I absolutely see why this book is receiving so much praise.

Let me start off by saying that romance is 150,000% outside of my comfort zone. I do not read rom-coms often, but the premise and praise for this one really grabbed by attention.

In Beach Read we follow January Andrews, a romance writer who no longer believes in love and Augustus Everett, a jaded literary fiction writer who enjoys killing off his cast by the end. The two end up living next door to each other and strike up a deal. Each will write a book in the other one's genre. The first one to finish their book will owe the other a lifetime of praise and recommendation. Absolutely nothing could go wrong, right?

I went into this thinking it was going to be a light/fluffy romance and while it definitely delivered on that, it was SO much more. Both January and Gus are dealing with a lot throughout the novel that give this book so much substance and heart.

The writing was just excellent. January's voice narrating the story was just beautifully done, it sounded straight out of a movie. There are so many quotes I have highlighted on my Kindle. This story was full of some of the best characters I have read in a while. Such lovely people that you can physically feel the warmth (ahem, Pete and Maggie. I want to hang out with them! I promise not to bring up rocks!).

I really enjoyed this one. I am not sure exactly why it isn't a five star read for me other than I just didn't feel as deep of a connection to the characters as I would have wanted. I was very invested in Both Gus and January's lives and I was rooting for them the entire time, but I still felt like an outsider watching a movie anthd not in the plot with them. This could change as I think about the story more though.

All in all, highly recommend. If you already love romance and rom-coms, there is no way you won't enjoy this one. If you don't and are more comfortable with murder in your books, still give this one a shot. It may liven up your dead dead soul.

Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

In stores everywhere on May 19th.

Review also submitted to Books-a-Million and will be published on Amazon once it is published.

January Andrews is a woman's fiction/romance writer and her college nemesis, Gus, is the exact opposite. He never has a story that ends happily. January is on a deadline for writing a new book, but she's having difficulty writing a love story when she finds out about her father's infidelity to her mother after his recent death. January feels as if everything she has known has been a lie, and finds herself in a writing slump. She also recently had to move to her father's second house because she is flat out broke. This is where Gus, who she has not seen since college, comes back into the picture since he is her new next door neighbor. The two decide to switch writing styles with each other; Gus has to write a love story, while January has to write, well, not a love story.

I loved this book for so many reasons! It was light-heated, relatable, witty, and endearing all at the same time. I loved the spunk of her writing style and the way she developed the characters. As I was reading I felt like January was my best friend and I found myself rooting for both Gus and January.

The plot was interesting and the romance was just enough without being mushy. I also liked the little bit of family drama thrown in there as well. Lastly, this book had so many relatable quotes that were either flat out hilarious or simply beautiful.

Absolutely zero complaints about this book. A five star read for sure.

4.5 stars. I'm so mad at myself for not taking better notes because I really wanted this review to be deeper than just *JAZZ HANDS* and IT WAS SO GOOD!! But that's what you're getting!

When January moves into her dad's lakeside Michigan beach house to write the book she has been trying to ignore actually writing, she also inherits all the problems that came with it. After her dad passed away she found out a dark secret about him... and that secret involves this house. And what else comes with this house? Her college creative writing rival, Augustus, who lives next door. He writes literary fiction with sad plotlines and death; she writes romcoms. When they both realize they're stuck with writing block they make a dare to swap genres: whoever gets their book sold first wins. They go on dates disguised as research and slowly learn to trust each other. This is a perfect blend of enemies-to-lovers and hard-hitting subplots about forgiveness and redemption.

A few small things about this book that I loved:
-their windows face each other and so they share notes like out of the You Belong with Me music video
-Augustus is afraid of vomiting (JUST LIKE ME!!)
-the setting of the lake is so fun
-the side characters are a delight and add so much to the story
-Red, Blue, and White Russians book club

It's not quite a 5 star because it was a bit overhyped for me and therefore I felt a tiny bit letdown at parts. This is a painful slow burn but it's a book you do not want to stop reading! Definitely recommend!

<i>Thank you to the publisher for an early copy of this book. All opinions are my own.</i>

Quick thoughts: I ADORED THIS BOOK! Easily one of my top romance reads of the year ❣️

This is an enemies to lovers rom com with a twist! This is unlike any rom com I’ve read before. It dealt with deeper subject matter, but was still fun. All around this is the PERFECT book to read during these difficult times. I read this over the course of two days, and I laughed, cried, and swooned over the characters.

