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medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
I loved the first half of this, but I felt like the second half took a tonal shift that just left me scratching my head. The cult side-plot seemed way too heavy to have in a book with such a light-hearted premise. And Gus and January had so much trauma that I felt wasn’t necessarily given enough space in the story. The light-hearted premise felt unbalanced with the heaviness, and I felt the heaviness wasn’t dealt with properly. I have complicated feelings…
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Sexual content
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
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I'm so glad I finally read an Emily Henry book. She's such a popular author and I've heard such incredible things that I can't believe its taken me this long to pick up one of her novels. I liked this one a lot. I loved both January and Gus, and watching them come together and work through a lot of their issues was amazing to see. I'm excited to read more Emily Henry books in the future!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Terminal illness
emotional
funny
hopeful
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I mean, it's a rom-com set in a lakeside town about an author with written block, getting it on with another author/guy she fancied in college. It has it's flaws but ultimately it's a great, feel good rom-com.
Some things of note:
-Bless her fornot reading the letter from her Dad immediately. I'm glad she found she had so many more of them to hold onto.
-The sarcastic banter. Top notch.
-You could cut the sexual tension with a knife.
-The part whereher father's affair partner forces her to listen to what she has to say when she's clearly already crying and not ready to/interested in listening was brutal. Just because you feel like you need to say something doesn't mean she has to listen!
-The cult stuff felt a bit odd to include in a rom-com of this vibe. I'm assuming that this is the cater to the true crime obsessed?
-Them finallybreaking the sexual tension with sex... In the tent by the burnt out graveyard of the cult? After they'd both been so affected by seeing it? But somehow immediately forgot about that? Like what?
-The 'this can't get any worse, then the Labrador farted' bit 😂
- Further to this,if they had just set the tent up for keeping their laptops dry if it rained, surely they wouldn't have brought sleeping mats and sleeping bags? So how did they spend the night? Surely it was the most uncomfortable place to have sex then sleep?
- Is it just me that found the ending reallystupid? How is 'oh yeah, I ignored you after my wife turned up because I wanted to go back with her when she asked but actually after 24 hours I guess I like you a lot more' good? That's so hurtful!
- Mix that withthe 'marriage is the worst and if I think about it, you're the only person where the idea of it doesn't fill me with utter dread' and it's comes off even stranger. Flash to the epilogue where they're getting engaged a year after the start of the book/meeting (again). I get that he was saying marrying her didn't feel like an awful idea but with it being in what was basically a speech about marriage filling him with dread it felt odd.
When I started the book, I hated it. It was the 'I'm a romance author and just luuuvv talking about my life in third person, oh what am I like!' but at the start that almost did me in but this was thankfully dropped almost immediately.
I almost stopped reading pretty quickly but I'm glad I kept on with it and ultimately, it was a really fun rom-com and exactly what I was in the mood for.
Some things of note:
-Bless her for
-The sarcastic banter. Top notch.
-You could cut the sexual tension with a knife.
-The part where
-
-Them finally
-The 'this can't get any worse, then the Labrador farted' bit 😂
- Further to this,
- Is it just me that found the ending really
- Mix that with
When I started the book, I hated it. It was the 'I'm a romance author and just luuuvv talking about my life in third person, oh what am I like!' but at the start that almost did me in but this was thankfully dropped almost immediately.
I almost stopped reading pretty quickly but I'm glad I kept on with it and ultimately, it was a really fun rom-com and exactly what I was in the mood for.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol
Moderate: Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, Abandonment
Minor: Drug use
Cult, Suicide cult, Affair
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
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
Moderate: Addiction, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
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
I spent the month of August reading all of Emily Henry's summertime romances, this was one of my first ones that I picked up for the month. This one is easily in the top three of my favorite Emily Henry novels to date!
Beach Read featured a beautiful summertime setting with North Bear Shores, a fictional lakeside town in Michigan. It was so lovely and the town was so full of life with it's buildings and cast of characters. Gus's aunt and her wife were two of my favorites in this town, her steadfast attitude mixed with her deep care and love for Gus was so sweet to see. For Gus to have someone in his corner throughout his whole life. I could imagine the shorelines and the beach houses lining them, I wish that this place existed and I could see the inspiration from the actual places in Michigan.
