Get Your Vitamin Sea With These 11 Novels Set on Cruise Ships

You’re going to want to dive right into these reads.

From rom-coms rocking the waves to thrillers in the deep sea, novels set on cruise ships are packed with potential. You’ve got a floating, isolated community—and a bunch of people who likely never met before embarking. And now they are stuck together, for better or worse, for a week-long sailing. One of the earliest examples of this is Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile, published in 1937, and among the newer books is a 2020 family saga that takes place on a cruise ship by Amanda Eyre Ward, a Reese’s Book Club pick. Recently published historical fiction is also not absent from the trend, whether the setting is a 1934 luxury cruise liner sailing from New York to Havana or a 1939 voyage to South Africa.

These 11 books are perfect for satisfying cruise wanderlust or tucking into a beach bag for your next cruise to read on the Lido Deck.