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Best Summer Beach Reads | 2020

169 Beach Reads That You Won't Be Able to Resist This Summer

Jul 2 2020

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What makes for a good summer beach read? For parents, it could be a book that is easy enough to follow while simultaneously keeping your kids fed, entertained, and above water. For thrill seekers, it could be a book so twisty and compelling that you can't leave your beach chair until it's finished. For romantics, it could be a book that allows you to be swept away as easily as your flip-flops if you sit too close to the ocean.

Whether your vacation pairs best with a funny romp, an addicting mystery, or an unforgettable saga, there's one thing all of these beach reads have in common: they all work best with a summer cocktail in your hand and your toes in the sand.

Looking for more reading recs? Join our exclusive POPSUGAR Book Club on Facebook to chat about all things books with POPSUGAR editors and fellow readers.

— Additional reporting by Haley Lyndes and Laura Marie Meyers

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1. Everything You Want Me to Be

Everything You Want Me to Be by Mindy Mejia tells the story of Hattie Hoffman, an 18-year-old aspiring actress who is found brutally stabbed in an abandoned barn in her rural Minnesota community. When Sheriff Del Goodman starts to investigate the high school senior's final days, he discovers her dangerous online relationship, and he's forced to question whether Hattie was a victim or a master manipulator — or perhaps both.

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2. Mimi Lee Gets a Clue

Jennifer J. Chow's Mimi Lee Gets a Clue tells the fun and quirky story of pet groomer Mimi Lee, who lands on the top of the suspect list for a local breeder's murder. Mimi must clear her name and save the pups before she winds up in jail for a murder she didn't commit.

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3. Queenie

In Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London. She works at a newspaper and recently got out of a relationship with her long-term boyfriend. After countless mishaps with men and struggling to fit in, Queenie takes a look at her life and realizes just how hard it is to be a so-called adult.

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4. Island Affair

Sit back, sunbathe, and read Island Affair by Priscilla Oliveras. The tale is about a sought-after social media influencer whose perfect siblings don't take her life seriously. So when it comes time for a family vacation and her flaky boyfriend doesn't show up, she opts for a new guy to take his place and falls in love.

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5. The Herd

An exclusive women's workspace in New York City is the setting for Andrea Bartz's highly anticipated The Herd. When the founder of Herd disappears, everyone is a suspect, which only makes sisters Katie and Hana's search for the truth surrounding their enigmatic leader's disappearance all the more difficult.

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6. Love & Gelato

As its title would suggest, Love & Gelato is a sweet love story about two people who have a romantic adventure in Italy.

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7. Intercepted

Intercepted by Alexa Martin dives into the love life of Marlee Harper, a girl who just got burned by her last relationship and is on to a new one. She swore she would never date an athlete again, until the new hotshot quarterback comes into her life.

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8. The Wangs vs. the World

In Jade Chang's The Wangs vs. the World, a charismatic cosmetics mogul suddenly loses the empire he built due to a financial crisis. And so Charles Wang sets off with his family on a cross-country trip from their repossessed Bel Air estate to upstate New York, where the eldest Wang daughter lives.

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9. Soy Sauce For Beginners

In Kirstin Chen's Soy Sauce For Beginners, a 30-year-old San Franciscan woman with a collapsing marriage returns to her parents' home in Singapore, where she is thrown back into the crazy world of her father's artisanal soy sauce business. She must decide whether to return to her graduate studies and her marriage or to desert it all for the family business.

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10. Looker

In Laura Sims's dark and twisty debut, Looker, an unhappy and unstable woman finds herself becoming increasingly obsessed with her neighbor, a well-known actress, though what starts as an innocent preoccupation and a covetous desire soon spirals into a full-blown addiction after the two have a disastrous interaction at the neighborhood block party.

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11. My Year of Rest and Relaxation

Eileen author Ottessa Moshfegh's novel, My Year of Rest and Relaxation tells the story of a recent Columbia grad with everything at her disposal who questions what would happen if she were to simply stop trying. Her extended hibernation from the world shows just how imperative self-imposed alienation can be.

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12. Sag Harbor

Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Unground Railroad Colson Whitehead brings us Sag Harbor, a story of a Black student who attends a predominantly white prep school but escapes to Sag Harbor in the Hamptons each summer to join a community of Black professionals.

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13. The Guest List

Lucy Foley's The Guest List tells the story a perfect couple, their perfect life together, and their jealous onlookers. When the couple's dreamy wedding finally happens on an island off the coast of Ireland, everything looks perfect from the outside. But as the night goes on, the bride's dress gets ruined, the groomsmen drink too much, and someone winds up dead.

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14. Small Country

In Gaël Faye's Small Country, 10-year-old Gabriel's comfortable life in Burundi is shattered by the beginning of the civil war and genocide in neighboring Rwanda, illustrating the loss of innocence as seen through a young child's eyes.

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15. The Book of Essie

In Meghan Maclean Weir's The Book of Essie, a young woman who grew up in the spotlight of her family's reality television show, Six For Hicks, discovers that she is pregnant, and the show's producers must decide how to spin this scandal to preserve her family's ultraconservative image.

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16. The Broken Girls

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James tells the story of journalist Fiona Sheridan, who is haunted by the death of her older sister 20 years earlier. Though her sister's old boyfriend was tried and convicted of murder when her body was found near the ruins of Idlewild Hall, Fiona still feels that something in the case isn't right, and she decides to investigate the mysterious Idlewild Hall.

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17. Social Creature

In Tara Isabella Burton's haunting debut, Social Creature, a chance encounter between a socialite and a social climber spirals into an intense, obsessive, and eventually lethal friendship.

