Beach Read by Emily Henry

Adult, Contemporary, Romance

A swoon-worthy, enemies-to-lovers romance between two rival writers filled with troubled pasts, imaginative stories and hilarious banter.

"He doesn't believe in happy endings. She's lost her faith that they exist. But could they find one together." 

Non-Spoiler Review

Hopeless romantic, January Andrews has hit rock bottom. Grieving, broke and alone, she is desperate to write her next swoon-worthy romance story, sell her father's beach house and have a fresh start by the end of summer. Not to mention, being next-door neighbours to her college rival and literary snob, Augustus Everett. But when they discover that the other is equally broke and suffering from the worst writer's block imaginable, an interesting bet is made. January and Gus will swap genres and whoever sells their book first by end of summer wins. However, a summer together may prove to be more than either of them bargained for.

"That feeling that a new world was being spun like a spiderweb around you and you couldn't move until the whole thing has revealed itself to you."

The selling points of this book are:

✓ Swoon-worthy romance

✓ Hilarious banter

✓ Enemies-to-friends-to-lovers trope

✓ Touching moments of grief

✓ Love of books

✓ Stories within a story 

First off, the highlight of this romance was definitely the banter between January and Gus. It was hilarious, albeit a bit cheesy and trope-heavy at times, but boy did I love them to pieces. Some of the lines between exchanged between them would have made me roll my eyes and dock points of this book, but I just loved the characters that it came across as sweet fluff. The romance itself used my all-time favourite trope which was the rivals-to-friends-to-lovers trope. I will forever be trash for this trope and no one can change my mind about. It gave their interactions that level of sexual tension and made the banter all the more hilarious and entertaining. Their dynamic can also be argued as cliché with January having this optimistic, romantic outlook towards life and Gus having a dreary, brooding perspective. However, their chemistry and interactions were amazing and precious and I couldn't get enough of them together. That said, there were moments where I was so frustrated at their stubbornness and I just wanted to knock some sense into them and literally force them together. I felt all the heartache between the two and I just wanted them to be happy together.

The biggest plot point of this story was the bet. It wasn't just about swapping genres and writing stories. It forced January and Gus on a series of "research" trips, which were equally endearing and heartbreaking as the trips featured the essence of each of their respective genres. What I didn't expect going into this was the dark topics/discussions within this book, aside from the grief January was experiencing from the death of her father. Those aspects were interesting and felt like Emily Henry was sparking a bigger discussion on trauma and the persevering nature of humanity. I wished this book was longer to explore more of those elements to really solidify those messages.

Speaking of grief, it was a pivotal topic discussed throughout the story. January was not only suffering the grief from unexpectedly losing her father, who was her guiding hand throughout her life, but also from the shocking revelation of his infidelity (this was in the first few chapters so it's not a spoiler). For someone who believed in happy endings and true love, this unexpected, painful discovery made January conflicted on her feelings towards her father, and throughout the story, you could clearly see the conflict within her as she grapples with the fact of missing someone you didn't fully know. Moreover, given that her love for happy ever afters stemmed from her parents supposedly happy marriage and her deep connection with her parents, these elements really tore at her heart As January was an only child, I felt her pain at losing her father given how tight knit their family was and made the ending all the more tear-inducing and heartbreaking for me as someone who is an only child and really close with my parents. It's been a while since a contemporary managed to make me cry and whoa was I emotionally wrecked by the end. 

I wished that this book delved more into Gus's past since the story main shed light on Janaury's situation. I would've loved extended sections where we got to know more about him to the same degree as January. It would've added that much more depth to the story and reduced the amount of pages where we all pondered on what could've happened to Augustus Everett to make him such a scrooge when it came to romance. Moreover, if we got that insight sooner, all the infuriating moments where they were hiding things from each other short or non-existent and, personally, would've added more touching, heartfelt moments between the two. That would've made this book 5 stars in my eyes. 

On a lighter note, since January and Gus are both writers, you could clearly see the love of stories within this book. I enjoyed the snippets we got of the book they were each writing, although I would've loved it even more if we got more of that or if the chapters began with an extract of their works, especially since my interest was piqued whenever they were describing their stories. That would've have made my story-loving heart all the more happy. 

Overall, I'm so happy that this book lived up to the high praises I've been seeing and I'm glad to have buddy-read this (spoiler alert: we were both emotional wrecks by the end). I would 10/10 recommend this and it deserves all the love.