When A Romance Writer No Longer Believes In Love

I recently finished reading Beach Read by Emily Henry *POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT* Rating: 4/5 stars

"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."

I really needed this book. I didn't realize how much I needed it until I was giggling along with all the awkwardness and banter and feeling like I'd been taken away from the dark. It's exactly what it seems to be: a very cute, sweet romance.

Beach Read is a warm, summery story about a romance writer, January Andrews, and a vair vair serious literary writer, Augustus Everett, who have been long-time writing rivals ever since they attended college together. They find themselves in neighboring beach houses for the summer, each trying to write their next novel whilst doling out perfect comebacks to each other. What could possibly happen?

As they get to know each other a little better, they decide to strike a deal: Augustus will write a happily ever after and January will turn her talents to the serious world of literary fiction. Whoever sells their manuscript first, wins.

I really enjoyed the dynamic between January and Gus. It's not quite love/hate because the author stops short of really making them tear into each other, but there's a lot of tension created by their competitive history. The banter is funny; a little snarky at times, but good-natured. Emily Henry has also perfected that blend of broody and sweet with Gus-- it turns out Romance love interests can be both darkly mysterious and not assholes. Who'da thought?

The story is told entirely from January's POV, which I personally like. I prefer single-perspective romance novels because I think a good portion of the tension comes from not knowing what's going on inside the other person's head. But then at the same time, I love reading about how intense the feelings are for the other character when character A thinks character B hates them.

I will say that I might have been more critical of some aspects of this if I was in a different mindset right now. While I expected the novel to be cute and a little cheesy, it is a bit more cheesy and sentimental than I usually prefer.

I also expected it to be a little more saucy, lol. There are sex scenes, for sure, but they’re cute and kinda dorky rather than tense and exciting. I know that a lot of people prefer that; I just thought the whole competing authors dynamic was pretty hot and would have liked to see that played upon a bit more. And I loved the jokey banter… I just sorta wanted them to stop the jokey banter DURING sex.

But, fuck it. This was such a heartwarming feel-good book. I had a good time, that's all I can say.

Check out Beach Read, and take on the journey of reclaiming your romance.

Happy Reading :)