All of the characters were witty and relatable. I loved every aspect of this story!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ January Andrews and Augustus Everett could not be more different: she writes feel good romantic comedies, he kills off everyone and anyone. But when the two writers find themselves in a slump, they strike a deal and decide to write books similar to how the other person writes. I will be honest this book was a lot deeper than I was anticipating, but the writing was incredible and it absolutely hit me right in the feels as both of these characters grapple with grief, hardship, broken heart, and discovering new identity. She is the same age as me and all of her thoughts I definitely had at some point in my life...also can we talk about how DREAMY Gus Everett is?! ⠀⠀ .
.
🍷to sum it up: 1000% recommend to a friend, feel good novel, sexual tension 🔥, parental hardship, witty writing

Thanks to NetGalley for making an eARC copy of this book available to me.

I wanted to like this book more. I enjoyed the descriptions of the two authors attempting to deal with writer's block, and then deciding to essentially swap genres and write something outside their comfort zones. I wish we had seen more about Gus' writing and his process. I enjoyed January's best friend. I expect that this book will be quite popular, it just didn't quite have that "zing" for me.

I read Emily Henry's 'A Million Junes' when it came out and was blown away by her writing style and the uniqueness of the story. So, when I saw she had a contemporary rom-com-type book coming out it piqued my interest. How would this author, whom I had built up to almost ethereal status in my mind, handle a rom-com?

I then set out to find the answer. The answer, of course, is that she wrote to bleakly dark characters, brought them together during some of their darkest moments, and managed to make it all somehow work. 

I loved January from the very first chapter. She's a total mess and yet not quite ready to give up on herself, or love, yet. Augustus was a harder sell for me, and yet and you learn more about him, you can't help but come to love the guy. And these two together are the best. 

I grinned like an idiot through many parts of this book while cheering on these two writers as they fought their way back from the brink of despair and toward each other.

OH MY GOODNESS!!! I love love loved this book!

Beach Read was my first Emily Henry book and I was blown away by it. It definitely offered a much deeper story than the title and cover suggested.

I absolutely fell in love with this story. I laughed, I cried, and I swooned and I just couldn’t get enough of January and Gus together. The chemistry between these two, the heartbreaking back stories and the complex storyline had me hooked from start to finish. I loved following along their journey and seeing how the characters evolved, grew and healed.

Beach Read is witty, relatable and deeply moving. I already know that this book will make it onto my “Best of 2020 List”. I just absolutely loved it!

Beach Read is a must-read!

What do a disillusion romance novel and a literary fiction author have in common? Not much at first glance but as the story progresses, it's clear why they are meant for each other.

January Andrews is licking her wounds. At twenty-eight, she had everything she wanted. She believed in romance. She believed in love. Her parent's marriage was an example to her. She had a wonderful boyfriend of many years and she was accomplishing everything she wanted in her professional life too. As a romance writer, she had successfully published several novels.

Then twenty-nine hit her in the worst possible way. She losses everything she has cared for including her writing. She is on a deadline but unable to write a single word. Without anywhere else to go, she decides to go to the lakehouse to start over.

On the first night, she is there, her new neighbor has a party with loud music playing and January wants to be able to sleep. When the music persists, she makes the decision to confront the neighbor. She makes an impression despite meeting in the dark but the next morning, they meet again. This time in full daylight and January realizes that she knows who he is. She has known him since college!! They had a rivalry but also one memory of a time where there could have been something more.

"Because you're the bright light."


August "Gus" Everett didn't have a happy childhood or adolescence. The only thing that gave him any type of satisfaction was his writing. His books are well-known and successful. He, however, is reserved and distant. While January was a happy person who wrote about happy endings, he was all about the dark truth about the ugly world out there. Yet, this new January who's living next to him, it's not the same woman he remembers. When January offers a change in their genres, he accepts the challenge. The rest is history.

I loved this one so much. The banter with intelligent dialogue and the slow-building romance was very creative. Their chemistry was through the roof and the attraction to each other smoking!

"When I watch you sleep," ...
I feel overwhelmed that you exist."


Kudos to Emily Henry for writing Beach Read. Definitely a much deeper story than what the title offers.

Cliffhanger: No

5/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by Berkley via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

OHHHHH this book. I loved it. LOVED it.

