Summer Fiction

Some of the books on the Beach Read display this month. (Can you use dust jackets for wallpaper?)

Tomato Girl by Jayne Pupek
Eleven-year-old Ellie's mother has bipolar disorder and her father falls under the thrall of the tomato girl who sells her produce to their store.

Every Secret Thing by Laura Lippman
On a July afternoon two little girls, banished from a birthday party, take a wrong turn onto an unfamiliar street - and encounter an abandoned stroller with a baby inside it. Dutiful Alice Manning and unpredictable Ronnie Fuller only want to be helpful, to be good. People like children who are good, Alice thinks. But whatever the girls' real intentions, things go horribly awry.

The Love Season by Elin Hilderbrand
When Renata, newly engaged to a wealthy Nantucket summer boy, comes to the island to visit her fiance's family, she visits Marguerite, the godmother she's been forbidden to see her entire life and the one person who can unlock the mystery surrounding her mother's untimely death.

Under the Boardwalk by Carly Phillips
A Jersey girl's twin sister goes missing and she decides to investigate the Atlantic City casino where her sister was working.

Sleeping Arrangements by Madeline Wickham
A friend with a villa in Spain double books two families by accident, and only Chloe and Hugh know of their previous romantic entanglement.

Men and Dogs by Katie Crouch
When Hannah was 11, her father went on a fishing trip in the Charleston harbor and never came back. After a disastrous attempt to win back her husband, she ends up back at her mother's home to "rest up", where she is once again sucked into the mystery of her missing father. Suspecting that those closest are keeping secrets, Hannah sets out on an uproarious, dangerous quest that will test the whole family's concepts of loyalty and faith.

The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama
Alexander McCall Smith meets Jane Austen in this Indian novel about finding love. A retired man in a coastal city in India opens a marriage bureau. With a steady stream of clients to keep him busy, Mr. Ali sees his new business flourish as the indomitable Mrs. Ali and his careful assistant, Aruna, look on with vigilant eyes.

Miss Julia Hits the Road by Ann Ross
Miss Julia's invaluable housekeeper, Lillian, and all her neighbors have been evicted from their homes by their greedy landlord, who has bigger plans for the property. So off Miss Julia rides (in the sidecar, naturally)- risking life and limb on a a motorcycle fund-raiser to save Lillian and her friends' home.