Books like 'Better Than the Beach'

Readers who enjoyed Better Than the Beach by Brit Benson also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

historical  forced proximity  christmas  new adult  college  virgin heroine  suspense  age difference  mystery  m-f

  • The Charlatan by D.K. Hamlin, Hyperion Knight

    The Charlatan by D.K. Hamlin, Hyperion Knight

    Rated: 4.55 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 1 of 5
    Glimpses and kisses [?] · 34 ratings
    INTRODUCING A TIMELESS MASTERPIECE. Now appearing for the first time in English, The Charlatan, a tale of high drama, forbidden love, medicine, and mystery, was the masterpiece of Polish novelist Tadeusz Dolega-Mostowicz. Set in 1930s Warsaw, an era of prosperity and aristocracy, renowned heart surgeon Rafal Wolf suffers a heartbreak that culminates in severe memory loss...
  • The Dance Teacher of Paris by Suzanne Fortin

    The Dance Teacher of Paris by Suzanne Fortin

    Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    'But how will I look after them? Where can I hide them? ' She looked up at me and didn't try to stop the tears from falling. 'I'm begging you. Please, save our children. '. Paris, 1942. As the Germans occupy the city she calls home, Adele Basset is determined to keep her pupils' spirits up. Their dance class offers a moment of solace in the dark days of occupation...
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  • Lady's Well by L.J. Ross

    Lady's Well by L.J. Ross

    Rated: 4.46 of 5 stars
    · 29 ratings
    THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE WATER. .. When the ancient waters of Lady’s Well in the rural village of Holystone begin to run red, it seems to be a nasty Hallowe’en prank and nothing more. But things take a sinister turn when the entire village suffers severe poisoning, and one old man turns up dead...
    Categorized as:
    mystery  suspense  historical
  • A Murder in Trinity Lane by Magda Alexander

    A Murder in Trinity Lane by Magda Alexander

    Rated: 4.49 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 1 of 5
    Glimpses and kisses [?] · 11 ratings
    A forbidden passion. A dangerous secret. A truth some would kill for to keep buried. London, 1889. Hoping society has moved on from the scandal that once shadowed her, Lady Rosalynd turns her attention to one of her most cherished causes—the Home for Unwed Mothers, a discreet refuge where poor, unmarried women can give birth in safety and dignity...
  • Murder on a Frosty Night by Verity Bright

    Murder on a Frosty Night by Verity Bright

    Rated: 4.45 of 5 stars
    · 11 ratings
    Wrapping presents and singing at midnight mass on a frosty night… Lady Swift is determined to enjoy Christmas at home this year, until another body turns up! Winter 1925. Eleanor and Hugh are decking the halls for their first married Christmas together when butler Clifford arrives with a mysterious telegram...
  • Murder in an Irish Castle by Verity Bright

    Murder in an Irish Castle by Verity Bright

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    Irish whiskey, rolling green hills, a traditional Christmas feast and… a murder? Lady Swift will need the luck of the Irish to survive this holiday season! Christmas, 1924. Lady Eleanor Swift has received a rather unexpected invitation to the village Christmas party in the tiny, rural hamlet of Derrydee in the west of Ireland...
  • Vengeance in Venice by Mary Lancaster

    Vengeance in Venice by Mary Lancaster

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Even on their rapturous honeymoon, mystery intrudes…. Constance and Solomon are enchanted by Venice and each other when a street fight forces Solomon to intervene, and Constance is abducted by strangers. Somehow, they have stumbled into a vicious feud and are forced to confront the seething aftermath of recent revolution, war and siege in the most serene city...
  • Hope by Beverley Watts

    Hope by Beverley Watts

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 29 ratings
    There was no doubt that things had definitely looked better for Gabriel Atwood, one time Viscount Northwood. Mainly because everyone who knew him or of him almost certainly believed him dead - the bastard who’d betrayed him had made sure of that...
  • A Gentleman Under the Mistletoe by Grace Burrowes

    A Gentleman Under the Mistletoe by Grace Burrowes

    Rated: 4.62 of 5 stars
    · 13 ratings
    Lord Julian Caldicott is standing in for his ducal brother as manager of Yuletide merriment at the family seat. Alas for his lordship, nothing is going as planned. Cranky relatives arrive uninvited, family squabbles ensue, and Julian's annual case of the blue devils is worsening by the day. Julian decides to combat the mayhem and melancholia by anonymously spreading good cheer...
  • Love's Bright Tomorrow by Naomi Rawlings

