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Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Child abuse, Infidelity, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Cancer, Domestic abuse, Car accident, Alcohol
the only thing that was off-putting about the book was how slow it felt at times. it wasn’t the whole story, there were literally pages of miscommunication and frustration that i felt were not very important. also, gus’s speech at the end about naomi really frustrated me because he basically made it sound like he was ready to give up january for naomi. like even after everything they went through he dtill sounded ready to drop january completely. apart from that, he’s definitely one of my favorite book boyfriends.
would definitely reread again ✅
Graphic: Cursing, Death of parent
Moderate: Cancer, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Trafficking, Medical trauma
Minor: Vomit, Car accident, Alcohol
the writing is good, especially the way she describes how January feels when looking at Gus, and I enjoyed the read, but I don’t like the bit of justification and false equivalencies about infidelity, or that this is essentially an “I can fix him (emotionally unavailable man)” success story lol. I can’t rate this bc IDK how to average my likes and dislikes in this case.
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Graphic: Cancer, Infidelity, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol
Minor: Car accident
Graphic: Child abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Cancer, Death
Minor: Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment
Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Infidelity, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Child abuse, Medical content, Alcohol
Minor: Child death, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury
Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Alcohol
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Grief
Minor: Car accident, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Cancer, Infidelity, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent
Minor: Car accident, Fire/Fire injury
Author: Emily Henry
Genre: Romance
Rating: 3.25
Pub Date: May 19, 2020
T H R E E • W O R D S
Fun • Deep • Over-hyped
📖 S Y N O P S I S
Augustus, an acclaimed author of literary fiction and January, a bestselling romance novelist are polar opposites. Each struggling with writer's block and dealing with personal demons, they find themselves living next door to one another for the summer. One evening they strike up a deal: Gus will write something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel.
💭 T H O U G H T S
Emily Henry's Beach Read has been absolutely everywhere, and so I fell victim to the hype and finally dove in. An original and deep plot with a side of romance is typically how I like my romance books, yet for me January and Gus lacked chemistry and I was expecting so, so, so much more from this novel.
There's no denying Emily Henry does banter unlike anyone else. It adds a lightness to often heavy content. With this book, there is excellent individual character growth, but I wasn't invested in the romance at all. In fact, I was way more invested in the plot and them writing their books. I felt as thought it started out strong, but faded by the midway point and never really regained traction. A few of the things I really appreciated were the exploration of grief, the east coast setting, and the letters.
For me, Beach Read was simply an average read, one I'll soon forget, which has me thinking Emily Henry's adult romances may just not be my cup of tea. I appreciate the depth of the plots, but the romance and lack of communication just don't cut it. With that said, I'll probably continue to read her books with hopes of finding one I really love.
📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• fans of the grump/sunshine and/or enemies to lovers trope(s)
• readers who like depth in their rom-coms
• Emily Henry fans
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"Bad things don't dig down through your life until the pit's so deep that nothing good will ever be big enough to make you happy again. No matter how much shit, there will always be wildflowers."
"Because I know no matter how long I get to love you, it will be worth whatever comes after."
"It was okay to let a little ugliness into your story. That it would never rob you of all the beauty."
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol
Minor: Cursing, Suicide, Vomit, Car accident
I’ve only recently started reading non-fantasy romances, and I started feeling like maybe the genre wasn’t for me, but Beach Read changed my mind. While it maybe isn’t the most groundbreaking story out there, there wasn’t anything I didn’t like about it.
Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Death of parent
Minor: Child abuse, Cursing, Vomit, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol
Graphic: Infidelity, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol
Moderate: Cancer, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Vomit, Car accident