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Novak, Brenda. Summer on the Island. Mira: Harlequin. Apr. 2022. 352p. ISBN 9780778386377. $28.99; pap. ISBN 9780778311850. $16.99. CD. CONTEMPORARY

After her father’s death from COVID-19, Marlo Madsen returns to a small island off Florida’s coast to enjoy one last summer there as she helps her mother settle the estate. For fun, she brings along two good friends, who prove especially helpful when her father’s will reveals an unsettling secret and Marlo needs to rethink her life. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

Thayne, RaeAnne. Summer at the Cape. HQN. Apr. 2022. 384p. ISBN 9781335936356. $26.99. CD. CONTEMPORARY

When her parents divorced, Cami Porter moved to Los Angeles to live with her attorney father, while her younger twin sisters, Violet and Lily, stayed in Cape Sanctuary with their big-hearted activist mother. Nearly two decades later, Lily drowns saving the life of a little girl whose father is Violet’s former sweetheart, and Cami returns to help with the heartbreaking consequences—and get to know her sister better. With a 150,000-copy first printing.

Ward, Amanda Eyre. The Lifeguards. Ballantine. Apr. 2022. 336p. ISBN 9780593159446. $28. Downloadable.

The lifeguards in Ward’s latest are the three teenage sons of close friends Whitney, Annette, and Liza, starting cool summer jobs in their well-to-do neighborhood in Austin, TX. Or are the lifeguards the mothers themselves, different in background but alike in their eagle-eyed, talons-out protectiveness of their children? They’re so protective that when the boys come home one night and reveal a shattering secret, the women find their friendship imploding as they decide what to do. Following The Jetsetters, a Reese’s Book Club X Hello Sunshine Pick.

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