    Love's Bright Tomorrow by Naomi Rawlings

    Rated: 4.68 of 5 stars
    · 11 ratings
    She’s just trying to start a new life for herself. If only it wasn’t so hard…. It’s not as though there are a lot of options for a woman with barely two pennies to rub together. At least not in 1884. Or in the small town where she’s settled. Or anywhere else. It’s even harder when her past keeps coming back to haunt her. Aileen has tried putting it behind her. Truly she has...
  • Murder at Traitors' Gate by Irina Shapiro

    Murder at Traitors' Gate by Irina Shapiro

    Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    The chill of winter has descended on London. But for Sebastian Bell and Gemma Tate, there will be little cheer this season…. Gemma Tate has a new job and a new address. She is putting her past – her memories of nursing in the Crimean war – behind her. Until Jacob Harrow, a journalist with ties to Crimea, is found brutally killed, and Gemma is pulled into the investigation...
  • Evidence of Evil: Victorian Historical Romance Mystery by Mary Lancaster

    Evidence of Evil: Victorian Historical Romance Mystery by Mary Lancaster

    Rated: 4.70 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 1 of 5
    Glimpses and kisses [?] · 10 ratings
    Pursuing murder and fighting love…. Several weeks after they parted company, courtesan Constance calls on the wealthy business-man Solomon Grey to request his help solving another mystery. Her old friend Elizabeth, now the wife of respected magistrate Sir Humphrey Maule, is being accused of murder...
  • Ghost in the Garden by Mary Lancaster

    Ghost in the Garden by Mary Lancaster

    Rated: 4.70 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 1 of 5
    Glimpses and kisses [?] · 10 ratings
    Partners in crime… but not in love? Silver & Grey take on their first official inquiry, when Mrs. Angela Lambert hires Constance and Solomon to discover the truth about the ghost haunting her garden...
  • Betrayal from Beyond by Deb Marlowe

    Betrayal from Beyond by Deb Marlowe

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    Every betrayal is rife with pain--but betrayal from beyond the grave? Terrifying. After terror, turmoil and more than their fair share of murder, the newly married Duke and Duchess of Sedwick have reached a calmer, more serene phase, both in life and in their relationship...
  • Murder in the Soho Graveyard by Emily Organ

    Murder in the Soho Graveyard by Emily Organ

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    A churchyard discovery. A shocking secret. A deadly confrontation. London,1889. When the body of a wealthy widow is found in the neglected graveyard of St Anne’s Church, Soho, Emma Langley and Penny Green soon discover her respectable façade concealed a web of bitter enemies...
  • Dark Tidings on the Thames by Deb Marlowe

    Dark Tidings on the Thames by Deb Marlowe

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    London’s great river runs as dark, dirty, and deep . . . as murder. The Duke and Duchess of Sedwick and their small band of friends and family are recovering from some serious losses. They are slowly making steps to get back to normal routines when they receive a cry for help from one of their own. The Waif’s Wardrobe, a charitable place of good works, has encountered tragedy...
  • Knave of Diamonds by Laurie R. King

    Knave of Diamonds by Laurie R. King

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Mary Russell’s allegiances are tested by the reappearance of her long-lost uncle—and a tantalizing case not even Sherlock Holmes could solve. When Mary Russell was a child, she adored her black sheep Uncle Jake. But she hasn’t heard from him in many years, and she assumed that his ne’er-do-well ways had brought him to a bad end somewhere—until he presents himself at her Sussex door...
  • Petteril's Christmas by Mary Lancaster

    Petteril's Christmas by Mary Lancaster

    Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars
    · 11 ratings
    A merry Christmas for the Petterils? Piers wants to make their first Christmas together special, and so it proves to be - just not quite in the way he planned. His eccentric Great Aunt Prudence summons him to London with the news that she is dying and that one of her servants is stealing from her. Only one of these claims turns out to be true, though both require investigating...
  • Beyond the Moonlit Sea by Julianne MacLean

    Beyond the Moonlit Sea by Julianne MacLean

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 33 ratings
    From the bestselling author of These Tangled Vines comes a gripping novel about one woman’s search for answers when her husband vanishes in the night. Olivia Hamilton is married to the love of her life, Dean, a charismatic pilot who flies private jets for the rich and famous. But when he vanishes over the Bermuda Triangle, Olivia’s idyllic existence unravels...
  • A Singular Woman by Sarah F. Noel

