Beach Read is a romance full of sparkling dialogue and a cast of great characters.
January and Gus were in college ten years previously where they were in the same creative writing class. January always felt Gus looked down on her style of writing and felt himself to be a more serious writer. Fast forward and January is an author of popular romances and Gus of more serious fiction.
They reconnect when they find they are neighbours in a small lakeside town. January has been left devastated after the death of her father after she discovers he had a mistress and secret life living in the house he has left her.
Gus has had a childhood of abuse and poor relationships, both now have writers block so they they challenge each other to change their writing style, Gus has to write a HEA romance and January a book that has a completely different style and finale.
Gradually they become closer, as their feelings develop we are entertained with their witty banter and charm. At times this is a deep book which delves very much into people’s emotions and the reader is taken on their journey of discovery seamlessly with them.
My thanks to net galley and publisher for the opportunity to review this book honestly.

When I say I want to read romance, this is what I mean. This book. This exact book.

Oh, that cover is a beautiful lie. It conjures feelings of a light flirty summer romance in which both main characters fall head of heels for each other and have a happily ever after.

The story of January and Gus is not a light flirty summer romance. It is not a happily ever after. It is the book my heart always wanted to read but didn’t know until now. Both January and Augustus (Gus for anyone who knew him before his books were published) are flawed. They are both broken. The walls are pretty much crumbling around them.

Their story started long before this book began. A decade ago in college. In the same creative writing programme.

‘Let me guess: everyone live happily ever after. Again’

Moving in to house she didn’t know existed until her fathers death, January is mostly shattered. Meeting a dismissive, grumpy neighbour in the early hours of the morning - sitting on his deck while a party raged inside his house - only to find out that he’s her college rival the next day, only heightens the emotions currently battling their way through her,

Her life used to be a fairy tale. The parents who loved each other completely, faced trials and came out on top. They adored her and showed her that happy ends are real. She had the heart of a romantic which made each day seem to shine. Until it didn’t.

This book delighted me. It was messy and slightly dark and everything i could ever want in a romance. Two people who are broken and hurting but managed to be a little bit less when they were with each other. A rivalry, which turned into not friends exactly, a mutual bet and then companions. An odd slop of getting to know someone in the now but not really their past or what has driven them to have changed so much. A beautiful unravelling. A happy for now.

Beach Read by Emily Henry is the best book I've read this year so far, and easily a top 10 on my all-time favorites list.

Beautifully written, this book tells the story of January Andrews, a romance writer that fiercely believes in happy endings. That is until the fake perfection of her life comes crashing down. A year later and she is utterly broke, avoiding her agent and trying desperately to write some new material, while provisionally moving into her late father's secret love nest on Lake Michigan.

There, while she is trying to make sense of her life without rose-tinted glasses she crosses paths with her former college enemy, famous literary fiction writer Augustus ''Gus'' Everett, now turned next-door neighbor. Gus is the classic pessimist and January used to be the most optimistic of all. More than enemies or friends to lovers and more than an opposites-attract, Emily Henry creates a mutual understanding between both characters, telling us that is ok to be a little bit of both.

“See,” Gus said. “It’s shit like this that makes it impossible for me to believe in happy endings. You never get the paper umbrellas you were promised in this world.” “Gus,” I said. “You must be the paper umbrellas you wish to see in this world.” “Gandhi was a wise man.” “Actually, I was quoting my favorite poet, Jewel.”

“People were complicated. They weren’t math problems; they were collections of feelings and decisions and dumb luck. The world was complicated too, not a beautifully hazy French film, but a disastrous, horrible mess, speckled with brilliance and love and meaning.”

Emily Henry's writing is masterful in Beach Read, crafting each conversation carefully, making every phrase stand out as witty, interesting and utterly enjoyable. All the while, sending us in a layered voyage, where no one is truly right or wrong. Where the journey is the beautiful broken part of life that should always be appreciated.

”Happy endings don’t matter if the getting there sucks.”

This is a book that will stay with me for a very long time. It made me laugh, cry, and swoon. It made me conflicted and curious.... but definitely made me addicted to the author's storytelling and I'll probably want to read everything she's ever written now.

The kind of book you find yourself smiling at and sighing. Romance at its very best. I was so invested in January and Gus and their literary journey to love. I can’t tell you how happy this book made me! Highly HIGHLY recommend.

An absolutely brilliant, fresh and exciting book. With family drama, an excellent love interest and a great concept (two authors battle it out to write each others genre) it’s a clear winner. But there’s so much more to this book- the skill and style, how delicately the characters and storytelling develops. There’s an awareness of trope but without cliche and it just feels like a really new and enjoyable romantic comedy, with lots of depth and backstory.

And as a writer I really related to the sitting around in dirty clothes and a messy kitchen surviving on cereal.

Can’t wait to read more from this author!