Beach Read

by Emily Henry

FROM THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF FUNNY STORY!

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.

As featured in The New York Times Book Review ∙ Entertainment Weekly ∙ Oprah Magazine ∙ Betches ∙ Shondaland ∙ Good Morning America ∙ The New York Post ∙ Good Housekeeping ∙ CNN ∙ and more!

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.

• ISBN10: 1984806734
• ISBN13: 9781984806734
• Publish Date: 19 May 2020 (first published 18 May 2020)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Berkley Publishing Corporation,U.S.
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 400
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781984806734

Reviews

[Ashley]

I liked it at first, but didn't really care about either of them by the end.

[chelyat]

This was exactly what I needed to stay out of a reading slump! Her books are always so easy to binge. The banter between Gus and January is so good! I felt all the emotions!

[The Romantic Comedy Book Club]

I have only recently been introduced to Emily Henry and I swear I crave her books like a dog craves a bone. I finally realized why I enjoy her writing so much (Beach Read included) - with each book, she imparts a bit of wisdom on how to survive the rollercoaster that's called life. She doesn't season it up with wishful thinking and fairytale moments. She reminds us that life can be down right brutal at times but we will get through it and come out on the other side strong. And if we don't, that's ok too.

 

January Andrews is dealing with enough issues in life right now - family secrets, a loss of a parent, a recent breakup - the last thing she needed was writer’s block! Having lost the beacon of light and hope that fueled her creative process, she escapes to North Bear Shores, Michigan - determined to crank out something that resembles a book while trying to ready her late father’s house to go on the market. As if writer’s block wasn’t a worthy enough adversary - January soon learns that the obnoxious neighbor who’s loud music is making her ears bleed is coming from the house of no other than her college crush turned arch nemesis - Augustus Everett. The same boy, now man, who made her college experience an absolute nightmare (even if she couldn’t take her eyes off him!) Same boyish charm with that fiery yet judgmental look, January’s dance card is officially full and she just can’t deal with anything else but with a small town, you can run but you can’t hide. So if you can’t beat them, join them. Alone, flustered, and running out of options, January is willing to try just about anything to make a book materialize, even accepting a bet with Augustus (Gus) to write something well outside of her normal range. She just has to keep her promise that she won’t fall in love with him, which she believes will come right after witnessing pigs fly.

 

This book was different from the other books I have read by Henry but I couldn’t put my finger on how. Enjoying it immensely, it is probably the first slow burn book that kept my interest the entire time. The ebbs and flows of their relationship kept you guessing what would happen next but helping you stay in the moment. Were they friends, would they become more, would they become less, was there a future, was the change that made them so compatible now temporary? I think what was intriguing was feeling like I was inside of the head of the many authors I enjoy. It was a reality check of the amount of pressure they must feel to give us readers what we crave, what we desire. Will we be happy? Will we resent them? I think that’s what felt different. While I enjoy the characters in most books, January felt more real to me, as if Emily Henry was speaking to the readers through her - letting us know that she was struggling but would find a way to deliver.

 

January’s story was incredible! The pallet of baggage that she had to carry would break any normal person. She was experiencing loss in a multitude of ways, loss of Jacques, loss of her father, loss of the relationship with her mother, loss of happily ever afters, loss of what she believed was the example of pure and wholesome love between her parents. On top of that, she still had to carry on - writing in a voice that no longer belonged to her, facing a reminder of her past that was messing with her present, longing for a friend that was close but yet so far - she was everywhere but was still trying to find her center.

 

Augustus Everett is the embodiment of the antihero. The way Henry wrote him, you desperately wanted him to find something, anything to make it all worth it. The despair, the abandonment, the relentless search of permanency, of being wanted, accepted, chosen - his character was everything but believed he was nothing. To believe he wasn’t enough, wasn’t good enough, was simply a plague that destroyed everything he touched was gut wrenching. He constantly hid behind a shield that had protected him for so long, he didn’t even realize it still existed.

 

The sexual tension between these two characters was sensational. What I have always appreciate about Henry is that she writes with such sensuality and intimacy that it doesn’t feel like a hot and heavy scene, it feels like a overdue tender moment between two people who are so drawn to each other, nothing else but being together makes sense.

 

This book was just real in every way. January wasn’t a damsel is distress looking for her Prince Charming to sweep her off her feet. Augustus wasn’t the bruiting male lead who had everything in life but the love of a good woman. They loved and lost, they had disappointments, heartaches, up and downs, good and bad childhoods, secrets, and lies - they were us, they were real, crap happened, things didn’t work out, life sucked. It was a refreshing break away from the lightheartedness of most romantic comedies. While the laughs were still there (the banter was strong with this one!), the rawness of just being human and surviving was there too. Behind every laugh, every smart remark, every comeback was a person simply trying to keep it together. Isn’t that all of us to an extent?

