In general, I do not read a lot of "adult" fiction. Don't get me wrong, I love to read it and "women's lit" will forever be one of my favorite genres, but I primary read middle grade and young adult books to stay on top of my work reading (I also love MG and YA). But, because of this, I put a lot of pressure on any adult books I do read. I don't read many, they often take me longer, and in the time I read one I could read 3 or 4 MG novels. So if I spend all that time reading one and then it isn't good? Hell. To. Pay.

So I was nervous when I realized how long it was taking me to read Beach Read. I got a good chunk of the way through it in one sitting and then I set it aside for a long time before coming back and finishing it in one other sitting. The reason for this, I think, is that this book is not as light or meaningless a read as you might guess from the cover. Yes, this is a story about January, a romance novelist, and Gus, a gritty literary author, old college rivals who reconnect one summer after finding themselves next door neighbors at an idyllic Michigan beach house. But it is also the story of two people whose lives are falling apart a little, January only recently after learning her recently-deceased father had a long-term affair while her mother was battling cancer.

Though I read this book much more slowly than I expected, I was blown away. As a romance, it is beautiful and easy to get caught up in, but there are also so many other things at play and I definitely cried ugly tears a few times. And, frankly, it's 2020 so I'll take any excuse for a good cry.

Summer is a time for sitting poolside with a drink in one hand and a light, fluffy novel in the other. But in Emily Henry’s Beach Read, the author of popular beach reads finds herself losing faith in the happy endings that her readers have come to expect from her.

Full review published on NightsAndWeekends.com and aired on Shelf Discovery

I enjoyed the story line. August took some time to genuinely like. I felt as though he could have opened up a bit sooner then he did. When he finally did open up it was the end of the story so it felt a bit rushed.

My Thoughts:

First things first: take those preconceptions of what you think this book will be and toss it out the window! Because I was definitely under the impression this would be a hate to love summer romance featuring two writers struggling to prove the other wrong. And to an extent, yes, that's what this is! But the bright, cheery romance-y illustrated cover did make me think this would lean more toward rom-com than serious women's fiction so I did feel a bit like there was a bit of a bait and switch there. However, it's not like that was a bad thing! I just wanted to point that out so you won't be going in expecting something different.

January and Augustus are two very different authors - a romance writer and a "serious" literary writer. As both are suffering from writers block, they take on the challenge of writing in the other's genre to prove that they can. I personally love when characters are also authors because it's sort of fun to see them talking about writing and publishing, it's almost a bit Inception-like? Or not, but I always think it's a fun aspect! Anyway, January is struggling majorly as she can't seem to write any of her normal happy romance stories as she deals with some serious life altering changes that has happened to her that year. These things are mentioned pretty much right off the bat at the beginning of the book but as it's not in the synopsis, I won't mention it in case of minor spoilers. All that to say, those things causing her writer's block? Are definitely some heavy things to deal with that are very much multi-layered and sets the tone of the book more toward the "serious fic" range of the dial than the "summer beach read romance" end. Which is a little ironic to me given the title.

Anyway, Gus also has things in his past that he is dealing with. Not only that, his childhood and events that essentially make him who he is and why he is the way he is are also pretty heavy. Taking all of that into consideration, you can see why I felt like a bait and switch had happened when I was expecting "rom com".

The story was very well told though. I loved the characters and really enjoyed seeing January and Gus' character arcs. It was great to discover how they changed each other over the course of the summer and how they came to fall in love. I really enjoyed January's inner dialogue too. She felt like a very real, well developed voice and that is definitely one of the best parts of Beach Read, in my opinion.

I think Beach Read is a thought provoking story. It constantly had me thinking how I would grapple with certain events as either January or Gus dealt with one thing or another. The setting was also a very summery locale so I will say if you're looking for that as a selling point when picking out a summer read, the small town setting here fits the bill.

In Short...

All in all, I liked the story and the characters but it was a lot more serious and sad than I expected. There is great banter and a romance I was rooting for but it really felt less of a romance than a story of two people figuring out their pasts and how to move forward. The romance just happened to well, happen to the two of them while they were figuring things out. The hype for this was huge, by the way, and I'm surprised because I definitely didn't end up loving it like everyone else. I enjoyed it! But I'm not sure if the discrepancy between what I expected and got is what lowers the rating for me or because I typically don't enjoy women's fic as much.

Exactly what you would expect from the cover - a great beach read. Great enemies-to-lovers story, with lots of family drama and secrets revealed.

I just loved this book!! It held so much depth and felt like a much more mature romance than Berkleys usual reads! I loved the character development throughout the book and the whitty banter between the two characters!

Another feel-good romance to keep up my reading mojo. Beach Read was delightful.

