Beach Read
Ratings731
Average rating3.9
This was a fantastic book. I loved the characters and the premise. I also appreciated that it wasn't super in your face enemies to lovers more college rivals who become friends and then lovers.
I liked this. I like how self-aware it was in that it took a step out of the traditional romance (or women's fiction) route by pointing out all the things that happen in a book. Especially, of course, HEAs. The cycle that they mentioned occurring in dreary, staring-into-the-abyss, next-great-American classics featuring “coldly horny” men manifested here. The parallels that January cannot escape between her and her father (for obvious reasons) being exacerbated when Gus is, gasp, still a married man and January is the...“mistress” in the equation. Then of course the way their situations are not at all the same.
I like how this book was different in that it looks at romance with more reality. As they dance in the rain, mud gets in their toes. As she's filled with melancholy and crying on the beach while the sun is setting, bird shit is still a danger. As they skinny dip in a lake in the middle of the night, it is cold as fuck and litter abounds. Despite all that, or maybe because of all that, the romance was...There are no words. The realism didn't hurt anything and, in fact, I appreciate it.
It's different from all the other romances I've devoured in one sitting. I was on the edge of my seat for this one as well and it certainly held steam and passion. It's just that, while others made me feel like a Formula 1 racer charging through a maelstrom of la passion or a toddler intent on squeezing every good thing out of a ripe orange, this let me see things clearer (I suppose...). I could see a romance happening and thriving despite, or because of, daily spoils like stepping on fresh sidewalk gum. The conflicts weren't as huge as a ticking clock or a heart-wrenching betrayal but I love how the minute and slightly bigger, negative things in a day can supplement a relationship, despite their very essence as “bad things”.
Or maybe I'm just insane and nonsensical. Long story short, I liked this.
This is the first book i read acknowledgements too at the end. That's how i wanted this to not get finished. So so so so so beautiful. I cried at the ending. Emily caught me with the first book itself. I enjoyed every page. I can easily connect with January as I'm also January born. Loved the writing style. It's not like fancy romance thing. It's very casual and written in a non clumsy way. Neat and Clean. January is funny and intelligent. She is cool and also sensitive at the bottom of the heart. I mostly find character's mind speaking is so boring. But for this book,i enjoyed most of the part. Every page is a summer feast.
And her Dad's letters to January made me sob. He is so cute with the fatherhood. My fav quotes were
“Today you were born......i would feel like I'd been born too”
“Ten fingers. Ten Toes. And even if you had none of them, you'd be the grandest thing I've ever seen “
“Being a parent feels like being a kid who someone has mistakenly handed another kid”
Beautiful right!!?
And there is no hate characters for me. I loved Sonya too. She deserved her love.
Even January's dad seemed infidelity, i couldn't hate him. He'd been a good father for her. I could say, i least enjoyed was Augustus Everett.
I feel bad that this was just okay for me, but it was a nice opportunity to see the range of narrator Julia Whelan, who also narrates NYT stories for Audm.
Holy crap I LOVED IT. It started off slow but was still engaging even in the slow parts. I laughed, I cried, I felt a myriad of emotions. My surprise favorite of this year.
Gus Everett writes literary fiction.
January Andrews writes romance novels.
What if they were to move in next to each other? What if they were to challenge each other to a contest to see if January could write literary fiction and Gus could write a romance? What would happen?
It's a fun idea for a book, and it was a (pretty) fun book.
This one really surprised me! The title sounds like it should have been just another cheesy, breezy romance, but it's more than that!
I loved the father-daughter relationship. I LOVED January's best friend! It made me think of my best friend and how much I appreciate and love her. She's always been there for me. We live in different cities but I send her a text that says “I need you” and she'll fly right down ❤️. But I digress...
The book address cancer, domestic abuse, infidelity and how one copes and stays strong.
What this book is most about is that we have no idea what's in store for us. Life can really suck but it's also beautiful and we should think about our happiness at this moment in time and nothing else matters.
Throw in a little steamy romance, a brooding male protagonist, a sunflower-esque female protagonist and bam, we're at 4 stars
3.5: this was fun and all, but if I had a shot everytime she thinks about them dancing that one time in college I'd be dead because of alcohol poisoning
This is one of the better romances I've read in a while. I went in expecting a typical light read romance, where the two characters (who inevitably fall in love) start out hating each other, etc etc - follow formula here. What I found instead in this story was more. There is still the romance, and the two characters finding their way toward each other, but there was also a lot of good stuff in here about family, forgiveness, secrets, and all the baggage we all carry into our relationships with everyone around us. More than once the line “people aren't math problems” is used - there is so much complexity to all of our lives that nothing is quite as simple as it often seems. This reads like a light ‘beach read' but includes enough ‘real' stuff to make it appeal even to those who don't normally like romance novels. This will definitely be on my list to suggest for book club in the future - something to appeal to everyone and LOTS to discuss!