January Andrews is reeling after the end of a long-term relationship and the sudden death of her father, who, she found out at his funeral, is not the man she thought he was. As a romance writer who no longer believes in love, she escapes to her father’s beach house in Michigan so she can try to shake her writer’s block and give something to her editor. Of course, on top of everything going on in her life, she discovers the person occupying the house next door is her college nemesis Augustus “Gus” Everett, literary fiction author extraordinaire. His broody butt is also stuck with writer’s block, and one night they make a deal to try to help each other write—she’ll try to craft a story that does not end in happily ever after, and he’ll try to channel January’s “fairy princess” style and create something a little lighter than his usual fare. They schedule weekly field trips—Fridays are for investigating the local defunct cult in the woods, and Saturdays are for exploring the types of things that fill rom coms. What could happen?

On more than one occasion during the first half of this book, I literally laughed out loud at some of the one liners in here. There were insults involving Meijer-brand Cheetos and best friends who always scream while making left turns in the car. The second half definitely took a more serious turn, but oh, man. The development of both January and Gus’s characters was nuanced and realistic. They’re both flawed people with difficult things in their earlier lives, but they help each other process some of the residual effects of these events. I have squee-ed to multiple people over the course of reading this book, and I’m definitely going to continue doing so.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. I’m purchasing my own copy right after posting!

This one was such a fun read! January a romance writer and Gus a writer of thrillers decide to switch and write each other genres. This book was right up my alley but it took me a while to actually read it. One good thing about this stay home order is all the reading gets done!

At her father’s funeral, January learns that her father had a second woman, a second house, a second life in a little town on Lake Michigan. And now that house belongs to January. Semi-homeless, recently broken up with her long term boyfriend, and struggling with writer’s block, January moves to her father’s second house. Her new neighbor is Gus, also a published author, also her college rival, also struggling with a bit of writer’s block. Also super hot and still electrifying to January’s solar plexus. So the two make a deal: Gus will try to write a romance and January will try to write his genre, literary fiction. The romance is a delightfully paced medium-burn, the emotional growth as both January and Gus deal with their baggage is spot-on for so many Millennials struggling in a world that is not what they were promised as kids, and the lesbian aunts are a hoot. Five starts for this steamy romance that is also part literary fiction!

On the steamy to chaste scale, it’s a 6.5– the same as a Jasmine Guillory or Christina Lauren.

After hearing so many RAVE reviews for this one, I knew I had to move it up on my TBR - and I'm glad I did, but not for the reasons I expected.

I ended up liking this book a lot, but in a way unlike what I was expecting. I had gone into this anticipating a light-hearted romcom with an enemies to lovers / grumpy / banterific feel, and although I definitely got some of that, there is also some HEAVY stuff going on here. Henry writes about the topics well, and I enjoyed the exploration of how we choose to deal with the more difficult aspects of our lives in terms of the two MCs.

Both January and Gus were coming to terms with awful things, and I liked reading about them going through it together. I don't know that I was as invested in their relationship as other readers seem to be (and didn't quite feel the chemistry throughout some portions of the book), but the overall story more than made up for it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Berkley & Penguin Publishing Group for the opportunity to read and review this book before it's publication date! This in no way affected my review, opinions are my own.

This is so much more than a straightforward romance or summer read. January lost her father, discovering he wasn’t who she thought he was, searching for some answers. While temporarily moving into a house he left her, she moves next to an old college crush, Gus. Gus is also a writer, but of literary fiction, something January always thought he made fun of in the past. As their relationship begins to evolve, more about their successes and challenges become evident. I really liked it and thank Netgalley for the ARC.

Beach Read is a delightful summer romance filled with quirky characters and funny moments, that make you want to set up a blanket by the shore and start reading.

I adored Beach Read and the characters that made it so immersive, fun, and enjoyable. Emily Henry manages to write a romance that is also a tribute to the romance genre-- in the best way! She takes on the tropes, the ridiculousness of the term "women's fiction," all while giving us what we want-- a sexy romance at on a lake!

If you love smart romances and women's fiction with a little more meat than a drugstore paperback, then this one is for you!

