15 of the best beach reads for 2023 to help you unwind
I like my classic books. But I also like my time off… and a chance to escape into refreshing, laid-back books that are perfect for lazy summer days on the beach.
The summer reads on this list are easygoing, lighthearted, and mostly served with at least a pinch of romance, making for some of the best beach reads for 2023.
Like my collection of books with summer vibes, many of these novels feel like a vacation in a book, so feel free to enjoy them as a staycation too.
Take your pick and prepare for a summer of easy beach reads to relax, unwind, and feel like new again. You’re 100% allowed to start your beach reading now…
The best beach reads for 2023 to help you relax and unwind
Happy Place by Emily Henry
Read Happy Place for… Emily Henry’s new book for 2023, painting a picture of summer vibes in Maine and a relationship that isn’t quite what it seems.
If you want an easygoing, lighthearted romance read for the beach, pick up Emily Henry’s Happy Place.
This is one of the best new romance books for 2023, about a seemingly perfect couple who broke up months ago but pretend to still be together for their annual vacation with their best friends.
A Perfect Vintage by Chelsea Fagan
Read A Perfect Vintage for… a relaxed getaway to a French country estate with good food, sun, and an abundance of sparkling wine. (Preorder for release on June 6.)
In this refreshing new summer read for 2023, Lea Mortimer seems to have everything under control.
As a sought-after consultant who transforms dilapidated French country estates into boutique hotels, she relishes her freedom as a single, child-free woman. But the families she works for? They’re not always so easy to deal with.
The author, Chelsea Fagan, is the founder of The Financial Diet, the largest women’s personal finance media company.
These Tangled Vines by Julianne MacLean
Read These Tangled Vines for… a sun-kissed story of love, inheritance, and an American mother and daughter who, years apart, find themselves at the same winery in Tuscany.
I loved reading These Tangled Vines – it feels like a vacation in a book. Amidst the lush vineyards and rolling hills of Italy, romance author Julianne MacLean weaves a tale of love, loss, and the power of family ties.
It’s the story of Fiona, who unexpectedly travels to Italy after being named in her biological father’s will. She didn’t know anything about this man until now, and the uncovered secrets might bring enormous riches, but also unravel everything.
Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune
Read Meet Me at the Lake for… the anticipated new romance for 2023 by Carley Fortune, bestselling author of Every Summer After, offering warm summer days and rekindled love.
At thirty-two, Fern Brookbanks isn’t where she thought she’d be in life. Instead of living in the city, Fern’s back home running her mother’s lakeside resort. And she’s wasted far too much of her adult life thinking about Will Baxter.
Despite spending just twenty-four hours with Will in her early twenties, Fern has never forgotten the undeniable connection she found with this idealistic artist… a man who promised to meet her one year later, but never showed up. At least, not until nine years later, with a suitcase in tow.
The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand
Read The Five-Star Weekend for… a captivating, sunshine-filled story about friendship, love, and self-discovery from the bestselling author of The Hotel Nantucket. (Preorder for June 13)
In this anticipated beach read for 2023, Hollis Shaw seems to have the perfect life: she’s the creator of a popular food blog and married to Matthew, a dreamy heart surgeon.
Although the book is brimming with summer vibes, it begins with loss, exposing the cracks in Hollis’s marriage and relationship with her daughter, Caroline.
When Hollis hears about something called a “Five-Star Weekend”, she decides to host her own to get her life back on track, bringing together four friends from different stages in her life.
Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Read Carrie Soto is Back for… your best beach read for 2023 if you love Taylor Jenkins Reid’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & the Six.
In this bestseller, Taylor Jenkins Reid masterfully crafts the story of a tennis legend supposedly past her prime at thirty-seven, brought back to the tennis court to give everything she’s got to defend her record.
Lunar Love by Lauren Kung Jessen
Read Lunar Love for… an enemies-to-lovers debut rom-com filled with astrology to escape into this summer on the beach.
In Lunar Love, Olivia Huang Christenson is both excited and terrified to be taking over her grandmother’s matchmaking business.
But when she finds herself head-to-head against the business of L.A.’s most eligible bachelor, Bennett O’Brien, she realises the extent of the situation she’s got herself in.
Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monaghan
Read Same Time Next Summer for… a perfect beach read for fans of Emily Henry, described by author Carley Fortune as “bursting with the magic of first love”.
In this new summer romance by the bestselling author of Nora Goes Off Script, everything in Sam’s life is on track, including her upcoming marriage to her doctor fiancé, Jack.
But when Sam tours a wedding venue near her family’s Long Island beach house, she starts questioning everything.
Wyatt is the guy who broke her heart when she was seventeen, and he’s here. As she hears notes from Wyatt’s guitar float across the night air from next door, Sam’s memories come flooding back… and she wonders if she made the right choice.
Sorry, Bro by Taleen Voskuni
Read Sorry, Bro for… a vibrant and heartfelt queer rom-com debut about an Armenian-American woman embracing who she really is.
When Nareh Bedrossian’s boyfriend gets down on one knee and proposes to her in front of a room full of San Francisco tech boys, she realizes this really isn’t what she wants.
She finally agrees with her mother to visit their homeland and give Armenian men a chance, but it’s not the doctor or the wealthy engineer who catches Nar’s eye – it’s Erebuni, a woman as immersed in the mystical arts as she is in preserving Armenian identity.
The Bodyguard by Katherine Center
Read The Bodyguard for… nineties rom-com vibes about a bodyguard who looks more like a kindergarten teacher than somebody who could take you out in a heartbeat.
Jack Stapleton’s a household name… one who’s being followed by a middle-aged corgi breeder. He doesn’t want his family to find out about this, nor the bodyguard he knows he has to hire.
Hannah Brooks, Executive Protection Agent, agrees to pretend to be Jack’s girlfriend while protecting him, despite her better judgement. But the more time she spends with Jack, the more real it all starts to seem. And that’s a problem.
The Fraud Squad by Kyla Zhao
Read The Fraud Squad for… a story of sneaking into Singapore high society that Ali Hazelwood describes as “immersive, cinematic, and exquisitely fun.”
In Kyla Zhao’s debut for 2023, Samantha Song knows she needs to shake things up if she’s going to leave her drab PR firm and achieve her dreams of writing for a high-society magazine.
To her surprise, the disillusioned son of one of Singapore’s wealthiest families is able to help her infiltrate Singapore’s high society. But the deeper Samantha wades into this facade, the more she fears being exposed.
Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn
Read Georgie, All Along for… a whimsical and magnetic love story about friendship and new beginnings for everyone who’s ever wondered about the life that got away.
Georgie, All Along is the story of longtime personal assistant Georgie Mulcahy, who’s made a career out of putting others before herself.
When an unexpected upheaval sends her away from her hectic job in L.A. and back to her hometown, Georgie realises that she needs to put her own wants and needs first for once. Little does she know how much is about to change.
The Codebreaker’s Secret by Sara Ackerman
Read The Codebreaker’s Secret for… a dazzling historical fiction novel set in Hawaii and packed with love and intrigue, about a brilliant female codebreaker in WWII.
Set between 1943 and 1965 in Hawaii, The Codebreaker’s Secret is the story of Isabel Cooper and her codebreaker colleagues in Pearl Harbor.
But it’s also about a mystery that unravels decades later… one that only a codebreaker can crack. This is the perfect historical fiction book to escape into this summer on the beach.
The best wildcard beach reads if you want something different
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Read Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow for… the Goodreads Book of the Year 2022 about video games, creativity, and fame. An incredible book I’d recommend if you don’t mind slightly heavier reading on the beach.
City on Fire by Don Winslow
Read City on Fire for… a compulsively readable thriller that transforms the events at Troy and the founding of Rome into a riveting modern tale as two empires grapple to control New England. Try this if you don’t fancy reading a rom-com on the beach this year.
For more of the best summer reads, you might also like…
Enjoy more from me
- Retreat into my new book, Your Life in Bloom: Finding Your Path and Your Courage, Grounded in the Wisdom of Nature.
- I'm also the author of Mountain Song: A Journey to Finding Quiet in the Swiss Alps, a book about my time living alone by the mountains.
- If you love books, are feeling a little lost right now, and would love some gentle comfort and guidance, join The Sanctuary, my seven-day course to rebalance your life.