This cover doesn't do the book justice. The story was lovelier than I thought it was going to be.
SOLID 4.2/5⭐️. Actually felt so many emotions about this book as the story woven through its plentiful amounts of themes and twists. I fucking cried. I never cry with books. I felt SO many things. I thank Henry for giving me a book that I truly tore through (and did read entirely on the beach). 2 days. And I actually did many other things in those 2 days besides straight beachin. The characters were so relateable and each possessed such a pure human hang up. It made them incredibly real but without being too present in the main story line. Everything felt like it was there for a good reason. I think my only thing was that I sincerely felt like the book was about 30 pages too long. There was a very brief gap in the middle that was slow to me and I just felt like I was dragging through it, but once past that hump it was smooth sailing. The relationship that January has with her dad was extremely personal to me, because even though my father is living, it rings so true. I don't want to spoil but the end display of love in the form of truth broke my heart more than any of the twist of romance throughout the novel, because I too felt all of that with my dad. And have for the past few years. If anything, this ending was a testament to everything I needed to hear right now in my life. The truth can sometimes be painful, but in the end today can be a good day if you believe it was a good day.
Ohh my god, I absolutely adored this book. I had high hopes and was worried it wouldn't live up to expectations, but it most certainly did. Both January and Gus were such lovely, fully realized characters and I had such a great time reading about them. Their banter was absolutely perfect and I can't tell you how many times I giggled reading their back-and-forths. But this book isn't all sunshine and roses! In fact, there's a lot of darker content, from grief to recounting past abuse, so tread lightly. This was a book that made me laugh and cry and stay up as late as I could to read. Emily Henry is now going to be an auto-buy author for me (I really liked her debut and need to read more of her work!) and I'm excited to see what she comes out with next.disclaimer: I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for review consideration. All of the opinions presented below are my own.Blog Twitter Instagram Facebook Ko-fi
I honestly don't have a single bad thing to say about this book.
It was amazing and checked off every box that I like to see when reading a book from this genre.
I highly recommend it to anyone who likes romance.
2.5 starsI thought I went into this book with my eyes wide open because I had read the reviews that warned that this was not a warm and fluffy book, but the book still disappointed me. I really enjoyed [b:A Million Junes 30763950 A Million Junes Emily Henry https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1487956862l/30763950.SX50.jpg 49844163] and since this dealt so heavily with grief, I thought that I might similarly enjoy it but this wasn't the case. I never really cared for either of the characters, if anything I was more interested in the details of the heroine's parents relationship than I was with the relationship between the two main characters. I didn't find the book funny at all despite a few reading a few reviews where readers had had different experiences. Although I generally don't mind grumpy characters, I found some of the hero's behaviour to be veering very deeply into controlling asshole territory. I was troubled by the hero's insistence that the heroine, was too 'bright and fairy-like' to see the site of the cult. There was nothing cute or sweet about that sentiment. If anything it seemed clear to me that he was taking away her agency and under the guise of putting her on a pedestal, making crucial decisions for an adult woman who was capable of deciding things for herself. I felt like after a while, this 'you're too bright to see the darkness in the world' would become stifling for the heroine. and their relationship would not survive the test of time. Meanwhile, his whole point seemed to be that despite what life threw at her she still remained bright and happy. Shouldn't he then trust her ability to remain happy despite whatever she would see in the cult site? Before I started writing this review, I toyed with giving this book 3.5 stars but after considering how little of the book I actually enjoyed, I bumped it down to 2.5 stars. I think because I like [a:Emily Henry 13905555 Emily Henry https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1573928938p2/13905555.jpg]'s writing, I was tempted to give this book a higher rating than it truly deserved.
I had so much fun reading this book. It's a new favorite of mine. The two main characters are both funny and cute, all at the same time. One of the characters, January, is dealing with the death of her father. After his death, January finds out about some secrets her father left behind as she's trying to write her next book. The other character, Gus, is also trying to write his next book, as well. As the two characters find themselves struggling to complete their novels they come up with an idea to help each other. This book was filled with laughter and some tears but ultimately had a happy ending.
Emily Henry's contemporary book about a young woman coming to terms with a family secret and finding love while doing it is a perfect summer read. It has themes of self-awareness, family bonds, and unexpected love. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
The main character, January, has learned that her recently deceased father had a big secret. This knowledge leads her to struggle with her memories of him and her feelings about him now. In the midst of this family turmoil, she becomes the neighbor of a previous college rival, who she just so happens to have a bit of crush on. As the story unfolds, the reader witnesses January stepping outside her comfort zone as a writer and realizing that the imperfections in life are not necessarily destructive.
