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A review by readwithria
Beach Read by Emily Henry
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
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? Yes
3.5
The more I read of Beach Read, the more I wanted to read. However, I have some issues with the beginning and the end that kept me from loving this book.
Things I didn’t love:
- The cover, the title, and the blurb were all very misleading. All of those add together to market a romantic comedy, which is not what I would call this book. I would not want to read this in the summer on the beach, this feels like a piece of literature with a romance plot more so than a romance book with some other subplots. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s not what was marketed to me and also not what I was looking for when I picked this book up.
- The books starts with two chapters of backstory dump. This is not my favorite way for a book to start. It’s not lazy, but it’s not the most creative way to convey all of that information to a reader. I feel like the first chapter would’ve been more interesting if it had been January at the funeral having these thoughts and then encountering Sonya instead of her thinking about all of it. She didn’t actually speak to a human face-to-face until the third chapter, all of the dialogue was in her memories, and that made it really slow for me to get into this book.
- the ending felt rushed. I wanted to spend more of the book with January and guess in a defined relationship. Not necessarily a third of the book, not necessarily earlier in the book, but I wanted more book after they got together before the epilogue.
And now that that’s out of the way, let’s end with the things I did like!
- Gus in January had the most adorable friendship. I prefer the grumpy sunshine dynamic in friendships to in relationships because I feel like it’s not actually true in relationships. Usually the grump isn’t grumpy with her and the sunshine person can be cloudy with their person, but they were genuinely grumpy and sunshine all throughout their friendship and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
- The middle of this book was excellent. The writing style hit its flow, the plot was moving, the fun side characters were there and felt more present, and the pace kept me wanting to read more.
- I like the premises of this book. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about reading a book about authors, because it can (and was) be very meta but I thought it was cute!
What I recommend this book as a pallet cleanse book? No. Would you recommend this book to people who like romantic comedies? Probably. What I recommend this book to people who like women’s fiction? Probably. This book is a little weird and that I can’t tell if it’s a romance book or a piece of literary fiction, which makes it hard to find the right person to read it. But I did enjoy it, though I probably won’t read it again. 3.5 stars.
Things I didn’t love:
- The cover, the title, and the blurb were all very misleading. All of those add together to market a romantic comedy, which is not what I would call this book. I would not want to read this in the summer on the beach, this feels like a piece of literature with a romance plot more so than a romance book with some other subplots. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s not what was marketed to me and also not what I was looking for when I picked this book up.
- The books starts with two chapters of backstory dump. This is not my favorite way for a book to start. It’s not lazy, but it’s not the most creative way to convey all of that information to a reader. I feel like the first chapter would’ve been more interesting if it had been January at the funeral having these thoughts and then encountering Sonya instead of her thinking about all of it. She didn’t actually speak to a human face-to-face until the third chapter, all of the dialogue was in her memories, and that made it really slow for me to get into this book.
- the ending felt rushed. I wanted to spend more of the book with January and guess in a defined relationship. Not necessarily a third of the book, not necessarily earlier in the book, but I wanted more book after they got together before the epilogue.
And now that that’s out of the way, let’s end with the things I did like!
- Gus in January had the most adorable friendship. I prefer the grumpy sunshine dynamic in friendships to in relationships because I feel like it’s not actually true in relationships. Usually the grump isn’t grumpy with her and the sunshine person can be cloudy with their person, but they were genuinely grumpy and sunshine all throughout their friendship and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
- The middle of this book was excellent. The writing style hit its flow, the plot was moving, the fun side characters were there and felt more present, and the pace kept me wanting to read more.
- I like the premises of this book. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about reading a book about authors, because it can (and was) be very meta but I thought it was cute!
What I recommend this book as a pallet cleanse book? No. Would you recommend this book to people who like romantic comedies? Probably. What I recommend this book to people who like women’s fiction? Probably. This book is a little weird and that I can’t tell if it’s a romance book or a piece of literary fiction, which makes it hard to find the right person to read it. But I did enjoy it, though I probably won’t read it again. 3.5 stars.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Vomit, Death of parent, Child abuse, Terminal illness, Sexual content, Infidelity, Grief, Cursing, and Alcohol
Minor: Car accident