Beach Read
Ratings730
Average rating3.9
I picked up this book today, as a part of a reading challenge and after reading 6 other romance novels, in rapid succession. And being a massive love hater (not my words) to begin with, it's safe to say I was getting pretty tired of romance (a major understatement). I intended to read a few chapters before moving on with the rest of my day, but before I knew it, I had finished the whole thing in pretty much one sitting.
I thought this book was gonna be a shallow, Starbucks-matcha-late-with-caramel-sprinkles (or whatever it is they sell)-type of giddy romance, about two horny edge-lords on vacation, who try to outsmart each other while getting drunk on piña coladas.
And while, technically, I could've been more wrong, I would've had to try hard.
This book is about two aggressively normal people who are dealing with some hard times and happen to fall in love in the meantime. It's about dealing with the beating down life gives us and the ways we find to deal with it. It's about stories and the strange paths they sometimes take to come to life.
It's beautiful and tragic, and hopeful, and sarcastic (not in the wannabe way, but actually), and funny, and sweet, and I loved it.
From the bottom of my romance hating heart, I loved it!
This is definitely a book in which I think the title and the cover don't accurately reflect what it was about. The characters are lounging on the beach on the front of the book – and very rarely make it to the beach at all in the pages. I also get that the title is probably poking fun a little at the idea of romance novels as light books you read on the beach, and the basic premise of the book involves the characters exploring their genres, but I think you could have taken the entire story and set it in the mountains and it would have been the same. I like that Emily Henry writes emotionally complex characters. But I think this might be my least favorite of the three adult novels she has published, mostly because I struggle with reading leading men who can't say what they feel. I understand that Gus's backstory explains why he is the way he is. But something January says to Gus really summarizes what frustrated me about this book: "I don't need you to be Fabio...I just want you to tell me how you feel. I want to know what it is you want." I just didn't like how they each made assumptions about what the other was feeling or needed throughout the story. What I did enjoy was the way both January and Gus explored why feel-good fiction is not just naïve or unrealistic.
3.
Well, fuck. The cheating dad made me cry. Not sob, but a few tears trickled out here and there. And that last part with Shadi made me cry too because it reminded me of my friends, and I love my friends. Shadi was so perfectly my favorite character.
As for the rest, well. I get it, okay? I GET it!! He has a crooked mouth, liquidy dark eyes, messy hair, and rumpled clothes!!!! Got violent flashbacks of shining orbs all over fics (not that that's a bad thing, really. It was just funny how often it was mentioned).
I liked People We Meet On Vacation a lot better. Here, it took me so long to warm up to the main characters, I feel like it dragged on a bit too much at the beginning. But I ended up liking them just fine. I didn't like Pete at all, though. She was very annoying.
The plot was really good even if it took a while to both take off AND land, in my humble opinion. There's just something about broken people finding comfort in each other. In the end, this particular take was not exactly my cup of tea, but I drank it anyways. And I DID cry a bit so I for sure had a good time.
I liked the premiss. At some point it felt like two books in one. Following the writer's process, and the different styles and research writers do while writing is a pretty cool angle. i do think the book was too meta romance books wise for it to let itself fall in the emotions. Both the writer and the protagonist felt too conscious of the usual tropes basically, so even if the story's good it lacks the usual feels.
On a sidenote, the book cover really doesn't showcase the story and I don't know how a book that's about how much editorial houses demean romance novels and female stories would accept with such a flaky looking cover that seems like a copy paste of all other romance novels of the past 2 years.
I went into this book nervous because of all the praise that I had heard about it. Usually, I find that when books have been talked highly often they do not deserve the praise so I was very pleased to see that with Beach Read, this was not the case.
There's something about rivals to lovers that I can't help but enjoy. This book showed the perfect example of that trope that had me almost bouncing at the walls.
“Sometimes—sometimes good, or at least decent, people do bad things.”
I wanted to include this quote because I think it's really important to highlight and I want the chance to come back whenever I can to look at it.
