Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Beach Read by Emily Henry

66 reviews

ceriavril's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous funny inspiring reflective relaxing fast-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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infidelity, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Alcohol

liizabee's review against another edition

4.5

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing 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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Really really enjoyed this book! This is my first time reading Emily Henry & I understand the hype now.

Beach Read felt like a Sarah Dessen book but all grown up.

I like that it wasn't just a fluffy romance. She dived into heavier topics like death, grief, childhood trauma and abandonment issues. The cult storyline/subplot(?) was really interesting and I liked how it tied into

Gus's

story.

I'm happy we got actual details about the book January was writing instead of a vague sentence or two. It felt like I got to read 3 books (

Beach Read, Janie's book, and the cult interviews (Gus's book)

) in one and I absolutely loved it. I guess the changes in tone and setting was great for my ADHD brain. But it also didn't feel like too much was happening at once.

I enjoyed the slow-ish burn between January and

Gus

. Although this is a romance book, I genuinely wasn't sure if they'd end up together in the end.

At some point, I would have been happy to see her (literally) sailing off into the sunset all by herself.

I would have liked to see more sexually intimate scenes or at least make the existing ones a bit more explicit, but that's just me (a girly who grew up reading smutty fanfics 👀🤭).

I have daddy issues so some of this book wrecked me. Looking at you, chapter

25

!! I was bawling my eyes out, tears and snot rushing down my face and onto my ereader. But imma be real, that just made me love the book even more lol.

Though I read this book in summer, I didn't have the privilege of reading it on the beach, but I think it would be a perfect beach read. ☀️🏖📖💛 Can't wait for the movie!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol

Moderate: Cursing, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Domestic abuse, Drug use, Vomit, Car accident

inkerly's review against another edition

4.0

challenging funny hopeful reflective 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

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This book was fully ‘Taylor Swift - Fearless Album’ coded and I’m not mad at it. The author is a Swiftie with a flair for white woman romance and her pen game shows it. She managed to bring a story that could’ve been a dull trope-y mess to life in a humorous and sweet way.


 I’m not the target audience for a book like this so I can’t even lie and say I loved the book. I think people who like quirky girl-sad boy romances but for adults  with real world problems will like this. What I will say is the story was great and I’m glad the characters got their HFN ending

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Cancer, Child abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Death of parent

shiradfrankel's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol

amutschler's review against another edition

5.0

funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol

Moderate: Cancer, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Abandonment

Minor: Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Murder, Fire/Fire injury

nclausel25's review against another edition

4.0

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

---

Still don’t understand why Gus and January were so obsessed with each other other than being hot, and their lack of communication just made me mad during the middle 3rd of the book. Overall good though, just not a very likeable protag

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Cursing, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Alcohol

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

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

torimc's review against another edition

3.75

funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Alcohol

samkasmol's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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It's got an unputdownable quality as other Emily Henry books possess too. I found it a little twee and very American and sometimes it got on my nerves (it's a little Twilight; big bad damaged wolf boy and innocent little girl next door is the dynamic). But the author actually covers some really dark themes and she manages it really sensitively and with a lot of reality and emotion. And the sex scenes... 🤭 So good! 
Ultimately I did love reading it, just not as much as I enjoyed People We Meet on Vacation. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Abandonment