Beach Read
By: Emily Henry
The Deets:
368 pages
Romance
Published: May 19th, 2020
Review: 
From the Cover:
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.
Review:
I like to sprinkle romance books in my “To Be Read” stack because they serve really important functions for me as a reader. They are like palate cleansers. After a really emotionally or mentally heavy book (or two/three/five), a carefree romance book helps me wipe my slate clean and give me an energy boost. If all I read was “heavy” books, I don’t think I would be able to read as much as I do. Additionally, in times such as these where there is a lot of doom and gloom in the media and life is just harder than it was only a couple of months ago, I really can’t tolerate a lot of the same feelings in the books I am reading. Reading to me is an escape and a way that I de-stress. Reading romance books is like taking a moment to stop for a drink of water when running a marathon; it gives me a chance to catch my breath, consider how far I’ve come, and look forward to what is next.
With that in mind, Beach Read came to me at a perfect time. I had been looking for a carefree “beach read” romance and this was it (minus the beach, unfortunately). It’s got the enemies-turned-lovers trope, but with a little spin. I loved how both of the main characters are writers, which I feel was a unique plot line that added an exciting component to the book. ALSO! Neither of these characters are perfect in any way, shape, or form! This is something that always frustrates me about the romance genre; I don’t like reading about perfect characters because they don’t exist in real life. Augustus and January feel real, and so does their story.
I devoured this book (you can ask my fiancé who basically watched as I finished it in one sitting). Emily Henry will pull you in from the first page and won’t let you go. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a lighthearted and happy reprieve from reality (or from a particularly heavy book streak). The only thing I wish was included with the book was a beach…
books illuminated 