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Some of the best beach reads of summer 2024 are buy 2, get 1 free at Amazon ahead of Prime Day
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Planning a trip to the beach this summer? Don’t hit the beach without a great book. Whether it’s your style to pack paperbacks or an e-reader like the Kindle for all your reading needs, there are thousands of excellent reads you won’t be able to tear yourself away from this year.
But which books are actually worth your time? Does BookTok actually know what it’s talking about when you peruse its recommendations, or do you need to read some synopses and pages to see for yourself? If you don’t have time for any of that, we’ve done the hard work for you. We’ve curated some of the best novels and stories you can buy right now for a list of our picks for the best beach reads of 2024.
The best part? So many of these beach reads are currently being offered as buy two, get one free deal at Amazon ahead of Prime Day. In short: Now’s the perfect time to add some books to your collection (or a new Kindle). Tap the button below to see all books (and games!) that are eligible for the deal.
Our picks for the best beach reads this summer
Whether you love to dive into high-octane spy thrillers or complicated meet-cutes, you’ll find something exciting to dig into this summer. Grab your e-reader or a bookmark and get ready to chill beachside with a great story. These page-turners are on fire.
(Want to upgrade your summer reading experience with a new e-reader? Check out our picks for the best e-readers for 2024.)
“Eruption”
Amazon
Just released on June 3 and already a No. 1 Amazon and “New York Times” bestseller, “Eruption” was a passion project of late author Michael Crichton (“Jurassic Park”) that’s been finished by James Patterson.
When billionaire tech CEO John Crowley climbs an active volcano in the exotic island nation of Vanutu, he gets more than he bargained for. The volcano erupts violently while Crowley is on the mountain.
Cut off from his guides, Crowley must make a terrifying solo descent down the mountain to escape. This thrilling tale combines interactions with deadly forces of nature like volcanoes and fast-paced storytelling. It all makes for a thrilling adventure you won’t want to put down.
“Kill For Me, Kill For You”
Amazon
This fast-paced psychological thriller is the perfect book for reading with your toes in the sand. You’re going to need it to keep calm with a story that ends up being beautifully stressful.
In Steve Cavanagh’s harrowing novel, two grieving women form an unlikely pact to get revenge. Wendy and Amanda meet by chance in New York City, only to discover they share a common torment: the men who devastated their families were able to walk free. Fueled by rage and loss, they make a secret arrangement to kill each other’s tormentors.
But while both women make their plans to move forward, the plot thickens in ways neither anticipates. Full of dizzying twists and shocking revelations, this book will keep you guessing until the final paragraph. Can the pair pull off the perfect murders?
“The Chaos Agent”
Amazon
Looking for plenty of action with a splash of romance and exotic locales? The latest entry in Mark Greaney’s Gray Man thriller series is perfect escapist fare. Assassin Court Gentry just wants a peaceful life with his lover Zoya when they’re dragged into a game of cat and mouse.
Someone is eliminating the world’s top AI researchers, and an old acquaintance wants Court’s help extracting a Russian scientist from the kill list. But merely being seen with him puts a target on Court’s back. Now they’ve got to stay a step ahead of another assassin with seemingly unlimited resources.
If you’re a big thriller fan or find yourself going back to the classic Bond books over and over, you’ll fall in love with this series. Give “The Chaos Agent” a read.
“People We Meet on Vacation”
Berkley via Amazon
This novel, by the author who literally wrote the book on beach reads (or at least a book titled “Beach Read”), is a romance that’s unlike the others you might have read. Even though it didn’t come out in 2024, it’s still an Amazon bestseller and a favorite among those who like to hit the sand with good reading material in tow.
The book follows Poppy and Alex, two best friends who took a trip together every summer throughout college, up until their falling out near graduation. After not speaking to each other for two years, Poppy reaches out to Alex proposing they take one more vacation together.
As they travel, memories and feelings from their past friendship begin to resurface. Poppy has always had unspoken romantic feelings for Alex that she hid to preserve their friendship. It soon becomes clear Alex feels the same way. If you’ve ever experienced a friendship that turned into something more, you’ll feel right at home here.
“Good Material”
Amazon
This exploration of heartbreak and self-discovery is perfect for your next beach vacation. Andy is reeling from his breakup with Jen while struggling to figure out where it all went wrong. Now homeless, career-less, and watching his friends move on with life, he’s determined to solve the mystery of their failed relationship.