The two main characters of Augustus & January and their romance was heartwarming, sweet, and had all the spice you could want in a romance novel. Them as separate characters were equally as interesting and compelling! January, a romance writer who has a crisis of her firm beliefs in love and relationships was a relatable and sympathetic character. Her trying to find her self after loosing everything including her father. The part I really enjoyed was her journey to grieve and forgive her father after learning some harsh and unfortunate truths about him and his marriage to her mother. The same marriage that inspired her to become a romance writer in the first place. Having her confront those truths only to come out better on the other side was heartwarming and inspiring to see in the book. Towards the end one part with her father made me tear up reading it. Augustus or Gus as he likes to be called for heartbreaking reasons you find out later on in the book, his journey to write his next novel about actual grisly events and letting January in past his well constructed walls was cool to. Learning about his hard upbringing and why he was so cold in the first place, his view on love and why he didn't believe in.
The romance itself was sweet, spicy, and so so lovely! I loved the setup of them challenging each other to write a book in each other's genres was perfect for a romance to bloom among writers. Seeing how they went from being annoyed with each other to falling head over heels for each other felt organic and real. Them also coming together sharing traumas from their past and working through them together also made it even more wholesome. There was a good mix of sweet and sexy scenes and the romance flowed really well throughout the book.
I am so glad I gave this book a chance and am getting to read more of Emily Henry's works! Beach read is for sure going up there as one of my favorite of hers!
Beach Read featured a beautiful summertime setting with North Bear Shores, a fictional lakeside town in Michigan. It was so lovely and the town was so full of life with it's buildings and cast of characters. Gus's aunt and her wife were two of my favorites in this town, her steadfast attitude mixed with her deep care and love for Gus was so sweet to see. For Gus to have someone in his corner throughout his whole life. I could imagine the shorelines and the beach houses lining them, I wish that this place existed and I could see the inspiration from the actual places in Michigan.
The two main characters of Augustus & January and their romance was heartwarming, sweet, and had all the spice you could want in a romance novel. Them as separate characters were equally as interesting and compelling! January, a romance writer who has a crisis of her firm beliefs in love and relationships was a relatable and sympathetic character. Her trying to find her self after loosing everything including her father. The part I really enjoyed was her journey to grieve and forgive her father after learning some harsh and unfortunate truths about him and his marriage to her mother. The same marriage that inspired her to become a romance writer in the first place. Having her confront those truths only to come out better on the other side was heartwarming and inspiring to see in the book. Towards the end one part with her father made me tear up reading it. Augustus or Gus as he likes to be called for heartbreaking reasons you find out later on in the book, his journey to write his next novel about actual grisly events and letting January in past his well constructed walls was cool to. Learning about his hard upbringing and why he was so cold in the first place, his view on love and why he didn't believe in.
The romance itself was sweet, spicy, and so so lovely! I loved the setup of them challenging each other to write a book in each other's genres was perfect for a romance to bloom among writers. Seeing how they went from being annoyed with each other to falling head over heels for each other felt organic and real. Them also coming together sharing traumas from their past and working through them together also made it even more wholesome. There was a good mix of sweet and sexy scenes and the romance flowed really well throughout the book.
I am so glad I gave this book a chance and am getting to read more of Emily Henry's works! Beach read is for sure going up there as one of my favorite of hers!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Infidelity
Minor: Domestic abuse, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content
emotional
funny
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol
Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Infidelity
Minor: Domestic abuse, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
sad
tense
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: Death, Grief
Moderate: Child death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Infidelity
Minor: Domestic abuse, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury
lighthearted
relaxing
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It was kinds boring. At the end i got kind of frustrated with the overall message of the book, it felt very patronizing I do NOT like cheaters and I hate that the book sort of ended with a “well, you can’t help who you fall in love with 🤷🏻♀️” bullshit. Like you can also NOT cheat on your wife 🙄 .
A lot of the book was telling instead of showing, so by the end of the book I didn’t really feel connected to the characters.
The relationship between the main characters was cute, but if I would’ve been her, I would’ve given up on him a long time ago😭.
A lot of the book was telling instead of showing, so by the end of the book I didn’t really feel connected to the characters.
The relationship between the main characters was cute, but if I would’ve been her, I would’ve given up on him a long time ago😭.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Vomit