    A Singular Woman by Sarah F. Noel

    Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars
    · 21 ratings
    Wolf had hoped he could put his thief-taking life behind him when he unexpectedly inherited an earldom. Wolf, the new Earl of Pembroke, against his better judgment, finds himself sucked back into another investigation. He knows better than to think he can keep Tabitha out of it...
  • Murder at the Wedding Chapel by Catherine Coles

    Murder at the Wedding Chapel by Catherine Coles

    Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Tommy & Evelyn Christie have reluctantly agreed to host the wedding of Tommy's mother to Andrew Parsons, the Marquess of York, at their home Hessleham Hall. None of the happy couple's adult children support the marriage but when Andrew is found dead outside the wedding chapel on the morning of his wedding it seems one of them has taken their anger a step too far...
  • Hold Me Close by Siobhan Davis, Kelly Hartigan (XterraWeb)

    Hold Me Close by Siobhan Davis, Kelly Hartigan (XterraWeb)

    Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars
    · 28 ratings
    Sons pay for the sins of their fathers…. Bodhi and Easton Lancaster O’Donoghue have grown up sheltered from the truth. Until it’s time for their parents to reveal what happened and how it shaped the events that came later. Bodhi is quiet. An intelligent, introspective boy who hides his pain deep inside...
  • Taken to the Grave by Cara Devlin

    Taken to the Grave by Cara Devlin

    Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 2 of 5
    Behind closed doors [?] · 16 ratings
    The Bow Street Duchess Mystery series comes to a thrilling conclusion in the seventh and final book, Taken to the Grave. As Audrey Sinclair reaches the end of her mourning period, she and Hugh Marsden, the Viscount Neatham, are at long last looking toward their future together — and hoping for a respite from the dangerous criminal investigations they’ve found themselves entrenched in...
  • Where Shadows Dance by C.S. Harris

    Where Shadows Dance by C.S. Harris

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 36 ratings
    The “rich period detail [and] riveting action”* C. S. Harris delivers in her Sebastian St. Cyr mystery series reaches new heights as the aristocratic sleuth navigates dangerous political waters to bring a murderer to justice…. Regency London: July 1812.  How do you set about solving a murder no one can reveal has been committed?  That’s the challenge confronting C. S...
  • The Woman on the Orient Express by Lindsay Jayne Ashford

    The Woman on the Orient Express by Lindsay Jayne Ashford

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 38 ratings
    Hoping to make a clean break from a fractured marriage, Agatha Christie boards the Orient Express in disguise. But unlike her famous detective Hercule Poirot, she can’t neatly unravel the mysteries she encounters on this fateful journey. Agatha isn’t the only passenger on board with secrets...
  • The Gilded Lily by Irina Shapiro

    The Gilded Lily by Irina Shapiro

    Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars
    · 11 ratings
    Every old house has its secrets, so it comes as no surprise when a relic of a noble Victorian family is discovered in the new home of historical author Nicole Rayburn and her husband Kyle. Curious about the lovely young woman in the sepia photograph, Nicole delves into the history of the family and stumbles on a long-forgotten mystery...
  • Murder at Rochester Park by Catherine Coles

    Murder at Rochester Park by Catherine Coles

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 17 ratings
    Tommy and Evelyn Christie are looking forward to a quiet Christmas holiday at the home of Hugh Norton-Cavendish, the 9th Earl of Clifford, who recently married Tommy's cousin, Elise. However the suspicious death of Albert Lewis, a businessman hoping to buy land from Hugh, means the Christmas festivities are quickly over. Tommy is distracted by his sister's new relationship with a man he distrusts...
  • What the Devil Knows by C.S. Harris

    What the Devil Knows by C.S. Harris

    Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars
    · 32 ratings
    Sebastian St. Cyr thought a notorious killer had been brought to justice until a shocking series of gruesome new murders stuns the city in this thrilling historical mystery from the USA Today bestselling author of Who Speaks for the Damned. It's October 1814. The war with France is finally over and Europe's diplomats are convening in Vienna for a conference that will put their world back together...
  • Who Buries the Dead by C.S. Harris

    Who Buries the Dead by C.S. Harris

    Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars
    · 33 ratings
    The grisly murder of a West Indies slave owner and the reappearance of a dangerous enemy from Sebastian St. Cyr’s past combine to put C. S. Harris’s “troubled but compelling antihero” (Booklist) to the ultimate test in this taut, thrilling mystery. London, 1813. The vicious decapitation of Stanley Preston, a wealthy, socially ambitious plantation owner, at Bloody Bridge draws Sebastian St...
  • A Corruption of Blood by Ambrose Parry

