Beach Read by Emily Henry 

Beach Read – To be clear, it’s a lake.

To be totally transparent, I thought this novel took place on a beach near the ocean. So, I brought this book with me, of all places, to the beach on vacation! BUT I do love a good lake town, so it all turned out okay. And I really did enjoy the book! 😀

This one was a quick read for me, and I got through it in about two and half days. I was on vacation, so I had ots of extra reading time! (Also, my mother smoked me on our trip. She finished two books and started a third while we were there. Apparently, I get my fast, but not so fast, reading skills from her.) 

I love that Emily Henry’s books (at least what I’ve read so far) include deeper topics, with relatable characters full of depth and complex feelings. At the same time, while things can feel heavy, she also hooks you with their quirkiness or the instant fire between her mmc and fmc. 

Anyway, this read is for you if you like a slow-burn romance, with characters who are messy and far from perfect – but you can’t help but love them anyway! And I LOVED the glimpse into a writer’s life. (Em Hen, is this what it’s really like?!) I’ve included the Goodreads Synopsis at the end in case you want to check it out! (Yes, I’m linking and including the Goodreads synopsis because I’m not in school anymore and this isn’t a book report.)

Tropes 

Enemies to Lovers, Slow Burn, He Fell First 

Characters (Minor Spoilers!) 

January (I love this fmc name): Writes women’s fiction. Has hated and simultaneously had a thing for Augustus Everett since undergrad. Feels lost after her father’s death and is going through a serious case of writer’s block. 

Gus: Man who always needs something to lean on. Messy but it works for him. Doesn’t write happy endings but secretly wants one. Fell for January when they met in college. And yes, he has read all her books. 

Pete and Maggie: Quirky coffee/book shop owner and professor of geology. Owners of labradors. Honestly, I couldn’t think of a better set of aunts. 

Themes (Spoilers!) 

Phew, there were some heavier topics in this novel, but it wasn’t overpowering to the story or romance between the main characters in my opinion.

Abuse – Gus alludes and somewhat talks about his abusive father. Which makes your heart just crumple for him honestly. After his mom dies he sticks around and tries to take care of him – for his mother essentially. Talk about loyal to a fault. 

Suicide Cult – Part of the plot includes Gus interviewing people who were a part of a suicide cult as research for his book. They really didn’t get deep into the story of the cult, which I think was the right call for this story, but it definitely goes into some heavier topics like the fire that killed its members.

Adultery/Cheating – January moves to North Bear Shores because she finds out her father had a second life with another woman…at his funeral. She faces and avoids this huge betrayal while she stays in his second house, cleaning it out to sell, while attempting to write another book. I think this theme is perhaps the most relatable to most of us – not the adultery, but a sense of growing up and/or realizing people are more complicated than we realize. This especially hits hard when it’s a parent or someone we love or idolize, and they don’t live up to your expectations. January’s dad’s betrayal almost destroys her, but I also think his death is an important turning point (and wake-up call) in her life. 

Happy Endings – I personally think this should have been the title of this book, but for all the Guses out there, I guess you won on this one. 

Quotes

There were so many good quotes in this one. Let me know your favorite! 

“I’ve never met someone who is so perfectly my favorite person.”

“When I watch you sleep,” he said shakily, “I feel overwhelmed that you exist.”

“That was what I’d always loved about reading, what had driven me to write in the first place. That feeling that a new world was being spun like a spiderweb around you and you couldn’t move until the whole thing had revealed itself to you.”

“Falling’s the part that takes your breath away. It’s the part when you can’t believe the person standing in front of you both exists and happened to wander into your path. It’s supposed to make you feel lucky to be alive, exactly when and where you are.”

“I always like that thought, the way two people really did seem to grow into one. Or at least two overlapping parts, trees with tangled roots.”

“It’s not about what’s happened. It’s about how you cope with things, who you are. You’ve always been this fierce fucking light, and even when you’re at your worst, when you feel angry and broken, you still know how to be a person. How to tell people you- you love them.”

“The way your writing always makes the world seem brighter, and the people in it a little braver.”

Good Reads Synopsis 

“A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.

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.”