Best Beach Reads 2015

What's the best thing you can bring to the beach? A book of course! Last year fantasy and sci-fi dominated the summer reading scene, but this year YA novels featuring family drama, mystery, love and friendship take centerstage. Settle down on the sand and dive in to the pages of some of our summer faves.

Mosquitoland by David Arnold

When Mim Malone is uprooted by her dad and new stepmum to live in Mississipi, she feels like she's moving to a wasteland, but that all changes when she finds out her mother is sick back in Cleveland. She picks up her bags and hops a Greyhound to get back home - and meets some interesting characters on the way!

I Was Here by Gayle Forman

Suicide is never the easiest topic to tackle, but Gayle Forman does it with sensitivity and grace in this novel, showing the impact on a girl's best friend, and moving into a thrilling mystery.

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

It's Simon Snow's final year at Watford School of Magicks, and he just wants to kick back and enjoy it - which is impossible when his girlfriend has broken up with him, his BFF won't stop bugging him and his mentor wants him to literally hide in the hills.

Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

Harpee Lee is famous for writing only one, groundbreaking novel - To Kill a Mockingbird (you may have had to read it in school), so it shocked everyone this year when another one of her novels was set to be published. This one is a prequel to TKAM, and if it's even half as good it'll be worth reading.

Finding Audrey - by Sophie Kinsella

Known for the Shopaholic books, Sophie Kinsella knows how to get her readers laughing. Finding Audrey sees several generations of one family fighting for the laughs, and we see it all through the eyes of Audrey, a girl who gets bullied by her former best friend and has her first brush with teen romance.

Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older

Living in Brooklyn, Sierra Santiago is a smart creative graffiti mural artist, but not your typical heroine - until he discovers that magic from ancestral spirits is infiltratng art, music and stories, and what's more, someone is trying to kill the spirits off.

The Accident Season - Moira Fowley Day

This novel probably has one of the prettiest covers you'll see this summer, and what's more the inside is just as good! 17-year-old Cara's family becomes impossibly accident prone, so much so that it feels as if it must be a curse - but you'll have to pick this one up to get to the bottom of it!

All Fall Down - Ally Carter

Grace isn't afraid of danger: rebel, daredevil, army brat, the list could go on. She's also the granddaughter of the most powerful ambassador in the world, and now that she's hit 16 she's determined to uncover the secret behind her mother's death.

Have Your Say

What's your top beach read this summer? Let us know in the comments section below.