The Beach Read
“[T]here is more pestiferous trash read among the intelligent classes in July and August than in all the other ten months of the year.[...] Would it not be an awful thing for you to be struck with lightning some day when you had in your hand one of these paper-covered romances—the hero a Parisian roué, the heroine an unprincipled flirt … ?” (Reverend T. De Witt Talmage notably declared in an 1876 sermon)
Here's the thing, voices like this will always exist. But I am not one of them. If I am to be struck by lighting whilst reading I hope to God I have a Carley Fortune book in hand. I will always advocate for you to do what brings you joy! You don't need to make anyone happy with what you are reading, just yourself… and maybe your thighs.
So, if that means spending your summers reading romance books then DO– GO ON, GOOD SIR!
People like me, and Donna Harrington-Lueker, an author and professor of English and communications at Salve Regina University will ask
I think it's your choice. If summer is the time of year when you feel you have the most time and brain capacity to engage with lofty writing that discusses difficult or expansive themes, then girl, be my guest.
But– if you lie in the camp of individuals who want to escape with your beach reads, don't feel ashamed about that!
I don't know if it's because of summer themed movies, and the way that the media romanticizes summer, but for me summer is the time when I want to eat fresh fruit and stay up late. I want to dance with my friends and make a summer bucket list. Or best of all, lie in the sun while I read a good book.
I like to find that idolized summer in the books I read. I want to slip into a world that feels different from my own, find myself walking the streets of a small town on Cape Cod, soaking in the rays as I lay on the deck of my lake house, or eat gelato in an Italian piazza, all while patiently waiting for the main character to get her perfect first kiss.
It's not silly, even though we like to tell ourselves it is. Being sucked into the world of a book because of the tingling way the writer is describing the surroundings or teasing us with new circumstances of the story is a TREAT! We are lucky to experience that escapism.
This month, I talked to 20 women in my life, all from different age demographics and, originally, it's what I wanted to focus on with this blog post. But I actually want to come back to those conversations later to pose a different set of questions.
What I will say for now is, that through my interviews, I got one resounding response:
When July rolls around, whether they are avid romance readers or not, they always find themselves looking in the romance section for their next read.
What does that say?
To me, what I hear is, they want to enjoy summer and have a break from the day-to-day efforts of real life!
We are all just looking for that perfect golden day.
Often people are quick to roll their eyes and skip over the romance genre because they think it is too “basic” or too “simple”. Grace is living her simple, mundane life and then the love of her life walks through the door. And poof! Love conquers all! Yet somehow, when you pick up that book and devour the first chapter, suddenly you have been taken on a 350 page journey of vulnerability, joy, lust, fear, and compassion. If you tell me you didn't learn anything from your romance book I am going to ask you to take a second look.
Sure, it wasn't a dense, maybe painful, line-by-line reading of a psychology book, but it was an easily digestible format of experiencing someone's grief, trauma, or curiosity. The best way I can describe it is by learning about yourself or by listening to your friends. Sometimes you don't need a professor to spell something out for you. You just need a good story.
By exploring the lives of characters, not too unlike ourselves, I find nuggets of wisdom the authors have to share.
So this summer, turn to a friend and ask: what’s your favorite beach read?
Book Reviews:
Rating system: (this is based on price, just try and come between me and my kindle)
⭐️Library, ⭐️⭐️kindle, ⭐️⭐️⭐️paperback, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️hard cover,
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ special edition
Spice level:
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Oh my God, I didn’t know you could do that!
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Not suitable to read at work
🌶️🌶️🌶️Good Lord!
🌶️🌶️HOT
🌶️ hot
FMC= Female main Character and MMC= Male Main Character
One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune
🌶️🌶️🌶️
There is this warm feeling that spreads from your heart to your whole body when you feel true love. And though we often talk about feeling that in relation to a person, sometimes we can be in love with a thing. A story, maybe. I am actively - and forever will be - in love with the story Every Summer After. Its sequel, One Golden Summer, left me feeling the same way. That is my own experience. But all I can speak to is the way I felt when I finished One Golden Summer.
