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A review by despinareviews
Beach Read by Emily Henry
5.0
This story focuses on two authors, January - a romance author who has generally had a very positive outlook on the world until her father died, and Augustus (Gus) - her college rival from her writing course who always seemed to see the world in a depressing and negative light. They begin living next to each other on a beach through circumstances I won't spoil, but end up making a bet - if January can write a more serious novel, and Gus can write a happy romance story, the person who sells the book first wins. They begin weekly outings to 'train' each other in their own specialism. It's really cool to have books within books, and I didn't expect to have full inner-storylines explored.
This book was the perfect romance book for me. It had a great combination of seriousness (dealing with grief and a shattered idea of a person you thought you knew), with witty banter and a great character dynamic which is unparalleled to any other romance book I have read. This wasn't grumpy x sunshine in the traditional sense, in fact I would argue the whole point of the book is to play with the idea that someone who is 'grumpy' and someone who is 'sunshine' are more than their assigned roles. Beach Read also had incredibly believable dialogue, and the chemistry the two characters had was exemplified in the way they spoke to one another.
This is told in one POV, January's - normally in romances I enjoy a dual POV but I think the single POV really worked to increase our sense of mystery about Gus's thoughts, putting ourselves squarely in January's shoes of trying to figure him out. Overall I highly recommend this one, best romance I've read so far!
PS. Shadi is the bff we all need.
This book was the perfect romance book for me. It had a great combination of seriousness (dealing with grief and a shattered idea of a person you thought you knew), with witty banter and a great character dynamic which is unparalleled to any other romance book I have read. This wasn't grumpy x sunshine in the traditional sense, in fact I would argue the whole point of the book is to play with the idea that someone who is 'grumpy' and someone who is 'sunshine' are more than their assigned roles. Beach Read also had incredibly believable dialogue, and the chemistry the two characters had was exemplified in the way they spoke to one another.
This is told in one POV, January's - normally in romances I enjoy a dual POV but I think the single POV really worked to increase our sense of mystery about Gus's thoughts, putting ourselves squarely in January's shoes of trying to figure him out. Overall I highly recommend this one, best romance I've read so far!
PS. Shadi is the bff we all need.