Susan Mallery delivers a heartfelt and immersive escape in Beach Vibes, a charming summer listen that blends emotional depth with warmth, friendship, and second chances. Set in a breezy coastal town filled with sun, secrets, and healing, this audiobook captures the spirit of starting over and finding one's place in the world.

The narration is engaging and well-paced, bringing the characters' vulnerabilities and humor to life. Mallery’s trademark focus on emotionally rich storytelling, combined with relatable female protagonists navigating relationships, career shifts, and personal growth, makes this another standout in her catalog.

Perfect for fans of uplifting women’s fiction, Beach Vibes is a relaxing yet emotionally satisfying listen—ideal for those who enjoy their drama with a side of sand and sunshine.

Recommended for:
Listeners who enjoy contemporary women’s fiction, stories of friendship and self-discovery, and audiobook performances that feel both intimate and heartfelt

Beach Vibes
By: Susan Mallery

The vibes:
- follows two women’s love stories + the development of their friendship
- dual POV between the two FMCs
- best friend’s brother
- second chance romance
- single mom / single dad
- friends to lovers
- big plot twist
- beach town + charming locals

I enjoyed this book a lot!! For a while I was confused by the length of the book but understood why once the plot twist happened. The ending of Jana’s story as a result of the plot twist felt a little rushed and I wished we had gotten to see more of that relationship! The plot twist was super surprising but felt a little out of nowhere, but I guess that’s what a plot twist is! Overall it was a great story with characters I was rooting for, at least all but one 😉

The narrator was great but I think it would have been ideal to have at least 2 different narrators because it was easy to confuse which FMC’s POV we were in at times.

Content warnings: cheating, narcissistic character, neglect/abandoned by a parent, brief recollection of near miss of child sexual abuse experience, loss of partner/parent, grief

Thank you to NetGalley & the author for access to this ARC in return for my honest review!

Beth runs a great small business making sandwiches in Malibu, and though she is still dealing with the aftermath of a recent divorce, she has family who loves her dearly - namely her younger brother Rick, who rose from foster care to a surgical residency thanks to Beth’s support. Apart from Rick and her co-workers, Beth doesn’t have any close friends, but once she meets Jana, life feels great! Things get even better when Jana and Rick start dating, and Jana’s handsome brother immediately catches Beth’s eye. But can two sets of siblings survive awkward jealousy and a potential cheating incident? Beth just wants to see her brother and best friend happy, and Jana wants the right man to complete her family, but love and loyalty repeatedly clash in this emotional and funny novel.

This was a quick listen and I really enjoyed having each woman’s POV! Jana is a single mom who is weary of introducing a partner to her young daughter, and Beth is learning to value the contributions she makes to her business, friends, and family after a rough childhood and recent divorce. Somewhat predictable, but no less enjoyable, it was a fun reflection on what those we love show us, and who they are when we aren’t around!

Thank you Harlequin Audio and NetGalley for the listening copy!

I was hoping for a fun, summery light hearted read, but I got family drama, secrets and questionable choices.

I really enjoyed some aspects of the book. I loved Beth's growth through the book. She really looked inside and was a much better version of herself at the end of the book. I enjoyed that things got messy and people had to struggle with what to do. I loved the small town beachy vibes of the setting but the setting was not enough to name the book after. I loved the found family aspects of the book.

What I didn't like was that there were some major plot issues. Beth never asked the name of the woman her brother was dating? Rick felt a bit too much of a jerk. I know that there are people like that out there but Beth would have seen something before now. I honestly didn't feel like chemistry between anyone in the books. Honestly, I thought Beth and Kai had the most chemistry.

The narrator was really good though. She did a great job with the voices and keeping the energy of the book going.

At times this book is like the title, light hearted sunny and full of beach vibes. And then other times the book is full of depth, hard situations, relationships and love. But this mix between the two is what makes it a good beachy read. It takes place in Malibu and you don't often find that in beach reads. The relationships are tricky and filled with real life situations. So that is good. This is my first book by this author, but it won't be my last!

A fabulous sweet romance that will have you going through all the feels. This author is extremely talented at crafting a unique cast of characters, giving them emotional depth and creating personal interactions that will have you laughing, crying and everything in between! This book in particular goes through the relationships between friends, family and significant others showing new love, long term love and second chances at love along with familial love and friendship love. I was absolutely blown away by this book as I sniffled or giggled my way through it. The narrator did an outstanding job of helping to bring the characters to life making you want to laugh with them, cry with them, smack them upside the head and a gambit of other reactions! I have been a huge fan of this author for quite some time and this audiobook once again confirmed that I am still strongly a fan!

