15 Books To Read On Vacation
1. November 9
Another Colleen Hoover winner! I absolutely love her books and though they tend to have a similar feel, I still enjoy reading them. This one threw a major curve ball halfway through the book that I did not see coming which really made me want to finish it. Ben and Fallon meet the day before she is moving cross-country and have an instant connection. So they decide to meet up the next year on the same day to see if they still have feelings for each other. This tradition continues for the next few years but life begins to get in the way and threatens to derail their plans to ultimately be together one day. I absolutely adored this book and can’t recommend it enough.
2. Matchmaking for Beginners
This was a really sweet read and one that I enjoyed immensely. Marnie is engaged and set to be married and looking forward to living a very ordinary and suburban life. After her marriage falls apart after only two weeks, Marnie is forced to imagine a new life for herself. It’s a meeting with her ex-husband’s great-aunt at a family function that sets her off on her new course. Marnie inherits the great-aunt’s Brooklyn brownstone and has to go live there for a few months in order to settle the estate. It’s during this time that she learns so much about herself and figures out what to do with her life.
3. One Day in December
This began quite slow and boring for me. But as the book went on I really came to love the story. Laurie sees a man while riding the bus one day and when their eyes meet, she instantly feels like he is her soulmate. She searches for him every day after that for a year hoping she will run into this mystery man again. Unfortunately she finally meets him at a party as her best friend’s boyfriend. Laurie is devastated but doesn’t want her best friend to know this is the man from the bus stop that instantly stole her heart. Over the next ten years, the dynamic between her best friend, the boyfriend and Laurie evolves and the ending is really sweet and endearing.
4. My Favorite Half-Night Stand
A cute, feel-good romantic novel with super lovable characters. It was a bit slow at the start, but once I got into the story I loved it! Millie and Reid are friends as well as co-workers that begin to have feelings for one another. In an effort to try and decide if they really should be together, they both fill out online dating profiles to see what else is out there. The story has some cute twists and turns and is an easy read.
5. Where’d You Go, Bernadette
This book is being made into a movie and I am really excited to see it. I enjoyed the book but I think the movie will be able to bring the content to life even better. Bernadette Fox is an eccentric architect living in Seattle with her husband and daughter. After receiving a perfect report card, her daughter asks if they can go to Antartica as her reward. However before the trip, Bernadette vanishes and her family has no idea where she has gone. While this seems like it would be a mystery novel, it’s actually quite the opposite. Bernadette has a quirky personality and the dynamics between her and her family create quite a unique storyline.
6. The Proposal
This is your typical cute love story and an easy beach read. Nikole meets Carlos at a Dodgers game after her boyfriend of only a few months proposes to her on the jumbotron. Nikole is not in love with him and has to turn him down in front of thousands of people. Carlos and his sister pretend to know Nikole in order to allow her to escape the situation and avoid the media that is swarming her after the proposal. Carlos and Nikole decide to get together again the following week and a friendship develops that quickly turns physical. Both try to fight their feelings but are unable to and decisions must be made if they are going to take their relationship further. It’s not the best book in my list but it was enjoyable.
7. Every Breath
I don’t want to give too much of this book away. But I have to say that the author’s note really ruined the entire story for me. You will understand why if you read it. It’s a great love story about two people that meet randomly at a beach in North Carolina and end up falling in love after six days of knowing one another. Sadly they can’t be together because Hope is engaged to a man that she feels obligated to marry. Tru tries to convince her to be with him, but alas he returns to his native home of Zimbabwe after Hope turns him down. Decades later their paths cross again and their story continues. It’s a really good book but I wish the author had not done what he did in his prologue and epilogue. Ugh!
8. Redeeming Love
Wow, Wow, Wow. Based on the cover of this book, I was expecting a cheesy romantic love story but this was so much more than that! Angel is sold into prostitution at a young age and is living a life of emptiness and hatred until she meets Michael Hosea. Michael is extremely religious and feels that God wants him to be with Angel. He visits her at her brothel and tries to convince he to leave with him. After she is beaten badly one night by a client, she agrees to go with Michael and ultimately marry him. Since Angel never learned how to trust a man, she struggles with being Michael’s wife. Michael stays steadfast to his commitment to God that he will love this woman and be with her no matter how hard she makes it for him.
To be honest, I did not think I was going to like this book as much as I did and was so sad when it was over. Such a great (and emotional) read.
9. Winter Solstice
Oh Elin Hildebrand, how I love your sappy romance novels. If you enjoy stories about family, love, life struggles, a bit of drama and some romance thrown in, then pick up an Elin Hildebrand novel. It’s a great beach read (or more like a crisp fall day read).
10. My Oxford Year
I loved this book from start to finish. Ella is awarded the coveted Rhodes Scholarship and heads to Oxford to study for the upcoming year. She is focused and has her career plans already set for when she has completed her year abroad, but a casual fling turns into something so much more. Ella must decide if she should give up her dreams in exchange for a once in a lifetime love.
11. We Came Here to Forget
I really loved this book and it was one of my favorite in this list! Katie Cleary is an olympic skier who has won numerous medals and devoted her life to the sport. When she was growing up, she moved in with her two close guy friends whose wealthy father was able to provide them with access to the best coaches to develop their skill. Sadly as Katie’s career is taking off, her family life is beginning to crumble. Her sister has increasing odd behavior and is accused of a heinous crime that ruins the entire family and Katie’s career. She decides to leave it all behind and move to Buenos Aires to start over. Though the story oscillates between the past and present in every other chapter, it flows well and the story is so great. I could not put this down!
12. Regretting You
I am a huge Colleen Hoover fan so this was an instant love for me. Clara and her mother Morgan have a complicated relationship, strained even further by the recent death of her father. As more begins to come out about the circumstances surrounding his death, the family is even more devastated by a double life that he seemed to have been living. Clara seeks solace in a new friendship with a boy that her father initially did not approve of, but now that he is gone she finds herself drawn to this boy even more. Surprisingly he is able to help Clara grieve and ultimately heal her relationship with her mother as time goes on. If you love Colleen Hoover novels, I know you will enjoy this.
13. Without Merit
Another Colleen Hoover novel and though I didn’t love it as much as some of her others, I still really enjoyed the story. Merit has a large family with a very unconventional living situation. They live in a repurposed church with her father, stepmother and siblings. Her birth mother lives in the basement of their home which creates an unusual dynamic within the family. Merit feels disconnected from her family because of an incident in the past that left her traumatized. And soon learns another secret that creates more confusion and distrust. She confides in a close friend that is staying with the family and he helps her come to terms with the lies and trauma she has been holding on to. Most of the book takes place in the home. But the complicated family dynamics and events that occur make it a very interesting read.
14. In Five Years
I couldn’t put this book down! I loved it so much. Dannie has her entire life mapped out in her head and she is trying to adhere to the timeline she has for herself. One night she goes to sleep and wakes up five years in the future and nothing is as she had imagined. She is with a different partner, living a different life and doesn’t know how she got there. That premonition haunts her as she tries to figure out if the path she thinks she wants is really not the right one for her.
15. The Unhoneymooners
This book has been on my list for a long time and I am so glad I finally got around to reading it because it is SO CUTE!!! It’s a great beach read and very easy to get through but still so entertaining. After a bad meal at her sister’s wedding that got all the guests sick, Olive Torres and the groom’s brother Ethan are the only two that are well enough to go on the all expenses paid honeymoon that the bride won in a contest. The only problem is that Olive and Ethan really despise each other and have to pretend to be married during the trip so the resort doesn’t suspect the switch. This book is such a delight to read, the characters are so enjoyable and it’s hilarious in so many parts.
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