Top Ten Tuesday (80)

Top Ten Favorite Beach Reads

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. It’s awesome. Every Tuesday, the lovely folks over at The Broke and the Bookish post a topic so that book lovers like you and me can pour over our shelves and make our own lists. You can check out all the other Top Ten Tuesday’s on their site!

Friends, I know it’s been a week since I last posted anything. I have a good reason though: I was on a road trip with my sister! YAY! I meant to schedule things ahead of time but, well, I didn’t have time. All of this basically means that I’m going to be getting back into the swing of things over here, and I’m staring with my 80th Top Ten Tuesday!! HUZZAH! It’s a good one, too: favorite beach reads. Now, when I’m at the beach, I want to read something light, quick, fun, fast-paced, maybe a little adventure–basically anything that doesn’t require I pay lots of attention to details, think too hard, or have a high likelihood that I’ll forget something important if I’m interrupted in between trips to the water. This is what I came up with, and now I want to reread ALL OF THEM.

So, one of these days, I’ll make a list for Top Ten Tuesday that doesn’t have this book on it. I seem to find a way to work it on to what seems like every other list, but you know what? It’s the PERFECT beach read for me: it’s quick, heartfelt, and swoony like nobody’s business. Love me some French swoony-times on the beach!

This is totally a placeholder, friends, for any historical romance EVER. I just love the Bridgertons! But anything by Sarah MacLean or Lauren Willig would be just as excellent at the beach. These books are perfect because you can put them down and pick them up again and not lose a step. If you can manage to put them down in the first place, that is.

Another placeholder! Loving those right now! But in all honesty, anything by Sarah Dessen would be a super beach read, not just because her books are well-written, emotional, with good swoons, but most of them take place in beach towns! I know, right? This one just happens to be one of my favorite books of hers, and its a great place to start if you’re looking for one.

YO, people need to read these books. The drama is legit, the pace is excellent, and the relationship between the Merrick brothers is outstanding. Also, the sexytimes–this series has them and they are GREAT. I love this series, and they’re an excellent mix of feelings and action and swoons.

My love for this series knows no bounds. For real. I’d take these books to the beach in a heartbeat because there’s action and drama and a slow-building, complicated relationship between Day and June that just kills me.

Yay for these girls! Possibly my favorite middle grade series, no lie, I love the Penderwick sisters like I love the Merrick brothers, except these girls don’t have anywhere near the steaming pile of SUCK on their plates like the boys do. They’re just normal, awesome girls. Two of the books in this series–one and three–take place while the Penderwicks are on summer vacation, but I’d read any of them at the beach. They have a great, laid-back vibe.

I feel like I’d have a hard time putting any of the Percy Jackson books down. The adventure and the pace are break-neck, plus there’s some humor and friendship and MYTHOLOGY. I die. Great beach reads, especially because Percy is the son of Poseidon. That’s what I call meant to be.

OF COURSE I’m taking this book to the beach. I take it all over the place. In fact, I just took it with my on my road trip (I was feeling meta). But Amy & Roger are one of my top five favorite YA couples of all time (yes, I am judging the future already. These two are permanent favorites), and their road trip isn’t just about them slowly falling for each other. It’s about grieving and discovering new things and starting over. Also, I’m just going to go ahead and start an unofficial Roger Sullivan fan club right now. He’s just…THE BEST.

I was going to do a placeholder for Jennifer Echols too, but I decided to shout out two of my favorite books of hers instead, mostly because I love them SO EFFING MUCH. I’ve spoken about this book endlessly, so I won’t bore you all with MORE GUSHING here, but I will say that based on my criteria from above, GOING TOO FAR fits the bill of a perfect beach read TO THE T. John After is DEAD SEXY, plus I can blow through this book in a couple hours. Which is great at the beach because it gives me time to jump into…

…THIS book before I leave! I know that Jennifer Echols’ books all follow the same formula, but I don’t really care so much because I love the southern sass and the drama and the kissing. Beach bonus for this book: There’s an actual beach town in it. BOOM. Also, I love that the characters in this book pilot those planes that fly over the water all the time with the banners behind them. As a lifelong Jersey shore-goer, I am well-acquainted with those planes, and having them as a central part of the story really just screams “beach” to me.