Thank you to Netgalley & Harlequin Audio for approving this audiobook for me. I really enjoyed this story from Susan Mallery. This is the 2nd book I've read from her & I really enjoy her writing style. The narrator for the audiobook did a really good job portraying the characters & really kept my attention the whole time. I loved how she made me feel certain emotions & I felt I was going through the same feelings as the characters at certain times. Overall I really enjoyed both the physical book & the audiobook & I would definitely recommend them both to anyone that likes heart felt romantic stories.

DNF at 50%. This did not feel like a beach book at all. It’s romance and disjointed and an uninteresting at best. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced audio.

Now that it’s finally starting to get a little warmer here, my inner mood reader is ready for some beach reads so of course I had to reach for Susan Mallery’s new book Beach Vibes first.

Beth is divorced and living in Malibu with her aunt. Beth owns a popular sandwich shop on the beach and she also likes to spend her time volunteering at the local food bank, where she has recently made a new friend, Jana. Beth’s younger brother, Rick, also lives in the area. He’s a surgeon and doing well for himself, but Beth still feels the need to play the protective older sister. Worlds collide when Rick brings his new girlfriend around and it turns out to be Beth’s friend, Jana. Beth also soon ends up dating Teddy, Jana’s brother.

At first everything is going great & Beth is imagining their futures together as one big happy family, but then she catches Rick cheating on Jana and ends up in the dilemma of all dilemmas - does she betray her cheating brother or does she keep his secret and risk losing Jana’s friendship and Teddy’s love if it ever comes out that Rick cheated and she knew about it?

Oh my gosh, the drama! I felt for Beth because what an impossible situation to be put in. I also loved how Mallery wrote all of these characters as flawed, messy, and realistic. I have to say though that, unlike Beth, I would not have had a dilemma. I would have thrown Rick under the bus in a heartbeat and saved my friendship and relationship, haha. I’m sure I would have felt differently if Rick was my brother, but I just hated how condescending he was toward Beth and wanted her to tell him off so badly instead of always giving him a pass.

Tanya Eby narrates the audiobook and I thought she did a wonderful job bringing all of the characters & especially the emotional scenes to life.

If you like stories about family, friendship, betrayal & forgiveness, and the lengths people will go to for loved ones, check out Beach Vibes.

Thank you for the opportunity to listen to this book.

When I saw the cover of this book, I thought it was going to be a cozy beach vibes book, with an interesting story tied in. I found the story lines did not really give beach vibes for me.

The twists were ok. I wanted more beach vibes throughout though. More surfing, maybe more beach stuff.

I felt bad for the FMCs as Rick was such a major jerk, and I think anytime there is a surgeon in a book, I might want to stop reading right there because they are all ego maniacs.

The narrating was ok, but her voice didn’t seem like that of a thirty something, but someone older, it was hard to picture the characters that way. Sorry, but that’s my thoughts.

I also found there wasn’t always a clear distinction between the POV. I would not be sure if we were in Jan’s pov, or Beth’s pov, it didn’t seem clearly marked by chapters for the audio, maybe there was something on paper to show when there character changed. I don’t know.

Beach Vibes by Susan Mallery
When you look at the cover, you think beach read, and it can be, but it's so much more. It's a work of contemporary fiction that has it all...the beach vibes of the seaside cafe, but it's also rich in deep themes of family and relationships, with the trope of second chances. The strong characters from dysfunctional families show how brother-sister teams journey to find what makes a family really work.

Wow! WOW!! I couldn't put this book down! I fell in love with the FMC Beth (that is not in her early 20s) and took pity on her for the struggles she went through. The drama she went through was very relatable for women going through breakups. She had to rebuild everything about herself when she went through her divorce. She lost all her friends and she felt she lost a huge part of herself until Jana and her brother <3 The story that Susan Mallery developed was so addictive. I highly recommend this book and need more work like this!

I've liked Mallery's summer books before but this one felt too cookie-cutter/boring for me. Two women, two relationships, cute beach town vibes. Nothing super interesting happened for me and even though the narrator was good, I just couldn't bring myself to finish it. Not the right book for me but would still recommend for fans of authors like Mary Kay Andrews or Brenda Novak. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 ~ 𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐇 𝐕𝐈𝐁𝐄𝐒 ~ 𝐛𝐲 𝐒𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐲 ~ A thanks to Canary Street Press, Harlequin Audio and NetGalley for an ARC copy of this book. I will pick up a book by this author once in a while, usually as a palette cleanser and because the title and/or the cover grab my attention. That was the case with this book. I thought maybe I was getting a jump of a summer beach read rec that I could offer to friends. Alas, this title and cover are completely misleading as the only beach in the whole story is the Malibu setting, a surfer character, and that it takes place over the summer season. Otherwise this is deep dive Chick Lit, Family Drama, Women’s Fiction, kinda corny/cheesy romance. There is a huge audience for this type of story, and Mallery oeuvre has garnered her millions of fans around the world, so I will not disparage any of that. The quick shot: Sometimes these stories and characters are a hit for me, sadly this one was just a little too cloying and schmaltzy for my tastes. There was not much character development, which didn’t give me anything to care about, and the dialogue was staccato and truncated throughout making it even more strident.
I was pushing to get through to the extremely predictable ending and was relieved when I finished reading. Pretty cover… the rest not really to my liking… so sorry… much respect for this well established Women’s Fiction author.
⭐⭐
𝐇𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐥𝐥! 📚♥️