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18. Children of Virtue and Vengeance

The sequel to Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi's Children of Virtue and Vengeance reveals what happens when characters Zélie and Amari bring magic back to the land of Orïsha. Their supposed victory unleashes powerful forces that threaten Orïsha's monarchy and may bring about civil war.

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19. Speaking of Summer

In Speaking of Summer, critically acclaimed author Kalisha Buckhanon tells the story of Autumn Spencer, a Black girl whose twin sister goes missing. When the police don't work hard enough to find her, Autumn must do everything she can to fight the racial injustice and figure out what happened herself.

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20. Wench

In her debut novel, Wench, Dolen Perkins-Valdez introduces Tawawa House — an Ohio retreat for the Southern white men who vacation there every summer with their enslaved Black mistresses in the years preceding the Civil War — where everything runs smoothly until a new woman arrives and begins talk of rebelling against their enslavers.

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21. Felix Ever After

Felix Ever After tells the sweet and moving story of a transgender teen coming to terms with self-discovery while also falling in love for the first time.

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22. Tell Me Your Secret

If you're looking for a page-turner, pick up Dorothy Koomson's Tell Me Your Secret. Pieta and Jody both have secrets, and telling them could put themselves and others in danger. Is it worth it? There's only one way to find out . . .

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23. The Glitch

Elisabeth Cohen's The Glitch is the story of Shelley Stone, a high-profile Silicon Valley CEO and mother of two who has everything . . . until a woman claiming to be a younger version of her appears, forcing Stone to question if she is buckling under pressure.

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24. In West Mills

A small-town story about family and friendship, In West Mills follows Azalea "Knot" Centre and her journey to finding herself. With help from her neighbor Otis Lee Loving, Knot begins to see things more clearly.

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25. The Girls

Let Emma Cline's The Girls transport you back to the 1960s, as a group of friends go from girls to women.

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26. The Home For Unwanted Girls

Based on true events, Joanna Goodman's The Home For Unwanted Girls is about a young unwed mother forcibly separated from her daughter at birth in 1950s Quebec and their journey to find each other years later.

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27. The Wedding Party

The Proposal was a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick, and with The Wedding Party, Jasmine Guillory gives us another surefire hit. Maddie and Theo are both members of Alexa's wedding party (yes, the same Alexa from The Wedding Date, though you don't have to read that one to enjoy this story!), and they hate each other. Well, there was that one night when they ended up together, but they agree to keep things hush-hush until the wedding, then never see each other again after it. But things don't always go according to plan, do they? The Wedding Party is another smart, fun romance that's the perfect beach read.

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28. The High Season

In Judy Blundell's first adult novel, The High Season, Hamptons resident Ruthie Beamish finds herself losing both her house and her ex-husband to an ultrarich widow, but when the safety of her museum-director job is also threatened, Ruthie decides to finally fight back.

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29. The God of Small Things

This New York Times bestseller and Man Booker Prize winner has something for every romantic, politico, and drama-lover. Twins Esthappen and Rahel's lives change forever when at a young age, they are torn apart. Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things oscillates between their childhood together and the adulthood in which they have reunited. Throughout, there are stories of love, abuse, rejection, and how our small mannerisms and behaviors can change the trajectory of our lives.

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30. Black Girl Unlimited

The phrase "Black Girl Magic" takes on a literal meaning in Black Girl Unlimited, which tells the tale about author surrogate Echo Brown, a young wizard who hones her powers to help those around her.

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31. Beach Read

You don't need to go to the beach in order to appreciate the witty-banter-filled, slow-burn romance between writers Augustus Everett and January Andrews in Emily Henry's Beach Read. Gus is a serious literary writer, while January pens happily-ever-after romances. When they end up as next-door neighbors for the summer, the unlikely duo decide to swap genres in a bid to shake them out of their writer's block.

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32. The Deep

The Deep is about descendants of enslaved African women who were tossed overboard a ship and build an underwater world.

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33. The Gunners

In The Gunners, Rebecca Kauffman, author of Another Place You've Never Been, tells the story of a man suffering from macular degeneration who reconnects with his childhood friends after one of them commits suicide.

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34. Pretend I'm Dead

Jen Beagin's debut, Pretend I'm Dead, is about a housecleaner on a quest for self-acceptance after her relationship with a lovable junkie goes awry.

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35. California Summer

In Anita Hughes's California Summer, a Hollywood producer decides to leave behind LA — and her adulterous director husband — to finally realize her dream of opening a fish-taco shop, hoping to get a fresh start and a second chance.

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36. The Lemonade Year

In Amy Willoughby-Burle's The Lemonade Year, food photographer Nina Griffin finds that the things she once relied on are slowly falling apart — her marriage, her job, her parents, and her family — and Nina must use her keen insight to figure out which things are worth salvaging.

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37. The Suspect

From the author of The Widow, Fiona Barton's The Suspect tells the terrifying tale of two 18-year-old girls who go missing in Thailand and the journalist who is eager to get the inside scoop on the developing story — even though she's still haunted by her own missing son, whom she hasn't seen since he left to do some traveling of his own two years before.

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38. The Good Luck of Right Now

The Silver Linings Playbook author Matthew Quick returns with the story of 38-year-old Bartholomew, who struggles to be on his own after his mother's death. In the witty book, titled The Good Luck of Right Now, Bartholomew finds a letter from Richard Gere among his mother's things, and he sets out to find himself as he writes letter after letter to the actor.

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39. Here Comes the Sun

Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn follows two sisters in Jamaica. The older of the two hustles at an opulent resort in Montego Bay while hiding her secret preference for women, and the younger one is sent to school and survives on her older sister's profits.

