The Best Beach Reads For Your Summer 2025 Reading List From Reese's Book Club

Summertime has a sublime way of spilling out before us, vast and unhurried. The hours are more willing to wander at their own pace. Mornings melt unhurriedly into afternoons, and evenings linger in that late, honeyed glow. It's a season made for detours, for getting lost — be that on the road, at sea, or deep inside the pages of a book.

One of the luxuries of longer days, of course, is the extra light they offer us. This brings many perks, but chief among them is more time to read. Unsurprisingly, the warmer weather has a way of awakening a very specific literary impulse: beach reads. This particular genre is a passport to faraway destinations and sunlight-steeped romances, easy to sink into and difficult to put down.

Naturally, Reese Witherspoon has perfected the art of literary escape for her book club. When she's not picking escapist historical fiction, or diving into intense thrillers and mysteries, she's reading seasonal stories that are as transporting as an ocean beach. Whether you're lounging by the shore or catching rays in your back garden, many of Reese Witherspoon's picks offer light reading and summer fun. 

Yulin Kuang knows her way around a romcom — both onscreen and on the page. As a screenwriter for Hulu's sharp, feminist, candy-colored comedy "Dollface," and the creative force behind the upcoming "Beach Read" adaptation (just one of Emily Henry's iconic rom-com books), she has already established herself as a master of modern romance. But in "How to End a Love Story," she delivers a romance that resists easy tropes, and is all the more endearing for it.

The self-referential story follows bestselling author Helen Zhang and screenwriter Grant Shepard, who are chosen to collaborate on adapting Helen's books for television. The task would be smooth sailing if it wasn't for their history. A 13-year-old past neither of them has fully made peace with sees a reunion charged with unresolved emotion and a complex, electric chemistry. Kuang expertly balances wit and yearning, making her debut novel a savvy, satisfying read.

The first love story in "How to End a Love Story," however, is the one Yulin Kuang writes to her readers: "For eldest daughters of immigrant parents," she writes in her dedication, "this is a love letter to you too." And that's exactly what this novel is — an intimate, emotionally astute meditation on appreciation and healing. Kuang may know how to end a love story, but she also knows exactly how to make you fall for one.

For readers seeking something more substantive than simple summer escapism, "From Scratch" offers a love story as breathtaking as the Italian landscape it's set in. A chance meeting in Florence between Tembi Locke, an American student with artistic ambitions, and Saro, a Sicilian chef, reads like a postcard: a dreamy memoir of love and loss.

Locke's narrative stretches beyond the borders of courtship into the complexities of family and identity. The couple's love blossoms in the shadow of cultural disapproval, most notably from Saro's traditional parents. If you're planning a trip to Europe this summer (or even just daydreaming about it), "From Scratch" is certain to stir both your wanderlust and your heart. It's a gorgeously rendered story, with a handful of scrumptious recipes to accompany it. And when you've finished reading, the Netflix adaptation (produced by Locke and her sister) extends the beauty with equal poignancy.

If "Romantic Comedy" had been pitched to Sally Milz, the novel's own protagonist, she would have shredded it in the writers' room without a second thought. A jaded late-night sketch writer falling for a wildly handsome pop star? Please. Too implausible. But Curtis Sittenfeld leans into the unlikely, and makes a persuasive case for it.

Sally is skeptical and self-deprecating, especially when it comes to desirability and the way romance plays out for women who look and think like her. So when Noah Brewster — the charming musical guest on the SNL-adjacent TV show she writes for — shows unexpected interest, she assumes it's all a misunderstanding.

Sittenfeld delivers a narrative that dwells in the awkward moments of overthinking and fear. With a quick wit and fast pace, it's less about the happily-ever-after and more about what it takes to believe in the possibility of one. This is a romance for the romantically unconvinced, so if you've never quite bought into love stories, this one might just win you over.

In this familial love story, protagonist Abby signs up for a DNA test with her friend Leo (who also happens to be her unspoken crush) on a whim. What she gets is a family secret she never saw coming. Instead of a simple ancestry report, she discovers she has a long-lost sister, Savannah. 

They're not exactly mirror images: Savannah is an influencer with a perfectly curated life and thousands of followers to show for it, whilst Abby is a free-spirited photographer who prefers climbing trees over color-coordinated aesthetics. But as "The Parent Trap" taught an entire generation, there's only one logical place to process that kind of news: summer camp.

Emma Lord's sophomore novel "You Have a Match" is a refreshed take on Lindsay Lohan's 1998 classic. The two sisters must learn to navigate their uneasy, unexpected bond during the time away from their parents. Meanwhile, Leo is now stationed as one of the camp's cooks, complicating Abby's already muddled feelings for him. Brisk, breezy, and big-hearted — this is a book that will leave you musing on the strange and serendipitous ways we find, and choose, our people.

Reese Witherspoon described her July 2018 pick, "Next Year in Havana," by Chanel Cleeton, as "a beautiful novel that's full of forbidden passions, family secrets and a lot of courage and sacrifice" (via Reese's Book Club). The novel sets Cuba's lush tropical splendor against the realities of its political landscape. 

When Marisol travels to Havana to fulfil her grandmother Elisa's last wish, she stays with Elisa's oldest friend and is introduced to her grandson, Luis — a principled history professor who's not afraid to speak his mind about the government. As he takes Marisol through the streets of modern-day Cuba, she begins to see past the family mythology she grew up hearing about, uncovering the complicated legacy her grandmother left behind.

But what was that legacy? The plot shifts between Marisol's journey in 2017 and Elisa's own story in the 1950s, as revolution brews and her family face impossible choices. Through this dual narrative, Cleeton cleverly braids together a past and present that treats readers to a spellbinding saga of love across generations and borders.

These books have been hand-picked from Reese's Book Club, where the "Legally Blonde" actress introduces a new read each month. The team behind the organization says they "consciously curate books that celebrate the stories and autonomy of women, championing voices and platforming authors too often overlooked." 

From that comprehensive collection, we selected titles that carry the hallmarks of a perfect beach read: sunny settings, heartfelt romance, and stories that are breezy enough to take to the beach, but written well with real emotional depth.