Summer’s here and at Off the Shelf our perfect summer day is spent at the beach with warm sand between our toes, an umbrella-adorned drink in hand, and a good book to keep us company. We’re packing our beach bags with these summertime reads and we’re giving one lucky winner a bookish beach bag of their own. Enter for your chance to win all fourteen of the fabulous books below!
THIS SWEEPSTAKES HAS ENDED.
"You've Got Mail" meets HOW TO EAT A CUPCAKE in this delightful novel about a talented chef, the food critic who brings down her restaurant, and their delectable romance of mistaken identities. Delish!
A chance meeting between talented chef Luella and British transplant Al leads to a budding romance. But when Luella discovers her new paramour is the writer behind the anonymous food column whose scathing review of her cooking left her restaurant facing closure, can their relationship survive? A charming tale of mistaken identity and unlikely love, this delightful tale will surely satisfy your sweet tooth.
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Visit the American community in Cuba during the years leading up to Castro’s revolution—which was a paradise for a time and for a few—through the eyes of two American children on the cusp of adolescence. Fans of Lily King’s EUPHORIA will love this haunting and compelling novel.
From the National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author of THE FLAMETHROWERS, Rachel Kushner’s masterful debut novel tells the story of the Americans who were driven out of Fidel Castro’s Cuba in 1958.
What if your beloved fiancé had kept a life-changing secret from you? And what if, just a week before your dream wedding, you discovered it? Georgia Ford, the bride-to-be, finds herself running away from said fiancé and back to the bosom of her family in California’s wine country. Best read while sipping a chilled rosé.
EIGHT HUNDRED GRAPES is escapist reading at its best because not only are there sun-dappled fields to picture, a dashing neighbor vying for Georgia’s attention, and behind-the-scenes winemaking (author Laura Dave took her wine research seriously!), there is also real heart.
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If the summer heat is getting to you, this Pulitzer Prize-winner will cool you down. THE SHIPPING NEWS is a vigorous, darkly comic, and magical portrait of a contemporary family that moves to Newfoundland where they must face their personal demons as a long winter closes in.
Awarded the prize in 1994, THE SHIPPING NEWS is an enchanting look at the contemporary American family. When a third-rate newspaper hack’s cheating wife dies, he and his daughters move to Newfoundland, where they must face their personal demons as a long winter closes in.
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What should be a cozy and fun-filled weekend deep in the English countryside takes a sinister turn in Ruth Ware’s suspenseful, compulsive, and darkly twisted psychological thriller. Reading this alone in the dark is not recommended—but it's perfect to read on a warm, sunny day!
During a weekend away with a friend in an eerie glass house, crime writer Leonora wakes up in a hospital bed injured wondering not “What happened?” but “What have I done?” This one is for fans of GONE GIRL and THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN.
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Is it possible to fall back in love with your spouse? Richard Haddon is a failed monogamist attempting to woo his wife back after realizing how deeply in love they once were. With biting wit and a deep emotional undercurrent, this reverse love story (in Paris!) is the perfect picture of an imperfect family.
Travel to Paris and London with a failed monogamist who attempts to answer the question: Is it really possible to fall back in love with your spouse? Skillfully balancing wit with a deep emotional undercurrent, this funny and touching read is perfect for fans of The Vacationers or Where’d You Go, Bernadette.
Winner of the Man Booker Prize, THE WHITE TIGER follows Balram Halwai, a poor Indian villager, on a journey through the poverty and corruption of modern India’s caste society that leads him to the zenith of Indian business culture in Bangalore.
A stunning literary debut critics have likened to Richard Wright’s Native Son, The White Tiger follows a darkly comic Bangalore driver through the poverty and corruption of modern India’s caste society.
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Did you binge read LUCKIEST GIRL ALIVE and THE SILENT WIFE? Well, cancel your Saturday plans because you’ll need to read this book in one sitting. Henry Hayden is a bestselling author whose wife is the brains behind his success. When she dies rather suspiciously, his carefully constructed façade begins to crumble.
Did you binge read LUCKIEST GIRL ALIVE and THE SILENT WIFE? Well, cancel your Saturday plans because you’ll need to read this book in one sitting. Henry Hayden is a bestselling author whose wife is the brains behind his success. When she dies rather suspiciously, his carefully constructed façade begins to crumble.
After her mother dies, Che reluctantly honors her last wishes and undertakes a pilgrimage to the Canterbury Cathedral. Along the trail, she finds herself opening up to new possibilities by sharing life lessons—in the best Chaucer tradition—with eight other women along the way.
After her mother dies, Che reluctantly honors her last wishes and undertakes a pilgrimage to the Canterbury Cathedral. Along the trail, she finds herself opening up to new possibilities by sharing life lessons—in the best Chaucer tradition—with eight other women along the way.
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We are living for the drama of possession, power, and passion as they play out against the lavish spectacle of 1890s Belle Époque Paris in this novel. When Sandrine Salome flees New York for Paris to escape her dangerous husband, a family curse illuminates the fine line between explosive desire and complete ruination.
We are living for the drama of possession, power, and passion as they play out against the lavish spectacle of 1890s Belle Époque Paris in this novel. When Sandrine Salome flees New York for Paris to escape her dangerous husband, a family curse illuminates the fine line between explosive desire and complete ruination.
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Fans of Santa Montefiore and Kate Morton will feel right at home with WILDFLOWER HILL, a compelling and atmospheric journey about starting over which spans three generations. Emma is a prima ballerina in London at a crossroads after an injured knee ruins her career. Her life takes an unexpected turn when she receives a strange inheritance.
Fans of Santa Montefiore and Kate Morton will feel right at home with WILDFLOWER HILL, a compelling and atmospheric journey about starting over which spans three generations. Emma is a prima ballerina in London at a crossroads after an injured knee ruins her career. Her life takes an unexpected turn when she receives a strange inheritance.
Take a vacation to Sullivan’s Island in South Carolina, where three estranged half-sisters summered as girls. Determined to help them rediscover their family bonds, their grandmother brings them back together for one more Lowcountry Summer.
Three sisters reunite on Sullivan’s Island off the coast of South Carolina after years of separation in this first installment of the Lowcountry Summer trilogy. Fans of Elin Hilderbrand and Dorothea Benton Frank will be charmed by this heartwarming series that explores the depths and complexities of sisterhood, friendship, and forgiveness.
THE ACCIDENTAL EMPRESS has all the romance and court intrigue of OUTLANDER, sans the time travel. When fiften-year-old Sisi inadvertently falls for Emperor Franz Joseph (previously betrothed to her sister), she’s suddenly thrust onto the throne of Europe’s most treacherous imperial court.
In 1853, Emperor Franz Joseph is Europe’s most powerful ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. THE ACCIDENTAL EMPRESS tells the little-known and tumultuous love story of “Sisi,” the woman who became Franz Joseph’s wife, and the Austro-Hungarian Empress, when she was just fifteen.
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