Best Holiday Reads: The Taylor Jenkins Reid Box Set I'd Pack for a Beach Week
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Holiday reading has one job: to make the sun lounger disappear. You want a book that swallows an afternoon whole, survives sun cream and sand, and doesn't need a second run-up after every dip in the pool. Taylor Jenkins Reid is very, very good at that job.
This five-book paperback set is the easy answer to the question every woman over forty asks the night before a flight: what on earth am I going to read?
What's in the box
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
The big one. A reclusive Hollywood legend finally decides to tell the truth about her glamorous, scandalous life, and picks an unknown magazine writer to hear it. Seven marriages, one great love and a reveal you won't see coming. Start here.
One True Loves
Emma married her high-school sweetheart and built a life far from home. Then he goes missing, and years later, just as she has rebuilt everything, he comes back. Which life do you choose? Bring tissues.
After I Do
Lauren and Ryan's marriage has hit the wall, so they try something radical: a year off from each other, to see if they can fall back in love. Painfully honest about long marriages, and a bit too relatable in places.
Maybe in Another Life
Hannah is twenty-nine, has lived in six cities and still has no idea what she wants. One decision at the end of a night out splits her story in two, and you follow both versions. A sliding-doors novel for anyone who has ever wondered "what if".
Forever, Interrupted
Elsie's whirlwind romance turns to grief almost overnight, and she is left to face a mother-in-law who didn't know she existed. Reid's debut, and the most emotional of the five.
Why it works as a holiday read
Five books, one fortnight. Roughly a book every few days, with no risk of running out mid-trip.
Short, pacy chapters. Easy to pick up between swims, naps and the third cocktail.
Paperbacks you won't mourn. Sun cream, sand and splashes are all fine.
Variety. Old Hollywood glamour, marriage, grief, second chances: something for every mood.
Worth knowing before you buy
Daisy Jones & The Six and Malibu Rising are not in this set. If you have already read Evelyn Hugo, the other four are still a solid holiday stack on their own.
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