January writes best selling romance novels, but when her father dies and she discovers her parents' relationship wasn't at all the perfect romance she thought, she loses all her urge to write. But she's got a deadline, so she goes to her father's house on the coast of Lake Michigan to try to get some writing done.

Her neighbor gives her the most unfriendly, downright nasty, welcome, so she decides to just ignore him. Soon she discovers he is none other than Gus Everett, her college nemesis, who now is also a best-selling author.

These two are totally opposite, and well, you know the saying--opposites attract. And they do. The romance is a slow burn, and you can't wait for them to finally get together, but there are so many obstacles in their way. Lots of baggage on both sides. It starts when they decide they will trade genres--January will write literary fiction and Gus will write romance and the first one to sell their book will win. Some fun and dramatic situations ensue.

The sex is hot, but not too graphic, and the emotional baggage is kind of mature stuff. Older teens who are romance fans will enjoy Beach Read.

The "happily ever after" is expected, and it doesn't disappoint. The characters are well rounded, and there are a couple of side characters that add dimension. I fell hard for Beach Read. If you are in the mood for a feel-good romance that has enough substance to keep it from being to sappy, I would highly recommend it. I may need to keep up this romance trend...

I listened to my Version of this book. First let me say the narrator did a great job. She easily slipped into the voices of the various characters without being distracting which can also often be a nuisance when listening to audiobooks.

I would classify this as Chick lit with a literary bent. The characters are well written and fully developed. Even the characters who are bit players in the story feel real. There was no surprise about the main characters falling in love again but the storyline and the bumps in the road rang true for their situation. The issues they faced individually were not wrapped up in a pretty box and solved......and It made them seem much more human and relatable. There were times I wanted to shake the main character in her stubbornness to forgive but I ended up appreciating this trait and enjoying the book that much more because it made her Very vulnerable and real.

It doesn't get any beachier than a Beach Read about beach reads. Emily Henry quickly drew me into the character banter and the slowly developing relationship between author January and her rival, Gus. The description of the writing process, along with the all too familiar feeling of writer's block, would leave any writer shaking in their boots. If you like quirky, quasi-romances, this is the book for you.

I’m a sucker for any summer book with a pool or beach on the cover and Beach Read explains why. It’s meta, in that it plays out satisfying romantic tropes even as the characters discuss and dissect them. Their meet-cute and subsequent misunderstandings, for example, are straight out of Pride and Prejudice — only it’s between an esteemed Franzen-esque literary fiction writer named Gus and January, a bestselling writer of so-called chick lit. (Naturally, they embody the tension between high-brow and genre novels.)
Delighted to include it in Zoomer magazine's Read & Recommended department.

Hands down one of the best books I have read this year. I absolutely loved these two characters. I love a romance novel that has more substance to it then just following the same old structure that some tend to do. This book had me crying happy and sad tears at the end. Bravo.

Ohh my god, I absolutely adored this book. I had high hopes and was worried it wouldn't live up to expectations, but it most certainly did. Both January and Gus were such lovely, fully realized characters and I had such a great time reading about them. Their banter was absolutely perfect and I can't tell you how many times I giggled reading their back-and-forths. But this book isn't all sunshine and roses! In fact, there's a lot of darker content, from grief to recounting past abuse, so tread lightly. This was a book that made me laugh and cry and stay up as late as I could to read. Emily Henry is now going to be an auto-buy author for me (I really liked her debut and need to read more of her work!) and I'm excited to see what she comes out with next.

This was a fun novel about different perspectives on life and how they can attribute to your outlook and if you are a writer, how it affects your novels. January and Gus couldn’t have more different outlooks on life but that is what makes them work.

I really enjoyed the banter between them but it wasn’t all flirty; some of it was digging deep.into their pscyches.

A perfect light read for the summer, this book truly lived up to it's name. The main characters were likeable even with their flaws and it was a entertaining and captivating read. The author painted a very pretty picture of the town the book is based in, and the cast of supporting characters were well thought out and described as well. A page turner that I would definitely recommend.

This is one of my favorite books for 2020. Emily Henry has written a gorgeous slow burn romance set against a bright beach town.

Because both main characters are published authors, there’s a lot of self-referential literary talk. Discussion on books, reading, genres, and writing, are a major part of the story, which is such a treat for a librarian and long time book nerd such as me.

The characters of January and Gus were crafted so well that they leapt off the page and into my heart. Now they have a little place there where they reside, happy and in love forever. The rest of the characters were also very three dimensional which added to the depth of the novel.

I absolutely loved it and will be recommending to anyone who loves reading books about books, fans of romance and anyone looking for a summer read that will stay with them beyond the season’s end.