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40. The Red Lotus

Chris Bohjalian's The Red Lotus is set in Vietnam and revolves around couple Alexis and Austin, who have just fallen in love. They first met six months ago when Alexis, an emergency-room nurse, sutured a bullet wound in Austin's arm. They take a bike tour around the country so Austin can show her his passion for cycling and also pay respects to those who fought in the war. One day when Alexis is waiting for him to return from a ride, he doesn't show up. In a search to find him, she uncovers a series of strange lies that make her question everything about him.

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41. What We Find

Get inspired with No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Robyn Carr's novel What We Find, about new beginnings and one woman's quest to find true happiness.

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42. It's Not All Downhill From Here

In It's Not All Downhill From Here by Terry McMillan, Loretha Curry is 67 and thriving, and she refuses to believe her best days are behind her. On the eve of her 68th birthday, an unexpected loss turns her world upside down, and she must figure out how to look on the bright side once more.

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43. Anatomy of a Miracle

In Jonathan Miles's Anatomy of a Miracle, a paraplegic who finds himself suddenly able to stand is thrust into the limelight, and the secret behind the injury that put him in the wheelchair threatens to be revealed.

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44. The Book of M

In Peng Shepherd's The Book of M, people start losing their shadows, and society breaks into two factions: the shadowed and the shadowless. Married couple Max and Ory try to escape by holing up in a remote hotel in Virginia, but when Max loses her shadow, the pair must contend with the consequences.

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45. Dear Haiti, Love Alaine

Delightful and insightful, Dear Haiti, Love Alaine tells the story of a girl who has heard about Haiti all her life. When she finally makes the trip out to see it, she falls in love with the proud history and inspiring people, only to find out her family is facing a curse. She must fix things before everything falls apart.

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46. Inappropriation

Lexi Freiman's wildly funny and satirical debut, Inappropriation, tells the story of 15-year-old Ziggy Klein, who begins school at a prestigious Australian girls' academy and — finding herself ostracized and utterly out of her league — turns to feminist texts and the internet to try to understand her dark sexual fantasies and ever-changing sense of self.

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47. Passenger

Alexandra Bracken's Passenger is about a time-traveling romance that fans of Outlander might enjoy.

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48. Daphne

Will Boast reimagines the myth of Daphne and Apollo in his debut novel, Daphne, in which a woman who suffers degrees of paralysis when faced with intense emotion meets a shy, charming man, and she must decide whether to continue her life in isolation or risk attempting real intimacy.

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49. 99 Percent Mine

The Hating Game author Sally Thorne is at it again with 99 Percent Mine. The story follows a woman who will stop at nothing to win the heart of a sexy house-flipper as he helps her restore her grandmother's old cottage, even though something major stands in her way: her twin brother, who is best friends with her crush and unwilling to relinquish him.

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50. Little Known Facts

For a dose of sharp writing and juicy celebrity culture, dive into Christine Sneed's debut novel, Little Known Facts, told from several points of view. Set around an A-list Hollywood actor and his family, the book looks at the highs and lows of fame and how it affects relationships.

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51. The Beekeeper's Promise

In Fiona Valpy's The Beekeeper's Promise, she explores the parallel lives of two women living generations apart — heartbroken Abi Howes, who takes a summer job at the Château Bellevue hoping for an escape, and Eliane Martin, who once tended beehives in the garden of the château in 1938 and became separated from her first love in the chaos of German occupation.

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52. Beautiful Ruins

Transport yourself to the Mediterranean with Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter, a romantic read that tosses between Italy in the 1960s and modern-day Hollywood.

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53. Stars Above

If you love young adult books but haven't yet dipped your toe into the Lunar Chronicles, get this collection of nine stories called Stars Above written by Marissa Meyer.

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54. Her One Mistake

In Heidi Perks's debut novel, Her One Mistake, a woman named Charlotte accidentally loses track of her best friend Harriet's only child at a school fair, and though Harriet vows in her grief never to speak to Charlotte again, the police investigation into the child's disappearance uncovers some dark secrets, forcing Harriet to accept that confiding in Charlotte may be the only way to see her daughter again.

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55. I Owe You One

In rom-com novel legend Sophie Kinsella's I Owe You One, Fixie — a woman burdened with maintaining her late father's legacy and his housewares shop — has a chance encounter with Sebastian, an intriguing investment manager. Though she initially hopes Seb will help her lazy crush get a job, a series of IOUs challenges Fixie to question what (and, more importantly, who) she really wants in her life.

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56. An Ocean of Minutes

Thea Lim's An Ocean of Minutes tells the story of Polly, who — when her boyfriend, Frank, catches the deadly flu pandemic sweeping America — decides to travel into the future as a bonded laborer to get Frank the life-saving treatment he needs. And though the pair plan to reunite 12 years later, what Polly doesn't expect is being rerouted an extra five years in the future.

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57. Americanah

In Half of a Yellow Sun author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah, two lovers leave military-ruled Nigeria for the West, pursuing separate lives in America and London until they are reunited 15 years later with each other and with their homeland in a newly democratic Nigeria.

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58. Valley of the Dolls

It's sex, drugs, and New York City for the three show-business girls in Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls — a cult classic that's ideal for poolside reading.

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59. Little Big Love

Katy Regan's Little Big Love is a sweet, smart tale about precocious 10-year-old Zac Hutchinson, who searches for clues about his absent father while his mother struggles to rebuild what was broken when Zac's father left.

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60. The Opposite of Loneliness

Marina Keegan's The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories is a posthumous collection written by a 2012 Yale student who had a play set to be produced and a job waiting at the New Yorker when she died tragically in a car crash days after graduation. Following the viral success of her final essay for the Yale Daily News, "The Opposite of Loneliness," her essays and stories have been gathered into a collection.

