Reviews tagging 'Death'

Beach Read by Emily Henry

328 reviews

grumpyreading's review against another edition

4.0

emotional 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: Complicated

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🏝️ Beach Read by Emily Henry 🏝️

MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Augustus Everett, a literary fiction author, and January Andrews, a romance writer, are polar opposites. Both struggling with writer's block, they end up in neighboring beach houses for the summer. They strike a deal: Augustus will write something happy, while January will tackle the Great American Novel. She’ll show him romantic spots; he’ll take her to interview cult members. No one will fall in love. Really.

Emily Henry does it again! I read this book a few years ago and didn’t like it, and now that I’ve been reading all of her other books I decided to try again and really enjoyed it. I loved January and Gus, and felt a lot of what they were dealing with felt very real and helped them develop as characters. Their backstories were not one-dimensional, and I feel like they made sense together. Like her other books, this one talked about some intense topics and the characters were definitely going through things, but it still felt lighthearted and sweet. I’d love to have read this on a beach! 

Read this if you like: 

• enemies to lovers
• bookish characters 
• dating lessons ish 

Vibes: ⛱️✍️📚☕️🕶️🎥🤠🛥️✉️

Song that matches the vibe: To Love by Suki Waterhouse 

Full review including content warnings on my StoryGraph. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Infidelity, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Alcohol

natekka's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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

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I found Beach Read harder to get into than Emily Henry's other books, but I still really enjoyed myself. The characters took me longer to warm to, too. The main characters were both messy in their own ways, with tonnes of baggage, though that itself wasn't the issue.

I think it was that I was expected January to be more... well, more of a hopeless romantic. You know, the way she is described in the blurb. But she really, really wasn't. She was more cynical and pessimistic than any other character, including so-called cynic, Gus. It's not surprising considering what she has been through, but still... It was also frustrating watching her self-sabotage time and time again. Like, c'mon, have a conversation BEFORE jumping to conclusions? No miscommunication tropes here, just straight up lack-of-communication and jumping-to-conclusions tropes, if those exist.

 

There was also quite a lack of beach time for a book named Beach Read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Infidelity, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Death, Vomit, Medical trauma, Alcohol

Minor: Medical content, Religious bigotry, Car accident

celery's review against another edition

4.5

emotional funny hopeful reflective fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

3.5

challenging emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

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Didn't shatter my world or anything but it was entertaining.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol

jls6283's review against another edition

4.75

emotional funny hopeful 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

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I can’t explain it, but there have been so many moments in Emily Henry’s books where I’ve thought “yes! I’ve felt that way and never knew how to express it.” 

One of my favorite quotes from this book

“How could I trust my own feelings? People were complicated. They weren’t math problems. They were collections of feelings, and decisions, and dumb luck. The world was complicated too - not a beautifully hazy French film, but a disastrous, horrible mess bespeckled with brilliance and love and meaning.”

 

🩷

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer, Infidelity, Sexual content, Alcohol

Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury

courtnoodles's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol

Moderate: Cursing, Infidelity

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

erikabereading7's review against another edition

4.5

emotional hopeful lighthearted 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: Yes

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The title of this book is spot on because this is the PERFECT Beach Read. I devoured this in three days. Very well written, quippy dialogue, and all the troupey romance stuff done in the best way. Truly a great read! (And that dedication at the end? Come on! So good!) 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Death

Minor: Child abuse

gracemessi's review against another edition

4.25

emotional funny hopeful relaxing fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Cancer, Death, Death of parent

starrynighter's review against another edition

2.5

emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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this book is just very mid. i didn’t really care too much about the actual romance because they barely had any chemistry. essentially, they were more interesting as individuals than as a couple. i hoped they’d have a bit more of that rivals to lovers vibe but it cut the ‘rivals’ part pretty short. i liked some of their banter but it often turned too cringy for my taste. i also liked that it explored some darker themes which i didn’t expect from this book. overall it was cute but for a romance book the romance was simply a bit too lackluster.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent

Minor: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol

meli_books's review against another edition

2.5

emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: N/A

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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No conecté con la historia y no conecté con los personajes. 
Nada que ver pero me parece muy ridículo que se llamen January y Augustus😭
Lo que luché para terminarlo es impresionante. No more Emily Henry for now😬

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Cancer