1. Beach Setting: This one is a bit obvious. “Beach read” had to come from somewhere. But a beach or coastal location often plays a central role in the story (unless you’re Emily Henry writing the book Beach Read that has a surprising lack of beach.)
The sand, sun, and surf provide a picturesque and carefree backdrop for the events of your story to unfurl. While a beach is not required, usually a summer seasonality is included in a beach read. Which lends itself to some summer steam…
2. Summer Romance: Danny and Sandy said it best with Summer Lovin’. It usually is a blast and happens (so) fast. The story revolves around a passionate and often fleeting romantic relationship that blossoms during the summer months.
This can obviously go one of two ways. The summer ends and the couple part ways with affectionate memories and nothing more. OR they fight for love and make it work despite whatever conflict meets them at the end of summer.
3. Beach Sports and Activities: With a beachy setting, naturally comes beachy activities. I’m talking surfing, beach volleyball, sailing, snorkeling, sandcastle building, and the like! But other recreational activities can be included.
This is the fun of research. You can create scenes with leisure/sport activities common to your selected setting––or make things up. These activities can easily add a sense of excitement and competition (perhaps between bitter rivals or flirtatious love interests?)
4. Parties: When thinking of activities and events, nothing is more quintessential to a summertime story than a carefree outdoor-set party. This could be anything from a lively beach bash, Fourth of July barbecues, adventurous bonfires, and other social events where characters gather to have fun, forge new connections, or celebrate.
5. Coming of Age: A summer vacation is a great opportunity to put protagonists in a new setting that forces them to undergo personal growth, self-discovery, or a transformative experience.
While coming of age is far from exclusive to a beach read, this wanderlusting sense of self-change is perfectly suited for the relaxed backdrop of a summer read. The conflicts may be more internal or lower stakes in a beach read (not much world-saving or enemy-vanquishing here).
6. Faking it: The fake relationship trope is one of my favorites, and I love when authors incorporate this in clever and comedic ways. The main characters pretend to be in a romantic relationship for various reasons, such as to make someone jealous or to fulfill a specific goal, but end up falling in love for real.
But it doesn’t have to be a fake dating scenario. The protagonist could be faking proficiency for a summer job. Or they have to fake certain attributes about their lives to please their judgmental family.
The characters usually “fake it till they make it” and discover something about themselves that has always lived under the surface, or things crash and burn when the truth gets exposed.
7. Family Secrets: Summer can really heat things up. And while this is excellent for steaming up a romance, it also works for building family drama. Beach reads often bring families together for extended periods of time––on vacation and in close quarters. When everyone’s business starts to overlap, that’s when the secrets start to ooze.
8. Friends Reunited: The nice part of stories that take place during summer (or some holiday) means that characters may travel or find themselves in locations outside of their norm. This gives a perfect opportunity for people of the protagonist’s past to crawl out of the woodwork.
Often this reconnection leads to reminiscing, unresolved feelings, and the possibility of rekindled friendships or romance. The situation may push this reunion forward, but it’s the reunion that sets forward the change/growth in the character.
This trope can include both the reveal of long-held secrets or new scandalous scenarios playing out through the course of events.
9. Fish out of Water: The protagonist or other primary character enters the scene from a different environment or social background. This is the out-of-towner, the loner finding themselves intermingling with a popular clique, the lottery winner at a luxury resort for the first time.
The character easily finds themselves out of their comfort zone. Often, this leads to them growing or changing the attitudes of those around them––maybe even a mixture of both!
10. Second Chance: At love. At Life. At their career. You name it!
Since personal discovery and a helping of soul-searching are common in these stories, it provides an excellent avenue for protagonists to discover they don’t have to be stuck in their miserable circumstances. They can have a second shot if they go after it.
This will probably lead to the character trying and failing at this second chance, so they might truly succeed during their third or fourth chance. But that tension (and try/fail cycle) is what makes the narrative even more compelling.
11. Romantic Rivalry: Summer is a perfect time to air out a feud. My favorite type of rivalry will always be a romantic one, and these are often interjected into beach reads. As the summer heat adds tension, the characters find themselves in some sort of competition and more than affections are on the line.
These could be playful scenarios of little consequence (pride over prizes) or the stakes could be higher with rivalries competing for items of true value. It’s when the values of the heart start to shift when bitter rivals become something much more intense.
12. Small Town Charm: It could be a small beach town or a charming mountain village with a busy summer season. These close-knit communities know each other’s business. The friendly locals or favored regulars add flavor to the story profile and often add extra challenges or moments of humor.
13. Quirky Side Characters: Whether it’s comedic relief, advice, or charm, the quirky side character is always there to round out the compelling cast and offer some extra zest. I’m a big fan of the quirky character and root for them, sometimes more than the protagonists.
To really sell these side characters make their quirks charming and relatable. Let them be the voice of reason from time to time. And give them their own problems to navigate instead of being there only to support the main character.
But there certainly more tropes than those, such as these I found on
another link:
1. Childhood Friends to Lovers: This one is not exclusive to summer books, but the season adds ~something~ to the story. Be it neighbors who see each other at school finally ~realizing~ their feelings during summer activities (treasure hunting, road trip, summer jobs, camping, etc) OR friends who sees each other ONLY during the summers slowly realizing their feelings with montage from their childhood interspersed between the narratives? Top tier storytelling, I tell you.
2. Second Chance Romance: Again, not exclusive to summer. But two exes seeing each other for the first time during trip back home or holiday with friends??? The tension. The unresolved chemistry. The memories. Bonus point if it’s not a happy ending with right person wrong timing/wrong person right timing plot. Never fails to get me.
3. Beach/lake house setting: I don’t know why, but there’s just something more ~magical~ with stories that set in a summer house, whether it’s near a beach or lake. Maybe it’s just the bubble of summer the characters are having, that this is a place they visit for a couple of months to escape the reality, and it’s full of possibility. Realistically, maaaayybe (sic) most of the summer romances I read won’t last beyond summer where distance and routine will come in the way, but it was fun while it lasts!
4. Sleepy beach town with secrets/legends: Now we’re heading to the mystery/thriller territory. My love for this trope can also be blamed on Twilight and The Raven Cycle 😄 But in all seriousness, I always love urban legend sooo (sic) books that set in a sleepy town (bonus point if it’s a beach town) with local legends will always pique my interest! It’s always really fun easing into the small town with our main character then figuring whether things are real or not with them. (Another take on the secrets trope).
5. And Then There Were None: This one is morbid, but summer time = thriller time. I enjoyed this trope where group of teenagers in an isolated setting were picked up one by one and they have to race to figure out who the culprit is. The emotions are usually really intense in these books: there’s the initial fear and panic that eventually evolves into distrust as we work to piece together the clue on who did this. There are several ways to twist the outcome of this trope: someone who “died” is the culprit, someone who couldn’t come to the trip, and the best one: our narrator is the one who did it. All the possibilities!
Some of these tropes likely over lap, particular in books in the thriller genres. And as said above, some of these tropes are not exclusive to summer reads.
But certainly there are other summer reading tropes and subtropes. Are there any you can think of that are not listed? Do you have a favorite trope?
