Although this book was well written and original I'm afraid it just wasn't for me. The romance aspect was just too cheesy and I would have preferred them to have just been friends

If you like steamy scenes between two interesting characters with a compelling premise then this is for you..

Beach Read by Emily Henry is well titled and would indeed be a fantastic beach read. I just loved losing myself in the remote cabin sharing the feelings of writers block with January and Gus. Their adventures/date nights were fab and just lit the book up, underpinned by the gentle competition in completing the challenge and thinking outside their boxes when writing. The messages of being true to yourself but maybe becoming an even better version with alternative perspective was great and enhanced the storyline. Overall a lovely wee romance

I loved this one!!! Way more emotional than what I signed up for but I have yet to hate a book that made me cry. The banter was excellent and hilarious. I loved January and Gus and how their relationship developed. The writing was beautiful but a little cheesy at places, which is the only negative I can think of.
Definitely recommended.
Rating : 4.5 stars

Thank you Netgalley for the earc in exchange for an honest review

If you’re looking for a romance with more substance than a frilly rom com but that is still an easy breezy read, Beach Read is perfect for you.

Beach Read follows struggling writers (and enemies!) January Andrews and Augustus ‘Gus’ Everett when they end up living right next to each other on the banks of Lake Michigan. January is a frilly rom com writer, where every story has a meet cute AND a happy ever after. Except, after a recent discovery, she’s not really sure happy ever after even exists. And Gus is the broody literary fiction author who January has been competing against since they were in the same college writing class. And now they’re neighbours, both struggling to write their next novel.

When January challenges Gus to what is essentially a genre swap, complete with Romance 101 and LitFic lessons, she finds that she can finally write again…but is there something more to it?

This is NOT your typical RomCom, and that’s part of why I loved it so much. January and Gus are dealing with real adult issues (and often not dealing with them well, to be honest). Beach Read explores these issues and offers some wonderful character development along the way. If you’re anything like me, you’ll still be thinking of January and Gus days after you finish the book. In fact, I’ve actually had a ‘what would January do?’ moment or two!

Many thanks to Emily Henry, Penguin Books, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

I took me a little while to get into this book but then I couldn’t put it down and really enjoyed it. I was very confused with the end in my copy of the book and it was like there was 2 different versions and it wasn’t decided at the time when I got mine. However I do hope there is a follow up to this book. Would recommend for a feel good read.

Loved this one a lot! I was in need of a book that could make me feel a whole heap of different emotions from angst to joy throughout, and this definitely delivered. This was exactly what I hoped it would be. An emotional rollercoaster of a story with likeable characters (really loved January & Augustus) and a great flowing plot filled with both tears and laughter that was easy to read and kept me up at night turning the pages, not wanting to put it down. So glad I gave this book a chance to live up to the hype I've seen and read all over Instagram (even more glad that it did not disappoint)! Thanks Net Galley, Penguin Books (UK) and Emily Henry for such a gorgeous book!

SICKENINGLY cute and COMPLETELY hilarious.

I’ve never read any of Emily Henry’s books before, so I didn’t really know what to expect. I’ve been seeing Beach Read all over my social media recently so as soon as I got approved on NetGalley, I dove right in.

From the get go this had me laughing out loud. I loved January. She was such a believable, strong protagonist and I found her completely natural and hilarious.

To start with, much like January did, I thought Gus was a jerk. By the end of the book I was completely head over heels with him. His character development was brilliant.

This book had me feeling lots of emotions. I’m so close to my dad, so January talking about losing her own father was difficult. But I love that Henry didn’t dampen or dodge around her grief. Even in the most happy moments, wheres January is ecstatic, the grief hits her. That’s real. So often in romance novels, the main character falls in love and *poof* no more grief. I really loved that Henry acknowledged the fact that you can be happy AND feel intolerable amounts of grief or pain at the same time. I love that she explored this in Gus’s character too, with his past and how that’s impacted the view he holds of himself.

The romance in this book was everything. It had me glued to my kindle, unable to tear myself away for fear of missing something. It was hot, steamy, so romantic and left me with flushed cheeks and a fuzzy heart! I love the relationships in this book, between the love interests and between friends.

If you’re looking for a book to make you feel every raw emotion, but to also have you howling with laughter and fuzzy with love, this is the one!

It was clear to see even from those first chapters this was going to be an emotional story between two very different characters. January and Augustus are very different individuals which complex backgrounds. January has suffered a recent trauma which has left her feeling an emotional wreck. The trouble with this is she’s a romance writer and a true believer in happy ever afters. That’s the kind of genre she writes and what is expected of her very soon by a demanding agent. To make matters worse she has a deadline she’s worried she won’t make! Her plan to hide away at the lake and write her book goes a little awry when she meets Augustus, a guy from the past.

