Reading retreats are on the rise and you just might want to sign yourself up for one. It’s not enough to just read a book in your own quiet corner anymore and gather once a month for book club. Now, bookish besties want to make a whole trip of their shared love of books. These can be vacations to your favorite spot or you can step it up another notch and fall all the way into the book.
If you’re up for the latter, then Nicholas Sparks’ Remain, is the perfect book to plan a whole trip around.
Gorgeous coastal book setting ✓
Genre-defying book anyone can enjoy ✓
#1 New York Times bestselling author ✓
Guaranteed movie follow-up from beloved filmmaker, M. Night Shyamalan ✓
If you’ve been looking for an excuse to round up your reading friends, we’ve mapped out a way you can indulge in all the best bookish things and feel like you’re a part of the story.
About Remain by Nicholas Sparks
After the tragic loss of his sister, Tate Donovan is hoping for a fresh start designing his best friend’s Cape Cod home. The loss of his sister was more than just an unimaginable heartbreak though, Sylvia also revealed something to Tate: she can see ghosts. With this information in hand, Tate meets Wren. Charming and captivating, he feels something awaken inside him when he interacts with her. But Wren has a past filled with grief, hardship and perhaps, something darker. As he unwinds her history, he discovers more about himself, love and the nature of reality.
Order the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
So pack your suitcases, we’re headed to New England. Below we’ve mapped out a few destinations and points of interest, but we’ve also created a Pinterest board for this trip if you’d like to start your research now.
Destination: Cape Cod, MA
The setting for Remain is a fictional town named Heatherington, set in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Immediately you feel immersed in a coastal town when you pick up the book. So why not dive in further? From the spooky tone of the story to the dreamy fall atmosphere of the region, a reading retreat here will transport you from reality to fiction.
Though there is always the option to run through platforms like VRBO and Airbnb or to go with a cute boutique hotel, if you really want to lean into the book, you could opt for a traditional bed & breakfast. Check out a few of these cute spots for your trip:
As you’ll come to discover, the bed & breakfast holds a special place in the main characters’ heart and opting for this kind of stay will have you settling comfortably into the story.
Cape Cod Bookstores
If you are going to Cape Cod on a bookish vacation… then you need to have some bookshops to visit on your trip. So we’ve rounded up a few must-stop shops.
This bookstore is rich with history and a landmark of East Sandwich. In 1966, founders Ralph and Nancy Titcomb came across a trove of rare books in an old Canterbury barn and started a mail-order catalog. That evolved into a family-run, three-story book shop that has been in business for over five decades.
Named for Walt Whitman’s poem The World Below the Brine, this just feels too synchronistic for a Nicholas Sparks retreat to deny—who is prone to citing Whitman himself. This bookstore is relatively new, having been opened in 2021 by Kristen Young, a native to Harwich. Quaint and cozy, the shelves themselves are handcrafted out of reclaimed wood by her husband.
Where the Sidewalk Ends Bookstore & Children’s Annex
This absolutely beautiful mother-daughter-owned bookstore is in a two-story antique barn with a children’s annex attached. Need we say more?
Food and Drink
If you’ve rented a space with a kitchen and dining room, then you can enjoy prepping items from our Remain menu. But if you’re looking to dine out and get engaged in the local food culture, we’ve rounded up some recs over on Pinterest.
If you’re not filling up on seafood, coffee and ice cream, then what is even the point? Being the destination spot that it is, there are likely endless lists of options, but truly, who needs more than these three categories?
If ever there was a destination and book pairing worthy of making big plans for, this is it. And while we don’t exactly when the movie will release, we do know that movie is in production. Reading can be such a solitary endeavor, take a step towards engaging deeper with a book and taking time to be in community with your fellow reader friends with a reading retreat inspired by the latest book from one of the world’s most popular writers.
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