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Beach Read Paperback – May 19, 2020
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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.
- Print length400 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPenguin Publishing Group
- Publication dateMay 19, 2020
- Dimensions5.46 x 0.87 x 8.2 inches
- ISBN-101984806734
- ISBN-13978-1984806734
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Editorial Reviews
Review
One of...
The New York Times Book Review's Summer Romance Reads
Entertainment Weekly’s Hottest Summer Reads of 2020
Oprah Magazine's Best Beach Reads of Summer 2020
Betches’ 20 Books to Read in 2020
SheReads’ Most Anticipated Books of Summer 2020
Goodreads' Big Books of Spring
Popsugar's 25 Exciting New Books Coming Out in May
Bustle's Most Anticipated May Titles
Shondaland's Five Books to Read in May
TheSkimm's 11 Buzzy Books for Your Imaginary Beach Bag
Good Morning America's 25 Novels You'll Want to Read this Summer
The New York Post's Required Reading
Good Housekeeping's 25 Best Beach Reads
Huffington Post's Best Books to Read during Quarantine
CNN's Perfect Summer Reads
LitHub's Ultimate Summer 2020 Reading List
BookRiot's 6 Captivating New Books
“Reader, I swooned! Beach Read is a breath of fresh air. My heart ached for January, and Gus is to die for—a steamy, smart and perceptive romance. I was engrossed!”—Josie Silver, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One Day in December
“This is a touching and heartfelt book about love, betrayal, grief, failure, and learning how to love again. I adored going along on Gus and January’s journey, and I closed this book with a satisfied sigh.”—Jasmine Guillory, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Proposal
“Beach Read is original, sparkling bright, and layered with feeling. Has trying to see the world through your long time crush/rival’s eyes ever been this potent and poignant? If whipcrack banter and foggy sexual tension is your catnip, you’ll adore this book.”—Sally Thorne, USA Today bestselling author of The Hating Game and 99 Percent Mine
“Beach Read is exactly the witty, charming, and swoony novel we always want; it also happens to be the unexpected wallop of emotional wisdom and sly social commentary we need right now. I adored it.”—Julia Whelan, author of My Oxford Year
“[It] has everything the title promises—a romping plot, family secrets, and the thrill of falling in love, all set on the sweeping shores of eastern Lake Michigan. I cannot wait to read what Henry writes next.”—Amy E. Reichert, author The Coincidence of Coconut Cake and The Optimist’s Guide to Letting Go
“Delightfully romantic and slyly poignant, Beach Read is brimming with crackling banter and engrossing prose. It has every flavor of booklover catnip: rivalry, creative struggle, family secrets, and the sweet head-over-heels tumble into love. Emily Henry's Beach Read is 2020's perfect anywhere read.”—Christina Lauren, New York Timesbestselling author of The Unhoneymooners
“If you liked Sally Thorne’s The Hating Game and Linda Holmes’s Evvie Drake Starts Over, you will definitely be into this, which feels like their spawn. (No one asked me to say this, by the way. I’m just high on that happy-sad feeling of finishing a book I enjoyed, that I wish wasn’t over.) Well played.”—Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan, bestselling authors of The Royal We
“Readers are sure to fall hard for this meta, heartfelt take on the romance genre.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A heartfelt look at taking second chances, in life and in love.”—Kirkus Reviews
“This will still sweep readers off their feet. January’s first-person narration is suitably poetic and effervescent, the small-town beach setting is charming, and the romance is achingly swoony.”—Booklist
“That Henry can manage to both pack a fierce emotional wallop and spear literary posturing in one go is a testament to her immense skill.”—Entertainment Weekly
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Henry / BEACH READ
1
The House
I have a fatal flaw.
I like to think we all do. Or at least that makes it easier for me when I’m writing—building my heroines and heroes up around this one self-sabotaging trait, hinging everything that happens to them on a specific characteristic: the thing they learned to do to protect themselves and can’t let go of, even when it stops serving them.
Maybe, for example, you didn’t have much control over your life as a kid. So, to avoid disappointment, you learned never to ask yourself what you truly wanted. And it worked for a long time. Only now, upon realizing you didn’t get what you didn’t know you wanted, you’re barreling down the highway in a midlife-crisis-mobile with a suitcase full of cash and a man named Stan in your trunk.
Maybe your fatal flaw is that you don’t use turn signals.
Or maybe, like me, you’re a hopeless romantic. You just can’t stop telling yourself the story. The one about your own life, complete with melodramatic soundtrack and golden light lancing through car windows.
It started when I was twelve. My parents sat me down to tell me the news. Mom had gotten her first diagnosis—suspicious cells in her left breast—and she told me not to worry so many times I suspected I’d be grounded if she caught me at it. My mom was a do-er, a laugher, an optimist, not a worrier, but I could tell she was terrified, and so I was too, frozen on the couch, unsure how to say anything without making things worse.
But then my bookish homebody of a father did something unexpected. He stood and grabbed our hands—one of Mom’s, one of mine—and said, You know what we need to get these bad feelings out? We need to dance!
Our suburb had no clubs, just a mediocre steak house with a Friday night cover band, but Mom lit up like he’d just suggested taking a private jet to the Copacabana.
