Title: Beach Read
Author: Emily Henry
Genre: contemporary romance
Publisher: Berkley Romance
Publication Date: 2020
Format: Paperback
Length: 389 pages

Read if you like: friends to lovers, second chance romance, forced proximity, opposites attract, bookish settings, summer vibes

Rating:

Contemporary romance isn’t a genre I read a whole lot of. I often visit these books in between heavy fantasy novels as little palate cleansers that help me shift gears and stay out of a reading rut. Because of this, it’s taking me a long time to get through Emily Henry’s backlist, despite knowing that I love her writing and that I always enjoy her stories. After reading Beach Read, I found myself kicking myself for not prioritizing getting through her catalogue faster, because it was, in my opinion, a perfect romance.

There was so much to love in Beach Read. It had wonderfully lovable characters, a super fun premise that was both humorous and heartfelt, and it repeatedly had me kicking my feet in delight. Every time I read a new Henry novel, it becomes my new favourite book of hers, and that was the case with this book. I loved this one so much that I’ll be swooning over the story for ages.

The Book Synopsis: Beach Read by Emily Henry

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.

The Review

What an astonishingly good romance. My heart feels tender from how much emotion it’s just been through. Emily Henry never misses for me.

First, I loved January as a lead character. She was perfectly flawed, but simultaneously strong, and I loved that she had the confidence and depth to assert herself when the moment called for it. It left little room for misunderstandings because typically she was willing to address confusion or a lack of clarity head-on, and this meant that it felt like an actual grown-up relationship she had with Gus, even if both of them carried baggage and issues that still needed to be dealt with. Miscommunications and a lack of confidence are two aspects in a romance that drive me insane when badly executed, so I loved that there was little of either in this book, and when they were present, they were handled with maturity.

The nuance of January’s relationship with her father was one of my favourite aspects of the book. It’s so easy to forget that parents are also just people, and sometimes people fall and make mistakes and do ugly things. I loved the way that Henry explored this throughout the book and was so touched by how she chose to provide January with the insight she craved into why her father made the decisions that he did. It was heart-shattering, but so well done. It was a love story within a love story, and one that my heart desperately needed.

The romance with Gus was rock solid, and I felt like the pacing that led to the crescendo of their coming together was perfect. I liked Gus as a character, and the drawing out of his traumas and how they shaped who he was and what he brought to a relationship was very thoughtful and well executed. I don’t know if he on his own is my favourite male lead I’ve ever encountered, but how he fit with January and how their stories joined and at that juncture did feel perfect.
Also, for a book that carried so many heavy emotions, it was ridiculously funny and quick in parts, and I felt like that helped carry me through. I loved the banter, loved the extended cast, and also loved the setting. It was an altogether fantastic story, from front to back.

Another truly excellent Henry novel, and another of hers I wish I’d read sooner. This was an easy 5 stars for me.