Welcome back, friends! Summer is upon us, and with hot weather comes lots of hours at the beach, the lake, or the neighborhood pool. Well, my fellow bookworms, how do you choose great beach reads? I hope to give you some tips in this post, as well as a couple recommendations to check out. Keep reading for all the bookish fun!
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What makes for a great beach read?
You can use several different criteria to help you pick that book you’re gonna take to the beach, and I’ve listed some below. Choosing a book based on length, your mood, the genre or even the characters can make picking a beach read so much easier. If I were choosing my next great beach read, I’d probably choose something with a little bit from each category.
For example, I’d want a book I could read in just a couple hours, with a lighthearted plot, funny characters, and likely in either romance or contemporary fiction. Since I don’t spend much time in the sun (hello, redhead!) I would need something that’s easy to digest, so I don’t feel like I have to spend more time in the sun just to finish my book. I don’t like looking like a lobster. And, please, sunburns are so last summer.
Length
Choosing a book based on length is probably something everyone does at one point or another. My fellow reviewer, Cat, chooses her books she reviews for me based on the total number of pages. So, I get it. Picking great beach reads is a little like that, but it seems smart to pick a book that won’t take forever to finish. Especially if you’re with family members who are going to want you to head out in the ocean or the pool for some of your time. Knowing ahead of time how long a book could potentially take you allows for planning of these watery excursions.
If you’ve gone to great lengths (hey, a pun!) to pick a shorter book, and you know it will only take you a couple hours, what happens if you still get interrupted? Well, that’s where the second tip in this section comes in. It seems wise to choose a book that isn’t very long. But you also want something that you can drop in the middle and pick it back up later.
Mood
When choosing great beach reads, reading something you’re in the mood for is smart. If you’re a mood reader like me, you won’t want something you have to slog through just so you can say you read it. James Joyce or War and Peace don’t seem like good choices to take to the beach.
Be sure to check out the recommendations I added to this post at the end. They’re books I think would make perfect beach reads. They have great characters, don’t require a ton of brain power, and are good enough to keep you engrossed but not so deep that you can’t drop them on a moment’s notice.
One thing I will suggest for picking your great beach read, is please don’t pick a book that will make you cry. No one wants to be sitting at the beach, where people are constantly asking “why you crying?” On the other side of that coin, though, is you definitely want something to make you smile, laugh, or sigh in contentment.
Genre
Another thing to think about when considering a great beach read is its genre. In my opinion, there are four major genres that would make great beach reads.
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Romance
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Thriller
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Contemporary Fiction
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Fantasy
Of course, each of these genres have multiple sub-genres you could choose from, so as long as you are choosing something you can spend time enjoying, you don’t need to pick something straight from these 4 genres.
For example, you could choose a shorter dark fantasy, such as Between Ink & Shadows by Melissa Wright, or you could choose a light read, such as You Should Smile More by Anastasia Ryan.
Characters
I love amazing characters. If I’m reading a book, and I don’t feel anything for the characters, it’s pretty easy to assume I’m going to DNF. I recently had to DNF a book that had gotten some pretty serious hype, but when I started it, I had the hardest time getting into it. The characters were a big reason for my decision. I just didn’t give a crap about them.
When you choose a great beach read, my advice would be to pick a book with amazing characters that you can talk about at length later. Being able to tell someone “Omg, I read the best book at the beach the other day! My favorite character was…” just sounds like a blast, doesn’t it?
Author
If you know an author who writes the kind of books you’ve read before, and you know they’ll be perfect for the beach, then by all means take that book. Sometimes, I’ll choose a book simply because it’s by an author I love. In fact, I have several Sally Hepworth books in my Kindle right now. I love her books, and highly recommend them, whether you take one to the beach or not. One of my favorites is called The Good Sister, and it has some of the greatest twists I’ve seen in a book in a while. Sally’s books are contemporary fiction and thriller, so any of them would make great beach reads.
Recommendations
I’ve got some recommendations listed below that I think would fit with any of the criteria above. They’re all fairly short reads, have amazing characters, and while the stories are immersive, they aren’t so much that you have to worry about setting the book down and soaking in the ocean or lake for a little while.
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Baker’s Dozen – Soul Mutts Series
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1st Shock – Schock Sisters Mysteries
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Feyland Series – Anthea Sharp
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Deadline – Blood Trails Series
Conclusion
Choosing a great beach read can be as simple as blindly picking a book from your bookshelf and giving it a go. If you put more thought into your book choices than I do sometimes (I’ve been known to pick a book simply by how long it’s been in my TBR) then using the criteria I outlined above could come in handy. If you have any recommendations based on any of the categories, please leave them in the comments below! Other readers would love to see them, and I’ll probably add some books to my own TBR.
I’ve got a new book review coming next week that I can’t wait to share with you! I recently read The Blame Game by Sandie Jones, and it was SO good! I had a hard time putting it down, and I’m so excited to share my thoughts!
Until Next Time, Friends!