“When I watch you sleep, I feel overwhelmed that you exist.”

Augustus is also a writer who is also suffering from a severe case of writers block. His stories are of the non-romantic variety and definitely do not end with a HEA. He’s certainly not a believer which is not hard to understand considering his back story. Even though Augustus is not a romantic book lover he did have some of the sweetest lines in the book.

“I knew his life was messy. I knew that his walls were so thick it would take years to chisel through them and that his mistrust of the world went core deep.”

Henry has written a character driven tale which takes the reader on a highly emotional journey. The writing was excellent and well detailed when it came to the moments the characters endured. What I loved was the dialogue between them was realistic which I could easily relate to. At times it was hard to read as the subject matter was so deep and at times dark. To be fair the book had some of the best banter I have read in a while; sharp and entertaining. The dynamic between January and Gus was fascinating and always left me wanting more. I loved them! This is not a classic love story; it’s messy and raw but also relatable as most people will have experienced at least one of these situations in their lives. My kind of read.

this is more of a 4.5 stars for me. i read this book in one day, and it was beautiful. there's so much i could gush about, but i can't get past the way this book was marketed, at least to me. the way people describe this book is like a cutesy summer rom-com, and i feel like the cover and title give off that vibe as well, but it's really nothing like that. it's much more women's fiction than the romance i thought i was getting into, which maybe wouldn't be a problem other than my expectations were set for a different style of book and then i was a little disappointed when that's not quite what i was reading, but then i was also blown away at the same time. it's hard to explain how i feel about this book.

anyway, i definitely fell in love with both of these characters. i loved their banter but also their serious conversations made my heart ache. i loved the side characters, i loved the setting (although it didn't feel very beachy to me because they never spent time on the beach - it was more of a small town vibe).

i'd definitely recommend, but just know it isn't quite the summer beachy rom-com you might be expecting, and i would definitely reread this in the future!

Oof my heart freaking H-U-R-T-S!!

I would like to thank Emily Henry for blessing my life with this book. I'd also like to give her a hug and be best friends with her.

Ughh I. LOVE. THIS. BOOK.

The writing? Perfection. The dialogue? Also perfection x10000. That banter was *chefs kiss* and I DIE LAUGHING. The characters? LOVE THEM TO PIECES!! The plot and premise? Heck yes, it was fantastic.

The way that this story feels so three-dimensional and full of layers. It's just my favourite kind of romance and I'm here for it.

I shipped our two characters so dang much ahh!! Their chemistry is just... SO GOOD? What even is life rn? Their lives feel so real and I genuinely felt like I was there with them at the beach. I loved how their backstories intertwined. The development was perfect. I just loved it all okay.

Also, I almost cried. That was a thing. I just always get sad when characters have to go through grief and loss. I LOVED how Emily Henry put that into the story, it felt really personal. This whole book felt very personal and real, which was WOW. Anyways, yeah, even though it sucks, I still loved how it was a part of the story.

Can I just go and bury my own grave now? Because WOW WAS THIS AMAZING?! *insert all the exclamation points to portray my emotions*

I,,, don't know what else to say, send tweet. Actually no, SEND HELP.

Loved loved loved loved.

There have been some incredible romance novels this year and this was one of them. A romance about two writers, a challenge to write the other's genre, a beach house and romance – what's not to love! Highly recommend and looking forward to reading Emily Henry's next book.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

Loved this book!

A case of opposites attract for January and Augustus. As they make a deal and start spending more time together they start to understand each other more and more. Some great side characters too, especially Gus's Aunts!

Thank you to netgally for this advance review copy. (For reference I read this during Covid lockdown)

I thought that this book would be more light hearted then it turned out to be but it was still a great worthwhile read. This is one of the more realistic enemies to lovers books that I’ve read. This has open door romance within the story. I highly enjoyed reading it.

Spoilers- A woman’s father dies and she finds out he has a second house. She goes to the house to sell it and write her next book. The neighbour is a long lost enemy from college who also happens to be a writer.

This was a great rom com read but as well as the light hearted will they won’t they moments, it touched on grief, family, friendship, cults and of course books and the writing process. Highly enjoyable if not a little predictable. I did like the descriptions of the houses overlooking the lake and really wanted to sit with my coffee on the deck.
Thank you for the opportunity to read this book.

I loved this—romantic but snappy and all the characters felt fully realised. My only bugbear is that the brilliant concept—male literary writer writes romance, romance writer writes literary—falls by the wayside by the end. But it's such an enjoyable ride.