The book was the perfect sequel; it kept the magic of the first book alive while being totally its own story. Charlie Florek was such a beautiful and complex character in ESA and to see him finally get his happy ending was soooo special! I thought Alice was such a wonderful FMC because she was real and also inspiring. She was flawed and had so much room to grow, yet I still wanted to grow up to be just like her. And, my God! Carley absolutely smashes a lake story. She talks about how setting is one of the most important parts of her stories and that is so evident in this book. The magic of her story lies in the fact that she effortlessly draws us to a summer in a cabin by the lake. AMAZING! STUNNING! NO NOTES!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This Summer Will be Different by Carley Fortune
🌶️🌶️🌶️
This summer romance is set on Prince Edward Island, Canada, also known as the home of Anne Shirley or Anne of Green Gables. Aside from being a romance, the book is a love letter to the island and the classic. Yet, most importantly, it's a book about friendship. I know that sounds a bit counter-intuitive but the story of Lucy and Felix is also the story of Lucy and Bridget. See, this is a best-friend's-brother romance. Felix is Bridget’s younger brother. When Lucy goes to visit her new best friend's family on PEI she gets there a day before Bridget and finds herself meeting a handsome stranger who happens to be Felix. It would take me forever to explain all the elements of this story, (and that would ruin it for you ;)), but what I will say is that Lucy is constantly prioritizing things she loves, like work and her friendships, over herself. She thus paints herself into a corner where prioritizing her own desires feels next to impossible. She just has to find the right balance for everything because she also deserves to be loved by the man of her dreams. As far as Lucy and Felix go, their story is one of those beautiful stories where you get to watch people fall in love without them realizing it. It’s romantic, poetic, and steamy as fuck. These two have sexual tension that you can see hanging in the air! It's a phenomenal beach read with a magical setting. I am currently planning a trip to PEI in my head.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Till Summer Do Us Part by Meghan Quinn
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
I think this book was the best surprise of my summer. I had a feeling it was going to be fun and I knew it had received rave reviews. But this! This was so much better than I thought it would be. This felt like the perfect rom-COM. It was silly. It was goofy. It made me giggle! The story follows Scottie, a single divorcée, who is living in NYC working as a copy editor for a golf magazine. She is the only woman in the office (besides the boss) and the only unmarried one. All her coworkers are obsessed with being married and she feels like the odd one out so, in a desperate measure to fit in she lies and says she actually is married and is just having some marital problems. The lie is not only a bad idea but it blows up in her face when she learns that her boss's husband is a relationship counselor. She needs a fake husband fast and who better to step in beside her bestie’s millionaire, retired-at-27, improv-loving brother. They end up at a marriage camp for eight days with all of her coworkers. What could go wrong? It's comedic gold! It's Meghan Quinn! Her smut is fantastic. So steamy! And the way she pairs it with humor makes her a delight to read!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Beach Read by Emily Henry
🌶️🌶️🌶️
It's funny to me that this book's premise is two writers writing books in genres they don't normally write because I felt like I was reading a new Emily. Or rather an old Emily? There was something distinctly different about this book. Maybe it was the fact that it was her debut and her voice was rawer. Perhaps it was the fact that Gus felt different to all her other heroes. Most notably, how he interacted with January in the beginning of their love story. Or maybe it was the darker themes that came with the New Eden cult subplot. The book just felt so different from the “Emily Henry books” to which I am now accustomed. BUT DIFFERENT IS NOT BAD. It's just different. Once I settled into what this story would be, I loved the journey. Is it my favorite book of hers? No. But it's a beautiful, beautiful book. I loved the nuance of January’s levels of grief. And how her feelings and beliefs about her father were constantly evolving. I also loved how Gus and January constantly communicated their relationship fears and their take on Happily Ever Now. It's a motto I try to use in my own life. Actually, to me much of this book felt deeply relatable. And I think that is why time and time again people turn to Henry’s books. She has something in her writing that makes people feel human.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
This story was in fact, as Hazelwood said in her author’s note, an erotic romance and not a rom-com. It was inherently different from her other work. Though having read it much after publication and after the release of Deep End, I can see how it was simply her first foray into erotic literature. What I loved about Not in Love was how it dug into the darker parts of our brain. The FMC is not a typical love-sick heroine. She has walls and she has armor and even when she finds her love story she stays herself in many ways. I thought the story was compelling, engaging and ultimately an enjoyable read. The sexual relationship between these two was extremely interesting to observe. The question of “is this just fucking?” was a consistent conversation and I think the two characters' sexual openness led to a fascinating dynamic. This is a great SMUNTH read.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood
🌶️🌶️🌶️
Oh! Now this was a fun one! I can't lie, I read this in a feverdream of a horrible cold in 48 hours, so my brain was probably not at its best. But regardless, I had a great time. From my understanding this was Hazelwood's first real sequel. Most of the characters in the book directly came from the previous book, Not in Love. And it was such a treat! I loved that she built on the world she had created around Eli and Rue. Getting Maya and Conor's story surrounded by characters I already got to know previously and loved was fantastic. I thought the story was FUN. It was the perfect beach read, easy, silly, and lighthearted, with delightful circumstances. She used the brother’s-best-friend and age-gap tropes in a way that was salacious and exciting without being predatory. I love the way she handled the story to keep it forbidden but not illegal: Maya is 23 and Conor is 35, so there was no under-age lusting. There is a lot, a lot, of communication about the perceived and real power imbalances between the two, thus making their dynamic believable. All in all, I would highly recommend this as the perfect book to take on a vacation.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
