Where to read a love story on the Grand Strand, from Pawleys Island to the MarshWalk

Every love story needs a setting, and the Grand Strand has more than its share. Salt marsh at sunset, a beach town that has refused to change for a couple of centuries, a fishing pier with nothing but ocean ahead. Here are four places on the coast to open a love story, and one book to take with you.

Where should you read a love story at sunset on the Grand Strand?

Read at sunset on the Murrells Inlet MarshWalk, a half-mile wooden boardwalk along a saltwater estuary, according to the MarshWalk. The sunsets “arrive in true golden splendor just in time to highlight the boats returning for the evening,” and you may spot great white herons, blue herons and pelicans while you read.

There is live music every night, and there is “never a cover charge on the MarshWalk.” Read until the light goes, then close the book and stay for the band. That is the “Daylight” part of the evening.

Where is the most old-fashioned place to read on the Grand Strand?

Pawleys Island is the most old-fashioned place to read on the Grand Strand. The island is under four miles long, usually only one house across, and separated from the mainland by a salt marsh and two short causeways, according to the Town of Pawleys Island. Parts of it have changed little since the 1700s, and its nickname is “arrogantly shabby.”

Many of the old homes are still owned by the same families, generations later. It is the kind of place where a love story feels like it could last a hundred summers. Bring a paperback, not a tablet.

Where can you read on a pier on the Grand Strand?

Read on the pier at Myrtle Beach State Park, which opened in 1936 and was “the first park to open in the system,” according to South Carolina State Parks. The park protects 1 mile of undeveloped beach and sits among an oceanfront maritime forest. Its pier is “an awesome place for fishing, crabbing or watching wildlife,” and, we would add, for reading the chapter where they finally kiss.

Where can you read a love story in a castle on the Grand Strand?

Atalaya, in Huntington Beach State Park, is the Grand Strand’s castle on the beach. It was the “picturesque, Moorish-style winter home of Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington,” according to South Carolina State Parks, and the park has 3 miles of beach to read on afterward. Check the hours before you go, because the house can close for large events.

Which book should you take on a Grand Strand reading trip?

Take Book Lovers, by Emily Henry, because it is a love story about a woman who does not believe she belongs in one. Nora Stephens is a ruthless literary agent who has read every romance novel and is sure she is not the heroine. Her sister talks her into spending August in Sunshine Falls, North Carolina, and instead of a small-town romance, Nora keeps running into Charlie Lastra, a brooding editor from the city she has never gotten along with, according to Penguin Random House.

“One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn’t see coming.” It is rivals to lovers, it is set just up the coast from us, and Nora is pure “Welcome to New York” until a small town gets to her.

How do you plan a love story reading trip on the Grand Strand?

Pick one spot per day. Read in the morning on Pawleys Island, take the afternoon at Huntington Beach, catch the sunset on the MarshWalk and save the pier at Myrtle Beach State Park for another day. Pack a book, a towel, water and a hat. Leave the phone in the bag. The best love stories, on the page and off, happen when you are paying attention.

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