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adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I wanted to read this because my goal last year was discovering new authors and I read Book Lovers and I adored the book. Once I enjoy a book by an author, I will buy and read all their work. I become a hoarder. When I was reading Book Lover which was the first book I read of Emily Henry’s, everyone was saying it was much better than her previous work and I thought they were just on the hype train of Book Lovers, but . . . they were right – this book was missing something.
This book follows January. She is a hopeless romantic who likes narrating her life as if she’s the heroine in a blockbuster movie. Augustus is a serious literacy type who thinks that true love is a fairy-tale. January and Augustus are not going to get on. But they actually have more in common than you’d think. They are both broke, they’ve got crippling writer’s block and they need to write bestsellers before the end of the summer. So to make things interesting, they make a bet to see who can get their book published first. But there is a catch, they must swap genres. January must write a serious book with little romance and Augustus must write a heart-fluttering romance. The risk is that in telling each other’s stories, their worlds might be changed entirely.
I’ll start with what I liked, I liked the bet and the aspect of pushing themselves out of the comfort zone for a book when all else seems to have failed. I liked the idea of authors helping each other trying to get bestsellers, I liked the feeling that the community is rooting for you all. I ended up wanting to know more about the books they were writing than the “romance” part of this book. I want a friend like Shadi as well. She saved this book, the way she is so real but also so supportive and is just hilarious.
The way this book was written was all over the place. One minute it’s supposed to be all happy and a beach read that all chill and the next it’s all dark of January trying to clear out her dead dad’s house and deal with the information that her dad was cheating on her mum throughout the relationship and the woman that he cheated on her with is in the town she’s staying in. Then it got even darker with all the cult interviews. Then it would be back to being all happy and fluffy, I think it either needed to not be so dark or be very dark and bring the HEA at the end. Like I get everyone is not all fluffy and happy but the cult thing was a little bit too dark.
I didn’t vibe with our main characters - I think January was very insecure and just needed to get over what happened in college, the repeated thing of that she was a fairy princess was just driving me nuts. Gus isn’t Tony Stark and he didn’t to stop acting like it, I get it if the vibe he was going for was “I’m an asshole” but he was trying to go with that and then go it’s because I'm damaged. Like everyone is damaged and everyone is broken but the way you react is what is important. His reaction to January being a good writer was to be a dick to her and then sleep with her and then confuse her? I don’t get it. I just wanted a bit more chemistry and definitely more grovelling from Gus when he messed up again.
This book is highly rated and it’s an unpopular opinion of me that I didn’t like it but it was a chore to finish this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Infidelity
Minor: Cursing
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Vomit
Minor: Physical abuse, Alcohol
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Infidelity, Vomit, Death of parent
Minor: Alcoholism
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
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
kicking my feet and giggling I could have used another 200 pages of this. I do wish we had gotten a bit more depth about Gus’s background. Otherwise, I loved everything about this!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer
Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love love loved the lake house setting of this story. While I don’t typically reach for romances, this was a fun read. I appreciated that there were still some stakes and it wasn’t all “fluff”, and that the author tackled some heavier topics. Probably my favorite part of this book was the side-plot relationship between our FMC, January, and her best friend, Shadi. So many scenes between those two are a wonderful ode to best friendship and reminded me very much of relationships in my own life.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content
Minor: Vomit, Abandonment, Alcohol
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol
Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Gus is my favorite of Emily Henry's male leads. I almost made it through the whole thing without crying, but the second to last page got me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book totally made me cry in the last 20 pages. I love Emily Henry’s writing, I get a solid romance, characters with depth, and it’s not all about the spice (though I’m totally here for it!). This book’s exploration of grief and reconciling the different sides we know of people (friends, family, and lovers) was really interesting and felt so real. I’m not usually a fan of the miscommunication trope, but Henry’s use of it is self-aware and feels so real- I would have held back from telling all too! And the miscommunication isn’t the main basis for the plot. So it contributed to the depth of the characters but didn’t draw out the plot. I ate this book up!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Child abuse, Infidelity, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Cancer, Domestic abuse, Car accident, Alcohol
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
This might have to be my favorite Emily Henry book like I genuinely feel like someone punched me in the chest.
January is essentially undergoing a huge change, and while learning about herself, she’s unraveling the mystery that is Gus and the way they so effortlessly just fall into each other makes me want to cry.
And this quote? Forever etched into the depths of my mind:
“Falling’s the part that takes your breath away. It’s the part when you can’t believe the person standing in front of you both exists and happened to wander into your path. It’s supposed to make you feel lucky to be alive, exactly when and where you are.”
January is essentially undergoing a huge change, and while learning about herself, she’s unraveling the mystery that is Gus and the way they so effortlessly just fall into each other makes me want to cry.
And this quote? Forever etched into the depths of my mind:
“Falling’s the part that takes your breath away. It’s the part when you can’t believe the person standing in front of you both exists and happened to wander into your path. It’s supposed to make you feel lucky to be alive, exactly when and where you are.”
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Infidelity, Sexual content, Death of parent
Minor: Child abuse
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:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Infidelity, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol