Let us help you choose your next book! Welcome to Sweet Reads, a curation of titles hand-selected by our Sweet July community.
It’s Sweet Retreat month, which means we’re leaning into the summer feels in every way possible. The season doesn’t feel complete without lazy-day moments spent relaxing on the beach or by the pool, with a cold drink in one hand and a romantic read in the other.
These beach titles with sweet love stories and nostalgic summer memories are Sweet July-approved and sure to make any upcoming travels (near or far) feel like the ultimate retreat.
Every summer, Ada travels to the Aegean coast with her mother, Meltem, and stays at her grandmother’s villa in the Turkish seaside town, Ayvalık. Spending her days in the country her mother grew up in, Ada—who was raised in the U.S.—struggles to connect with her Turkish heritage. That is until she meets a man from her mother’s past, opening up new curiosities about her culture and unexpected emotions within herself.
Justin has a love curse that’s recently gone viral on the internet: whenever he dates a woman, she goes on to find her soulmate shortly after they break up. Emma, a woman with the same peculiar problem, reaches out to Justin and they come up with a plan: they’ll date each other, then break up and, according to the rules of the curse, they will both find their true loves after the breakup. When the duo rents a cottage on a private island on Lake Minnetonka to put their plan into action, what’s meant to be a practical romantic summer fling turns into deeper feelings.
In Funny Story, Daphne believes she’s living her dream love story when she gets engaged to Peter and they move to his Michigan hometown. The so-called fairytale gets shaken up after Peter realizes he’s always been in love with his childhood best friend, Petra, and breaks up with Daphne. Alone in the small town of Waning Bay and working as a children’s librarian, Daphne finds her perfect partner-in-heartbreak in this sticky situation: she moves in with none other than Miles Nowak—Petra’s ex. Miles is just as heartbroken as Daphne (he’s got Bridget Jones’ Diary on repeat). The unlikely pair of roommates come up with a plan: fake date each other to make their coupled-up exes jealous.
Eileen Merriweather’s favorite place to fall in love is in a book. On the way to her annual book club retreat, Eileen’s car breaks down and she ends up in the quaint fictional town, Eloraton, from her favorite romance series. Trapped in the late romance author’s last unfinished story, Elsy believes there’s a reason she’s here: to help the town find its story’s ending. In the process, she meets an unfamiliar character: the irritatingly attractive, grumpy bookstore owner with incredible taste in books and a plan to prevent Elsy from achieving her goal.
The last thing 39-year-old art gallery owner Solène Marchand expects is to be attracted to a member of her daughter’s favorite boy band. But when a love affair begins between Solène and the twenty-something pop star heartthrob Hayes Campbell, Solène struggles to choose between her blooming relationship and the consequences of this romance.
Persephone Fraser hasn’t gone back to Barry’s Bay in years—the lakeshore where she spent her childhood summers—and she’s avoided Sam Florek ever since she made a big mistake a decade ago. Before that, for six summers, Sam and Percy were inseparable childhood friends until the friendship turned into something more—and then it all fell apart. But this summer, one phone call is enough to bring Percy back to Barry’s Bay for Sam’s mother’s funeral. With her return, Sam and Percy have to face the mistakes of the past that kept them apart for 12 years and, in the process, explore a path back to each other.
The Neighbor Favor is the ultimate NYC romance. Aspiring children’s book editor Lily Greene has always felt under pressure—with her career and love life—from her ambitious family who strive for Black excellence. For solace, Lily connects with her favorite fantasy author over back-and-forth emails, and the two seem to fall for each other. But then suddenly, he ghosts her. Months later, Lily meets her charming new neighbor: Nick Brown. Nick loves books as much as she does and, little does Lily know, he is secretly the fantasy author she’d been emailing.
Olive’s bad luck life streak couldn’t be more opposite than her identical twin sister Ami’s, who is getting married to her meet-cute fiancé and paid for her entire wedding with the money she’s won from internet contests. At Ami’s wedding, the best man is none other than Olive’s sworn nemesis Ethan. But Olive’s luck changes at last when everyone at the wedding, including the bride and groom, gets food poisoning except for Olive and Ethan. In this good old enemies-to-lovers tale, the two nemeses pose as newlyweds and end up going on the already-paid honeymoon trip in Hawaii.
Ricki Wilde, the artistic, headfirst daughter of an Atlanta dynasty, doesn’t fit in with her socialite sisters and longs for a different life someplace else. So she leaves her family and wealth behind and moves into a Manhattan brownstone to get lost in the magical Harlem Renaissance and find her true passions along the way. One night in February, Ricki meets the mysterious musician Ezra and feels an instant cosmic connection to him. Faith brings these two artists together to begin a destined, whirlwind love story perfect for those who believe magic exists
From Kennedy Ryan’s Skyland series comes a poignant story about a resilient woman who sets out to rebuild a life she’s lost. Soledad Barnes, mother of three, has it all planned out—until an expected betrayal changes everything with her marriage and their family. As Soledad bravely embarks on a self-discovery journey with a new life she certainly didn’t prepare for, she meets a man she shouldn’t but undeniably wants. After the almost-happily-ever-after she’s lost, can she find the real thing?