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61. Self-Portrait With Boy

Rachel Lyon's debut, Self-Portrait With Boy, is about an ambitious young artist who accidentally captures a boy falling to his death in the background of her self-portrait — an image that could jump-start her career but would irrevocably damage her relationship with a new friend, who happens to be the fallen boy's mother.

62. Cherry

In Nico Walker's debut novel, Cherry, a freshman college romance quickly blooms into a long-distance marriage when the protagonist flunks out and joins the Army. When he returns, the marriage is even further tested by PTSD, the Midwest opioid crisis, and, eventually, bank robberies.

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63. A Song Below Water

A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow is a modern fairy tale about Black mermaids and their self-discovery alongside the challenges of racism and sexism. Tavia and Effie work to hide their siren powers, all while coming to terms with who they really are.

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64. Tiny Imperfections

Tiny Imperfections by Alli Frank and Asha Youmans tells the story of Josie Bordelon, who used to be the It girl in beauty in the '90s, but those days are behind her. She's now the director of admissions at San Francisco's most sought-after private school, and her number one goal to is to help her teenage daughter, Etta, not make the same mistakes as she did.

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65. The Sun Is Also a Star

Now a major motion picture, The Sun Is Also a Star is a modern take on serendipity. Natasha doesn't believe in destiny and is less than a day away from being deported to Jamaica. Daniel checks every box of what a "good son" should be; he gets good grades, is a family man, and has always been working toward his future. But what happens when they meet one fateful day on a crammed New York City street? Nicola Yoon intertwines the lives of two teenagers whose lives couldn't be more different.

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66. The Chaperone

For a fun mix of nostalgia and romance, dive into The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty, which follows a 1922 It girl and her chaperone, Cora, as they leave Wichita, KS, and take on Manhattan, NY.

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67. The Water Dancer

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates is about an enslaved man who possesses superhuman abilities, including a keen photographic memory and the power to transport people over long distances. He begins to use those skills to help others escape a life of subjugation while discovering more about his roots.

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68. Days of Awe

In her satirical story collection Days of Awe, A.M. Homes depicts an America in crisis through characters who aren't the people they wish they were, but who aren't sure how to become those people either.

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69. My Sister, the Serial Killer

In her hilarious dark debut novel, My Sister, the Serial Killer, Oyinkan Braithwaite introduces two Nigerian sisters: the beautiful Ayoola, who is possibly a sociopathic murderer, and her older sister, Korede, who must figure out a way to stop her sister from killing any more of her boyfriends.

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70. Lies You Never Told Me

In her debut novel, Lies You Never Told Me, Jennifer Donaldson tells the parallel narratives of Gabe and Elyse, two high-schoolers who have never met but both make the mistake of falling — and falling hard — for the wrong person, and they must contend with the unexpected (and deadly) consequences.

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71. Saving Savannah

In Saving Savannah by Tonya Bolden, a young Black girl named Savannah Riddle lives a wealthy Washington DC lifestyle in the early 1900s. But when she meets Lloyd, a young West Indian man, she becomes more aware of the world's social issues and is set on making positive change.

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72. Sweet & Low

The author of How to Survive a Summer, Nick White, returns with Sweet and Low, a collection set in the idyllic South, where the characters are not what they seem and the core qualities of Southern fiction are gradually and masterfully deconstructed.

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73. The Matchmaker's List

In Sonya Lalli's sexy and darkly funny debut novel, The Matchmaker's List, a traditional Indian grandmother attempts to help her almost-30-year-old modern granddaughter find a suitable bachelor. Though Raina initially gives in to family pressure, what results is a series of disastrous blind dates — as well as the unexpected reappearance of Raina's old flame, Dev.

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74. Unwifeable

From the popular dating columnist for New York magazine, Mandy Stadtmiller, Unwifeable is a memoir about countless failed high-profile hookups and blackout nights in the New York comedy and writing scene.

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75. Catherine House

Elisabeth Thomas's Catherine House is a suspenseful thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Catherine House is a school of higher learning that promises a sublime education for every student. But to get this education costs more than just money — it requires students to give three years to the House, completely removed from the outside world, and not everyone can handle that.

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76. All the Things We Never Knew

In Liara Tamani's second novel, All the Things We Never Knew, love, heartbreak, betrayal, and healing come to light in an up-and-down romance between two high school basketball stars whose rocky and sensual relationship will throw you for a loop.

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77. Pet

Pet by Awkwaeke Emezi explores themes of identity and justice. When Jam and her best friend, Redemption, are told there are no monsters to be afraid of, they believe it. That is, until a monster emerges from one of Redemption's mother's paintings. She must tell people there's a monster, even as people are saying there are none.

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78. The Island House

In The Island House, a college English professor returns to her summer island house in hopes of reconciling with a past love.

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79. Get a Life, Chloe Brown

Humorous and heartfelt, Get a Life, Chloe Brown is about a chronically ill girl who makes a list for herself of things to do that that will help her "get a life." From riding a motorcycle to doing something bad, she's determined to complete her list.

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80. Attachments

Unique and amusing, Rainbow Rowell's Attachments follows the back-and-forth emails between two female coworkers who like to dish on their relationships — and the company's internet security officer who finds himself falling for one of the women based only on her private exchanges.

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81. When Dimple Met Rishi

If you live for the complicated love affairs, Sandhya Menon's YA novel, When Dimple Met Rishi, should be next on your #TBR list. Dimple wants nothing more than to follow her web-developer dreams, but all Rishi yearns for is her love. With an arranged marriage in their future, one summer program will bring the two together and force them to face the challenges that are simultaneously pushing them apart.

