Today I’m sharing my review of Beach Read by Emily Henry. I think this is a great summer read, which is why I included it in my Summer Reading Guide.
Synopsis
A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.
Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.
They’re polar opposites.
In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block.
Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.
Why did I chose to read this book
This book was all over Instagram over the past few months, I needed to see if it lived up to the hype. I am picky with romance books but a few people that have similar taste to me in romances liked it so I decided to pick it up. I read this while at the beach (I had to!).
Rating
4 Stars (An Excellent book!)
My Thoughts
This is an enemies to lover romance and in my opinion it was executed perfectly! It definitely lived up to the hype for me. The story addresses some heavier topics in a beautiful way and I couldn’t get enough of it. The premise of two authors writing their books was fascinating to me.
One of the things I loved about the couple in the book is that they actually talked to each other! I don’t like it when the main plot of a romance is that the characters have poor communication skills. I loved that they expressed their feelings to each other and not only the woman but also the man. Gus was a complex character and I loved that.
I really enjoyed the banter and pop culture references throughout the book. She mentioned Taylor Swift early on so she had me at that! I laughed out loud at certain parts and I think that’s an indication of a good romantic comedy.
I had a copy of the audio book (thanks to libro.fm!) so I listened to a few chapters in audio and I recommend that format. Julie Whelan, who is my favorite audio book narrator, narrates the book and as always is amazing.
Content Warnings
Loss of a parent, mentions of past abuse, infidelity, suicide cults, grief
Who I recommend this book to
If you like romances that have depth I think you’ll like this one. If you liked The Flatshare and The Simple Wild I think this is for you.
Get the book!
Did I convince you to read this book? You can get it from Bookshop.org here or Amazon here. Please consider ordering it from a Black owned independent bookstore. This list of Black owned independent bookstores accepts online ordering.
