I honestly loved this book so much. It does deal with some heavier subjects as both January and Gus are struggling and trying to get through some things in their past, but overall, it just felt like a really light and cute read.

January and Gus are both writers, January writes romance and Gus writes literary fiction, and they're both experiencing writer's block. They are also former college kinda rivals which adds a fun layer to their interactions. They form a plan to write in each other's genre and go on excursions that would relate to each of their writing journeys. Through the research trips and the cute rom-com-y trips, they get to know each other more and more and develop feelings for each other. 

 January is struggling with her father's death and finding out about his infidelity. Gus is going through a divorce that is putting him through more than he expected. I love that each one of them kind of has to stop and face the things that are holding them back on their own, before they go back and really try with each other. They each kind of drag their feet on it, but they eventually go and face these things. 

I just had such a fun time reading this. Also, I might have teared up a little bit during a chapter. Watching January face all the things that she was hiding from since she arrived at that house really hit me. I just loved it so much because it didn't just explain away this one thing that she'd been struggling with but it painted her father as a full and flawed person. Yes, he did these things, but ultimately he loved January so much and she was able to have that closure with him even though he was already gone. I loved that so much.

I've had this one sitting on by tbr pile for a few months, and after seeing all the rave reviews, I bumped it up to the top. I don't know about anyone else, but this whole quarantine thing has me in a reading slump, so I was hoping this would help get me back into the swing of things.

Unfortunately, while it wasn't a <i>bad</i> book, I did not love it. 

The cover itself was very misleading, in my opinion. This wasn't really a fun, light, and sweet <i>Beach Read</i> at all.

January Andrews is our main character, and when first we meet her, she's on her way to Great Bear Shores, Michigan for the summer. Her goal: finish the book she's promised her agent, and clean out her father's home that, prior to his death, he shared with his mistress. On her first evening in town, she has a bit of a run-in with her new, temporary neighbor...who is throwing a very loud party. 

However, it isn't until the next morning that she realizes just who that neighbor is: Augustus Everett. Acclaimed author of Real Fiction. Or Gus, as she knows him. Her rival from college. The boy who picked apart all of her stories, and disrespected her love for all things Happily Ever After.

Now that these two have reunited they realize they're both struggling with the same issue: writer's block. They hatch a plan to swap roles. January will attempt to write Real Fiction, while Gus will make his best attempt at a Happily Ever After.

Like I said, this wasn't a bad book. I mean, Emily is a fantastic writer, and the smut was fantastic. The slow burn was nice. I just was't wowed by the whole falling in love bit between these two. Gus didn't make me swoon. I wanted swoon. I wanted all the swoons. I wanted more proof of the feelings between these two instead of the assumption that it existed.

I was only a few chapters in when I knew I was going to love this book. Although how a book that involves researching a murder-suicide cult can possibly be this cute I really don’t know. But it is.

I’ve read a lot of romance books lately, from steamy to rom-com, to cry-your-eyes-out-heartbreaking and I was starting to think there were no really new stories in the world. Until Beach Read. It was refreshingly different.

January and Gus are both novelists who end up living next door to each other (for reasons I won’t reveal in order to avoid spoilers). They enter into a bet that the other person couldn’t swap genres for their next book. They help each other with different research methods and activities, which naturally end up like bizarre sorts of dates as they both write their next novels.

The characters in Beach Read are wonderful, well actually they’re pretty flawed, but they’re wonderfully developed. And while it’s no surprise that they become involved it was beautiful to watch them uncover things about each other and help the other grow and move through their insecurities and past trauma.

Plus the book is packed with hilarious details about the writing process. Like when you’re watching a movie and the lead suddenly turns to the camera and speaks to you directly, letting you in on a little secret. They even talk about their favorite reviews, like the guy that left one star on Amazon saying “Did not order Book” or the ones who explain what the author was ‘really’ trying to do. As a reviewer, that had me in stitches.

Through their genre-swap Gus and January are researching a cult called New Eden though, and there are a few dark topics and moments touched on, so be aware of that going into it.

I love that the author wrote this book, about writer’s block, because she actually had writer’s block. She was itching to write, but no sparks of an idea or story were coming to her, so she started researching and thinking about writer’s block itself…and now here we are!

