A review by emilyandthewhippet
Beach Read by Emily Henry

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

5.0

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 for
not 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 where
her 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 finally
breaking 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 really
stupid? 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 with
the '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.
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