This is an excellent example of “don’t judge a book by its cover” (or title either in this case.

While I thought the cover artwork suggested a light-hearted, summer romance read, as would the title, and it was pitched as a “laugh out loud” novel about two singletons on holiday, this book had more depth and covered darker and more serious topics (childhood abuse and trauma, cult activity, loss and grief etc) than I expected. It wasn’t quite the light-relief from my usual preferences that I’d been hoping for.

That said, January and Gus are easy to warm to, with faults, flaws and each with their own backstory that makes them believable. I particularly liked the meddling aunties and their bookclub where handbag wine is acceptable, though I wanted more from January’s mum ... I felt like she had much more to contribute to the story.

The plot is somewhat predictable, but that’s what I thought I was signing up for, with a few unusual (sometimes a tad strange) bends along the road to keep things interesting. That said, I found myself skimming through the later descriptive passages detailing their physical entanglements; it’s just not my cup of tea.

If you enjoyed The FlatShare but are prepared for a story with a little more weight to it, this could well be for you.

3.5 stars from me.

January and Gus go way back but haven't seen each other for years.
They are both authors, struggling to write the next book and both broke and January has just moved in next door to Gus.
They decide to write each others books but what will happen along the way and what will happen at the end!

I wasn't too sure about this book when I first started it, but it didn't take me long to get into it and I ended up really enjoying it. I loved the banter between the two main characters, January especially was very amusing.

January is a romance writer and is back in her recently deceased Dad's hometown, clearing out his house which has been left to her, before selling it. Of course nothing it quite as it seems as she never even knew he owned a house there and there was another woman involved in her Dad's life that she didn't know about - although her Mother did (but won't talk about it). So her parents life as she knew it isn't quite as January had thought.

Gus is also a writer, but much darker books, and lives next door. January and Gus went to college together and were slight rivals, also skirting around a slight attraction, but nothing much happened at that time.

So eventually, both struggling with writers block, they help each other, whilst navigating their new relationship and getting closer, along with sorting out personal issues with family, all in a small town setting. Very emotional at times, but also very funny in parts. I especially loved January's character, she was very funny, not afraid to say what she thought most of the time.

I must admit I'm really not sure why it's called 'Beach Read' though, they are on the edge of a beach and do visit it once or twice, but it's really nothing to do with a beach, the cover is quite misleading. But that aside it was a very enjoyable, funny, emotional book with some great characters and dialogue.

I love the way this was written. It’s witty, romantic and very clever, but also quite dark. Emily Henry delved so much deeper than I was expecting and created an excitingly complex and intriguing set of characters.

“...when the world felt dark and scary, love could whisk you off to go dancing; laughter could take some of the pain away; beauty could punch holes in your fear. I decided then that my life would be full of all three.”

The direction it went in at times was rather odd, but it still held on to the magic of the relationship between the protagonist and love interest. And the more understated scenes between them ended up being some of my favourites.

“It didn’t take inspiration to dredge up a list of plot points, but to find that moment—the perfect moment that defined a book, that made it come alive as something greater than the sum of its words—that required an alchemy you couldn’t fake.”

Henry somehow kept me enamoured completely in these characters lives. There were some aspects concerning the plot and reveals in terms of the love interest and his past that made me uncomfortable while reading and I felt a sort of dread at what was going to be revealed next even though at the same time I was absolutely loving every second of reading it. It was also very interesting how the author decided to carry some things over into the book the protagonist January is writing from her life and how she used similar plot points in a completely different way, it was so unbelievably clever. I feel as though there are two different ways to read this, you could probably take it all at face value and get a cutesy contemporary, but if you look deeper you’ll uncover so much more.

“Everybody’s got shit, January. Sometimes, thinking about someone else’s is almost a relief.”

Honestly it was a rather weird reading experience for me. I thought I was going into a very light hearted fun read and somehow got that, but at the same time got something completely different as well. Beach Read is a very unique and very interesting book and I can’t recommend it enough.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

TW: Death of a parent, cancer, cheating, grief, alcohol/heavy drinking, vomit (one of the main characters has emetophobia), mention of a cult, mentions of physical and domestic abuse.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read this book.
Beach Read is not a book I would classify as a rom com. It is so much more complex and sadder than I imagined. Not that there weren't some funny moments, however the issues the main characters are dealing with, are basically life changing.
I felt like the issues with Gus and his father weren't as teased out as much as January and her father, but whose father was worse? Definitely his.
The writing itself was well done and the plot was interesting. It was fun to see how authors would research and get inspiration for their novels.