Beach book recommendations

Hey friends!

Today, my little sister Anna and I are off to New Jersey! As this is being published, we're probably actually in the air, flying to Philly!

Since I typically do a book post on Fridays, I thought it might be fun to leave you with some book recommendations for the beach!


Requirements for a beach book:

• Light -- not too serious
• Something you can put down and pick up again without forgetting everything
• And of course, bonus points are awarded for funny books and for romance!

So without any further ado, here are some of my top beach reads!

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me by Mindy Kaling and Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen and The Secret Life of Prince Charming by Deb Caletti

(Although any book by either author would work. Seriously. Two of my favs.)

My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler (obviously, this one's PG 13) and Matched by Ally Condie

What do I actually have in hand for the trip? 

Well, I'll be starting with these two gems, although I actually have six more (!) packed:

Not sure if either will fit the bill for a perfect beach read, but here's hoping they're good either way!

Happy reading and happy Friday, friends!

Book review: The Summer I Turned Pretty

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

Description from Goodreads (below) can be found here along with other reviews. Linking up with Blonde... Undercover Blonde for Book Club Friday.

Some summers are just destined to be pretty. Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer -- they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one wonderful and terrible summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.

This book was... ok for me. Definitely not bad. Jenny Han is an excellent writer. I liked the characters. Well, not Belly in particular. She was kind of young/immature for me. But I loved everyone else. Especially Jeremiah.

I also loooved that it was set at a beach house. I also grew up spending most my summers at a beach house, though not the whole summer like Belly. So it was full of familiarity for me, like grab-what-you-want meals and sand that you can never quite get rid of and going to the boardwalk at night or movies on rainy days. So I loved that aspect of it.

And I found myself wanting to keep reading it and thinking about it when I wasn't reading it, which is usually the sign of a great book for me.

But. I keep finding these books where I guess what's going to happen at the veerrrrryy beginning. It's really annoying.

Also, it was almost boring. Like, just on the borderline of keeping my interest. The characters and the beach housy-ness was enough for me to keep reading, but I don't think the plot, anywhere else, would have.

I don't know. I'm moving on to the next in the series because the characters really are pretty great. And from what I've heard the series only gets better. So I'll keep you updated.

Have any of you read this one? What did you think?