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A review by megelizabeth
Beach Read by Emily Henry
emotional
hopeful
sad
3.0
I've mostly seen very positive reviews for this book, but it was just okay for me. I thought that January and Gus did have good chemistry and I enjoyed their banter, and I liked the way their story ultimately ended, but I didn't feel overly connected to either of them, and found them both a bit irritating at times.
This is much more a serious story with a romance heading through it rather than a more lighthearted full-on romance - which I generally prefer, but it bugged me that this is marketed as a romcom when it's really not. It's funny in a few parts, but a lot of it is pretty depressing, and much of the focus is on both January and Gus dealing with their own traumas, and I just wish that that was how it had been advertised, especially as it does mostly do a good job of discussing trauma and healing and several dark topics.
Also, a lot of the story is also based around January coping with the fact that her father had been having an affair before he died, and I understand that that's a difficult thing to deal with, but I personally felt as if how difficult it was for January was so over-egged and just a bit unbelievable, especially due to the lacklustre way that part of that thread of the story ended up culminating.
I did like Emily Henry's writing, and as I've said, there are parts of the story that I did really like, but ultimately I just didn't love this book the way I wanted to.
This is much more a serious story with a romance heading through it rather than a more lighthearted full-on romance - which I generally prefer, but it bugged me that this is marketed as a romcom when it's really not. It's funny in a few parts, but a lot of it is pretty depressing, and much of the focus is on both January and Gus dealing with their own traumas, and I just wish that that was how it had been advertised, especially as it does mostly do a good job of discussing trauma and healing and several dark topics.
Also, a lot of the story is also based around January coping with the fact that her father had been having an affair before he died, and I understand that that's a difficult thing to deal with, but I personally felt as if how difficult it was for January was so over-egged and just a bit unbelievable, especially due to the lacklustre way that part of that thread of the story ended up culminating.
I did like Emily Henry's writing, and as I've said, there are parts of the story that I did really like, but ultimately I just didn't love this book the way I wanted to.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Death of parent
Moderate: Child abuse
Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Vomit