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Summer is here and Book Riot’s got you covered with our recommendations for the very best beach reads. Whatever your favorite genre, we’ve got a beach read to match–and that includes historical fiction.
Historical fiction makes for great beach reading, as it’s transportive and often full of lush settings, compelling stories, and sweeping romance. All things people tend to seek out in beach reads. Likewise, historical fiction utilizes pretty much any other genre effectively to create incredible genre-bending and genre-blending historical fiction stories. So even if you’re more in the mood for historical mysteries or historical romance than literary historical fiction, there’s a historical fiction beach read out there for you.
I’ve got some of Book Riot’s favorite historical fiction beach reads here for you, along with a few of my own favorite historical beach reads. There’s romance and mystery to choose from, as well as sweeping epics and classics of the genre. Whatever your vacation looks like, long or short, near or far, these historical fiction beach reads are the perfect carry-on companion. (If you’re anything like me, you’ll be packing all five. Who needs extra legroom, anyway?).
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
In the 1980s, a depressed housewife befriends a witty old woman at a nursing home who shares her life story, regaling her with tales from a small Alabama town and the two formidable women who ran the town cafe. You might not think a book set in part during the Great Depression would be beach reading material, especially not one that deals with racism, domestic abuse, and murder. But this story of female friendship, community, resistance, and love in its many forms is exactly the kind of read to settle in with for hours: plotty, witty, full of heart, and grounded in a profound sense of place. This 1987 gem is the first “they were roommates!” book I ever read, and includes one of my favorite examples of comeuppance of all time. And if movies are also on your beach sojourn agenda, the 1991 adaptation is perfection.
— Vanessa Diaz
An Island Princess Starts a Scandal by Adriana Herrera
Don’t let the historical setting fool you: this romance is one of the steamiest I’ve ever read, and it kept me turning pages for hours on my last beach day. It follows Manuela as she plans to spend one last debaucherous sapphic summer in 1889 Paris before she is a married woman. There, she meets Cora, a wealthy lesbian — think Anne Lister vibes — who wants to buy a property off of her. Manuela agrees, but only if Cora shows her the underground queer scene. As the heat between them intensifies, it gets harder and harder for Manuela to imagine leaving. This is such a fun, escapist read that belongs in the beach bag of any romance fan.
— Danika Ellis
Past Tense
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Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
I didn’t know much (ok anything really) about the back and forth plight of Koreans in Japan in the early to middle of the 20th century. And while Pachinko is of course hugely and specifically about that time and those people and those dynamics, the specificity of the characters and relationships is where the novel shines. You will get some history and politics to be sure, but they come in through the side door. In the main rooms are the strife and love and silences and yearning that make for the intimate epic that is daily life, wherever you are in the world.
— Jeff O’Neal
The Cuban Heiress by Chanel Cleeton
Most of Chanel Cleeton’s books make great beach reads, but The Cuban Heiress especially fits the bill because it combines so many of the elements people seek out in a beach read: romance, mystery, and a sea-worthy setting. On a 1930s luxury cruise, a New York heiress, a jewel thief, and a woman everyone believes to be dead find their paths–and their pasts–colliding as they seek out the long overdue justice that might finally set them free. Other Chanel Cleeton books featuring a sea-side setting include: Our Last Days in Barcelona and The Last Train to Key West.
How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang
Another thing I really love in a beach read? A short, punchy book that I can read quickly and holds my attention so solidly that I don’t want to put it down. I want quick. I want engaging. I want memorable. In addition to being one of my all-time favorite historical fiction books, How Much of These Hills Is Gold does exactly that. Two siblings in the American West venture out on their own after the death of their parents. The story explores family, belonging, and what it means to be connected to people and a place.