Beach reads with substance 📖
for those who want to look smart lying down
This is Guides, from the We Scouted universe. You’ll find deep dives on how to navigate the world covering travel, food, shopping, design, and home.
There are definitive beach reads like The Idea of You and 50 Shades of Grey. They’re usually packed with a heavy dose of smut, but sometimes that gets—dare we say…boring. Yes, we believe there is a limit to how much smut one person can take.
Then there are beach reads that are squarely in the middle. They balance romance with beautiful prose and yet it’s not weighed down by extensive social commentary. They’re the kind of page-turners you inhale in a day or two. There is sex, but there is also a clear character arc, tension, and sentence structure worthy of an underline.
We call them beach reads with substance and we compiled a short list of our favorites. Some we’ve read, some we’re dying to read.
The SafeKeep
by Yael van der Wouden *Dominique’s Pick*
I read this on my trip to Menorca. It took me about 100 pages to get into it, but after that I couldn’t put it down. This book is HOT, but layered, surprisingly twisted, cloaked in mystery. It’s the only book I’ve given 5 stars on Goodreads this year.
You’re transported to the year 1961. The war is truly over and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Living alone in her late mother’s country home, Isabel knows her life is as it should be—led by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis brings his graceless new girlfriend Eva to Isabel’s doorstep as a guest, to stay for the season. When things begin disappearing around the house, Isabel’s suspicions begin to spiral. Soon suspicion gives way to infatuation—leading to a discovery that unravels all Isabel has ever known.
Carrie Soto is Back
by Taylor Jenkins Reid *Dominique’s Pick*
If Serena Williams wanted to start a production company, I’d adapt this book into a movie immediately (turns out it’s becoming a Netflix series, and Serena Williams is a producer, so there you go). Carrie Soto is the best tennis player in the world, but smashing every record imaginable has made her quite entitled. Six years after her retirement, she watches British player Nikki Chan break her record at the US Open. Hell-bent on being #1, Carrie decides to come out of retirement to reclaim her title.
This book reads like a movie. It plays out stunningly in your mind scene by scene. I promise you can finish it in an afternoon (my husband did). And as someone who doesn’t really watch any sports this will have you believing you might just take up some tennis. Also, if you liked The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo or Daisy Jones & The Six, this is the same author.
Wedding People
by Alison Espach *We’ve Both Read*
We thought this was going to be a cheesy beach read, but by page 14, the main character, Phoebe Stone, makes a declaration that will have you shook. Phoebe arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn alone without a bag in sight. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall Inn who isn’t there for the big event.
Phoebe is there because she’s at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster except for, well, Phoebe, and Phoebe's plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other. We found ourselves dreaming about the characters long after we finished. It’s a funny, tender read and reveals the ones to save us just might be those we barely know.
The Lion Women of Tehran
by Marjan Kamali *To Be Read*
This read might lean more literary than beachy, but after a year of unstoppable reviews it was time to put it on our TBR list. We’re intrigued by this because of how it captures Iran’s history, the fight for women’s rights, and how class divides test friendship. Picture this: two girls, Ellie and Homa, meet as children in 1950s Iran and make a promise to become “lion women”—fearless, unstoppable, free. Ellie grows up in a sheltered, privileged household, while Homa’s world is shaped by her father’s political imprisonment and her own pull toward activism. It all culminates in the revolution and everything that comes after.
Just For The Summer
by Abby Jimenez *Lexi’s Pick*
Ahhhh, now this was my favorite read from last summer. Plop down on the beach. Or by the pool. Or in the park. And follow along. First, meet Justin, who has a curse, and thanks to a Reddit thread, it’s now all over the internet. Every woman he dates goes on to find their soul mate right after they break up. So when a woman named Emma slides into his DMs with the same problem, they plan to date and then break up, hoping their curses will cancel each other’s out. But what’s meant to be a quick, no‑strings fling on a dreamy Minnesota island turns into so much more—messy family moments, unexpected twists, and feelings neither of them saw coming. It’s sweet, funny, and the perfect escape from reality.
Bonjour tristesse
by Françoise Sagan *To Be Read*
This is a stylish read drenched in the scenes of summer in the French Riviera. If you like the cinematography of Call Me By Your Name or The Talented Mr. Ripley you’re going to love the visual world of this classic. Seventeen-year-old Cécile joins her father, a handsome widower with a wandering eye, for a carefree summer in a villa outside of Paris with his latest mistress. Cécile cherishes the free-spirited moments she and her father share, while plotting her own sexual adventures with a "tall and almost beautiful" law student. But the arrival of her late mother's best friend intrudes upon a young girl's pleasures. And when a relationship begins to develop between the adults, Cécile and her lover set in motion a plan to keep them apart...with tragic, unexpected consequences.
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xx, Dominique and Lexi 💌