Best Beach Reads: Fiction Previews, Jun. 2021, Pt. 4 | Prepub Alert

Finding love, facing death, and getting rescued by dogs in town, in the country, and on the beach. 

Balogh, Mary. Someone To Cherish. Berkley. Jun. 2021. 336p. ISBN 9780593201213. $27. ROMANCE/HISTORICAL

Brenner, Jamie. Blush. Putnam. Jun. 2021. 384p. ISBN 9780593085752. $26. cover of Hilderbrand's Golden GirlDownloadable. WOMEN’S

Colgan, Jenny. Sunrise by the Sea: A Little Beach Street Bakery Novel. Morrow. Jun. 2021. 288p. ISBN 9780062911391. $27.99; pap. ISBN 9780062911322. $16.99. lrg. prnt. WOMEN’S

Cronin, Marianne. The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot. Harper. Jun. 2021. 336p. ISBN 9780063092761. $26.99; pap. ISBN 9780063017504. $17. lrg. prnt. WOMEN’S

Dunn, Matt. Pug Actually. Mira: Harlequin. Jun. 2021. 304p. ISBN 9780778311232. pap. $15.99. POP/ANIMALS

Heller, Miranda Cowley. The Paper Palace. Riverhead. Jun. 2021. 400p. ISBN 9780593329825. $27. CD/downloadable.

Higgins, Kristan. Pack Up the Moon. Berkley. Jun. 2021. 464p. ISBN 9780593335369. $27; pap. ISBN 9780451489487. $16. WOMEN’S

Hilderbrand, Elin. Golden Girl. Little, Brown. Jun. 2021. 432p. ISBN 9780316420082. $29. CD/downloadable. FAMILY LIFE

Phillips, Susan Elizabeth. When Stars Collide: A Chicago Stars Novel. Morrow. Jun. 2021. 384p. ISBN 9780062973085. $28.99. lrg. prnt. CD. ROMANCE

Ray, Eleanor. The Missing Treasures of Amy Ashton. Gallery: S. & S. Jun. 2021. 320p. ISBN 9781982163525. $28. WOMEN’S

Wilson, Susan. What a Dog Knows. St. Martin’s. Jun. 2021. 368p. ISBN 9781250077264. $25.99. CD.

In this new addition to the Regency-set “Westcott” series, recently widowed Lydia Tavernor wants Someone To Cherish but thinks she would rather have a lover than a husband after the numbing servitude of marriage to Rev. Isaiah Tavernor. In Brenner’s Blush, college senior Sadie Bailey discovers that straitlaced Grandma Vivian once ran a book club devoted to scandalous women’s fiction, information that brings her together with both her grandmother and her mother as the fate of their beloved Long Island manor house and winery hangs in the balance. To find respite from grief over her grandfather’s death, Marisa Rosso travels to a seaside Cornish village, where she helps locals save their beloved bakery (well known to Colgan’s fans) even as the village emerges from quarantine in the timely Sunrise by the Sea (100,000-copy paperback and 30,000-copy hardcover first printing). On the Terminal Ward at the Glasgow Princess Royal Hospital, Lenni, 17 years old and still lusting for life, joins forces with 83-year-old rebel Margot to create 100 paintings highlighting their stories in debuter Cronin’s The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot (150,000-copy paperback and 25,000-copy hardcover first printing). British author Matt Dunn’s Pug Actually stars one smart rescue dog—a pug named Doug—who wants to make sure that despite some initial friction, beloved owner Julie ends up with Tom instead of her caddish boss (50,000-copy first printing). With The Paper Palace, Heller, a former senior vice president and head of drama at HBO, turns in a first novel about a woman who makes a momentous and long-overdue decision one bright summer’s morning in Cape Cod. Diagnosed with a terminal illness, newly married Lauren decides to leave her husband 12 letters to guide him through the first year without her in Higgins’s Pack Up the Moon. Killed in a hit-and-run in Nantucket, novelist Vivi is given heavenly permission to spend a year watching over—and possibly guiding—her children, her best friend, and her ex-husband in Hilderbrand’s Golden Girl (750,000-copy first printing). In Phillips’s When Stars Collide, opera diva Olivia Shore and Thaddeus Walker Bowman Owens, backup quarterback for the Chicago Stars, are paired on nationwide tour promoting a luxury watch brand with tumultuous results (150,000-copy first printing). Debuter Ray’s The Missing Treasures of Amy Ashton features a once-aspiring artist now running from a tragedy in her life by simply collecting beautiful objects—until the collection-conscious little boy whose family moves in next door makes her rethink things (100,000-copy first printing). Best-selling canine celebrant Wilson shows us What a Dog Knows, featuring a traveling psychic with little desire for home or connection until she lets a little dog into her caravan one stormy night and learns that she can often hear dogs’ thoughts (30,000-copy first printing).

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Barbara Hoffert

Barbara Hoffert (bhoffert@mediasourceinc.com, @BarbaraHoffert on Twitter) is Editor, LJ Prepub Alert; winner of ALA's Louis Shores Award for reviewing; and past president, awards chair, and treasurer of the National Book Critics Circle, which awarded her its inaugural Service Award in 2023.

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