Review: Beach Read by Emily Henry

Imagine this: you’re weeks into a reading slump and missing your favorite hobby so much. You glance at your colorful bookshelves longingly, with a silent wish that something would grip your attention so you can get lost in another world. A blue spine stands out among the paperback shelves… and here Beach Read is. You don’t know where it came from or how long its been there. But it calls to you so you get comfortable, crack it open, and are swept away by the most delightful of books.

Beach Read is a delight and cured my reading slump!

About Beach Read

Book Description

What’s the Gist

Publisher: Berkley Books •  Release Date: May 19, 2020 •  Pages: 361
Age Range: Adult • Genre: Romance • Format: Paperback •  Source: Owned

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.

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Read an Excerpt

✨ Read an excerpt from Beach Read on Bookreporter!

Representation

Casually queer world

Content Warnings

child abuse recounted, death of a parent, grief and loss, parental infidelity recounted, suicide cults discussed

My Review of Beach Read

Beach Read is an absolute delight and I wish I could read it for the first time again. I don’t read a lot of romance, so the fact it was on my shelves is a bit surprising to me but I am so glad I own a copy of this delightfully funny and sarcastic rom-com! It feeds my soul in a way I don’t think I can articulate and quite frankly has opened my mind up to a slew of new reading opportunities.

“That feeling that a new world was being spun like a spiderweb around you and you couldn’t move until the whole thing had revealed itself to you.“

Beach Read is as much about writer’s block as it is about romance. It’s a love letter to fiction and the craft of writing when for one reason or another it’s become difficult. It’s about the craft of writing romance novels while itself being a romance novel – I adore how meta it feels.

“No matter how much shit, there will always be wildflowers.”

The writing is instantly and effortlessly engaging and the book is simply devourable – the very definition of a beach read. Emily Henry is skilled at writing tension and attraction: every interaction between the pair sparks. And as a Type A person who is very competitive, the whole concept of the writing bet between these two authors speaks to me.

You see, January Andrews has gone through it the last year and is very late to deliver her newest romance novel because it turns out it’s difficult to write about happy endings when your whole worldview has been shattered. She heads to a small town in Michigan to hunker down and write, only to find her next door neighbor is her rival from university. Her ridiculously good looking rival who barely knew she existed and is a “serious literary fiction” author.

Augustus Everett. Gus. I don’t know why I am always for the broody type. One thing I really enjoyed about Gus is that January’s memory of him in college doesn’t quite match him in reality (isn’t that always the case?). First impressions and assumptions held over the years are tested while they both try to write their next book.

Enter: the bet.

January is to write a dark and gritty literary fiction book, Gus to write a romantic comedy. Each week they arrange outings and lessons to introduce each other to their genres. And as the weeks pass, they get closer and I felt like a giddy schoolgirl hoping they would hurry up and kiss already.

The barbed banter between Gus and MC is so good that I found myself laughing out loud often, falling quickly for this writing pair and hoping they would get together. All of the characters are soo full of life and well rounded, and I found myself relating to everyone at one point or another. The world Henry crafted feels lived in and real.

“When it came down to it, we both wanted the same thing. A life cast in a magical glow, every moment bigger and brighter than the last.”

The way Gus stole my heart should be illegal. He is flawed and jaded and our view of him is limited to January’s POV, and I honestly kind of loved that (although Gus POVs would have been cool, too).

This book is feel-good with a ton of heart for the genre. I had no expectations going into it and this book was exactly what I needed to shake the last vestiges of my reading slump: it’s quick paced and laugh out loud funny, and it won’t be the last book by this author that I read!

The Verdict

Highly recommended to fans of romantic comedies and romance in general, particularly with sarcastic and quick-witted banter.

Recommended if you enjoyed…

Let’s Chat!

No two readers experience a book in the same way; this was mine, but what about you?

💬  Have you read Beach Read yet? If so, what are your thoughts? (I’m sure to be the last one to read it in the book community!)

💬  Did I convince you to add this book to your TBR?

💬  What are your favorite rom-com books? I NEED MORE LIKE THIS

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