Add these books to your summer reading list.
By: Austin Woman Staff
Who doesn’t love the guilty pleasure of a book to enjoy poolside or at the beach? These page-turners come highly recommended by the Austin Woman staff.
Deborah Hamilton-Lynne, Guest Editor
Reading an entertaining novel by Austin author Amanda Eyre Ward is becoming an annual summer treat. If you enjoyed The Jetsetters (optioned byABC Studios) and The Lifeguards (optioned by the creators of Virgin River), you will eagerly dive into her latest page-turning novel,Lovers and Liars. Ward combines her pitch perfect characterizations with intriguing mysteries and secrets to create a romance novel with substance. The tale of three estranged sisters that come together for a wedding set in a castle in Northern England is a slightly fractured fairy tale that has plenty of revelations and twists to keep you reading long after the sun has gone down. A widowed librarian, an ambitious single career woman, a housewife/entrepreneur that sells sex toys, a narcissistic mother and the men who share their lives come together after years apart. What could possibly go wrong? I especially liked the surprising resolutions that made for a neatly wrapped ending.
Betsy Blanks, VP of Operations
As I searched for the perfect beach read to take on my recent vacation, Happy Place came highly recommended by both Google and my sister, so I figured I’d give it a try. To be honest, I don’t even know what qualifies a book as a “beach read,” but I imagine Happy Place is exactly it—an engaging chronicle of friendship, love and the changing tides of life that kept me on the beach long enough to get a sunburn. As a 30-something myself, the natural evolution of post-college relationships felt relatable, and the author’s deliberate withholding of information keeps you wanting more. The idyllic backdrop of a small Maine beach town, a complicated love story and the heartwarming bonds of best friends (and the drama that comes with them), all come together to make this a truly entertaining read. The one downside of Happy Place? I finished it on the third of a nine-day trip, leaving me to wish I had not devoured it as quickly as possible!
Melinda Garvey, Co-Owner, Co-Founder
Do you ever get to the end of a book and think, “I wonder what happened to Monika”…or Maureen or whoever that character is who caught your interest? I do all the time—especially when they are a strong, female character—which is why I love this author. Not only does he always have badass female lead characters, but he writes multi-book sagas for each of these amazing women. My latest read, The German Girl, follows Monika Ritter, a German woman who fled to America with her husband at the outset of WWII and the Nazi invasion of Europe. In order to get the proper context, however, I recommend that you start with the series before Monika is even introduced. The Lion’s Den is the first book in a series of six and takes a deep dive into history and what led to Hitler’s rise to power. From there you can follow as the author branches out with new series featuring his female leads. Although the characters are fictional, the history is not, and the author does a brilliant job of telling the story of this family through the lens of real history. Although this is perhaps not a traditional beach read, I believe there is never a more important time than now to remind ourselves of what can happen when power goes unchecked. If you have Kindle Unlimited, they are all available for free! Enjoy!