A Spring Break Book List To Keep The Vibes Going All Season

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory

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This kicks off a romance series of six books with interconnected characters living in California. Guillory’s writing is just light and fun, full of millennial and Gen X pop culture references, while also touching on more serious topics of race and identity.

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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I would not call myself a lover of Gothic fiction, but I love this take on it. This is a creepy, well-written page-turner about a young woman in Mexico in the 1950s and how she gets pulled into a mysterious mansion and the family that lives in it.

What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez by Claire Jiménez

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A young girl goes missing. Years later, her sisters and mother are still dealing with the trauma and unanswered questions about her disappearance. Then they think they see her on a reality show. This is not a mystery or thriller, but rather a page-turning look at a family working through something. There is a hilarious scene toward the end that I still think about over a year later.

Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos

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This is the first of three novels about a found family of characters. In this one, Cornelia Brown is a coffee shop manager in Philadelphia, a bit adrift in life and love. Martin Grace walks into the coffee shop one day and sets off a series of events that change Cornelia’s life. There are a few twists here that I never saw coming.

One To Watch by Kate Stayman-London

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Bea is a plus-sized fashion blogger who hesitantly becomes the star of a Bachelorette-like reality show. This is fast-paced fun with characters you can root for.

Never Coming Home by Kate Williams

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A Young Adult thriller fashioned after Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. A group of young social media influencers are invited to a new resort on a remote island. It’s a little bonkers, and I still don’t know what I think about the ending, but the characters are vibrant and the action just keeps coming.

Excavations by Kate Myers

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Start this one to live vicariously through these characters on an archeological dig in Greece. Keep reading it for the tangled web of ambition, academic hierarchy, and romance. Feels a little bit We Keep the Dead Close without the murder.

Last Summer at the Golden Hotel by Elyssa Friedland

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Think Dirty Dancing and that summer in the Catskills on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Two families own a mountain resort that was huge popular in it’s heyday, but has fallen into disrepair. After the deaths of both patriarchs, the families come together at the resort to decide its future.

The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart

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This is a middle grade novel about a young girl and her father. They’ve experienced a devastating family event and now live on a bus, traveling around the United States. One of the most beautiful, found family stories I’ve ever read.

The Unsinkable Greta James by Jennifer E. Smith

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Greta James is a musician running from the aftermath of her mother’s death and  a huge, public mistake. She decides to take her mother’s place on an Alaskan cruise with her father. Introspection, family, love, and friendship ensue.

Lobizona by Romina Garber

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A teenage girl learns she is actually a werewolf and all that she believed about her life prior to this moment is not quite … true. I went through a period of time where I read pretty much every dystopia/fantasy YA novel, so I consider myself a connoisseur, if you will. When I read Lobizona, it felt like a breath of fresh air in the genre.

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

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This was another YA dystopian novel that felt unique to me. The planet is damaged beyond repair and in the United States, leaders believe that Indigenous people’s bone marrow is the key to saving society, so they begin rounding them up to take the marrow. The story follows a group of Indigenous people as they fight to survive.

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

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The phrase “Southern Black Girl Magic” was in one of the descriptions of this book and it’s accurate. Bree is a high school student attending a boarding school where she begins to learn about a secret society on campus, as well as her own developing powers.

With The Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

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Emoni is a teen mom raising a toddler, while trying to finish high school and figure out how to pursue her dream of being a chef. Acevedo’s talent as a poet shines in this prose novel.

Field Notes on Love by Jennifer E. Smith

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Jennifer E. Smith makes it on this list twice with this Young Adult novel about Hugo and Margaret, a pair of strangers who find themselves on a cross-country train ride together. I finished this and immediately looked into train travel packages.