This book really took me by surprise in the best possible way. I expected Beach Read to simply be a lighthearted romance, perfect for a day of relaxing at the beach or pool. While there is humor a plenty, which I gobbled up, it is actually a very touching story.

January Andrews is a disillusioned bestselling romance author suffering from a severe case of writer’s block. With a publishing deadline looming over her, January retreats to a beach house to revive her passion for writing and work out some personal issues.

January’s new neighbor is Gus Everett, a renowned author of “serious” (in his case, introspective and depressing) fiction who has stalled in the middle of writing his next book. The two authors could not be more different in terms of writing styles and personalities. January has always been open, cheerful, and sentimental. Gus is mysterious, pessimistic, and judgmental. Their quasi adversarial relationship evolves after the two strike a deal to swap genres and complete their books by the end of summer.

I was completely enamored by January. She no longer has the ability to care about what others think of her and that really resonated with me. With her razor sharp wit, she could give a TED Talk on trading barbs. Gus is a favorite target of hers, but he keeps up with his end of their flirty banter. It’s January’s transparent vulnerability that truly moved me. She is struggling with a bit of an identity crisis and both characters are grappling with betrayal and loss in various forms. I was rooting for these two every step of the way. Their weekly outings are sometimes whimsical and sometimes emotional.

I really enjoyed January’s relationship with her ride-or-die best friend. Every person needs a friend like Shadi. The quirky townspeople are also a hoot.

Beach Read is a clever, funny, and poignant love story. What a treat to read.

Despite the light and cheery cover and title, this book contained some serious topics: infidelity, death of a parent and the significant emotions that follow, affecting everything in your life-it did not skip over the hard stuff. This book made me laugh but also made me UGLY CRY. I'm talking BAWLING at 1:30 am. There isn't a ton I can say that hasn't already been put out there, but I will share my favorite things.

The banter between Gus and January, they were so good together. Natural and not forced at all. Gus was a bit of a grump, which is my fave.
The literary/writing references. The book is perfect for book lovers!
The defense of the HEA! I talk all the time about how romance gets a bad rap and this book hits the nail on the head.
Gus' aunts and January's best friend Shadi - what great supporting characters!
The letters......
The romance. Of course, I'm a romance lover and there was romance and well placed steam.

I'm telling you, read this book!!! On a beach, in your bed, wherever. It is a book that I would recommend to every genre reader. It will give you all of the possible feels and that ugly cry you've been needing to get out.

This book offers a slow burn of perfect feel good romance and well written plot elements. The characters are extremely well developed and I thoroughly enjoyed reading their story as it unfolded before my eyes. This is a spectacular book and well worth the hype it has been receiving. I can easily see this landing on many "Best Books of Summer 2020" reading lists and that is a well deserved honor! Do not miss it!

This book wasn't on my radar until I spotted a rave review of it on Instagram, but I still decided to request it for review. I'm so glad I did because it quickly became one of my favorite reads of the year! When I first started it, I was intrigued but not immediately invested. But the more I read, the more I loved it! I loved the the backstories of the hero and heroine, fell for their quippy banter, and thought the premise worked so well. The storyline involving the heroine's father was so moving, and I loved how Henry explored whether we can know our parents fully. Another favorite aspect? The heroine and her best friend. I am so here for books celebrating strong female friendships! It was a lot more emotional than I expected, and I'm So Obsessed With It.

Emily Henry’s new novel, Beach Read, is a book you don’t want to judge by its cover. The cover is adorable of course and I love it, but it definitely gives off a vibe that this is going to be a fun, fluffy read to enjoy while you’re lounging in the sand. Beach Read is so much more than that though – it’s a beautifully written, multi-layered story with realistic and complex characters that will tug at your heartstrings the entire time you’re reading. I love a book that takes me on an emotional journey, and Beach Read made me laugh, it made me cry, and just ultimately had me fully invested in these characters and their lives from start to finish.

