Title: Beach Read
Author: Emily Henry
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Published On: May 19, 2020
Publisher: Berkley
Source: physical copy
Pages: 384
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.
My thoughts
(Spoiler free!)
Do you know that feeling when you read a book and it’s so good that when you finish it, you wish you could unread it and read it all over again for the first time? That’s where I am, thanks to Emily Henry. Stuck with the worst book hangover. I’m in love with this book. I want to live in this book forever. Can you tell I liked it?
Bad things don’t dig down through your life until the pit’s so deep that nothing good will ever be big enough to make you happy again.
Emily Henry, Beach Read
I’d seen a few fellow readers say this book was dark. That the cover was misleading. That it wasn’t the funny, romantic “beach read” they expected. So I prepared myself to be disappointed. But within the first few pages, I knew I had nothing to worry about. I was smiling and laughing and swooning. While this contemporary romance does have more depth and ventures into a few more serious subjects, it still features witty banter and an angsty romance with the power to shatter your heart.
Even though the entire novel is told from January’s point of view, I felt like I knew Gus. That’s hard for a writer to do. Especially when the hero is the silent type. I understood these characters, and why they did and said what they did. They were far from perfect–real, with flaws that may or may not keep them apart.
It’s my favorite kind of book. And I’m already thinking about when I can reread it.
Thank you to the publisher, Berkley, for providing me with an advance copy.
My Rating:
About the Author
Emily Henry writes stories about love and family for both teens and adults. She studied creative writing at Hope College and the now-defunct New York Center for Art & Media Studies.
A Song For A Book
On Bookstagram I created a hashtag for when I include a song that reminds me of the book I’m sharing, #ASongForABook, I thought I’d make it a regular feature on my reviews, too.
When I love a book, I make a playlist to go with it. First, I always search to see if the author has already made one, but this time I couldn’t find anything. However, Beach Read has many references to music and film, so I started with that. I won’t say which songs are from the book and which ones I added myself because I don’t want there to be any chance of a spoiler, but I’ll include my Spotify Beach Read Playlist down below. The song I’ve chosen to highlight “Nothing Compares 2 U” by Sinéad O’Connor.
It’s been seven hours and 15 days
Since you took your love away
I go out every night and sleep all day
Since you took your love away
Since you been gone, I can do whatever I want
I can see whomever I choose
I can eat my dinner in a fancy restaurant
But nothing
I said nothing can take away these blues
‘Cause nothing compares
Nothing compares to you…
Have you read Beach Read? Or is it on your tbr? Let me know in the comments!
Happy Wandering!
I think I have this one on preorder and am really excited because it sounds (and looks!) so cute! Yours is the second positive review I’ve seen this week, so this makes me hopeful it’ll end up being a new favorite. 🙂
Oh yay!! I think it deserves all the love. I hope you enjoy it, too. <3
I am glad to see that you enjoyed this one Dedra. Yes, I had read a lot of mixed reviews and that’s okay. Every book is not for every reader.
<3 <3
I got this from Book of the Month. Can’t wait to read it!
Oh yay!! I hope you love it as much as I did. <3
I’ve seen the mixed reviews as well and wasn’t sure about it so I’m glad you liked it! The song choice is a cool idea 🙂
Yes, this is definitely one that I’ve been surprised about the mixed reviews. But I am a hopeless romantic. Ha!
This review makes me so excited to read! It’s on my TBR, so I can’t wait to get to it 🙂
Anika | chaptersofmay.com
Oh, I hope you love it as much as I did. I’ll be anxious to hear what you thought! <3
I am now legit 110% even MORE excited to read this book. I’ve been seeing so many reviews for it and the feel of FOMO is real BUT I just need to get my hands on this asap. Also feel like it’s more special coz it’s releasing on my birthday and it feels like a nice gift to me haha ? Love that you shared Nothing Compares 2 U (one of my all time faves!) but this whole playlist is amazing. Fabulous review post ?
Awww, Happy early birthday, Dini!! You definitely should pick this one up for your birthday, then. My husband’s birthday is tomorrow. Nothing like a Covid-19 birthday, huh? At least it’ll be memorable. 😉 A lot of great music is mentioned in this book, and I love when that happens! I hope you love it as much as I did. <3
I’ve only heard great things about this book, and definitely adding it to my TBR 🙂
Yay!! I hope you love it as much as I do. <3