“I was always looking for the secret code, the rules I could follow so he wouldn't freak out. That's how you keep yourself safe, you know? You pay attention to how the world works. But there was no secret code for him. It was like our actions were entirely detached from his reactions to us. ”
I wanted to include this because as I read it, I actually audibly went “oh”. I was in an abusive relationship for five years and I understand all too well the desperate need to learn the patterns and rules that came with the abuse so it could be avoided. As soon as I read this quote, I felt like I had grown so much closer to Gus and that I could understand him as a character completely.
This book is exactly what you love and expect from a romantic comedy. You could feel absolutely everything that occurred during the book. I could feel the pain, the pining, the heartbreak, the angst... everything. It was so easy to become invested.
I couldn't help but giggle at January and Gus' banter and their interactions. They were both so sarcastic and refreshing to read. They felt so real and were definitely characters that people can easily see themselves in.
“You're so fucking beautiful, you're like the sun.”
This line.... If someone said this to me? Yeah.
“When I watch you sleep,” he said shakily, “I feel overwhelmed that you exist.”
This book both broke and healed my heart. It quickly became special to me and was mentally put away as a comfort read.
I kove this book. Emily writes really well and I can't wait to read the rest of ber books. All the characters are well-written and interesting. Honestly the only thing I hate is public proposal at the end, this is one of my pet peeves and aomething I hate with my whole heart. And cheating obviously, which is why I didn't really like that January's father & Sonya storyline. These are the onmy thibgs I didn't like but the book is amazing. 4.8/5
Shut all the way up I will never recover from the book — excuse me while I puke (sorry Gus) over the fact that my perfectly favorite person is not real
This is the best thing I could have ever read on my birthday and the fact that it touched a lot of issues that I'm struggling with only cements the fact that it was fate. 100000/10 will read again.
an enemy to lover trope that actually works.
my annoyance with romcoms is how they end of making “hopeless romantic” characters very stupid, irks me so much. but Emily did this one right.
the characters are interesting, they banter w/o trying hard, they are witty people whose conversation I totally would overhear in a cafe. they are opposites but not in a tryhard way. they are fun writers who do write. (altho the novel writing process felt a bit unrealistic but that's not the focus of this thing).
they were selfaware, funny people who you want to watch get together. chill fun ride – a beach read for sure. :)
I enjoyed this but honestly with all the hype around her books I expected more.
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I am now all caught up on the Emily Henry adult contemporary romance novels! And I have to say, my ranking of them goes as follows: Book Lovers, People We Meet on Vacation, and lastly, Beach Read. Now they're all solidly 4 stars and higher, so don't go thinking I didn't enjoy Beach Read. I just enjoyed it less than the other books!
Let's get into the why:
First off — Beach Read is profoundly about grief, over everything else. Grief of relationships not being what you thought, grief of a father who passed away unexpectedly, grief of a non-childhood. Grief, grief, grief. I am a-okay with books being about grief, but when I pick up a book called Beach Read, it's not really what I'm expecting. Like at all. And it took over halfway through the book for the characters to even end up on a beach! (I was very confused as to why this book was even titled what it is for a good chunk.) Secondly, Gus just seems like a garbage-slob of a person all of the time? He is kind, but not nice, and it's not my favorite sort of leading man in a romance novel. He reminded me of Nick from New Girl, but if Nick was about a million times less funny, and dealing with some serious childhood trauma.
January was extremely relatable, however. (The give-up pants made me laugh so much.) I loved her character, and I rooted for her the entire novel. I wanted her to succeed in everything she wanted so very badly. I wished that she could have had the chance to just shout at her dad. She deserved it. As for the romantic relationship, I understood why January liked Gus, but I didn't believe it as much as I did in Henry's other books. I am probably an outlier in how I feel about this. They are just so, so different, but dealing with so, so much trauma it seemed like a bad bedrock for a relationship.
Overall, though, another solid book from Emily Henry. Four stars.
I'm incredibly glad I've stumbled upon “Beach Read” because all it would've taken me was one more mediocre book to get me to stop reading for the foreseeable future. But surprisingly, TikTok didn't let me down this time. Emily Henry has a way with words that leaves you no choice but to fall in love with her writing. She has created characters that are flawed but still so likable and authentic. The book certainly lives up to its hype. And I have a hard time imagining anyone not enjoying it. The only thing causing slight disappointment is that the enemies-to-lovers trope wasn't really executed despite the initial hints.
