If you just finished watching season 2 of The Summer I Turned Pretty, you’re probably already waiting for season 3 to release. The first season was filled with nostalgia and the magic of first loves, while this season is filled with more drama and more angst. The show also explores loss, mental health, and complex family dynamics. If you’re looking for some books to read as you wait to return to Cousins Beach, here are 11 recommendations.
The Infinity Between Us by N.S. Perkins
Violet and Will have spent eighteen summers together in Southern Maine. For two months every year, they spent every second together, growing closer and closer each summer until their friendship turned into something more. But before Violet and Will could claim the love they built over the years, disaster ripped both of their families apart. Five years later, Violet arrives at the beach house to finalize it’s sale, but finds Will there instead. The two haven’t spoken since that fateful summer, and while Violet wants to ignore the haunted memories of the past, she realizes she must make peace with them in order to find her happiness.
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Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monaghan
Sam has the perfect job, the perfect fiancé, and she’s about to secure the perfect wedding venue near her family’s Long Island beach house. But the moment she arrives, she knows something is off, and that something is Wyatt. He broke Sam’s heart when she was seventeen, but thirty-year-old Sam can’t help the memories that come flooding back to her. When Wyatt re-enters her life and its clear their connection is undeniable, Sam will have to make a choice.
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For the Summer by Camille Harte
In 1983, eleven-year-old Cat is used to part-time friends as out-of-towners visit her father’s marina every summer and disappear at the end of August. She cycles through friends until she meets Will, the son of a wealthy doctor. The two spend the summer together, and Will promises he’ll be back next year. Will continues to come back to the marina every year, and his friendship with Cat continues to grow. As the two go from adolescence to adulthood, their connection is tested.
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The Summer of Broken Rules by K.L. Walther
After losing her sister eighteen months ago, Meredith finally feels ready to rejoin the world. Her family is getting ready to go to Martha’s Vineyard for their annual vacation, and this time the entire extended family is getting together for a wedding. Meredith is excited to join in on the family’s annual game of assassin since her sister loved the game, but when she forms an alliance with a handsome groomsman, she finds herself getting distracted. As the week progresses, Meredith realizes she might lose the game and her heart.
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Meet Me At Midnight by Jessica Pennington
Sidney and Asher have been forced to spend their summers together on the lake, but as their families cookout, go on boat rides, and have bonfires, Sidney and Asher spend their time pranking one another. But the summer after their senior year, their feud leads to their families getting kicked out of their summer home. At their new accommodations, Asher proposes that he and Sidney join forces against their shared enemy: the woman who got them kicked out.
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If You Change Your Mind by Robby Weber
Harry is determined to have a distraction-free summer as he focuses on winning a screenwriting competition that would guarantee admission into his dream college. But then Grant, the guy responsible for his first heartbreak, shows up with a secret that could change everything. And then there’s Logan, the charming and sweet new boy in town who is making Harry rethink everything he thought he knew about romance. Harry tries to keep his emotions in line while staying focused on his future, but he soon realizes that there’s no script for life.
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The Rest of the Story by Sarah Dessen
Emma Saylor’s mom passed away when Emma was twelve, and one thing Emma remembers is her mother’s stories about the lake she grew up on. When Emma unexpectedly ends up spending a summer at North Lake, she realizes there’s two completely different worlds there: her mother’s working class North Lake and her father’s wealthier Lake North resort. Emma goes by Saylor with her mom’s family, and she feels like two entirely different people. When she reconnects with Roo, her childhood best friend, he helps her piece together pieces of her past. As Saylor starts to fall for the magic of North Lake, she finds herself falling for Roo as well.
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Every Summer After by Carly Fortune
Percy and Sam spent six inseparable summers together on the lake until Percy made the biggest mistake of her life. Now, a decade later, she receives a call that sends her right back to Barry’s Bay and to Sam, the man she thought she’d spend forever with. Their connection is as strong as ever, but until they both confront the pain of their past, they’ll never know if their love can outweigh their mistakes.
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Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson
When Taylor’s dad gets devastating news, her parents decide that the family should spend one last summer all together at their old lake house. As they spend time in the cramped house, they repair drifts that they didn’t even realize existed, and Taylor reconnects with those she left behind, including her former best friend and her first boyfriend. She comes to the realization that sometimes you do get second chances, with family, with friends, and with love.
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Summer Boys by Hailey Abbot
Ella, Beth, and Jamie are cousins who are spending the summer at their family’s beach house. Over the course of the summer, each girl finds herself wrapped up in a stormy romance that will make it one unforgettable summer.
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Just Another Epic Love Poem by Parisa Akhbari
Mitra Esfahani is helpessly in love with her best friend Bea Ortega, and thanks to The Book she knows everything about her. For the past five years Mitra and Bea have been writing every thought, feeling, and hardship in their lives in The Book in the form of a singular epic poem. Through reading this and getting to know Bea, Mitra has fallen in for her. Will this crush turn into an epic romance or will Mitra ruin the best friendship of her life?
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