There are some absolutely wonderful novels hitting the bookshelves this spring.

If by some chance you don’t get to read these books before heading off for vacation, take one or more with you.

Dune Road

By Jane Green

Plume, 2010, $15

“Dune Road” will make a great beach read. Kit Hargrove, who lives in the Connecticut town of Highfield, is now divorced from her husband and finally feeling at peace with life. Her relationship with her ex-husband is relatively friendly, and she is no longer a “Wall Street widow.”

Now that things have settled down, Kit takes a job as an assistant to a well-known author, Robert McClore, who has been something of a recluse since the death of his wife. When Robert meets Kit’s friend, Tracy, things seem to change, and not necessarily for the better.

This will grab you from the first page, and you’ll probably go through this one pretty quickly.

A Soft Place to Land

By Susan Rebecca White

Touchstone, 2010, $14.99

Julia and her half-sister Ruthie are separated when their parents are killed in an airplane crash. Julia must go to live with her father and stepmother, and Ruthie moves to San Francisco to live with Aunt Mimi and Uncle Robert.

This beautifully written book follows the sisters as they try to work through their grief individually and together.

It’s somewhat easier for Ruthie, who becomes comfortable in her surroundings. Julia, on the other hand, contends with a stepmother who rules the roost, and living in a small town.

Eventually, a dispute keeps the sisters apart, but it all comes to a head when Julia writes a memoir and reveals one of Ruthie’s closely guarded secrets.

Another book that will be difficult to put down.

Love in Mid Air

By Kim Wright

Grand Central, 2010, $23.99

This book is garnering rave reviews and a lot of comment on Facebook, too, I see.

Elyse Bearden meets a stranger on plane, and the connection is so immediate and so strong that she finds herself ready to pursue an affair with him.

Elyse and her group of friends are all reaching a point in their lives during which they are experiencing ups and downs in their marriages, but Elyse seems to be feeling it the most.

Readers get a sense of her struggle about all of her relationships as well as her work.

This book is another page-turner.

Contact Faye Dasen at fdasen@thepilot.com.