This gets all the stars from me, and the audiobook is wonderful too if you’d like to be read to. It is narrated by Julia Whelan, who has also performed books such as Educated, The Giver of Stars, Pretty Things, The Wife Stalker, The Great Alone, Gone Girl etc.

This is one of the absolute best fiction/romance books I've read in recent memory. It follows the story of a woman who writes happy endings and a man who writes anything but. They are old rivals and end up neighbors, with a bet to switch writing styles for the summer. I loved that it dealt with actual issues outside of just the romance. It made the book so we'll rounded and realistic.

Meet January and Gus. January is a romance author and lover of happy endings. Gus writes lit fiction and knows that in real life there are no happy endings, and his books reflect that. The two first met in university where they developed a healthy rivalry as budding authors. Flash forward a few years to January moving into her father's beach house after his sudden passing, only to discover that Gus lives next door. This book is the story of the summer that they spend living next to one another. 

I cannot stop thinking about how much I adored this book. Obviously, January and Gus end up spending a lot of time together since they live next door to one another, and I had so much fun tagging along on their "dates" as they educate each other about their genre of choice. This book was just so much fun but had enough of a compelling story that it isn't just a typical "fluff" book. Highly recommend picking this one up!

Before this book was everywhere, it was in my inbox. five months ago no one had been buzzing about this book when the pitch email came in, but it sounded cute and my spring calendar was open so I decided to give this one a go.

Flash forward to April and suddenly everyone and suddenly everyone is dying to read this book and people who have read it are raving about it! Suddenly it became imperative for me to read this one as soon as possible!

I picked it up one sunny afternoon in April and two days later at 6 am I was done reading it.

Summary
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. (summary from Goodreads)

Review
This book is incredible. If you were on the fence about it because of the hype, don’t even worry because it was absolutely worth the hype! It’s not often that a romance book like this packed such a heavy hitting punch but this book totally does it. The second I started reading, I was hooked and couldn’t put it down, but it was a book that while I was devouring it, I was also feeling so many things at a core level.

I adored Gus, I mean, my god he was sexy, sweet, and even if he came with emotional baggage, I was swooning for more Gus! I like my heroes complicated with issues (I know I’m weird like that!) and Gus was this complex, multilayered beef cake that I wanted to know more about every time he was there! As for January, even if she was romantic in the extreme and emotional, I found that I very much wanted to be friends with her even if I am not the emotional romantic that she is. All the shit she was going through with her family and her personal life was so real and raw, I couldn’t help but be drawn into her life and feel all her emotions.

I was incredibly caught up in this book and the romance between Gus and January. I thought it had spark, chemistry, and feeling. This book was easily a favorite for me. There was just so much cuteness, romance, and real life shit that I just devoured it. This was easily a top read for me this year and deserves all the 5 star ratings it can get. If you are worried that this might be ‘just another romance’ it is absolutely not. This romance has so much to enjoy, especially if you love books! Pick it up this is going to be a huge book for the spring/summer crowd!

Book Info and Rating
Paperback, 368 pages
Expected publication: May 19th 2020 by Berkley
ISBN 1984806734 (ISBN13: 9781984806734)
Free review copy provided by publisher, Berkley, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and in no way influenced.
Rating: 5 stars
Genre: romance, contempo romance

Enjoyable summer read about not losing sight of our happy-for-nows in search of a happily ever after.

January writes happily-ever-after romances, and Augustus writes high-brow literary fiction. But these former collegiate rivals (at least as far as January is concerned) are suffering from writer's block. To fix that, they agree to swap genres: he writes the romance, she writes the high-brow. 

And thus is born Emily Henry's breezy, heartfelt, and surprisingly spicy romance. 

This book is good because January and Gus aren't boring or predictable. They're each grieving and trying to heal from losses that make them reluctant to open themselves up to love. They're also supported by a cast of characters that are fun and interesting and who keep the plot moving forward. There is a little mystery concerning January's father that serves a mildly entertaining point. Far more compelling, though, is the relationship between January and Gus. I liked them so much (particularly Gus), and I dearly wanted them to find happiness. 

I enjoyed this book a lot and it is, as its title implies, a fantastic beach read. As I write this review during the COVID-19 quarantine, I am grateful for books such as this one. We need escapist fun, and Emily Henry provides it.

