Reviews

The Beach Reads Book Club by Kathryn Freeman

nestasdeathpoint's review against another edition

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1.0

this book has so many ingredients to be a great romp: a book club in a beach town, a grumpy/sunshine pairing, a sweet little book shop/cafe... but, there's just too much telling what's happening instead of showing. disappointing.

memull17's review against another edition

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4.0

The tension and the steam between Lottie and Matt is intense! The Beach Reads Book Club follows independent and bubbly Lottie in her quest to create a new book club at the local bookshop run by straight laced Matt. Matt is a mystery to Lottie in more ways than one but as they get to know each other the tension and the passion heats up until something or someone gets in the way.

An easy and enjoyable read about friendships, romance, and relationships and the entire cast of characters is great!

Thank you Netgalley and publishers for this eARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

athravan's review against another edition

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3.0

The Beach Read Book Club is a romantic comedy about a book club who become friends and a community through coming together and reading romance books. It's a story about friendship as well as romance, which is plentiful, as book club creator electrician Lottie and up-tight book shop owner Matt have some serious chemistry. But Matt is tortured by his past; how he failed his wife and his family, and Lottie still hasn't got over ex Henry, who chose his career over her, leaving her with a broken heart. We have to find out if Lottie is ready to move on and let herself feel for someone new, and if Matt is ready to open up and loosen up.... and what's going to happen when Lottie's ex shows up? Well, you'll have to read that for yourself.

I particularly enjoyed the idea of this light hearted book club, because I'm in one myself as well as a serious book club, and I love the bonding that happens whilst chatting about books. The addition of actually telling us what books were being read was great (there's only really light, spoiler free discussion about them, so don't worry about that). Several of the books in the book club I actually looked up and put on my to-read list, so if you're looking to find more romance books to read, this could definitely help!

A few things didn't quite hit the mark for me, I'm not a fan of Fifty Shades of Grey and the eight or so mentions of it either as a joke or some sort of reference to sex, didn't really hit the mark for me. The treatment of the original book club - as someone who enjoys both serious and light books - seemed quite unfair and negative, and there's a tiny twist associated with that at the end that annoyed me.

Overall a light and mostly entertaining read. I'm going with the Goodreads start system of three stars = liked it.

justine_the_wandering_reader's review against another edition

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4.0

A sweet summer read, I couldn't put this one down. Much like the books highlighted within the story, this book was an easy to read, feel good romantic comedy. Lottie, after finding a book club that was all to serious for her tastes, starts up a new club dedicated to romantic comedies and steamy romances. She meets Matt, the new local bookshop owner and then begins their "opposites attract" love story. I really liked each of the peripheral characters and thought they contributed well to the overall story. My favourite was Audrey, the book clubs oldest member with a heart of gold, shielded by her potty mouth, love of sex and thirst for gin.

This book had me laughing, then pulled on my heart, what more could you want?

ratetheromance's review against another edition

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4.0

NEW FANTASY FOR THE SPANK BANK: Having a grumpy bookshop owner give me an orgasm up against the shop bookshelves while we are fully clothed.

Thank you, Kathryn Freeman.

THE BEACH READS BOOK CLUB is a very British romance. It's paced much more slowly than American romance books. But, the good news is, it has some great steamy scenes to go with the slow burn!

Lottie is a great female lead! She is an electrician who is fun and happy and bubbly. She is all sunshine to the male lead's rain cloud. Matt is a very lovable grump who is a complex character who you will grow to love! He is so steady and sweet he will melt your heart.

The conflicts in THE BEACH READS BOOK CLUB were what caused my rating to dip. They are a combination of miscommunication and the leads being idiots about their relationship. This was frustrating for me, as the reader. It becomes hard to like these characters when they are standing in their own way over and over and over again for seemingly trivial miscommunications.

But, for readers who don't mind that kind of conflict and who like a very Brit-Lit slow burn, they will LOVE this book! There are also great female friendships, lots of references to Romance novels, and a lot of swoon.

RATING:⭐️⭐️⭐️

ashbash92's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

annarella's review against another edition

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5.0

An enjoyable, poignant and heartwarming story that made me smile and and wish I could join the book club.
It's a well written story, a romance between two relatable and fleshed out characters, and an interesting list of books I could read.
This is a debut and I cannot wait for the next book by this author as she's talented.
There's humour, there're emotions and some very interesting observations.
I thoroughly enjoyed, highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
PS: sorry for the late review

cristinareading's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

brittsb00ks's review against another edition

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lighthearted

3.0

bookally's review against another edition

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3.0

Release date 30 June 2021

The beach reads book club follows Lottie Watt, shes a 30 something, electrician, who is an avid reader and who is still kind of trying to get over her ex Henry who moved away to better his career. She is a member in a book club run by a strict and stuffy woman called Eve and Lottie just doesn't enjoy it anymore so she decides to start her own book club. She finds a home for the book club which is a little book shop that just happens to have a handsome new owner.

I don't know what i expected when I picked this one up, I was just interested to read a book about a book club. It ended up being about so much more. Yes it was pretty light hearted but it did touch on alot of tough subjects especially because the groups age range was so wide I felt like you really got to get a insight into some of the things each of the people in those age groups go through.

It also brought alot more fun to the group to have that huge age range gap and it had some hilarious parts in it and also some sad ones. The book club ends up being more of a little family and support group than just a book club and they all help each other out through some things. Also with Matt and his family there were alot of subjects dealt with revolving around a somewhat dysfunctional family dynamic.

Although the romance was pretty good it didn't feel like the main story line to me and I liked that. It was more about Lottie and the book club. Although you actually get Matt's perspective I feel like it still just adds to Lottie's story. It had a small bit of a trope that I love but I wont say what because it will be a spoiler. I did like Matt as a character, and you get alot of insight into why he is the way he is.

What I didn't like was the way Lottie and Matt were making assumptions so much about how each other feel and there was lots of miscommunication and I don't like that "trope" I felt like that part went on for too long and happened too many times. I get that it is kind of realistic but I don't know ifs its realistic to have happened that much, it just got a little bit annoying for me.

You also get a nice little bite size into every members life, I would have liked a little more but can see why that would have been hard to add in.

It was a nice light read.

Thanks to netgalley for the arc in exchange for a honest review