One of my favorite parts about Beach Read is that both protagonists are writers. January Andrews is a romance writer and is an ace at writing novels where true love wins and they all live happily ever after. Her belief system when it comes to love and romance is driven by her parents, but when her father dies, she learns something about him that shatters her view of him and of love and romance. Not only is it devastating to her personally, but it has given her a wicked case of writer’s block. With a book deadline looming and an agent hounding her relentlessly, January retreats to her father’s second home, a beach house located in a remote but charming small town. It is here that she runs into our second protagonist, Augustus (Gus) Everett, who is living in the beach house next door and who coincidentally is also a writer whose specialty is literary fiction. And if that’s not enough to entice you, he also just happens to be January’s main rival from her college writing program. January is not a fan of Gus’s at all and can’t imagine anything worse than having to live next door to him all summer while trying desperately to make her deadline.

I was sympathetic to January right away. She’s going through so much because of the losses she has suffered and now she has to deal with the tension with Gus on top of it. But, boy do these two have chemistry! It’s off the charts honestly and I love how much the actual writing process plays a role in how their relationship evolves from rivals/enemies to friends and maybe more. At first they’re just trading witty, sarcastic barbs, often about each other’s preferred fictional genre, but then they kick it up a notch and revisit their old rivalry with the ultimate challenge: January has to write a book that doesn’t end happily ever after, while Gus has to write a romance novel. Bring it!

I don’t want to say much more because I don’t want to spoil anything but the story takes a more emotional turn as Gus and January both get out of their comfort zones and write something so different and challenging. It becomes a way for both of them to work through their pain and struggles, because it’s not just January who is dealing with loss. Gus is as well. It’s these painful and personal journeys that add all of those wonderfully complex layers that took Beach Read well beyond the fluffy fun I was expecting.

Beach Read is, without a doubt, one of the most wonderful and heartwarming books I’ve read so far this year. The writing is gorgeous, the story just so easy to get immersed in, and the characters are unforgettable. This was my first time reading Emily Henry but it definitely won’t be the last!

A romance that covers all of the emotions, it's not quite rom-com not quite dramady, with its witty dialogue, terribly hot romance, and weighty topics of dads, death, and how your past shapes you. The back and forth between January and Gus is electric and the slow burn of their getting together is wrist-tingly! The depths of the characters and their issues elevated this from a standard romance to a meaty one that even non-romance readers will love!

I’M DONE 😩 very much needed this excessively fun bundle of joy this week. If you like banter ✅ if you like slow burn ✅ if you like a good self-reflexive genre ✅ if you like a “I hate everyone except for her” hero ✅ if you like a well-developed family side plot ✅ I’m calling it now, folks, BEACH READ will be THE beach read of the summer (figurative beach, of course)! Check her out on Tuesday when she hits all the places books are sold!

This was the perfect feel good read! A great reminder during quarantine of being happy in the moment and taking things day by day.

This book fascinated me, it's perfect for the summer already approaching.
It has everything, drama, romance and sometimes funny situations. Like the ones January and Gus made.
I loved the theme of writers, Gus seemed to me a cool character, that fiction literature is more important than other stories.
She emphasizes that female res stories are also important as male stories and it is a tale never ending, for the time being.
It is logical that these two characters fall in love and I felt that they complemented each other and that was what I liked most about the story, because this situation is not easy at all.
The situation about the death of her father from January was also a mystery about co or she had to take some events about her reader block, but well I will not say more, I do not want to give spoilers, it was spectacular this book, thank you very much for the ARC e-book.

WORTH THE HYPE! Believe it, love it, push it in the hands of everyone you know. This is exactly the distracting, heartfelt read we all needed

Without a doubt, this has become the book of the year for me. There is nothing light about this: it's beautifully written, complex, and absolutely stunning. The characters are developed in such a way that made me ache for both of them. Will definitely read more from this author and please, can there be a sequel?!

Many thanks to NetGalley, Berkley, and Emily Henry for the opportunity to read the perfect romance novel - but not your typical romance novel, which would not be my favorite genre. This is a multi-layered romance novel and a great escape read. 4.5 stars rounded up!

January is a romance novelist struck with writer's block after the sudden death of her father and learning a devastating family secret. She heads off to a summer cottage on the beach to try and write another book with a happily ever after ending. Then she learns that her college nemesis, Augustus, who ended up being a best-selling literary fiction writer, is in the cottage right next to her. They are polar opposites - she needs to believe in love and happily ever after; he writes deep, dark books where no one is happy or in love. So they make a bet to each write a book in the other's genre and see who can get published first.

