Scan barcode
laurendenton's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Death of parent, Grief, Infidelity, Sexual content, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Cancer, Cursing, Death, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Child abuse and Domestic abuse
anniefizzell's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I adored this book. It may even have been a full five stars for me, but I’m trying to sit with books more before I give them that distinction hahaha. January and Gus were absolutely adorable and funny and relatable in the most gut-punching, tear-jerking ways. This one is a bit of an emotional sneak-attack! The way both Gus and January grow and learn to trust each other and learn to accept themselves is so beautiful and inspiring. I just loved them. Augustus Everett will forever be one of my favorite leading men. He was positively swoon-inducing at every turn, but also incredibly real and human in his struggles. And the BANTER between these two!! I audibly giggled several times throughout the book because of how FUN the dialogue was. So much to love about this book. I read it on the beach in Hawaii, and it really set the mood (even though it takes place on the shores of a lake and not the ocean, haha). Definitely recommend highly!!!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Terminal illness
Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, Suicide, and Vomit
There is a side plot where characters are researching a su1cide cult for a novel. They go to the site of the tragedy, and to visit people who escaped, to get their stories. There’s nothing too graphically horrible described, as far as my memory serves. But if that’s something you’re sensitive to, just be wary! :)meghanm404's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Death of parent
Minor: Infidelity, Murder, and Physical abuse
kathshiroma's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Terminal illness, Child abuse, Death, and Death of parent
beamasalunga's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
“Sometimes life is very hard. Sometimes it demands so much of you that you start losing pieces of yourself as you stretch out to give what the world wants to take.”
I was bound to give Beach Read 3 stars until January and Gus pulled those romantic and intimate moments in the last two chapters of the book.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Infidelity, and Terminal illness
februaryfriday's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
i ended up liking this a whole lot more than i expected! when i first heard people talk about this book, i assumed it wouldn’t be for me, but i was positively surprised.
what i thought would be a steamy rom-com (not that there’s anything wrong with that at all, just usually not my personal preference) ended up being so much more than that. we didn’t only get a romance, but also a deeper and darker look into the characters’ mind and their backstories, which i appreciated a lot! in the end, it all just made perfect sense to me.
i loved the premise and i think it was really well executed. i became invested in the characters and their relationship pretty fast and it was super fun to see where this book took me.
i would definitely recommend it since it was super fun and exciting. i can see where all the love and hype for this book came from!
what i thought would be a steamy rom-com (not that there’s anything wrong with that at all, just usually not my personal preference) ended up being so much more than that. we didn’t only get a romance, but also a deeper and darker look into the characters’ mind and their backstories, which i appreciated a lot! in the end, it all just made perfect sense to me.
i loved the premise and i think it was really well executed. i became invested in the characters and their relationship pretty fast and it was super fun to see where this book took me.
i would definitely recommend it since it was super fun and exciting. i can see where all the love and hype for this book came from!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Grief, Infidelity, and Terminal illness
roseamillerg's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
5.0
soooo cute. read all but the last 50 pages in one day. 🥺
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Infidelity, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Cancer, and Cursing
Minor: Vomit, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse
mich_26's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Terminal illness
bookswithsoumi's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Review:
Check out this review and more on Books With Soumi
Beach Read was chosen for the Book of the Month for April 2020 and was listed several times as one of the best romances of the year. Unfortunately, Beach Read did not live up to the hype for me. I tried so hard to love the book like everybody else on the internet. I was even reading it with my best friend, who had also been wanting to read this romance for a few months.
I either do not care for the enemies-to-lovers trope (unlikely since I do love Pride and Prejudice), or the emotional chemistry between the two characters, January and Gus, was not developed enough for me to connect with the characters.
The secondary characters were flat as well, mostly appearing in backstories like January’s family or in text messages like Shadi, January’s best friend. Pete and Maggie, the bookstore owners in the town January moved to, make rare appearances but do not help bring out the character traits of any of the main characters.
I did not give the book one star and instead gave two because the feminist messaging did resonate with me. I liked that January was proud of writing women’s fiction. I especially loved the passage where January explains that even by calling her novels “women’s fiction,” some of the population is turned off, demonstrating the double standard that when people (usually men) write men-centered fiction, the book is just fiction and not “men’s fiction.” However, these remarks are made due to Gus’ misogynistic comments against women’s fiction. I was instantly turned off, and I tried to empathize and connect with Gus as the author intended, but I could not.
Overall, I was disappointed with the book. I will have to make a more conscious effort to read books with an intentionally diverse set of characters, instead of just Shadi, who rarely makes an appearance, or Sonya, the woman that January’s father had an affair with before he died. Sonya is not technically the villain of the story, but it is interesting that out of the seven characters that appear in real-time in the story, the one making the most detrimental and questionable moral and ethical decisions had to be a woman of color.
Time to read: 10 hours over 15 days
Tl;dr: I felt like I still stuck in COVID-19 quarantine with the lack of character interaction and growth in this book.
Who might enjoy this book?: fans of the enemies-to-lovers trope and books about writers.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Medical content, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Vomit
Minor: Misogyny
danidamico's review against another edition
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
Si bien Beach Read puede ser catalogado como un romance, creo que lo que tiene de interesante es que no se centra únicamente en eso, sino que también trata sobre el duelo y el crecimiento que atraviesa la protagonista. Cuando su padre muere repentinamente y una revelación parece destruir su modo de ver el mundo, January, escritora de novelas románticas, entra en crisis. Ni siquiera puede escribir. A partir de este escenario, Emily Henry va construyendo una historia de amor que involucra a otro escritor, un antiguo rival de January, y una historia sobre volver a encontrarse a uno mismo a pesar del dolor.
Sí, Beach Read es un poco cursi, o muy cursi, dependiendo de cada lector, pero es un libro que se disfruta un montón. De hecho, ya estoy esperando con ansias la adaptación cinematográfica que aún no existe (alguien que la haga, porfa). Me gustaron mucho los personajes, me siento identificada con partes de ambos: considero que tengo una personalidad más "realista" al estilo de Gus, pero no puedo negar que el maratón de películas de Meg Ryan que organiza January también es muy yo. Literalmente lo hago cada navidad.
En fin, si les gustan los libros con: personajes que son escritores, romance, un poco de drama familiar, algunas reflexiones existenciales y un verano a orillas del lago, Beach Read es una buena opción.
Sí, Beach Read es un poco cursi, o muy cursi, dependiendo de cada lector, pero es un libro que se disfruta un montón. De hecho, ya estoy esperando con ansias la adaptación cinematográfica que aún no existe (alguien que la haga, porfa). Me gustaron mucho los personajes, me siento identificada con partes de ambos: considero que tengo una personalidad más "realista" al estilo de Gus, pero no puedo negar que el maratón de películas de Meg Ryan que organiza January también es muy yo. Literalmente lo hago cada navidad.
En fin, si les gustan los libros con: personajes que son escritores, romance, un poco de drama familiar, algunas reflexiones existenciales y un verano a orillas del lago, Beach Read es una buena opción.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Grief, and Terminal illness