Beach Read is about January Andrews, a young writer who grew up loved and encouraged in spite of a difficult life. Her mother was diagnosed with cancer and went in to remission while January was in school. It came back as January was headed to grad school to pursue writing. Instead she dropped out to help her father take care of her mother, who valiantly fought the cancer and triumphed. Then January's father dies suddenly and she finds out he had another house and another lover, and that her mother knew about it. The story opens as January heads up to North Bear Shores to pack up and sell her father's house. She also has to finish writing her latest romance novel - a task she finds insurmountable since her belief in "happily-ever-after" has been shaken to the core. The town starts to grow on her as she meets people who have known her father since childhood and January is accepted as one of them, even as she rejects her father's mistress. To top things off, the cabin next door is occupied by the darkly handsome and VERY moody Augustus Everett. It turns out Gus and January were in the same writing course in college. Where Gus wrote "real fiction", January's stories always end happily and he gave her a very hard time about it. They almost hooked up once, at a party, but common sense prevailed and here they are years later. In an effort to punch through her writer's block, January makes a bet with Gus - she will attempt a more serious novel and he will try his hand at a happily ever after. The bet includes weekly classes in romance and reality that have disastrous, hilarious results. As January gets to know Gus she finds it very difficult to resist him again.

I laughed so hard reading this book I had to pass it on to my husband when I was finished. In spite of the awful circumstances, January is a wry, very funny character. Her relationship with her best friend Shadi and their conversations were hilarious and were her encounters with Gus, both good ones and bad. Yet Henry handles the more serious aspects of the relationships with compassion without being drippy. This book was so entertaining - it will make a great Beach Read but its also much, much more. There are some very sexy scenes - well-written and detailed, so for adults only. But adults of any kind. Thank you for the ARC - this is one I'll read again and give as gifts to friends.!!

If this is the first review you are reading for this book, I will echo what other reviewers have noted: the cover doesn't quite match the story. Yes, there is a sweet romance within, but this book is much more emotional than you may expect.

This a story of a woman beginning a do-over for her life. The path January Andrews initially set for herself, the belief in HEAs, has all been blown to smithereens. It began with death of her father, and discovery of his secret affair. That then led to her own relationship falling apart. So broke and emotional unraveling, she travels to her father's secret second home, for answers. And hopes along the way she can find her mojo and faith in the HEA, since its nearly a requirement in her field as a romance writer.

Day one does go to well, with the discovery of a loud neighbor.
Day two (or so) doesn't go much better when she discovers that that neighbor is her writing nemesis, so to speak, Augustus Everett.
From there, days pass in a blur, with January struggling to write the book she owes her publisher. But things turn around for her when Everett offers up a writing challenge, to trade genres and see if it helps to get those creates juices flowing again.

I liked how the relationship between January and Everett develops. From combative, to cordial, to supportive, and then to something more. The process felt natural and real. In addition, Everett is there for her as she tries to recover from the heartache her father left her with. There are a lot of tears shed as she slowly uncovers the truths about the father kept a secret. It's not a pretty process, but with time, comes forgiveness.

January came to this small town because she had no choice, and because she wanted answers. She gets those answers, but more importantly, she finds a new life path. One with a love story, and a new direction for her writing.

This was an enjoyable read, of a woman's path in reinventing herself. It's an emotional ride, but one that is worth it.

Beach Read was an absolute delight! The small town setting, well- rounded characters and layered romance put this book above others in the genre. Highly recommend.

3.5 stars

January is a believer in happy endings, in her books and in life. Or at least she was, before she found out that her parent's seemingly perfect marriage might have been a lie after discovering her father had carried on an affair while her mother was battling cancer.

She is still angry at her father, and hurt, a year after his death. Her parents had reconciled, and January is stunned to find out her mother knew about the other woman, and won't talk about it. January is forced to re-think all the truths she has known in the face of that one enormous lie.

Her father left her a house he secretly bought and she moves there to put her life back together again. A broken engagement and difficulty finishing her next novel propel her to get away. She soon runs into an enigmatic next door neighbor who turns out to have been a college classmate that she almost shared a night of passion with years ago.

Gus is the opposite of January. He writes realistic, grim books about people who have suffered unhappiness, and he scoffs at the idea of happy endings. Soon the two bet each other they can't each finish a novel in the other's viewpoint - Gus has to write a book where people find happiness together, and January has to allow people to suffer and for things not to come out all right.

There is more pain here than usual for a romance and some unresolvable hurts. I appreciate that January had a tough task: to forgive her father for inflicting considerable pain on her and her mother. And the author didn't tie up this part of the plot with a convenient and neat resolution.

Thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.