Why on earth does January talk about the romance genre (and its conventions like the HEA) constantly but call her books upbeat women’s fiction?! I am so confused. When she talks about her writing, it sounds like romance. It sounds like she’s writing about protagonists falling in love in a central romantic storyline that ends in a HEA. But when she’s at the bookstore, she sees teens in the romance aisle and is like “can’t be my book” when it’s revealed to be a clinch cover.

Look at passages 2 and 3. She’s using the terms interchangeably! NO! I have nothing against upbeat women’s fiction, okay? But genre definitions exist. She constantly talks about how the HEA is paramount to the genre she writes in. That’s not true. Women’s fiction can have a happy ending and a strong romantic element. But it doesn’t have to have a happy romantic ending. It doesn’t even need a happy ending!

I don’t understand what she’s writing, either. Is she like Sophie Kinsella, a chick-lit author who’s written romantic stand-alones that straddle the romance line? Except for when she says “upbeat women’s fiction,” her books sound exactly like Genre Romance. Why does the blurb call her a romance writer when she is writing upbeat women’s fiction? WHY?! And honestly, why isn’t she a fucking romance author like the blurb says!? It would take me five minutes to go through the manuscript and replace the references to “women’s fiction” with “romance genre.” Not only would the book stay exactly the same, it would make more freaking sense.

I was really excited to get my hands on a copy of Beach Read. While it wasn’t what I was expecting, I still enjoyed following the story. I did feel that there were parts where the story dragged a bit, but it was worth it to stick it out and I found myself rooting for the main characters in the end. I loved the quirks of some of the secondary characters and the descriptions of the settings which made me feel immersed into the storyline. Thank you, NetGalley for the ARC!

I loved this book so much! It's clever and funny and feminist and also a very thoughtful book about finding yourself again after great loss and grief.

My full review of this book can be found here: https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/reviews/beach-read-by-emily-henry/

I loved this book so much. The romance was heartwarming, hilarious, and believable but also it was just so rewarding to follow January and to see her reach a point of self acceptance. It was just so relatable and I loved feeling all the things. Have already reread and recommended online and to so many friends. I can’t wait to see what the author writes next!

I’m not a huge fan of books that could be considered “chick lit.” I don’t usually choose romance, unless there are also zombies involved. But Beach Read is gooood. It’s not quite chick lit; there’s some past heartbreak to deal with and some serious family issues to sort out. But there’s also witty, snarky banter, a good plot and sizzling chemistry between our main characters.

 Good stuff, and light hearted enough to be a perfect pandemic read

Beach Read features January Andrews, a romance writer going through a rough time in her life, which is in turn having an affect on her writing, or lack thereof. She is taking some time at her late father's beach house which happens to be next door to Augustus Everett, a college classmate and renowned literary fiction author. The relationship between our characters develops through a bet in which they swap writing genres and requires field trips including a Meg Ryan movie marathon and an intense interview with a gentleman who grew up within a cult.

“The only promise you ever had in life was the one moment you were living. And I was. Happy for now."

I knew I would enjoy this book, but it hit me in a few different areas I did not anticipate; I laughed out loud and burst into tears while reading and would recommend it to anyone looking for someone looking for the best Beach Read to release this year.

I received this as an early review copy from NetGalley and Berkley. All opinions are my own.

Such a cute romcom! I absolutely devoured this one, it pulled me out of a little reading slump and is a perfect summer read! Thank you to Berkley and Netgalley for the advanced copy ❤️

This book is all about two enemies with an interesting past who inevitably become tangled into each other’s present. Each of them is a writer and damaged in their own way. After making a bet that deals with each other’s new novel, they discover they’re now neighbors and become closer and closer. One thing leads to another and love sparks—but each is afraid that they don’t deserve it. 