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82. Summer Sisters

No one does friendship quite like Judy Blume, and Summer Sisters is the perfect pick to carry along when you're on vacation with your pals.

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83. Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride and Prejudice

If you're obsessed with Jane Austen, then Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride and Prejudice is the book for you. Curtis Sittenfeld's book tells everything you love about the classic tale of the Bennet family and Mr. Darcy in an innovative and exciting new way.

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84. She Lies in Wait

Beginning on a July night in 1983, Gytha Lodge's She Lies in Wait tells the story of six teenage friends who discover that — after a night of partying — the youngest of the group has gone missing, and when her body turns up 30 years later in a hideout that only the group knew about, the five remaining friends are all considered suspects.

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85. Every Note Played

In Every Note Played, Still Alice author Lisa Genova tells the story of a concert pianist suffering from ALS and the ex-wife who must become his reluctant caretaker.

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86. The Vanishing Half

In The Vanishing Half, Brit Bennett explores the history of passing through the lens of twin sisters. While they were as close as sisters could be growing up, the Vignes twins' lives took different paths when they reached adulthood. One sister remains in their old neighborhood where she's now raising a daughter of her own, while the other passes for white and lives with her husband, who doesn't know anything about her past.

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87. Saints For All Occasions

In J. Courtney Sullivan's Saints For All Occasions, a funeral brings together two estranged sisters — a cloistered nun and the matriarch of a large Irish family — for the first time since they journeyed from their small village in Ireland to Boston 50 years earlier.

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88. The Secrets You Keep

In Kate White's The Secrets You Keep, a self-help author, Bryn Harper, is already troubled by recurring nightmares of her devastating car accident when she encounters a new issue: her husband, Guy, seems to be hiding something. When a woman hired to cater their dinner party is brutally murdered, Bryn must turn to her dreams to unlock the truth and reveal the murderer.

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89. Lady Be Good

Lady Be Good by Amber Brock tells the story of social-climbing Kitty Tessler, the only daughter of a self-made hotel and nightclub tycoon, who must decide between the man her father wants her to marry, the horrible but fabulously wealthy man from a powerful family, or Max, the man who shows her a world beyond her small, privileged corner of 1950s Manhattan.

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90. And the Mountains Echoed

If you fell in love with Khaled Hosseini's previous works, like The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, then you should definitely check out And the Mountains Echoed. It's a book about family and friendships that travels from Kabul to Paris to San Francisco to the Greek island of Tinos.

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91. Southernmost

In his latest novel, Southermost, the legendary Silas House explores the aftermath of a destructive flood in a small Tennessee town and an evangelical priest who opens his home to two gay men, forcing him to question his past, his prejudices, and everything he once held true.

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92. Swimming Between Worlds

Elaine Neil Orr's Southern coming-of-age novel, Swimming Between Worlds, takes place in 1960s Winston-Salem, NC, telling the story of a disgraced high school football star and his recently orphaned former classmate who befriend a young Black man and suddenly find themselves at the center of the civil rights struggle.

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93. On the Come Up

In On the Come Up by Angie Thomas, teenager Bri is determined to make it big as a rapper after the death of her father, a hip-hop legend. Her hope for success becomes even more crucial when hard times fall on her and her mother.

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94. We Were Liars

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart tells the story of Cadence, the daughter of a wealthy and distinguished family, who suffers a serious head injury that erases her memories of one summer, the events of which she only begins to remember two summers later, when she returns to the family summer home to find everything changed — and no one willing to talk about what happened.

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95. Mrs.

Caitlin Macy's Mrs. is the story of Philippa Lye, an elegant Upper East Sider with a shadowy past, whose precariously balanced life is challenged by a childhood acquaintance and an insightful newcomer.

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96. Then She Was Gone

Lisa Jewell's Then She Was Gone tells the story of Laurel Mack — a mother trying to put her life back together after her 15-year-old daughter goes missing and her marriage crumbles — who meets a man whose daughter reminds her viscerally of her own missing child.

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97. The House on Mango Street

Sandra Cisneros's central character Esperanza Cordero is the kind of character you will root for on every page. The author weaves together short vignettes that illustrate Esperanza's journey to make it out of her Chicago Latino community. Whether you're reading The House on Mango Street for the first time or rereading the classic, you'll close this book wishing there were more.

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98. More Than Words

Written by The Light We Lost author Jill Santopolo, More Than Words follows the story of an heiress to a hotel chain who loses her father to cancer, prompting her to question whether she should settle for her longtime and totally devoted boyfriend or take a chance on an up-and-coming mayoral candidate who also happens to be her new boss.

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99. The Friend

The Friend by Sigrid Nunez tells the story of a woman who, in the wake of her best friend's suicide, finds herself burdened — and eventually bonded — with the unwanted Great Dane he left behind.

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100. Meaty

In Samantha Irby's first essay collection, Meaty, she explores everything from chin hair to bad sex to taco feasts to inflammatory bowel disease, all with her trademark wit and painfully relatable candor.

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101. Skipping a Beat

Sarah Pekkanen's Skipping a Beat dives into the tangled web of a marriage between two high school sweethearts who aren't on the same page in their relationship.

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102. Women in Sunlight

From Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun, Women in Sunlight is about an American writer living in Tuscany, Kit Raine, whose work is waylaid by the arrival of three women new to Italian culture and in need of Kit's friendship and guidance.

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103. The Nest

Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney's hilarious debut, The Nest, tells the story of the four Plumb siblings as they come together to confront their eldest brother's destructive habits, as well as to figure out the fate of their joint trust fund, which they're all privately depending on to solve their financial woes.

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104. Hey Ladies!