 

Love is hard, love is messy and it may not always work out like the fairytales but we are resilient, strong, and will survive. Love stinks but it doesn’t mean we should lose hope. That is the overarching message I got from her book - it may not come in the form you desire or work out how you picture it but giving up and turning your back on the idea ruins any possibilities of not happily ever after, but happy for now moments.

 

While her stories are officially fiction, she ensures her characters keep one foot in the real world, connecting our realms and allowing us to see, feel, and appreciate what is happening and how we may apply their reasoning to our every day woes. Beach Read teaches us that nothing is guaranteed - life, love, or happily ever afters. For this reason, we need to embrace the "now" of things and leave the "buts" for tomorrow.

[Berls]

3.5 stars

I always seem to enjoy books about writers... perhaps because I dream of living that life someday? Beyond that, there was lots to love about this sweet second-chance (kinda enemies-to-lovers) romance.

I think what I enjoyed most about Beach Read was the internal growth of January Andrews as she grapples with what love means. Someone she loves deeply has altered the very foundation of how she looks at romantic love. Meanwhile, she's a romance author with a book due. How do you write contemporary romance when your heart is broken and you don't know if you even believe in love anymore? Watching January grapple with that, while watching her fall in love with her neighbor, former classmate, and "rival" author (they don't write the same genre) - whom she thought hated her and thus, she kinda hates- was sweet.

Gus (Augustus) comes with his own issues and peeling his layers is also really enjoyable. That being said, this wasn't a profound - blow me away story. It was exactly what I expect of a contemporary romance. Sweet, with some emotional moments, and a HEA.

The narration by Julia Whelan made racing through it just 1 hour before my library ended both enjoyable and possible. I don't think I've listened to her narration before, but I wouldn't hesitate to listen to her again.

[scarr]

I remember the first time I saw the title of this book . . . I thought, "hmm, I bet it's a light and fun romance taking on the whole we read light and fun books at the beach (if you go to the beach, which I do not as a goth babe)". I was partially correct: the book is an interesting take on romantic beach reads. But this book is not light and fun and fluffy. This book is a slow-burning romance that deals with a lot of big, complicated feels. Not really enemies-to-lovers or friends-to-lovers, not exactly second-chance-romance or insta-love, this book is deep af. The characters are complicated and so are their histories.

When I think about the Romance genre, I think about all the ways Romance is underrated or overlooked often because it's considered "for women" thus weak sappy shit. Everyone who thinks that is wrong and their literary criticisms cannot be trusted. It is ok to prefer one genre over the other, HOWEVER Romance is as worthy as any, "coldly horny, Hemmingway circle jerk" book by whatever guy the media is fawning over.

This book is, for me and along with many other books, a perfect example of what Romance can ben or what any great book can be.

[Molly J(Cover To Cover Cafe)]

Beach Read was a hit for me! I loved it! These characters were perfect, and the story line really stole me away! I loved feeling a part of the story. Definitely one of my favorite 2020 reads!

[bookperson]

not at all what I expected!
I now get why romance readers are upset - THIS IS NOT A ROMANCE BOOK! this is clearly woman's fiction, which doesn't make it better or worse, it is what it is.
but because it's WF it deals with lots of heavy topics, even though romance part of the book is ~40%. other 60% is grief, cheating (not between mcs), parent drama etc.
I liked parts of this book but I wanted a beach read. it's not it.

[sarahjay]

I was not expecting cry so much while reading the ending of this, but we're all a little fragile right now, aren't we? When I closed it, I lay on the floor and cried next to my cats, who were staring at a bird on my balcony. Emily Henry books make me feel understood.

[Brianna]

I really hope Emily Henry keeps writing adult romance

[Jyc]

★★★ // i enjoyed reading this for the most part, especially the kind of “dance” that the two of them were doing — the famous will-they-won’t-they. the history, the hesitations, the desperate attempts to control feelings from bursting out of them right then and there. i appreciate the personal histories of both January and Gus, and how these ultimately shape them as writers. even more, how they remained true to their perspectives even as the circumstances around them showed them that maybe it’s not always rainbows as in the case of January, and not always dark as in the case of Augustus. they just found ways to still accept the other face of the reality they lived in for so long, and these beliefs ultimately pushed them to take a chance.

it just did not really move me in a way that i would be invested in their happiness, or affect me in a way that their problems seem like my problem too. i wasn’t also a fan of its writing. i kept on thinking how there is a better way to seamlessly unravel their conflicts alongside their love story. it’s a shame that we did not get much from January and her mom, or Gus with her ex because they are huge parts of the people they became today. but they’re mostly just mentioned in retrospect. and sometimes i guess i’m just not into this thing where the last few chapters of a book turn very cinematic, heh. admittedly, i had a hard time because some of the lines and events are a little corny/cheesy for me *screams*

”Somehow, I survived, tender human heart intact.”