I find this story to be very satisfying. The characters are well-developed and very likable. The love interest, Gus, is just the right amount of damaged, yet romantic. He and January have great banter which adds some humor to the story. I am happy with the ending and the themes it illustrates. I would definitely recommend it.
The cover is a little misleading - this is not a light, fluffy romance. It has some very dark segments, in both January and Gus' family histories, and the stories they choose to investigate/write about. I still enjoyed reading it, but it is not what I expected.
P.S. Matt likes to guess the endings of the romances I read, and when I told him that their bet was a genre-swap, that Gus was supposed to write a romance while January was supposed to write a work of Serious Literature Lol, his bet was that Gus was going to write the story of his and January's romance. Which would have been really lazy of him, a Serious Man Writer Who's Still No Jonathan Franzen, so I'm glad Matt was wrong, because I would have been pissed if that was the complete amount of effort put in (especially if he won by selling his book first).
4,5 stars
Opinião no link: https://peaceful-place.blogs.sapo.pt/livros-beach-read-42543
Este livro acabou de sair e eu vi tanta gente a lê-lo no Goodreads que não resisti e também decidi dar uma vista de olhos.
Aqui temos história de uma escritora - January, que desde pequena acreditava no “Felizes para sempre” e dedicou a sua vida quase toda a escrever romances desse tema. No entanto, a sua vida dá uma reviravolta quando o pai morre e ela descobre que ele teve uma amante durante anos. O mundo do felizes para sempre aos olhos dela, fica destruído, e ela tem um bloqueio criativo e não consegue escrever o livro que deverá está proponto em 3 meses.
Para melhorar a situação, o pai deixou-lhe uma casa na praia, onde pelos vistos passava os tempos com a sua amante. Perdida da vida e desesperada para limpar a casa e vendê-la January descobre que o seu vizinho, é o seu rival de escrita da escola e posteriormente da vida - Augustus. Este escrtitor, despreza o felizes para sempre e sempre gozou com o facto dela acreditar nisso. Portanto, já desesperada com a situação que está, ainda mete-se com a última pessoa que lhe apetecia.
É um livro diferente daquilo que eu estava a espera, pensei que fosse mais leve e não tocasse em tópicos tão complicados. Mas obviamente que goste do livro e dei uma avaliação muito alta. Contudo, para mim ainda faltaram algumas coisas que talvez preenchecem melhor a história.
Dit was leuk, maar niet zo leuk als verwacht. Op basis van de synopsis was ik zo gehypet en dit boek voelde als iets dat ik MOEST lezen en liefst GISTEREN. Maar jammer genoeg viel het een beetje plat voor mij.
Het was nog steeds entertainend hoor, met heel veel leuke scènes en ik supporterde voor de 100% voor de personages (January & Augustus, serieus, lol).
De aangesneden thema's gingen ook veel dieper dan ik had verwacht, maar uiteindelijk had het geheel toch veel minder allure en kleur dan ik had gehoopt.
Als ik halve sterretjes kon geven, dan kreeg deze 3,5, maar gezien ik het toch zo fijn lezen vond, rond ik af naar boven naar 4.
Enne, speciale vermelding voor de liefde voor de serie VERONICA MARS, hellz yeah!
This was just the right book at the right time, which is ironic because the blurb annoyed the hell out of me. The fact that the dichotomy between the two MCs' writing style is described as “something happy” vs “The Great American Novel” made me want to hop on my soapbox and start pontificating about the injustice of a world where books that win prizes are always tragic, while romance novels are considered women's trifle. But fortunately I started reading and it wasn't long before I realized that author Emily Henry was already making my case for me. It starts when our hero Gus casually tells our heroine January that he sees no reason for a full genre that's just books for women.
I scoffed. Here it was, that always-ready anger rising like it had been waiting for an excuse. “Yeah, well, you're not the only one who doesn't understand it,” I said. “I know how to tell a story, Gus, and I know how to string a sentence together. If you swapped out all of my Jessicas for Johns, do you know what you'd get? Fiction. Just fiction. Ready and willing to be read by anyone, but somehow by being a woman who writes about women, I've eliminated half the Earth's population from my potential readers, and you know what? I don't feel ashamed of that. I feel pissed that people like you will assume my books couldn't possibly be worth your time, while meanwhile you could shart on live TV and the New York Times would praise your bold display of humanity.”
Sometimes thinking about someone else's (shit) is almost a relief...maybe he thought someone had to bear witness to the dark, or maybe he hoped that if he stared into the pitch-black long enough, his eyes would adjust and he'd see answers hiding in it. This is why bad things happen, the dark would say. This is how it all makes sense.
In my own story, I didn't want to be the heroine who let some silly miscommunication derail something obviously good, but in my real life, I felt like I'd rather risk that and keep my dignity than keep laying everything out for Gus until he finally came right out and admitted he didn't want me the way I wanted him.
Beach Read