We get both Jen and Andy’s sides of the story in a series of flashbacks. Their beginning as a couple contrasts sharply with the misunderstandings that led to their relationship’s end. The book is packed with touching looks at a love that went sour for so many sometimes inexplicable reasons. It’ll have you reflecting on your own relationships all the way through.
“Took a minute to get into, then it hit hard,” says one verified Amazon reviewer. “So real. So good.”
“Sugar, Baby”
Amazon
Agnes is a 21-year-old who lives at home and works as a cleaner. On the weekends, she goes out and spends money she doesn’t have while looking for ways to distract herself from the life she doesn’t want to live. When she meets Emily, the daughter of one of her clients, she discovers the world of “sugar dating,” or dating rich men for money. Immediately, Agnes is intrigued and hops down the rabbit hole.
When Agnes immerses herself completely in this new world of compensated dating, her mother Constance kicks her out. She then moves in with Emily and a group of other sugar babies, and navigates dangerous, toxic relationships that do little to fill the hole in her life.
It’s a difficult read, but an engrossing one that you won’t soon forget.
“It Ends with Us”
Amazon
It’s a good time to read this bestseller from Colleen Hoover: The movie adaptation starring Blake Lively is airing this June. In this romantic drama, Lily has worked hard to build the life and business she wants in Boston. When she feels sparks with Ryle, a gorgeous but complicated neurosurgeon, it seems too good to be true.
Ryle has a rule against dating, yet Lily becomes the exception. But as their relationship deepens, she wonders what made him so commitment-phobic. The reappearance of her first love — Atlas, a kindred spirit from her hometown — throws Lily’s new life into turmoil as well. Eventually, she must make a difficult choice that she’s not sure she’s prepared for.
“This Summer Will Be Different”
Amazon
This steamy romance is one that’s best enjoyed beachside. You’ll want to cool off after you read it.
Lucy travels to her best friend Bridget’s beach house on Prince Edward Island every summer. Each visit, she finds herself drawn more and more to Bridget’s younger brother Felix, no matter how much she tries to resist.
Their chemistry is off the charts, leading to secret trysts she wishes she could stop having. But with Lucy and Felix’s tangled history and family bonds at stake, their electric connection gets complicated. Their feelings start to deepen and they soon find it difficult to keep their affair a secret.
“The Housemaid”
Amazon
Need a twisty thriller you’ll be thinking about long after you head to the beach? “The Housemaid” will do nicely.
Millie is an ex-convict looking for a fresh start as a live-in housemaid for the wealthy Nina Winchester. At first, the job seems promising. Nina is friendly and welcoming when Millie moves in. But Nina’s behavior soon takes a disturbing turn. She gives Millie confusing instructions, sometimes failing to mention critical information like her daughter’s severe allergy. Millie soon suspects her new boss may be unwell, or that maybe there’s something else hiding beneath the surface.
There are so many secrets to unravel as the novel wears on.
“A Court of Thorns and Roses”
Amazon
We suspect you may have already heard of “ACOTAR” (as it’s known on TikTok). But if you haven’t given this 2020 novel a read yet, we recommend sitting down with it on the beach this summer.
In this formidable fantasy, 19-year-old Feyre is a hunter who kills a wolf in the forest, which angers a mysterious fae who swears revenge. Feyre is taken captive to the land of Prythian, ruled by immortal faeries. She learns her captor Tamlin is not a beast, but one of the faeries that once ruled her world.
As Feyre adjusts to her new home, her feelings for Tamlin go from hatred to intense attraction. An ancient evil threatens Tamlin’s world, and Feyre realizes she must find a way to destroy it if she wants a chance at being with Tamlin.
“One of Us Knows”
Amazon
Kenetria Nash, diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, gets a second chance when she accepts a job as caretaker to a historic Hudson River home. But as she settles in, she realizes she has no memory of how she got there in the first place.
When a storm traps her with strangers, including the man who ruined her past, Ken’s world is changed again. After the man turns up dead, she becomes the prime suspect.
To prove her innocence, Ken has to work with all of her alternate identities. Together, they battle to remember the truth about Ken’s past and the mysterious Kavanaugh Island before they lose everything.
“Just for the Summer”
Amazon
Justin is down on his luck when it comes to the dating scene. When he meets a woman, they break up and his partner finds a new soulmate. When he matches with a woman who claims the same fate, they joke about dating to “cancel out” their curses. That’s when nurse Emma moves to Minnesota for the summer to give it a shot.
