Discover Your New Favorite Beach Reads on Jekyll Island

If you love curling up with addictive beach reads that mix sun-drenched settings, real-life emotion, and a touch of danger, the Gem of the Golden Isles series is for you. Set on historic Jekyll Island, Georgia, these summer books follow destination wedding planner Tally Davis as she rebuilds her life after losing everything in Hurricane Maria and finds a second chance at love on the Georgia coast.

Written by Sandy Malone—star of TLC’s reality show “Wedding Island” and a veteran wedding planner who has coordinated more than 500 Caribbean destination weddings—this series blends real-world wedding and island experience with page-turning romantic suspense, making it ideal for your next stack of summer reads.

About the Gem of the Golden Isles Series

Gem of the Golden Isles is a four-book contemporary romance series set on Jekyll Island, following Tally Davis as she launches Jekyll Weddings, navigates demanding brides and grooms, and faces down long-buried grudges that threaten her new life. Across the series, Tally juggles rebuilding her career, reconnecting with a state trooper she once knew as a child, and confronting enemies who would rather see her fail than find her happily ever after.

These novels are short enough to pack as vacation beach reads but rich enough in character, setting, and suspense to keep you up turning pages long after the sun sets. They’re designed to be read in order, but each book delivers its own satisfying arc, making them perfect summer books whether you’re new to the series or already invested in Tally’s world.

Book One: Escape to Jekyll Island

In Escape to Jekyll Island, twenty-nine-year-old destination wedding planner Tally Davis loses her home, job, and boyfriend in one night when Hurricane Maria devastates Vieques Island, Puerto Rico. Evacuated back to her childhood home on Jekyll Island, she launches Jekyll Weddings—the island’s first dedicated wedding-planning company—and quickly starts booking clients, only to discover not everyone is happy she’s back or wants her to succeed.

As she reconnects with a “smoking-hot” state trooper from her past and walks into a ten-year-old grudge she never saw coming, Tally must decide whether she can truly start over on another island. Escape to Jekyll Island is the perfect entry point if you’re looking for an immersive summer read that combines coastal charm, second-chance romance, and the high stakes of pulling off flawless weddings under pressure.

Book Two: In Bloom on Jekyll

In Bloom on Jekyll picks up a year later, with Tally’s wedding planning company thriving as she struggles to balance demanding clients, complicated family dynamics, and a relationship with a state trooper whose job regularly puts him in harm’s way. To keep up with growth, she hires an assistant and convinces her best friend Yaya to move from Puerto Rico to help open a flower shop on the island.

But success comes with new risks: a former client with an unreasonable demand shows up, and when Tally refuses to cave, the woman sets out to destroy her business and reputation. In Bloom on Jekyll is a bingeable summer book that deepens the series’ emotional stakes while still delivering the breezy, coastal atmosphere you want in your beach reads.

Book Three: Treasure on Jekyll

By the time of Treasure on Jekyll, Tally has rebuilt her life in Georgia, grown her event-planning and floral business, and is happily engaged to the state trooper who once was just a childhood crush. When she takes her fiancé back to Vieques Island to help a former employer, she opens a Pandora’s box that follows her home in the form of someone with a vendetta who isn’t ready to let the past go.

Treasure on Jekyll leans into romantic suspense while keeping the series’ trademark humor, wedding-world drama, and island atmosphere. It’s a gripping, high-stakes summer read for anyone who loves their beach books with both heart and danger.

Book Four: In the Shadows on Jekyll

In the Shadows on Jekyll finds Tally a victim of her own success—her wedding and flower businesses on Jekyll Island are booming, and she’s newly blessed with motherhood at the same time. Unable to keep all the balls in the air alone, she brings on more staff, only to discover that not everyone she’s hired is who they claim to be, and some have come to Jekyll Island with darker motives.

As threats grow closer to home, Tally must once again rely on her state trooper husband, her instincts, and her island community to survive. In the Shadows on Jekyll is a darker, twistier installment that still delivers the emotional payoff and coastal setting that make this series a standout among modern beach reads.

Why These Are Perfect Beach Reads and Summer Books

All four Gem of the Golden Isles novels are set against real coastal locations—Jekyll Island, Georgia, and Vieques Island, Puerto Rico—that the author knows intimately from years of planning destination weddings and living on the islands herself. That lived experience shows up in the sensory details: the humidity before a storm, the logistics of beachfront ceremonies, the small-town politics of island communities, and the very real pressures brides and planners face.

Each story combines romance, mystery, and personal growth, with stakes that feel believable because they’re grounded in the world of real weddings and real disasters, from Category 5 hurricanes to high-maintenance clients. Whether you’re packing your suitcase for a vacation or just want your reading list to feel like one, these summer reads are built to transport you straight to the Golden Isles and keep you there through every chapter.

About Author Sandy Malone

Sandy Malone is best known for starring in TLC’s reality TV show “Wedding Island,” where viewers followed her planning complex destination weddings on Vieques Island, Puerto Rico. Beyond television, she has written hundreds of wedding advice columns for BRIDES, WeddingWire, and HuffPost, and authored a traditionally published DIY wedding-planning guide, How to Plan Your Own Destination Wedding, in 2016.

Before launching her wedding businesses, Sandy earned a journalism degree from The Ohio State University and worked as a reporter and editor for major news outlets before moving into public relations and government affairs. She went on to plan more than 500 destination weddings across the Caribbean over 11 years with her retired SWAT–commander husband, experience that directly informs the authenticity of Tally Davis’s world and the professional and emotional challenges depicted in the Gem of the Golden Isles series.

Today, Sandy and her husband, Bill, live on Jekyll Island with their coonhound Sherlock, giving her a front-row seat to the setting that anchors her fiction and makes these novels some of the most grounded, credible beach reads in contemporary romance.

How to Start Your Summer Reading Journey

If you’re new to the series, begin with Escape to Jekyll Island, then read In Bloom on Jekyll, Treasure on Jekyll, and In the Shadows on Jekyll in order to experience Tally’s full arc. Each book is available in multiple formats through retailers and partners, but when you buy directly from this site, you support the author and her small press most directly.

Create your own list of summer books by picking up the full Gem of the Golden Isles set, or add individual titles to your beach reads stack based on how much romance, suspense, or island intrigue you’re in the mood for. Whichever path you choose, Tally and the Golden Isles will be waiting for you on the shore.