Based on the column of the same name that appeared in The Toast, Michelle Markowitz and Caroline Moss's Hey Ladies! follows a fictitious group of eight 20- and 30-something women friends through a year of email and text correspondence, following their dates, brunches, breakups, and the planning of what is sure to be a disastrous wedding.

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105. Something to Talk About

Meryl Wilsner debuts with Something to Talk About, a Hollywood rom-com with a twist. Jo, a Hollywood star, makes her assistant Emma laugh at a joke on the red carpet, but when the moment is caught on camera, the gossip mill immediately assumes they're in a relationship. The more time they spend together — first as colleagues, then as friends — they begin to wonder if the rumors weren't so wrong after all.

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106. By Invitation Only

In Dorothea Benton Frank's Southern comedy of manners, By Invitation Only, a privileged young woman from Chicago is engaged to marry the son of hardworking South Carolina peach farmers, and their families struggle to support their relationship while wondering how their own lives will now change.

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107. Dead Letters

In Dead Letters, Caite Dolan-Leach tells the story of Ava, who is forced to fly home from her new life in Paris to her parents' failing vineyard in upstate New York when she learns of the death of her twin sister, Zelda. However, given Zelda's penchant for tricks, Ava can't help but suspect Zelda is still alive — especially once she starts to receive a cryptic trail of clues.

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108. Commonwealth

Spanning five decades, Ann Patchett's Commonwealth tells the story of two families that become intertwined by an affair and the famous author who turns their story into a bestselling novel, exploiting the childhood and the private tragedies of the Keating and Cousins children.

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109. The Past

A family reunites at their country house for three weeks in The Past, a novel by Tessa Hadley.

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110. Truly Madly Guilty

From Big Little Lies author Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty gets real about learning to appreciate things in life when it's sometimes too late.

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111. How to Stop Time

Matt Haig's How to Stop Time tells the story of Tom Hazard, a man approaching his 440th birthday — though he looks no older than 41 — and the captivating French teacher he falls for, despite the number one rule for people with anageria, the rare condition Tom suffers from: never fall in love.

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112. Asymmetry

Told in three distinct sections, Lisa Halliday's Asymmetry is about a young editor and her relationship with a famous older writer, an Iraqi-American man detained by immigration officers, and the thread that ties these two seemingly disparate stories together.

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113. The Last Time I Lied

Final Girls author Riley Sager's thriller, The Last Time I Lied, tells the story of Emma Davis, a rising star on the New York art scene who returns to her childhood summer camp to investigate the truth behind a tragedy that happened there 15 years prior.

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114. The Lost Vintage

Ann Mah's The Lost Vintage tells the story of Kate, a young woman who — while awaiting her last chance to pass the notoriously difficult Master of Wine examination — discovers documents that introduce her to a relative she never knew existed, a great–half-aunt who was a teenager during the Nazi occupation.

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115. The Travelers

The Travelers by Regina Porter tells the story of an affluent Manhattan attorney's son, Rufus, who marries Claudia Christie, and the two families' lives become intertwined in a messy, beautiful, and upside-down kind of way.

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116. Something in the Water

In Catherine Steadman's Something in the Water, a documentary filmmaker and an investment banker on their honeymoon in Bora Bora discover something menacing while scuba-diving, and they must decide whether to reveal it or keep it secret.

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117. If You Leave Me

Crystal Hana Kim's debut novel, If You Leave Me, is the saga of Haemi and Kyunghwan, childhood friends turned forbidden lovers, who are separated by civil war in Korea and brought together years later, when Haemi must choose between love and loyalty.

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118. The Family Fang

In The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson, two siblings — the children of eccentric performing artists — are brought back to their family home years later when their parents go missing, hoping to figure out whether their parents are really gone.

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119. Raymie Nightingale

If you're searching for that perfect beach read, then look no further than Raymie Nightingale. Two-time Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo pens a sweet story about one unlikely summer friendship between three girls competing against each other.

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120. Educated

Tara Westover's memoir, Educated, is about her unconventional upbringing by Mormon survivalists who homeschooled her and her six siblings.

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121. Trouble the Saints

Magical, compelling, and hard to put down, Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson tells the tale of an assassin who falls in love and tries to change her fate at the beginning of World War II. Ten years later, her life has flashed by her eyes and she must find out how to get it back.

Out July 21

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122. Dear Mrs. Bird

In AJ Pearce's debut, Dear Mrs. Bird, an adventurous young woman living in World War II London takes a job as a typist for a renowned advice columnist, and though she is told to disregard any letters involving unpleasantness, her inability to resist responding leads to her own secret advice service.

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123. The Great Believers

From Rebecca Makkai, author of The Hundred-Year House, comes The Great Believers, a novel weaving together the stories of a Chicago art gallery director who loses his friend (and soon everything he knows) to the 1980s AIDS epidemic, and his friend's sister, who grapples with her own loss 30 years later in Paris.

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124. The Woman Next Door

Set in Cape Town, South Africa, Yewande Omotoso's The Woman Next Door is about a rivalry between next-door neighbors — both widowed, both successful, and both harboring resentment against each other that grows with age — until an unexpected episode allows the two women (one of whom is white, and the other Black) to finally find some common ground.

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125. Let Me Explain You

Annie Liontas's debut, Let Me Explain You, tells the story of a Greek immigrant and proud diner owner who — believing he only has 10 days to live — attempts to settle all of his grievances with his skeptical ex-wife and three adult daughters.

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126. The Seasonaires

Janna King's debut novel, The Seasonaires, tells the story of six 20-something summer brand ambassadors whose growing social media followings get them caught up in a world of corporate greed, substance abuse, and — eventually — murder.

