Summer is in full swing in the Cayman Islands.
Even if you aren't travelling off island anywhere given the current difficulties and risks, don’t forget to think about what you’re going to read while lounging on the beach, lying on a hammock under a coconut tree or simply relaxing at home.
Escape to an adventurous or romantic destination, experience lakeside resort towns or feel the heat of summer in the city, all from right here in Cayman.
Below are several "summer reads" available at Next Chapter, which would also make good books to read in flight or during a long layover if you brave the current travel challenges and vacation off island. These fun and light reads are a perfect cure for the COVID-19 blues.
"Beach Read" by Emily Henry
January Andrew, the main character of "Beach Read," knows romance. She's a romance writer inflicted with writer's block who is spending the summer at her father’s beach house located on a lake in Michigan. Struggling with the weight of family secrets and an impending deadline, she discovers her college crush, literary novelist Augustus Everett, is her next-door neighbour. What ensues is a friendly competition between two writers as they try to help each other out of their respective writing ruts with each trying their hand in the other's writing genre. There's one caveat: They can’t fall in love with each other. Can a happily-ever-after writer find romance with her polar opposite when there are many obstacles preventing it? Probably.
"The Unhoneymooners" by Christina Lauren
Summer is often considered wedding season and things are no different in this novel. When Olive's identical twin sister and new brother-in-law get food poisoning at their wedding and can't go on their honeymoon to Hawaii, the trip is offered to Olive on one condition: she'll have to share the honeymoon suite with someone she dislikes immensely, the groom's brother Ethan. Experience this free vacation in paradise with them where an "until-death-do-us-part" type ruse takes place — but it doesn’t feel like a ruse to Olive.
"Summer and the City" by Candace Bushnell
Pack your bags and head to New York City. This prequel to the famed "Sex and the City" series tells the tale of 17-year-old Carrie Bradshaw's experiences in New York City in the 1980s with Samantha Jones and Miranda Hobbes. Follow along as Carrie pursues her dreams of being a writer, figures out love and loss and does it all with her famous sense of style. In 2008, author Candace Bushnell visited Grand Cayman, where she gave a talk and signed copies of her novel, "One Fifth Avenue," at Next Chapter when it was called Books & Books.
About the author
Alanna Warwick-Smith is a senior marketing communications coordinator supporting the business development and real estate marketing team for Dart. Alanna has worked in Dart’s flagship development of Camana Bay for the past nine years, when she began her career working at the town’s bookstore. A lover of the written word, Alanna reads and writes poetry in her spare time, and has written content for a range of platforms in the past, including her own blog and Camana Bay Times. You can find her in line at Foster’s every morning waiting for her large iced coffee with oat milk!