This book cover image released by Berkley shows, ‘Falling’, by Jane Green. (AP)

NEW YORK, June 1, (AP): When customers at Indigo Books in Johns Island, South Carolina, ask for a good beach read, Mary Alice Monroe’s “A Lowcountry Wedding” is an obvious choice. Not only does Monroe live nearby, her book is set along the South Carolina coast.

“It’s a surefire hit,” says Indigo owner Linda Malcolm, who also recommends Louise Penny’s upcoming “A Great Reckoning” and John Sandford’s “Extreme Prey.”

With summer approaching, bookstores are offering local favorites and national hits, faraway adventures and stories quite close to home.

* At Books & Books in Coral Gables, Florida, store owner Mitchell Kaplan recommends John Dufresne’s latest Wylie Coyote detective caper, “I Don’t Like Where This is Going,” calling it a “hilariously inventive and funny whodunit.” Kaplan also likes the latest novels from James Grippando, James W. Hall, and Brad Meltzer, and puts in a word for Florida’s Carl Hiaasen, whose books “we read anytime of the year.”

* Barnes & Noble, where outlets range from Gulfport, Mississippi, to the heart of Manhattan, provided a list of reads featured at stores around the country. Suggestions include Richard Russo’s “Everybody’s Fool,” his sequel to the acclaimed “Nobody’s Fool,” and Louise Erdrich’s “LaRose,” along with novels that actually take place on a beach, among them Dorothea Benton Frank’s “All Summer Long” and Nancy Thayer’s “The Island House.”

* “Everyone has their version of the beach whether they are going to the lake, the park or dreaming of the beach so ‘beach reading’ is more a place of mind than literal from our perspective,” explains spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating.

* At Forever Books in St. Joseph, Michigan, where you can see Lake Michigan just by stepping out the back door, store owner Robin Allen cites the best-selling “The Second Life of Nick Mason,” by crime writer and Michigan native Steve Hamilton and Mary Kubica’s popular “Don’t You Cry,” a thriller set in a Michigan harbor town more than a little like St. Joseph. She also likes Jessica Brockmole’s “At the Edge of Summer,” noting that “anything with the word ‘summer’ in the title does really well.”

* On Cape Cod in Massachusetts, manager Val Arroyo of the Brewster Book Store says that she likes to recommend the historical fiction of Sally Cabot Gunning, whose “The Widow’s War” is set in colonial Cape Cod. Elin Hilderbrand is another perennial best-seller and her upcoming novel, “Here’s to Us,” takes place on the nearby island of Nantucket. Arroyo also has hopes for Yaa Gyasi’s “Homegoing,” which begins in Ghana in the 18th century and continues into the present.

“It’s just so beautifully written, and it’s by a first-time author, which I love,” she said.

Here are some other suggestions for that summer read on the beach, at the park, on the train or plane, or wherever you find yourself wanting to turn a page to escape.

* “One True Loves: A Novel” (Washington Square Press,) by Taylor Jenkins Reid

A young woman named Emma finds love again with Sam after losing her husband, Jesse, in a helicopter crash. Just when things seem too perfect, Jesse resurfaces. Emma is torn between her old life and love and her new one. Author Taylor Jenkins Reid is so talented at creating characters you believe in, it’s hard to root for one scenario over another. This is what makes “One True Loves” so compelling.

* “The Girls” (Random House,) by Emma Cline

A lonely, self-conscious teen named Evie is drawn into a cult like the Manson family of the 1960s. The story examines how a so-called “normal” girl would end up in a cult. “The Girls” by Emma Cline is a dual narrative showing Evie’s teenage seduction into this bizarre world and then Evie’s life decades later as an adult, when she’s tried to put the past behind her.

* “Dear Fang, With Love” (Knopf,) by Rufi Thorpe

Lucas, an absentee father, reconnects with his teenage daughter, Vera, after she’s diagnosed as being bipolar after having an episode at a party. Unsure of how to handle the daughter he barely knows and how to be a parent, Lucas whisks Vera away to Lithuania to heal. It’s the first time they’ve spent any real time together and we learn about fathers and daughters, mental illness and how the past can affect the present in Rufi Thorpe’s “Dear Fang, With Love.”

* “Monsters: A Love Story” (G.P. Putnam’s Sons,) by Liz Kay

Stacey, a recently widowed mother from Omaha who is a moderately successful poet, is contacted by A-list actor Tommy who wants to turn one of her works into a movie. The two embark on a romance that on paper should never work but the two can’t resist each other. “Monsters: A Love Story” by Liz Kay follows the pair as they try to make sense of what’s happening between them.

* “Falling” (Berkley,) by Jane Green

Jane Green already has a following of loyal readers that will gobble up any of her offerings, but some are calling “Falling” her best yet. It’s about Emma, from the upper crust of British society, who moves to Westport, Connecticut, to find herself and start over. She falls in love with her landlord and an emotional roller coaster ensues.

* “The Outliers” (HarperCollins,) by Kimberly McCreight

“The Outliers” by Kimberly McCreight is about a young woman named Wylie who sets out to save her best friend from some sort of mysterious trouble with the help of her best friend’s on-again, off-again boyfriend. This novel reads like a psychological thriller and mind game.

* “Maestra” (G.P. Putnam’s Sons,) by L.S. Hilton

The first in a trilogy series, “Maestra” by L.S. Hilton follows Judith Ashleigh, who works at an art gallery in London by day and a champagne bar at night. She uncovers an art forgery conspiracy and her life goes down a dangerous, erotic path. Already a hit in London, the book is being adapted into a film.