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Beach Reads That Sizzle (in Many Ways)

It's a miracle that so many actual and imagined human young survive into adulthood, and then on to old age. The following books offer entertaining and provocative tales of challenges, misadventures, and triumphs. 

[a collage of 4 images: upper left - It Had to Be You hardcover Thorndike Press large print edition set on the edge of a small table between 2 chairs; upper right - a "BEACH" tote bag in a striped beach chair along with a paperback ARC of Up in Smoke; lower left - a paperback copy of An Evening at the Hotel on a wood table next to a beach umbrella; lower right - a paperback copy of All Super-Heroes Need PR] 

All Super-Heroes Need PR by Elizabeth Stephens 
contemporary speculative romance 
Amazon Publishing, May 2025 

Vanessa's story delivers a riveting aliens-among-us origin story, a fake romance with unexpected twists, and nuanced workplace interpersonal dynamics that offer drama, humor, razor sharp social commentary, and visceral memories of past childhood trauma and current emotional consequences. Readers sensitive to detailed descriptions of mental health struggles may want to skip or skim those passages despite the compassionate beauty of their composition. 


Up in Smoke by Nick Brooks 
contemporary YA mystery suspense fiction with romantic elements 
Henry Holt & Co., May 2025 

Record heat in the atmosphere swells until things combust for Cooper's family, friends, neighbors, community, and city. Who and what remains alive and free, and gets revealed when the smoke clears in the pressurized sociopolitical environment of the U.S. nation's capital of D.C. are mysteries Cooper feels compelled to solve. Dangerous chaos ensues in this fast-paced drama that resonates with events in recent years. 


It Had to Be You by Eliza Jane Brazier 
contemporary romantic intrigue 
Penguin Random House, 2024 

This clever and engrossing spin on the strangers-on-a-train trope offers an absurdist tale about the consequences of unaddressed trauma. Eva and Jonathan's romance is threatening in every way. It's also heartrending and hilarious. Think a bit of The War of the Roses film narrative in reverse mixed with Ballerina (John Wick universe) and its own unique worldview. 


An Evening at the Hotel by Suanne Laqueur 
contemporary erotic fiction 
Cathedral Rock Press, 2020 

Dedicated "For everyone behind a Do Not Disturb sign" is truth in advertising as each of these linked snippets in alternating points of view reveal poignant moments of emotional and sexual intimacy anchored in tension between risk and peacefulness sourced in vulnerability and trust. An Evening at the Hotel presents tender, amusing, incendiary personal engagement. 


This week's BAC (Book Acquisition Compulsion) Issues: 
[2 images: left - Pugs & Kisses, All's Fair in Love and Pickleball, When Havi Dumped Mari, How to Sell a Romance; right - 7 books stacked with their bottoms edges showing next to 4 books with their spines showing: Francine's Spectacular Crash & Burn, Love is a War Song, Promise Me Sunshine, Taste the Love] 

And of course there are ebooks on my phone and tablet. 

Hope your week overflows with books that satisfy! 
(including audio, graphic novels, comics, Braille...) 
 


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