Beach Read by Emily Henry – Book Review

Hello lovelies!

This is my latest 5 stars read. I have tried to write this review for hours. I started from the minute I put the book down but I don’t know how to convey my feelings. I am overflowing with love. This is the best romance I’ve read in a while. This is coming from a person that only reads books with romance in it. 

Title: Beach Read

Author: Emily Henry

Synopsis (Goodreads):

Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.They’re polar opposites.In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block.Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really

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Persephone:  5 stars. One of the best books I’ve ever read; it holds a particular place in my heart and it is now part of my favourite books ever.

Pheme: Hyped book.

The best thing about this book was THE CHEMISTRY. It was out of this world. From their very *first* encounter, I was hooked.  I really really liked their banter and I found myself smiling from ear to ear at times.

The steamy scenes were incredibly well-written; I could feel the sexual tension and lust rippling off of the two and I adored that. I also liked how romantic their interactions were when they were trying to hide their feelings. The fact that they went on “not dates” was really clever because they were behaving as a couple without knowing it. I swooned whenever they were doing “research” (and no that’s not a code for sex.). I also like all the little details which made the romance believable like passing notes and hugging. That melted my already soft heart. 

What is great about this book is that it not only focused on the romance. It deals with heavy subjects such as grief and child abuse. These themes were really important in terms of character development and I really liked the dialogue around it. I loved how the character found themselves with the other’s help . They each had their own demons and it was so nice to see them both being so honest and open with each other which was very healthy. I really dislike the miscommunication trope and it was SO NICE to see them talk about their traumas and feelings. I loved how patient and supportive they both were! Man, I really cannot get over how healthy and respectful their relationship was.

All of the characters were all very well fleshed out and I liked the friendship and family dynamics. This is a book about what it means to love someone be it your aunt, your wife or your father.

I also liked the “writing a book” aspect. The author tackled the subject of writer’s block and the writing process and, as a reader, it was a nice experience.

One of my favorite parts was when the author validated the romance genre. I’m sick of gender-based categories and how anything preceded with “women” is frowned down upon. That’s why I liked the bet because it allowed the reader to delve deeper into literary fiction as well as romance and the elements and research that go into writing these genres. I hate that “Happy endings” are a factor that deter some people from reading those. The world is really glum and scary and I think it is very comforting to have those beautiful stories in our lives. That’s what the book is about. I love books that make me want to live my life and fall in love.

Did you read this book? Did you enjoy it?

Let me know in the comments! Karla