Neither expects to actually fall for the other. But when Justin unexpectedly becomes a guardian to his siblings and Emma’s toxic mom causes drama, the pair begin to develop feelings for each other.
But all of this was supposed to be just for the summer. Will Justin and Emma stay together even though they swore they’d part at the end of the season? You’ll have to read to find out.
“The Women”
Amazon
Set during the Vietnam War (1965), 20-year-old nursing student Frankie McGrath enlists in the Army Nurse Corps. Frankie quickly becomes part of the chaos of war — a stark contrast to her sheltered upbringing in sunny California. She’s forced to figure out how to navigate life and death daily while getting closer to the soldiers she treats.
Soon, Frankie grows into a seasoned veteran. But the real battle proves to be returning home to a very different America than the one she left behind. As she reconnects with loved ones and immerses herself in the antiwar movement, she learns important facts about humanity and herself.
HUNTSVILLE — A Texas man who had waived his right to appeal his death sentence was put to death Tuesday evening for killing his 3-month-old son more than 16 years ago, one of five executions scheduled within a week’s time in the U.S.
AP
Travis Mullis, 38, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville and was pronounced dead at 7:01 p.m. CDT. He was condemned for stomping to death his son Alijah in January 2008.
Mullis was the fourth inmate put to death this year in Texas, the nation’s busiest capital punishment state. Another execution was carried out Tuesday evening in Missouri, and on Thursday, executions were scheduled to take place in Oklahoma and Alabama. South Carolina conducted an execution Friday.
Authorities said Mullis, then 21 and living in Brazoria County, drove to nearby Galveston with his son after fighting with his girlfriend. Mullis parked his car and sexually assaulted his son. After the infant began to cry uncontrollably, Mullis began strangling the child before taking him out of the car and stomping on his head, according to authorities.
The infant’s body was later found on the roadside. Mullis fled the state but was later arrested after surrendering to police in Philadelphia.
Mullis’ execution proceeded after one of his attorneys, Shawn Nolan, said he planned no late appeals in a bid to spare the inmate’s life. Nolan also said in a statement Tuesday afternoon that Texas would be executing a “redeemed man” who has always accepted responsibility for committing “an awful crime.”
“He never had a chance at life being abandoned by his parents and then severely abused by his adoptive father starting at age three. During his decade and a half on death row, he spent countless hours working on his redemption. And he achieved it. The Travis that Texas wanted to kill is long gone. Rest in Peace TJ,” Nolan said.
Mullis declined an offer earlier in the day to phone his attorney from a holding cell outside the death chamber, said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Hannah Haney. His lawyers also did not file a clemency petition with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.
In a letter submitted in February to U.S. District Judge George Hanks in Houston, Mullis wrote that he had no desire to challenge his case any further. Mullis has previously taken responsibility for his son’s death and has said “his punishment fit the crime.”
At Mullis’ trial, prosecutors said Mullis was a “monster” who manipulated people, was deceitful and refused the medical and psychiatric help he had been offered.
Since his conviction in 2011, Mullis has long been at odds with his various attorneys over whether to appeal his case. At times, Mullis had asked that his appeals be waived, only to later change his mind.
Nolan had previously told the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals during a June 2023 hearing that state courts in Texas had erred in ruling that Mullis had been mentally competent when he had waived his right to appeal his case about a decade earlier.
Nolan told the appeals court that Mullis has been treated for “profound mental illness” since he was 3 years old, was sexually abused as a child and is “severely bipolar,” leading him to change his mind about appealing.
Natalie Thompson, who at the time was with the Texas Attorney General’s Office, told the appeals court that Mullis understood what he was doing and could go against his lawyers’ advice “even if he’s suffering from mental illness.”
The appeals court upheld Hank’s ruling from 2021 that found Mullis “repeatedly competently chose to waive review” of his death sentence.
The U.S. Supreme Court has prohibited the application of the death penalty for the intellectually disabled, but not for people with serious mental illness.
If the remaining executions in Texas, Alabama and Oklahoma are carried out as planned, it will mark the first time in more than 20 years — since July 2003 — that five were held in seven days, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, which takes no position on capital punishment but has criticized the way states carry out executions.
The first took place Friday when South Carolina put inmate Freddie Owens to death. Also Tuesday, Marcellus Williams was executed in Missouri. On Thursday, executions are scheduled for Alan Miller in Alabama and Emmanuel Littlejohn in Oklahoma.
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