As both come to face realities of their pasts, you will be glued to the pages to see how it all turns out. A perfect book to escape into right now!

This is my first novel by Emily Henry. I've kinda watched her progress through various social media channels from afar and when I had a chance to read one of her novels, I grabbed it.

The short version of this review is that ultimately I enjoyed it.

Longer version?

It took me a while to warm to it. I think my main problem was the cover and blurb made this seem like a really light fun read. There are aspects that are humorous but I'm not sure I'd call this a light romance. It seems more apt to say that this novel is light on comedy and heavy on delving into emotions and backstory and really looking at two writers' process when the words are flowing and there's a deadline. And there's nothing wrong with that, it just wasn't what I expected.

Once I settled into the novel, I enjoyed the back and forth between Gus and January. I enjoyed the intermingling of their writing research and their love story. Admittedly, sometimes I felt it went a little long in certain areas and Gus kinda seemed like the cliched emo guy in a romance, but I still felt satisfied by the end.

I think if I hadn't gone into this novel wanting a light read, I wouldn't have felt so disconnected from it from the start--I'm glad that I stuck with it because I definitely would like to check out more from Emily Henry.

January and Gus are both published authors experiencing writer's block. She writes happily-ever-after romances and he writes serious "literature" with unhappy endings. They agree to write the other's style of book in an effort to prove they can and to break their writer's block. Of course during the course of the book, January and Gus fall for each other. Will they get their happily-ever-after?

I loved this book. It was really hard to put down! The characters and their banter were realistic and very entertaining. I was definitely rooting for them. There is also enough meat to the story to keep it interesting; it is not strictly about getting January and Gus together. I highly recommend this book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book. When I started this read i was unprepared for the emotional ride I was embarking upon. This book is deceptive in that it appears to be a light read but it has so many layers.
Forgiveness and brokenness are strong themes and I found myself feeling everything January felt. Her fear was so real that I found myself fearful. Her optimism was so strong, I was optimistic. Her love was so deep I felt like I was drowning. I loved the friendships, the character development and the opportunity to learn about the writing process
This book is a real winner
Those with adversity towards profanity may find it offensive. The f-word is peppered throughout and often does nothing to help the dialogue.

When I really fall for a book, I fall hard. This book was no exception. I felt all the feels and loved every moment. The characters were beautiful and lovable. Each had deep struggles, pain and growth. The only thing I didn't like, even really hate, is the name of the book. It seems to trivialize the story to a fluff piece at first glance, even though I see how it's fitting in a way. This story encompasses the love of people's stories, their heartbreak and the moments of happiness that break through all of the shit life can throw, even when it's really awful.

Thank you to Net Galley for a copy of BEACH READ.

What could be more perfect than a beach read called BEACH READ? And just in time for beach season. The best part is it's a delightful rom-com that readers will have readers quickly flipping through pages. It focuses on an author with writer's block and her best-selling frenemy.

"I did what any reasonable adult woman would do when confronted with her college rival turned next door neighbor. I dove behind the nearest bookshelf."

BEACH READ is cute, sweet and will make you smile.

This was a very fun summer read, with enough unique characters that I managed to make what could be a cliched storyline, parent hiding a secret, seem different. I loved the banter between the two characters and really enjoyed the book overall.

Opposite attract. I have heard this phrase often over the years and this book delves into that phrase with the main characters January and Augustus. As they are indeed as truly opposite in their way of thinking as they come. But the loss of January’s father and finding out upon his death that he had another life that she knew nothing about turns January’s life upside down. Enter Augustus (Gus) her old college nemesis and we are treated to their rivalry at first and then something way more as the book continues. Definitely a lighter romantic read at the heart of it. But worth the read.

I loved this book so much! The characters were easy to love and I was really interested in both of their backstories. The romance was well-paced and the tension was so well done! I also really loved that they were both working through their personal issues in believable and relatable ways. Beach Read is definitely one I will recommend!