Hot sand, hotter reads: What beachgoers are reading at the Jersey Shore

On the first scorching Saturday of the season, the beaches in Cape May and Wildwood were packed with sun tents, towels, and folding chairs tucked into the sand. The air buzzed with the sound of crashing waves, a mix of country and early-2000s R&B, and the scent of hoagies and watermelon.

It was the ideal setting for Nancy Vales, 60, of Mount Laurel, to crack open the bodice-ripping page turner she brought along. “It tunes everything out like white noise,” she said.

For beachgoers like Vales, a book is as essential as sunscreen — a ticket to another world while soaking up sun and surf.

That Saturday, beachgoers paged through everything from nonfiction like Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall to fantasy romances like Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros.

The scene offered a snapshot of this summer’s Shore reads: anything goes.

“It’s a love story — it’s about a couple destined to be together. He’s choosing his path and she’s choosing hers, and then they meet and grow together,” Vale said. “The summertime is for my ‘junk food’ reads — it’s my smut reading time."

“It’s about a girl who goes missing while backpacking in Guatemala, and then her mom comes to the country to try to find her,” said Kirkbride, who listened to the audiobook sitting next to her mother, Nancy Vales. “It was recommended on an online Facebook reading club, and the reading task was to read something out of your comfort zone. This is kind of a mystery thriller, which is not the type of books I typically read.”

“It’s the first in a series of eight novels. I borrowed this one from the library,” Murray said. “This military guy, he’s about to go into the FBI and a random department wants to recruit him for a different mission — there’s some kind of chemical agent they’re just starting to learn about. This was a recommendation — normally I read more fantasy, sci-fi novels. I’m not into zombie stuff, but I wanted try something new.”

“I saw on Prime Video the other day that this was coming out as a show, so I wanted to read it before I watch it,” said Talia, who asked that her last name not be published. “I literally started this morning, and I’m a fourth of the way in. It’s starting pretty slow, I’m not going to lie. There was an accident at the start, and it’s pretty much a buildup to finding out what it was.”

“This book is about two lost souls seeking friendship,” Emery said. “One is an artist who paints a picture when he’s 14, of him and his friends on the dock — they grew up in tumultuous times, so friendship is everything for him. Then he meets a young girl in a group orphan house who runs away after seeing his painting at a church auction. She’s running from the cops, and that’s where their story begins.”

“OK, this is a spicy one,” McCray said. “It’s a romantasy [romance and fantasy] — I think she’s going to fall in love with an alien commander type dude. It’s the chivalry, and some of the just over-the-top romance stuff I love.”

“It’s the book that’s been on my bookshelf the longest, that I haven’t read yet,” Arthur said. “The first female detective is put on a previously all-male squad in London in the 1950s. I’m not one to take a beach nap or throw a baseball around [by myself], so it’s just very relaxing to read a book with your toes in the sand.”

“A woman whose life is falling apart a little bit has a restaurant on the outskirts of Philadelphia. Her dying aunt left her a trip to Sicily to look at some property and told her to get her [butt] out of bed and get out there,” Oxenreider said. “My daughter went to Temple and studied in Sicily, so I couldn’t wait to read this.”

“Three brothers in the outback of Australia have a lot of property up against each other, and then one is found dead in the middle of it,” Ritter said. “I’ve been sitting on this one for a while, so it seemed like a good beach read today.”

“It’s about two friends who meet in college and take an annual summer trip. They had a falling out, but they’re on another trip again,” Linton said. “I picked this because I read another Emily Henry book that was really great. I just wanted a very summery beach read.”

“I just started this one after finishing another book earlier,” said Angela Linton, sitting next to her sister, Allison. “I love Taylor Jenkins Reid — this is my fourth book of hers. From what I can gather, it’s about a wild party in the ’80s. This famous family throws one big party, and I’m assuming it’s going to be very dramatic.”