Such a cute story! Highly recommend 🤓

Beach Read by Emily Henry is a delightful book that is going to appeal to every reader who not only enjoys the results of an author’s work but who also loves the idea of being that author whose words have the power to entertain, to influence, to inspire. So what happens when an author loses that spark that makes the difference between words on paper and a book that captures a reader's imagination? Meet not one, but two such authors who just happen to be living next door to each through no fault of their own as they challenge each other to step outside their comfort zones, he to pen a romance novel AKA beach read and she to pen a work of serious fiction. 
Don’t let this book’s title mislead you. Even though it would be a great beach read, there is more to this story than just a bit of sand on your lounge chair. The lengths to which Augustus Everett and January Andrews go in their efforts to provide each other with inspiration are sometimes funny, sometimes touching, and sometimes graphically sexual. In addition to their research, which is at times hilarious and at other times a little scary, there are lessons to be learned by both writers about love, acceptance, and never giving up on those who are important to you.
Author Emily Henry makes her characters so likable, I think you will want to meet and get to know Gus and January along with their quirky supporting cast.  5 stars aren't nearly enough for Beach Read. It’s the first book I’ve read in a long time that I really didn’t want to end.  I highly recommend it.

January arrives at her father’s second house. The house that housed his second life. A life she found out about at his funeral. Turns out that her dad had an affair while her mom was going through chemo. It makes January question everything about her dad, her parent’s relationship, her memorized of her dad and romance/love in general. This last one is particularly bad when you are an author known for happily ending novels. Add on that her boyfriend of six years broke up with her in a hot tub while they were on vacation with his family and you have a character that’s about to hit rock bottom. Before she does, she meets her neighbor, a grumpy author that she happens to have gone to school with and remembers a night when they had some obvious chemistry. They have a little fun by making a bet to see who can write a new book with the other’s type of ending (sad for January and happy for Gus). In the process, they teach the other some lessons about their respective genres and grow increasingly close. The only issue is that Gus has a pretty big secret of his own and has some relationship phobia. I enjoyed this book but what I loved about it was that it explained the writing process for two types of writers and how they can use the same process to write different genres of books.
•
How did January not guess that her father’s password for the safe was her birthday? That’s the most obvious parent password possible, especially for a book. Also, what were the other things in the safe? 
•
January was overly dramatic at the July fourth barbecue and on the outing the next day. It didn’t ring true to her character. Also, obviously Gus didn’t want to leave the party to have sex in his aunt’s home. That would be weird.

Beach Read is the first book I’ve read in a long time that I’ve found myself highlighting multiple passages while reading on my Kindle. Emily Henry takes so many emotions & effectively plays them out on paper. If y’all know one thing about me, it’s how grief is a HUGE emotion in my life. After losing both of my parents, it’s one of the emotions I have the hardest time expressing or explaining. If you haven’t experienced it, let me tell you Henry does an amazing job expressing it throughout this book. Some days you wake up and all you want to do is cry, but then other days you don’t shed a tear. ⁣
⁣
Grief isn’t the only theme Henry tackles in this book. She also adequately portrays the roller coaster that is love. As someone who is going through a divorce, this book spoke to me. After having my heart broken, I’m terrified to fall in love again. I ask myself why I’d ever want to go through that again. But as Henry describes, you have to live and love in the moment. You have to be happy in the moment. As I was reading this one, I found myself saying “OMG it’s like she’s in my head right now!” Beach Read is a must read! I will be grabbing a copy for my book collection & I think you should too!! This one gets 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟⁣

‘She was in pain. I knew that. But I was in pain too, so much of it that for once I couldn’t laugh or dance any measure of it away. I couldn’t even write myself a happy ending.’

Beach Read by Emily Henry without question one of our favourite books of 2020. The storyline is so much more than what the cover and synopsis implies. So much more. We’ll come back to the cover later. Beach Read had us sobbing, it had us questioning human relations. It had us compelled! The writing was outstanding. This is so much more than a romance. It is a plethora of stories entwined perfectly crafted and shaped into an all-encompassing story of life. Beach Read is also a truly wonderful love story which slowly builds across the chapters.

“Promise not to fall in love with me.”

You know those romance books where the romantic tension is so agonisingly slow that it builds and builds your anticipation into something so excruciatingly intense that you crave it so badly your anticipation is almost unbearable. The lingering touches the eye contact, the subtle body language and racing thoughts and hearts. The anticipation of that first kiss, the heated desire for what comes after. Emily Henry magnificently wrote this to perfection.

