Beach Reads

By Cindy Bilbao

Spend an afternoon at the beach—for real or just in  your imagination—with these great beach reads.

Beach novel A hundred summers

 

A Hundred Summers

By Beatriz Williams

It’s 1938 in Seaview, Rhode Island and generations of socialites from New York City will gather here for the summer and party at the Seaview Club as they’ve done for generations. This particular year, Lily Dane is back to soak in the feelings of familiarity and safety from the emotional trauma she’s endured, and to watch the surf come in, as she’s done a million times before. 

But her peaceful summer plans are ruined when her childhood best friend, Budgie, also returns with her husband Nick, who just happens to be Lily’s ex-fiancé. How this unlikely marriage came to be is a plot expertly told by Williams as she weaves the story through the seven years in which Lily learns a very valuable lesson that we all can take to heart: Things are not always the way they seem. Budgie has painted a picture that Lily will find out is all smoke and mirrors.

Family secrets and blackmail will come to light and culminate in disaster—literally—when the great New England hurricane of 1938 blows its way into town unexpectedly. It makes for a very interesting account of the way things were, back when Doppler radar didn’t exist and hurricane forecasting was not as advanced as today. The clouds will clear and the outcome is one you will just have to read for yourself!

beach novel about love and loss

The Husband Hour 

By Jamie Brenner

Lauren gives an hour of her time to a documentary producer who wants to learn about her late husband, who was bound for an ice hockey career but instead enlisted in the army and died in combat. Lauren, who has been living by the beach, learns about family secrets, her husband’s brain injuries, and herself.

the chaperone book

The Chaperone 

By Laura Moriarty

Louise leaves Kansas to study dancing in New York City, but it’s the 1920s so she is forced to bring her chaperone with her. The trip will transform both of them in unforeseen ways as history unfolds throughout the book.

Read more beach book recommendations from Cindy Bilbao ›

This article appeared in the Glassing Magazine November/December 2018 issue.

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