    A Corruption of Blood by Ambrose Parry

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 23 ratings
    SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA HISTORICAL DAGGER 2022A Raven and Fisher Book 3Edinburgh, 1850. This city will bleed you dry. Sarah Fisher is keeping a safe distance from her old flame Dr Will Raven. Having long worked at the side of Dr James Simpson, she has set her sights on learning to practise medicine herself. A notion everyone seems intent on dissuading her from...
  • When Falcons Fall by C.S. Harris

    When Falcons Fall by C.S. Harris

    Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars
    · 31 ratings
    Ayleswick-on-Teme, England, 1813. Sebastian has come to this seemingly peaceful Shropshire village to honor a slain friend and to learn more about his own ancestry. But when the body of a lovely widow is found on the banks of the River Teme, a bottle of laudanum at her side, the village’s inexperienced new magistrate turns to St. Cyr for help...
  • The Whisper Sister by Jennifer S. Brown

    The Whisper Sister by Jennifer S. Brown

    Rated: 4.54 of 5 stars
    · 11 ratings
    The author of Modern Girls delivers an atmospheric coming-of-age story set in Prohibition-era New York, tracing one immigrant family’s fortunes and a young girl’s journey from the schoolyard to the speakeasy. The streets of New York in 1920 are most certainly not paved with gold, as Minnie Soffer learns when she arrives at Ellis Island...
  • Velvet, Vol. 2: The Secret Lives of Dead Men by Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting

    Velvet, Vol. 2: The Secret Lives of Dead Men by Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting

    Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    The white-hot spy series from the creators of Captain America: The Winter Soldier is back! Everything Velvet Templeton ever believed about the worst night of her life has turned out to be a lie, and now she's coming back to London, taking the hunt back to the hunters, to find the truth or die trying...
    Categorized as:
    mystery  suspense  historical  length-novella
  • What Remains of Heaven by C.S. Harris

    What Remains of Heaven by C.S. Harris

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 36 ratings
    The latest request for help from Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin--from the Archbishop of Canterbury, no less--is undeniably intriguing: The bodies of two men have been found in an ancient crypt, their violent deaths separated by decades. One is the Bishop of London, the elderly Archbishop's favored but controversial successor...
  • Deadly Betrayal by Carla Simpson

    Deadly Betrayal by Carla Simpson

    Rated: 4.58 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    "Ghosts of the past…. The very case that made Brodie leave the Metropolitan Police returns to jeopardize his private inquiry business, his relationship with Mikaela Forsythe, and perhaps even his life. Ten years earlier, after Brodie refused to divulge the name of his source in a murder case, Chief Inspector Abberline threatened to have charges brought against him for withholding evidence...
  • Drawn by the Current by Jocelyn Green

    Drawn by the Current by Jocelyn Green

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 15 ratings
    A birthday excursion turns deadly when the SS Eastland capsizes with Olive Pierce and her best friend Claire on board. Hundreds perish during the accident, and it's only when Olive herself barely escapes that she discovers her friend is among the victims...
  • Nature of the Crime by Cara Devlin

    Nature of the Crime by Cara Devlin

    Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 2 of 5
    Behind closed doors [?] · 18 ratings
    The Bow Street Duchess Mystery series continues in January 2024 with the sixth Audrey Sinclair and Hugh Marsden investigation. .. When a fellow passenger is found dead on Audrey’s packet ship from France, a mysterious note on the body points to her as the killer...
  • The Moonstone Marquess by Meara Platt

    The Moonstone Marquess by Meara Platt

    Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 4 of 5
    Explicit open door [?] · 14 ratings
    What happens when a battle-scarred hero bent on destroying himself meets an irresistible force by the name of Phoebe? Lady Phoebe Killigrew is appalled by the scandalous country parties their new neighbor, a war hero marquess, is holding at his estate in Moonstone Landing. She has every intention of keeping well away from him, until a governess arrives at her door with his two nieces...
  • Murder Makes Waves by Anne George

    Murder Makes Waves by Anne George

    Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars
    · 23 ratings
    Those hilarious southern sisters, who prove that sibling rivalry never ends, are heading for a vacation at the beach...
  • Thunder of Heaven: A Joshua Jordan Novel by Tim LaHaye