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127. The Life Lucy Knew

In Karma Brown's The Life Lucy Knew, when Lucy wakes after a traumatizing accident to discover that the man she believes herself to have recently married is actually someone she hasn't spoken to since their breakup four years earlier, she must question all of her memories, as well as contend with the fact that who she really is may not be who she wants to be.

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128. American Spy

In Lauren Wilkinson's novel American Spy, Marie Mitchell is a brilliant young, Black FBI intelligence officer who decides to shake things up after feeling undervalued and underestimated in the workplace.

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129. How to Ruin Everything

George Watsky's How to Ruin Everything has the perfect collection of essays for you to read on your lounge chair while soaking in some rays.

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130. The Black Kids

Set during the 1992 Rodney King riots, Christina Hammonds Reed's timely debut, The Black Kids, tells the story of Ashley Bennett, a privileged Black teen living in Los Angeles and looking forward to spending the summer after her senior year of high school with friends. However, when four LAPD officers are acquitted after assaulting a Black man named Rodney King, Ashley finds that she's transformed in her friends' eyes from one of them to one of the Black kids.

Out Aug. 4

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131. Before and Again

Bestselling author Barbara Delinksy's novel Before and Again tells the story of Mackenzie Cooper, who is struggling to keep her life together after a fatal car crash that kills her daughter and tears apart her marriage. But when a friend is thrust into the national spotlight, Mackenzie must choose between her friendship and the risk of revealing her past.

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132. The Night Child

In Anna Quinn's The Night Child, a high school English teacher is pushed toward a psychological breakdown when she is visited by a childlike apparition.

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133. Stay With Me

Set in Ilesa, Nigeria, Ayobami Adebayo's Stay With Me follows a woman who, four years into her marriage and attempting to conceive, is still not pregnant. This only becomes a matter of concern when she learns that her husband has taken a younger second wife and that the only way to save her marriage is to have a baby.

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134. Here's to Us

In Elin Hilderbrand's Here's to Us, three women must put their differences aside when a man they all loved suddenly dies.

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135. Sarong Party Girls

Sarong Party Girls by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan tells the story of Jazeline "Jazzy" Lim, a 26-year-old working-class girl in Singapore who goes on a fervent quest to find a rich white husband before her 27th birthday.

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136. The Optimist's Guide to Letting Go

The Optimist's Guide to Letting Go by Amy E. Reichert is about a recent widow, who — in the aftermath of her mother's serious stroke — learns that the man she thought was her father may not actually be, compelling her to learn about a past that her status-obsessed mother never shared with her.

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137. The Queen of Hearts

Kimmery Martin's debut, The Queen of Hearts, tells the story of best friends and medical doctors Zadie and Emily, whose friendship is put on the line when the unexpected reappearance of a man from their past forces both women to examine the difficult choices made at the beginning of their careers.

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138. Severence

In Ling Ma's Severance, first-generation American Candace Chen tries to contend with the recent deaths of her Chinese immigrant parents by sticking to the routine of her dull Manhattan office job — until Shen Fever sweeps the city and Candace suddenly finds herself part of a group of survivors led by a megalomaniac IT tech.

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139. Secret Sisters

Who doesn't love a good romantic mystery? Jayne Ann Krentz's Secret Sisters is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat.

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140. All Summer Long

If you're a hopeless romantic, then Dorothea Benton Frank's All Summer Long is the perfect read for you. A young couple from New York find themselves at odds when a move to South Carolina causes strife in their relationship.

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141. An American Marriage

An American Marriage by Silver Sparrow author Tayari Jones follows two newlyweds, Roy and Celestial, in the New South. Their picture-perfect lives are disrupted when Roy is arrested and sentenced to prison for a crime that Celestial knows he did not commit, compelling her to turn to a childhood friend — who was also her husband's best man — for comfort.

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142. Find Her

Into crime thrillers like Gone Girl? Give Find Her a shot. Author Lisa Gardner tells the story of a young woman still coping with her kidnapping, which occurred years earlier.

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143. The Taste of Salt

Martha Southgate's The Taste of Salt follows a senior-level marine biologist who, though she has tried to leave behind her childhood and her alcoholic father in Cleveland, finds herself pulled back into the past when her beloved brother succumbs to an addiction of his own.

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144. Oliver Loving

In Stefan Merrill Block's Oliver Loving, a new medical test promises to unlock the mind of a boy who has been trapped in a coma for 10 years, which could finally allow his family to figure out the truth of what happened 10 years earlier.

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145. The Spring Girls

Anna Todd's The Spring Girls is a modern retelling of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, in which the Spring sisters — Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy — live on a New Orleans military base and struggle to escape from their humble station in life.

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146. What We Were Promised

In Lucy Tan's debut, What We Were Promised, a family returns from chasing the American dream in suburban America to join an elite community in a radically transformed Shanghai, and it is only when the estranged son returns to the family that they must confront the choices they made to ascend to this life.

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147. VJ: The Unplugged Adventures of MTV's First Wave

VJ: The Unplugged Adventures of MTV's First Wave follows the glory days of MTV: 1981 to 1987. The original VJs give the inside scoop on the network and celebrities they encountered, as well as their own personal journeys.

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148. The Secret Women

Written by Sheila Williams, The Secret Women is a fun and fascinating book about the relationship between mothers and daughters. When three girls meet in yoga, they are bonded together when they learn their mothers all passed away. The girls find diaries and notes that tell of their mothers' secret lives.

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149. The Vacationers

Emma Straub's The Vacationers follows the extended Post family during their two-week stay in Mallorca, Spain, where they hope to leave behind the tension developing at home in Manhattan but only end up finding new ways to argue and expose one another.