‘He was always leaning on something, like he couldn’t bear to hold all his own weight upright for more than a second or two. He lounged, he sprawled, he hunched and he reclined. Now I wondered if he was simply tired, if life had beaten him into a permanent slouch, folded him over himself so no one could get at that soft center…’

Gus and January are two very complex and completely lovable characters who happen to become neighbours on the beachfront of a small town. Both are authors; of literary fiction and happily ever after romance, respectively. On paper, they could not be any more different even if they tried, but then again, action is a reaction to what lies underneath and what spurs the pen isn’t it?! Carrying heavy loads and a clogged up minds, both are suffering from writers’ block and need something epic to happen to release the flow of words. A dare becomes an out of control animal which forces these two wonderful characters to face not only themselves but the truth they so desperately hide from.

‘…nothing felt more important than the book, than giving these fictional lovers the ending they deserved, giving my readers the ending they deserved. People clinging to whatever steadfast thing they could find? Yes. Yes, that made sense. It made perfect sense.’

We all have a very personal perception of life, the people in it and how they see us. It is shaped by experience, actions and their consequences. Ours and theirs. It is not always a perception based on a full picture or truth, because no one truly knows what motivates another person’s actions or reactions. The way in which Emily Henry writes a story is truly mesmerising and engages every single one of our emotions. It’s truly stunning, and we have to mention how brilliant it is to feel so immersed and fully engaged in character conversations, be they hilarious banter, raw emotions or grief stricken anger. This Author gave us the opportunity to experience everything which is so refreshing, as opposed to being told what happened and how to feel. She afforded us the intense experience of peeling the layers off one by one, to take a chisel to two hearts, thus discovering and forming a true and honest comprehension and connection to January and Gus.

‘…if I ever got to kiss Gus again, I wanted it to be this version of him. The one who didn’t feel so weighed down by the world around him that he had to lean just to stay upright.’

We literally couldn’t have loved this book any more than what we did. We loved the humorous banter, the romantic and sexual tension, the personal discoveries, the tragic heartbreak, the second chances at life and love, and the underlying message that if you find yourself stuck in life, look for an outside perspective. Whilst we only hear January’s POV, the superb way in which Beach Read was written ensured that we fully connected with Gus. We felt his pain, we cringed at his awkwardness and we felt his passion.

“When you love someone, you want to make this world look different for them. To give all the ugly stuff meaning, and amplify the good. That’s what you do. For readers, for me. You make beautiful things, because you love the world, and maybe the world doesn’t always look how it does in your books, but…I think putting them out there, that changes the world a little bit. And the world can’t afford to lose that. I always admired that. The way your writing always makes the world seem brighter, and the people in it a little braver.”

We do have to mention the book cover in direct relation to the actual story within. We can’t quite decide if this cover is a clever satirical decision or an ironic nod to what the title Beach Read actually represents or whether it is fully intended to imply that this is a book you would grab to get lost in, whilst living your best life in the sun. Any which way, this cover does not, in our humble opinion, reflect the life and love story within, which is what is in fact sporadically argued in this story, and we have to say -great point well made-` by Emily Henry. Yet it is also a truth that it would indeed turn many readers off, which is a sad fact. So to play devil’s advocate, what the gist of truth in the words within are conveying, they will in fact be lost at the first hurdle. The irony and sarcasm is certainly transparent in the storyline and quite frankly incredibly apt. Beach Read is a brilliant read, the snarky and cheeky banter, the intense emotions, the heartbreak, the self-realisations and the overcoming of life’s severe kicks in the gut. It’s just such a wonderful read. So, we urge readers to pick this book up, especially the readers who may fall at the first ‘book cover hurdle’. This is not a story to be missed!

“I’ve never met someone who is so perfectly my favorite person. When I think about being with you every day, no part of me feels claustrophobic.”

4 1/2 stars

"Here's the thing about writing Happily Ever Afters: it helps if you believe in them. ⁣
⁣
Here's the thing about me: I did until the day of my father's funeral."⁣
⁣
I started Beach Read around the same time that I was starting a different book and I had to put the other book away for a bit so I could binge read this wonderful book! I found it extremely hard to put down and even had one night where I dreamed about Gus and January all night long. I have never dreamed about the book I was reading so this must say something about this book! ⁣
⁣
If you are like me, you are expecting a cheesy love story with a beach setting. Although this one would be fun to read on the beach, it is definitely not your normal cheesy love story. It has fun banter, it is heart wrenching, deep, sweet, and it will leave you completely in love with Gus and January's characters.