    Thunder of Heaven: A Joshua Jordan Novel by Tim LaHaye

    Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars
    · 21 ratings
    Economies have fallen, freedom has been suppressed, and peace is a distant memory. The world is falling apart. Joshua Jordan's protege Ethan March, along with Jimmy Louder and Rivka Reuban have been left behind in a world that is rapidly coming under the complete influence of the Antichrist...
  • Miss Devoted by Grace Burrowes

    Miss Devoted by Grace Burrowes

    Rated: 4.37 of 5 stars
    · 15 ratings
    Psyche Fremont has known two constants in life: Her passion for her art, and society’s determination to ignore her talent. She isn’t looking for anything other than a handsome model when she crosses paths with Michael Delancey, and he’s only interested in making a few discreet coins lounging about in the altogether...
  • The Marriage of Mary Russell by Laurie R. King

    The Marriage of Mary Russell by Laurie R. King

    Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars
    · 32 ratings
    Laurie R. King takes readers way back in her bestselling series with this exclusive ebook short story, as Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes embark upon the riskiest adventure of their their wedding.   Includes a special preview of the highly anticipated new mystery from Laurie R...
  • The Devil's Teeth by Sabrina Flynn

    The Devil's Teeth by Sabrina Flynn

    Rated: 4.53 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Isobel Amsel is wasting away in an asylum. Mad with boredom, she recklessly risks her future wandering the countryside. When an excursion nearly turns deadly, Isobel fears one of her enemies is targeting her, but she quickly discovers something far more insidious. The lives of two boys are at stake, and she desperately wishes her partner were by her side. But Atticus Riot has problems of his own...
  • Murder at the Foundling Hospital by Irina Shapiro

    Murder at the Foundling Hospital by Irina Shapiro

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 23 ratings
    Gemma’s boots slip on uneven ground and her black cape catches in the wind as she runs. “Please, not Lucy,” she prays. Nurse Gemma Tate is heartbroken when she hears that one of her young charges at the Foundling Hospital has been killed...
  • The Cottage in the Highlands by Julie Shackman

    The Cottage in the Highlands by Julie Shackman

    Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    When Leonie Baxter finds herself out of a job and out of a relationship, she’s at her wits end. Her life has just been turned upside down and she needs a plan, fast. By chance, on a walk with her rescue puppy, Leonie stumbles across a striking house in the woods; fully furnished but unoccupied. As a journalist, she is determined to find out more, after all, reporting is in her nature...
  • Deadly Kin by Lucinda Brant, Matthew Lloyd Davies

    Deadly Kin by Lucinda Brant, Matthew Lloyd Davies

    Rated: 4.48 of 5 stars
    · 11 ratings
    Alec is back! Summer 1764. Alec and Selina anxiously await the birth of their first child at their estate in Kent. It should be a time of family celebration, but the death of a young poacher has Alec investigating murder. And when renovations to his sprawling manor unearth a secret burial chamber, a shocking family secret comes to light...
    Categorized as:
    mystery  suspense  georgian  historical  audiobook
  • Marriage and Murder by Stephanie Laurens

    Marriage and Murder by Stephanie Laurens

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    #1 NYT-bestselling author Stephanie Laurens returns with a puzzling case in which her favorite sleuths must untangle a slew of secrets to expose a coldblooded murderer...
  • Of Silver and Secrets by Michelle Griep

    Of Silver and Secrets by Michelle Griep

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    In 1889 England, Eva Inman finds herself overwhelmed with responsibility. Haunted by guilt over her parents' deaths, Eva struggles to care for her blind sister and manage her family's crumbling estate. With the threat of overdue taxes looming, Eva's situation grows dire until an ancient silver ring is unearthed on her property...
  • The Poison Puzzle by Emily Organ

    The Poison Puzzle by Emily Organ

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    A secret society. A suspicious death. A trail of deadly clues. London, 1889. When Emma Langley discovers a mysterious symbol in her late husband’s diary, she uncovers a connection to a secretive treasure-hunting group with powerful members. Her investigation takes an unexpected turn when Lord Charles Harpole, a society member, is found dying in his hotel room...
  • The Murder of Mary Russell by Laurie R. King

    The Murder of Mary Russell by Laurie R. King

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 36 ratings
    Mary Russell is used to dark secrets—her own, and those of her famous partner and husband, Sherlock Holmes. Trust is a thing slowly given, but over the course of a decade together, the two have forged an indissoluble bond. And what of the other person to whom Mary Russell has opened her heart: the couple’s longtime housekeeper, Mrs...
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