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150. Still Lives

Still Lives by Maria Hummel is the story of avant-garde artist Kim Lord, whose new exhibition — comprising self-portraits depicting herself as famous murdered women — is set to debut, but when opening night comes, Kim is nowhere to be found.

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151. We Are Okay

Nina LaCour's We Are Okay revolves around a college freshman whose anticipated winter break spent alone on campus is interrupted by the arrival of her old friend, who forces her to contend with the tragedy she's been trying to escape since the previous summer.

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152. Juliet Takes a Breath

When Roxane Gay calls a novel "quite dazzling, funny as hell, poignant, [and] f*cking outstanding," you know you need to read it. Juliet Takes a Breath introduces us to Juliet Milagros Palante, who has just come out to her Puerto Rican family from the Bronx. Hilarious and charming, Juliet Takes a Breath is an LGBTQ+ coming-of-age story for young readers and adult readers alike.

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153. The Age of Light

Set in Paris during World War II, Whitney Scharer's debut, The Age of Light, reimagines the life of Vogue model turned professional photographer Lee Miller, who convinces the famous Surrealist artist Man Ray to take her under his wing, sparking a relationship that's both incredibly sexy and deeply complicated.

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154. A Deadly Inside Scoop

If you love the cozy mystery genre, you'll be all about A Deadly Inside Scoop by Abby Collette. A Deadly Inside Scoop takes place in a quaint ice cream shop. Soon after Bronwyn Crewse takes over her family's store, she finds a dead body in the street. Unfortunately, the man she found had issues with her family, and all signs of his murder point to them. Bronwyn must find out who the killer really is before it's too late.

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155. A Day's Notice: To Believe or Not Believe . . .

A Day's Notice: To Believe or Not Believe by Paris Keal will keep you hooked from beginning to end. When Donathan receives an email from someone who says their name is Jesus and warns of the world shutting down in 24 hours, he wakes up his girlfriend to see what they should do. The couple decide to make the best memories they can in a day, whether or not the email is real or fake.

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156. All the Beautiful Girls

In Elizabeth J. Church's All the Beautiful Girls, a woman who survived the childhood car accident that killed her family moves to Las Vegas with the hope of being a troupe dancer, but she instead lands work as a showgirl.

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157. Keep Her Safe

K.A. Tucker's Keep Her Safe tells the story of Noah and Gracie, the son of a decorated police chief and the daughter of a corrupt cop, who band together to uncover the dark truth about the Austin Police Department's past.

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158. The Windfall

Diksha Basu's debut novel, The Windfall, tells the story of a middle-class East Delhi family, the Jhas, who come into a huge lump sum of money when Mr. Jha sells a website, and how this family learns to acclimate to their new riches — and their new social status.

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159. Piecing Me Together

A dual winner of the Newbery Honor Book Award and Coretta Scott King Award for nonviolent social change, Piecing Me Together follows Jade, a young woman who wants to make a difference and create a beautiful life for herself. Her mother is always encouraging her to seize opportunities that come her way, and as Jade does, she realizes some opportunities are only stunting her growth as an individual, especially as an "at-risk" girl. Renée Watson's groundbreaking novel is a timeless tale of never giving up even when the going gets tough.

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160. The Worst Best Man by Mia Sosa

In The Worst Best Man by Mia Sosa, wedding planner Carolina Santos is left at the altar, and after getting her life back together, she is forced to work with her ex-fiancé's irritating (and equally handsome) brother. What could go wrong?

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161. With the Fire on High

Elizabeth Acevedo, author of The Poet X, is back at it again! With the Fire on High follows Emoni Santiago, who only cares about one thing: sustaining the best life for her daughter and abuela. Overwhelmed with the decision to pursue her passion of cooking, Emoni must decide to risk everything for an attempt at a new career or continue on her current path, which provides a stable and reliable life for her and her family.

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162. The Cabin at the End of the World

Paul Tremblay's novel The Cabin at the End of the World is a terrifying tale about a family vacation in a remote cabin in New Hampshire and the mysterious strangers who crash their trip with an unexpected request.

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163. Sometimes I Lie

In Alice Feeney's Sometimes I Lie, a woman wakes up in a hospital unable to move, speak, or open her eyes, and though she doesn't remember how she ended up there, she suspects her husband had something to do with it.

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164. Rich and Pretty

In Rumaan Alam's novel Rich and Pretty, two young women find their world and friendship completely changed when they start living adult lives.

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165. Our Little Secret

Roz Nay's Our Little Secret tells the story of Angela Petitjean, a woman who is taken into questioning after the wife of her high school sweetheart goes missing, even though she hasn't seen her old boyfriend in eight years.

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166. Tell Me Lies

Carola Lovering's debut novel, Tell Me Lies, tracks the toxic on-again, off-again relationship between Lucy Albright and Stephen DeMarco from college through postcollege life in New York City, demonstrating just how potent first love (especially a first love with the wrong person) can be.

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167. The Balcony

Jane Delury's debut novel, The Balcony, is set in a small village near Paris and follows the story of several generations of inhabitants in a single estate, including a young American au pair, a Jewish couple hiding from the Gestapo, and a housewife who begins an affair while renovating her downstairs.

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168. The Bees

The Bees by Laline Paull is what Room author Emma Donoghue calls a "heart-pounding novel" and a "wild ride" about an ancient culture with a strong caste system in which only the queen can breed. Flora 717, a member of the lowest caste, is caught between personal dreams and society's demands when she dares to challenge the queen's wishes.

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169. Clock Dance

In the legendary Anne Tyler's 21st novel, Clock Dance, a woman yearning to be a grandmother impulsively flies across the country to Baltimore after receiving a mysterious phone call, and it is there that she discovers the community she wanted but was never expecting to find.

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