion to her children, and her loyalty to Hugo, show her where her true heart lies...
One Last Greek Summer by Mandy Baggot
Beth Martin is 31, newly divorced and wondering just what life holds for her...
Best-friend, Heidi, is adamant that all the answers lie in Corfu – the island where the girls partied away their youth. So cue a trip to a sun-drenched Greek island, ouzo cocktails, a trip down memory lane... and Alex Hallas, the man Beth has never quite forgotten.
As they dance under the stars, the sand beneath their toes, old feelings begin to resurface and Beth might just have a chance to take back her life. If they can learn to love the people they've become...
Full of Promise by Kate Gavin
Cameron Leoni is about to start her senior year of high school. Between helping her mother take care of her two younger brothers and working at the library to save money for college, there’s just barely enough time for anything but soccer. Riley Baker is the new girl in town. Though she’s been out to her parents and friends back home, she’s reluctant to share that information with her new classmates. When Cam meets Riley on the first day of soccer tryouts, Cam is unsure why she feels so drawn to the other girl. They become fast friends and soon Cameron can’t help the butterflies she feels every time the two touch. Riley wants to be honest and come out to Cam but she doesn’t want to lose her as a friend. She won’t allow herself to dream of the possibility of anything more between them. Cam and Riley will have to navigate the emotional halls of high school, friends and family as they realize there might be more than just friendship growing between them.
The Friends We Keep by Jane Green
The Friends We Keep is the heartwarming and unforgettable new novel from Jane Green, the New York Times bestselling author of The Sunshine Sisters and The Beach House.
Evvie, Maggie, and Topher have known one another since college. Their friendship was something they swore would last forever. Now years have passed, the friends have drifted apart, and they never found the lives they wanted—the lives they dreamed of when they were young and everything seemed possible.
Evvie starved herself to become a supermodel but derailed her career by sleeping with a married man.
Maggie married Ben, the boy she fell in love with in college, never imagining the heartbreak his drinking would cause.
Topher became a successful actor, but the shame of a childhood secret shut him off from real intimacy.
By their thirtieth reunion, these old friends have lost touch with one another and with the people they dreamed of becoming. Together again, they have a second chance at happiness...until a dark secret is revealed that changes everything.
The Friends We Keep is about how despite disappointments we’ve had or mistakes we’ve made, it’s never too late to find a place to call home.
Waiting for Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey
A rom-com-obsessed romantic waiting for her perfect leading man learns that life doesn’t always go according to a script in this delightfully charming and funny novel.
Annie Cassidy dreams of being the next Nora Ephron. She spends her days writing screenplays, rewatching Sleepless in Seattle, and waiting for her movie-perfect meet-cute. If she could just find her own Tom Hanks—a man who’s sweet, sensitive, and possibly owns a houseboat—her problems would disappear and her life would be perfect. But Tom Hanks is nowhere in sight.
When a movie starts filming in her neighborhood and Annie gets a job on set, it seems like a sign. Then Annie meets the lead actor, Drew Danforth, a cocky prankster who couldn’t be less like Tom Hanks if he tried. Their meet-cute is more of a meet-fail, but soon Annie finds herself sharing some classic rom-com moments with Drew. Her Tom Hanks can’t be an actor who’s leaving town in a matter of days...can he?
The Daughter of River Valley by Victoria Cornwall
Can you trust a man with no name?
Cornwall, 1861
Beth Jago appears to have the idyllic life, she has a trade to earn a living and a cottage of her own in Cornwall's beautiful River Valley. Yet appearances can be deceptive ... Beth has a secret.
Since inheriting her isolated cottage she's been receiving threats, so when she finds a man in her home she acts on her instincts. One frying pan to the head and she has robbed the handsome stranger of his memory and almost killed him. Fearful he may die, she reluctantly nurses the intruder back to health.
Yet can she trust the man with no name who has entered her life, or is he as dangerous as his nightmares suggest? As they learn to trust one another, the outside threats worsen. Are they linked to the man with no past? Or is the real danger still outside waiting ... and watching them both?
No Heartbreaker Required by JoAnn Sky
When an avalanche crushes her world, Olympic hopeful Starr Taylor loses her job, her boyfriend, and worst of all, her confidence. She's working on getting her life back together and moving forward, and it certainly won’t be with Spencer Kensington, the far-too-attractive playboy lawyer she’s forced to play nice with at their friends’ wedding. Unfortunately, Spencer's trip to Reno gets extended unexpectedly, and Starr suddenly finds herself way too close for comfort with the man she's quickly realizing is more than he appears.
Spencer is a tough, no-nonsense New York businessman with a no-commitment rule in the bedroom. But a few days of living with Starr, feeding goats and helping her save troubled teens, has him feeling something he can't identify. In fact, the more Spencer gets to know the surprisingly vulnerable and tempting woman, the duller his superficial life in the city starts to seem. But everything he's worked for is waiting for him, and as Spencer’s flight back home grows closer, he's left wondering if the life he has is really the life he wants.
Love At The Shore by Teri Wilson
She came to the beach to write… But she’s getting distracted by the surfer next door.
Jenna, a single mom and successful author, has five weeks to deliver her next young adult novel to the publisher. This year’s summer getaway with her kids will be a working vacation.
The only problem? Lucas, the devil-may-care surfer in the beach rental next to hers. He cranks up his music at night, hosts loud volleyball matches, and allows his dog to run around at will.
Jenna often blames him for her writer’s block. But before long, she begins to see a new side of her neighbor at the shore. Maybe opposites do attract…but will that attraction fade like a sunset once summer is gone?
This funny, emotional romance includes a free Hallmark original recipe for Shrimp Scampi.
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MRS N, Book Addict