I don't know if anyone else felt this way, but it kind of reminded me a bit of Normal People by Sally Rooney in that its about the intimate world created by two people and their hurts, expectations, love, and ultimately the redemption they find in eachother.

The only thing I have to critique is that the cover nor the title really reflect the seriousness of this book. It makes me sad that there may be people who decided not to read it because it looks like so called 'chick lit' *especially* because the author did such a good job of arguing against the prejudices against women's fiction and romance, and the glorification of 'literary fiction' which are mostly books deemed respectable because they're written by men.

I went into this book not even having read the blurb, and I was delightfully surprised with the story, which is not at all what I thought it would be from the title. I read it in one sitting (thanks to my in-laws who have my children for a few days), which was fun and something I don’t normally get to do.

January and Gus, two authors of completely different genres are both suffering from writers block. They make a bet to see if the other can write a book in the opposite’s genre and get it published first while each week educating the other on their genre (romance for her, literary fiction for him) by taking planning outings for research.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: January Andrews, a bestselling romance author, finds that life isn’t quite what she expected it to be. She suddenly finds herself in the darkest part of her life, unsure of what to do next. Completely broke, and in desperate need to get over her writer’s block and finish her next book, January escapes to her father’s beach house but being there opens up memories of their past and when mixed with present-day, January finds that nothing was quite as it seemed. January wonders, can anything else go wrong? The answer is yes! It turns out that her new neighbor for the next 3 months is Augustus Everett, her grad school nemesis, and acclaimed author known for killing off his characters.

January and Gus have nothing in common except that they both seem to be struggling with writer’s block. They end up striking a deal with each other to help force them out of their creative ruts. They decide to swap writing styles, Augustus will spend the summer writing something with a happy ending and January will work on writing the next bestseller. To help with the writing process, January will take Gus on field trips worthy of any rom-com, and Gus will take her on research and interview trips. Will spending so much time together rekindle their grad school feelings for each other, or are they both past that now?

Review: I put off reading this for a couple of months and I’m really mad that I waited so long. This is the first book I have read by Emily Henry so I had no idea what to expect but this book was incredible! I couldn’t put it down, it was so good. I loved the writing style, realism, and relatable characters. Both characters were guarded, understandably so, but it was refreshing to see them work out their own issues and then come together.

“It’s hard to pinpoint the precise moment when we internalize others’ assessments; it’s usually not just a single experience but rather a series of moments that bruise the spirit and lead us to distrust ourselves and those around us.”
― Emily Henry, Beach Read

I recommend this book to everyone, not just those who love romance. It’s such a fantastic contemporary read with real problems. It was such an emotional and exhilarating read.

everything i love in a book and more. this book has so much more than meets the eye. obviously it has a ridiculously cute romance but it deals with some really hard-hitting topics as well. I especially appreciated the discussion around grief being that it's not some universal thing that everyone goes through in the same way. We were able to see that through the different people and how the loss at the forefront of the story affected them each differently. There's also discussions of abuse and physical violence in the past of a character that was handled quite well. overall I think that this book really stood out to me because it wasn't just a romance trying to be more than that but it was at its core a story about coming together after loss. highly, highly recommend.

This was the perfect beach read! Although I was expecting an ocean beach and not a lake beach, it was all good. The characters were great and I will definitely read her next book!

Beach Read by Emily Henry
• contemporary m/f romance, LGBTQ+ rep

Rating: 4 stars

January Andrews writes romance and August “Gus” Everett writes doom and gloom. Two complete literary opposites and former college rivals are forced to be neighbors for a summer on the shores of a beautiful lake.

January- broke and freshly wounded by a family a scandal, has to sell the beach house she’s staying in while meeting a writing deadline. Gus- also suffering with writer’s block and dealing with his own scandal, strikes up a deal with a January......
- they both have to write in each other’s genre and submit their books by the end of the summer. January takes Gus on the perfect rom-com field trips and Gus takes January with him to interview former members of a death cult.

Thoughts:
This was such a good book! January and Gus with their witty banter, little digs, and simmering sexual tension really kept me flipping the pages. The unraveling family drama was captivating and devastating at the same time.

January was a very likable and relatable character. Gus was the perfectly dark & broody, swoon-worthy, mysterious, closed off, cynical, resident {is he really though?} bad boy.

The side characters were great! I loved January’s bestie, Shadi, and Gus’ aunt Pete and her wife Maggie really stole some of the scenes.

Interest: 5/5
Romance: 4/5
Heat: 3.5/5
Happy Ending: Yes
Cliff Hanger: No
Would I recommend: Yes

*** I was given a copy of this book for an honest review by the publisher through Net Galley ***