We Live and Breathe Books: Five on My TBR

#5OnMyTBR is a bookish meme that was hosted by E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook. Learn more about it here.

Bodies of Water

I love any opportunity to feature more books and found this meme an interesting way to take a look at my TBR. I hope to also get some feedback from you. Should I keep these books on my TBR? Should I push them up the list? Without further ado, below are five books on my TBR that have bodies of water on their covers. *I thought I would stick with my theme this week.

The Last Days of Summer by Sarra Manning

A heartfelt, funny, yet deliciously spicy enemies-to-lovers romcom set during a long summer weekend at an exquisite British seaside resort, centered around a group of old friends whose lives are about to change forever.

Sometimes all it takes is one long summer weekend for the person you thought you hated to become something more . . .

After a disastrous first meeting, Cassie and Marc are instant archnemeses. Despite Marc’s frustratingly sharp cheekbones and sexy French accent—and the fact that Cassie's best friends Lucy and Russell think he’s wonderful—Cassie is convinced that Marc’s a terrible person who did a terrible thing, full stop.

But, years later, when their friends are hit with bad news, Cassie and Marc decide to put aside their differences and give Lucy and Russell the best weekend ever. While they can’t change the past, they can help their friends make new memories with all of their favorite people. Which means convincing everyone that Cassie and Marc are head over heels in love, since their best friends have always thought they would be perfect together, and badly wish each would find an ideal partner.

After years of loathing Marc, it only takes four bittersweet days for Cassie to reconsider whether she got the man completely wrong all these years. But can the two let go of their troubled past, and together, face whatever the future will throw at them? Or is this doomed to be just another steamy vacation fling, never again to be acknowledged or repeated?

Pictures of Him by Clare Leslie Hall

From the author of Broken Country, a dark and suspenseful thriller about the consequences of one woman’s doomed love affair which, years later, threatens to tear her seemingly-perfectly world apart.

Catherine lives an enviably normal life with her loving husband, Sam, and their two children. But many parts of her past are shrouded in mystery…and that’s the way she likes it. Keeping the past buried keeps her safe. When a former flame resurfaces, something inside of Catherine gives way, releasing a flood of trauma she had thought was buried long ago.

Lying in the hospital after a complete breakdown, language eludes Catherine. The shock of her painful past has left her mute, unable to explain to Sam or her children the root of her anguish. As Catherine’s fragmented memories of her university days sharpen, the threads of her past and present start to coalesce. Catherine is transported back in time to her love affair with Lucian, a charismatic and complicated artist, with whom she shared a passion that was destined to end in tragedy.

Fifteen years after the fateful end of their romance, Catherine must finally confront the events that brought her to crisis, while the fragile pieces of her life, so delicately balanced, begin to shift—and threaten to shatter.

The House of Hidden Letters by Izzy Broom

For sale: Greek cottage. One Euro.

Skye doesn’t make impulsive decisions. But when she sees a derelict Greek cottage for sale by lottery, she enters with dreams of a fresh start.

However, her heart sinks as she pushes open the tattered blue door weeks later. Can this wreck ever be her home?

Then Skye finds a bundle of letters hidden in the fireplace, their faded pages drawing her in with a story of long-forgotten love, tragedy, and unbelievable bravery.

But all the while, Skye’s own past is circling. No matter how far she goes, fate is never far behind…

This gorgeously sweeping, escapist dual-timeline novel is perfect for fans of Karen Swan, Victoria Hislop and Lucinda Riley.

Worse Than Strangers by Kyleigh Leddy

A debut novel for fans of Jane Austen, Elin Hilderbrand, and Gilmore Girls, Worse Than Strangers is a Nantucket-set retelling of Austen’s Persuasion about finding romance, second chances, and a new path in life.

Rose and Lily are best friends first, mother-daughter second, which is good because right now, Lily could really use a friend. Recently fired from her NYC magazine job and heartbroken, Lily has fled to the family cottage in Siasconset. She is shocked when she stumbles across her first love at the grocery store holding hands with his new fiancé—a fiancé he never mentioned on their many, many late-night phone calls.

Rose has secrets, too. A therapist about to start her own private practice, Rose’s world is rocked by the handsome renter staying in their guest cottage, Thomas Wentworth: the one person she thought she would never see again and the man who has always (unfortunately) held her heart.

A modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion set against a backdrop of blue and purple hydrangeas, swollen brick sidewalks, tall sea grass, and uniform, shingled houses, Lily and Rose Gardner’s summer journey of second chances, healing, and hope begs the question: Can you repeat the past, and is it ever too late to try again?

A Year of Marvelous Ways by Sarah Winman

The remarkably life-affirming novel from the highly acclaimed author of Still Life , set in 1940s Cornwall following the unlikely friendship between an eighty-nine-year-old woman at the end of her story and a young soldier, reeling from World War II, at the start of his own.

Marvelous Ways has lived alone alongside a winding creek near the rugged Cornwall coast for nearly all her life, and has recently taken to spending her days sitting on the steps of her caravan with a pair of binoculars. She is waiting for something, but she's not sure what. She will know when she sees it and that is good enough for her.

Francis Drake, a young soldier adrift after the death of a fellow comrade, is grateful for the mission that guides his days. He has agreed to fulfil his friend’s last to hand-deliver a letter to his father in Cornwall. But Francis’s journey doesn't go as planned. After a brief, sweet, and serendipitous reunion with a woman from his past, Francis washes up in Marvelous's creek, broken both in body and spirit.

Marvelous will come to his aid, and an unlikely friendship will grow between these two solitary souls. Marvelous has lived a long life, with many loves and countless stories to tell, and Francis needs a reason to keep going—even just the hope that life still has more to offer.

A beautiful, bighearted story that bursts with the magic of what it means to grab hold of connection and purpose when it is right in front of you, A Year of Marvelous Ways is a testament to friendship and another timeless classic from the acclaimed Sarah Winman.