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC of Beach Vibes by Susan Mallory
I listened to the audiobook.
Normally an author who's books I love, this one didn't do it for me. I could not get into the book, couldn't connect with the characters and the title didn't fit the book. It's unfortunate as I was really looking forward to this book. I wasn't fond of the narrator either, I hate to say, her voice wasn't warm and didn't make me feel like listening.

This starts out a bit slow. It's about two new friends finding romance with unlikely people and then one of those men n being related to the other friend and not as honest as he ought to be. An interesting read but not my favorite by this author.

Beth Nield and her brother Rick were raised in foster care until they were rescued by their Aunt Agatha. Beth is proud of her brother, who is now a successful surgeon, but he is naive when it comes to women and Beth is always there to give advice and help. When they were children, Rick did something to save Beth and she feels it is her responsibility to protect him. Beth runs a successful Sandwich Shop, Surf Sandwiches, on Malibu beach. She is divorced and lives with her Aunt. Once a week, she volunteers at the food bank and has become friends with one of the other volunteers, Jana Mead, who is also a part time medical billing clerk. When Rick introduces Jana to Beth as his new girlfriend, she is surprised. Things become complicated when Beth meets Jana's widowed brother, Teddy, and they hit it off. They begin dating and Rick wants her to break it off. She doesn't know why, but refuses. When she catches Rick cheating on Jana, it puts her in a tough spot, but he is her brother, she has to believe him, doesn't she?

I really liked Beth. She had been raised under difficult situations until her aunt came along. She was so protective of her younger brother and wouldn't let anything hurt him. Unfortunately this spoils Rick and blinds Beth to any of his faults. Jana is another wonderful character. She has a daughter that she has raised as a single mother, but with help from Teddy. Teddy has two children and Jana helps with them. She is thoughtful, caring, loyal, hardworking and a wonderful mother and aunt. I really liked the friendship that Beth and Jana developed. I like plots where women support women. The three kids are all adorable. Raised with good values, they are polite and respectful, but also a little precocious and ask questions and make statements that caused a few uncomfortable feelings. Teddy also has a best friend, Max, who helps him with the kids and acts as a sounding board for Jana. All these characters work together in life to make themselves comfortable and successful. I didn't like all the characters at the end and you will have to read this one to find out why. This is a wonderful book full of family relationships, love, friendship, personal growth and some romance. There is drama, but that adds to the character development. I really enjoyed this story in both the ebook and audiobook format. Tanya Eby narrates this book and I enjoyed her performance, but the voices of the children were a bit off to me. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good family story, one with friendship, some turmoil, cute kids, and romance.

2.5 stars rounded up

I had high hopes for Beach Vibes but unfortunately those fell short. At nearly 11 hours long, I found myself wanting to step away and pick up something else. Unfortunately, I'm hardwired to finish so that's what I did.
I may be the only one that feels this way, but the narration started me off on the wrong foot. I wondered at first if I was listening to an automated computer reading to me. It never got any better and I wanted to scream out to just read like your speaking, not teaching an English Language class. I found the characters mostly unlikeable with long standing family drama and relationships that develop out of nowhere. I also had an inclination as to where the story was headed very early on.
While I enjoy other books by Susan Mallory, this one missed the mark for me.
Many thanks to Harlequin Audio and Netgalley for the opportunity to listen to this advanced audiobook in exchange for any honest review. All opinions expressed are authentically my own.

Beach Vibes by Susan Mallery follows Beth, a recently divorced sandwich shop owner living in Malibu, and her brother Rick, a confident (borderline arrogant) surgeon. When Beth forms a friendship with Jana at the local food bank and begins dating Jana’s brother Teddy—while Rick starts seeing Jana—the story sets up for an interesting family dynamic and potential drama.

While the setup was strong and the characters easy to follow, the plot unfortunately became quite predictable. It was clear early on that something felt “off,” and the tension never quite built in a surprising or fresh way. As a longtime fan of Mallery’s work, this one didn’t quite hit the mark for me.

That said, the pacing was solid, and readers looking for a light beach read with low-stakes romance and family drama may still enjoy it.

Thank you to Harlequin and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Susan Mallery always delivers a great book and she continues it with, "Beach Vibes". Tanya Eby brought this story to life in the best way. Great book.