I liked the storyline of this book as it was a very cute hate to love romance, but it felt one sided of character development towards Januray Andrews (the lead female) and not the other main character Augestus Everett and [a:Emily Henry 13905555 Emily Henry https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1573928938p2/13905555.jpg] could have easily given more depth to his development in this story. There is light smut in this story.
It took a bit to get vested in this book, but when I realized I had a day to finish it, it was a blessing. I sat for hours with the story of January and Augustus, enjoying each tearful, angsty, delirious, sexy moment.
I love how the author delves deeply into the emotions of her main character, pondering the curveballs that life throws at everyone and how the characters reach tiny resolutions along with way.
It would seem that a book titled BEACH READ would be destined to have a happy ending, but it is by no means a shoe-in here. And what is a considered a happy ending to one could be completely different to someone else.
I appreciate the premise of two writers challenging each other to write in the other's genre. In real life, there seems to be so little time to write what writers want to write, that it wouldn't leave time to dabble elsewhere, but it works great in this story.
I love how Emily Henry brought January's whole family into her character makeup. We are many times the sum of so many disparate and cracked parts. This comes through glowingly, as well as the influence and stability we receive from our best friends. Overall, a wonderful book.
This got me back into reading after a years long break.
It was so easy to read, and I am obsessed with the writing. I was immediately hooked!!!
You can assume where the story is going to end up, but the journey getting there was so exciting.
- Plot o Conflicto:
Enemies to lovers que son vecinos por azar del destino. Ella necesita superar una crisis existencial por la muerte y la infidelidad de su padre y la ruptura de su relación, que la tiene en bloqueo de escritor y volver a creer en el amor. Él, bueno es mucho más complicado que lo que muestra.
- Personajes principales: January, la escritora, que a veces me saca de quicio por lo indecisa que puede llegar a ser, pero también me sacó las lágrimas. La autora logró que conectara con este personaje.
Gus es muy complicado que lo que se muestra al inicio y me gustó como fue justificando su comportamiento.
- Personajes secundarios : Pete, Sonya, Shadie, Maggie y el papá de January. Por momentos había escenas que me sobraban y otras que me encajaban a la perfección
- Desarrollo del conflicto: Algunos giros y subtramas innecesarios
- Resolución del conflicto: LO AMÉ y lloré mucho con esas cartas
I'm not a huge romance reader, but there's something about Emily Henry's book that I really love. I read People We Meet on Vacation earlier this year and figured I'd try Beach Read as one of my first summer reads... naturally so I could read it at the beach.
January and Gus are both lovable characters, but I have to say Gus and his storyline were my favorite even though January showed the most growth throughout the story. She must come to terms with the fact that life can't always be looked at through rose-colored glasses. Gus helps her come to terms with this, but in turn, he must learn not to always look at life pessimistically. The two balance each other out and their chemistry is endearing.
The writing was witty and charming with just the right amount of angst and fluff. A great read to kick off the summer!
3.75
i liked it alot!!! shouldve been shorter and the interview/book research parts were boring to me but overall a solid read :)
2024 REREAD
rereading this was a mistake, way boring than i remembered. still love gus tho
If you need a definition of wasted time, this book is just its definition. Most of the time it felt as the book was ashamed of itself. The promise of the book is two author - one of them writes serious manly fiction and the other - romance novels. But what we get is the main character so ashamed of what she writes, that she tries not to mention it at all or justify it at any cost. I don't even know what is more cringey.
Of course, it was only one of many problems in the book. It was overwhelmingly long. boring and bland. My only emotion was annoyance at the main chacter, January, from whose POV we read this story. She's so eager to determine and tell the reader what each character feels that she doesn't even have to ask them. Or anyone at all. She just assigns them feelings and motivations for actions as she sees fit.
You know what? This doesn't even deserve a review, so to hell with this book. Read and forgotten already.
Please don't come for me on this one...
I was not the biggest fan of this book. It was good but it did not grab me like I expected it would. I loved the characters, don't get me wrong but they were just missing something for me. I don't fully know if it's the book itself or if it's because I was just getting out of a reading slump, I may try it again in the future and update this! We'll see.