She wore her buttery yellow dress and some hammered metal earrings that twinkled when she moved. Dad ordered twenty-year-old Scotch for them and a Shirley Temple for me, and the three of us twirled and bobbed until we were dizzy, laughing, tripping all over. We laughed until we could barely stand, and my famously reserved father sang along to “Brown Eyed Girl” like the whole room wasn’t watching us.
And then, exhausted, we piled into the car and drove home through the quiet, Mom and Dad holding tight to each other’s hands between the seats, and I tipped my head against the car window and, watching the streetlights flicker across the glass, thought, It’s going to be okay. We will always be okay.
And that was the moment I realized: when the world felt dark and scary, love could whisk you off to go dancing; laughter could take some of the pain away; beauty could punch holes in your fear. I decided then that my life would be full of all three. Not just for my own benefit, but for Mom’s, and for everyone else around me.
There would be purpose. There would be beauty. There would be candlelight and Fleetwood Mac playing softly in the background.
The point is, I started telling myself a beautiful story about my life, about fate and the way things work out, and by twenty-eight years old, my story was perfect.
Perfect (cancer-free) parents who called several times a week, tipsy on wine or each other’s company. Perfect (spontaneous, multilingual, six foot three) boyfriend who worked in the ER and knew how to make coq au vin. Perfect shabby chic apartment in Queens. Perfect job writing romantic novels—inspired by perfect parents and perfect boyfriend—for Sandy Lowe Books.
Perfect life.
But it was just a story, and when one gaping plot hole appeared, the whole thing unraveled. That’s how stories work.
Now, at twenty-nine, I was miserable, broke, semi-homeless, very single, and pulling up to a gorgeous lake house whose very existence nauseated me. Grandly romanticizing my life had stopped serving me, but my fatal flaw was still riding shotgun in my dinged-up Kia Soul, narrating things as they happened:
January Andrews stared out the car window at the angry lake beating up on the dusky shore. She tried to convince herself that coming here hadn’t been a mistake.
It was definitely a mistake, but I had no better option. You didn’t turn down free lodging when you were broke.
I parked on the street and stared up at the oversized cottage’s facade, its gleaming windows and fairy tale of a porch, the shaggy beach grass dancing in the warm breeze.
I checked the address in my GPS against the handwritten one hanging from the house key. This was it, all right.
For a minute, I stalled, like maybe a world-ending asteroid would take me out before I was forced to go inside. Then I took a deep breath and got out, wrestling my overstuffed suitcase from the back seat along with the cardboard box full of gin handles.
I pushed a fistful of dark hair out of my eyes to study the cornflower blue shingles and snow-white trim. Just pretend you’re at an Airbnb.
Immediately, an imaginary Airbnb listing ran through my head: Three-bedroom, three-bath lakeside cottage brimming with charm and proof your father was an asshole and your life has been a lie.
I started up the steps cut into the grassy hillside, blood rushing through my ears like fire hoses and legs wobbling, anticipating the moment the hellmouth would open and the world would drop out from under me.
That already happened. Last year. And it didn’t kill you, so neither will this.
On the porch, every sensation in my body heightened. The tingling in my face, the twist in my stomach, the sweat prickling along my neck. I balanced the box of gin against my hip and slipped the key into the lock, a part of me hoping it would jam. That all this would turn out to be an elaborate practical joke Dad had set up for us before he died.
Or, better yet, he wasn’t actually dead. He’d jump out from behind the bushes and scream, “Gotcha! You didn’t really think I had a secret second life, did you? You couldn’t possibly think I had a second house with some woman other than your mother?”
The key turned effortlessly. The door swung inward.
The house was silent.
An ache went through me. The same one I’d felt at least once a day since I got Mom’s call about the stroke and heard her sob those words. He’s gone, Janie.
No Dad. Not here. Not anywhere. And then the second pain, the knife twisting: The father you knew never existed anyway.
I’d never really had him. Just like I’d never really had my ex Jacques or his coq au vin.
It was just a story I’d been telling myself. From now on, it was the ugly truth or nothing. I steeled myself and stepped inside.
My first thought was that the ugly truth wasn’t super ugly. My dad’s love nest had an open floor plan: a living room that spilled into a funky, blue-tiled kitchen and homey breakfast nook, the wall of windows just beyond overlooking a dark-stained deck.
If Mom had owned this place, everything would’ve been a mix of creamy, calming neutrals. The bohemian room I’d stepped into would’ve been more at home in Jacques’s and my old place than my parents’. I felt a little queasy imagining Dad here, among these things Mom never would’ve picked out: the folksy hand-painted breakfast table, the dark wooden bookshelves, the sunken couch covered in mismatched pillows.
There was no sign of the version of him that I’d known.
My phone rang in my pocket and I set the box on the granite countertop to answer the call.
“Hello?” It came out weak and raspy.
“How is it?” the voice on the other end said immediately. “Is there a sex dungeon?”
“Shadi?” I guessed. I tucked the phone between my ear and shoulder as I unscrewed the cap from one of my gin bottles, taking a swig to fortify myself.
“It honestly worries me that I’m the only person who might call you to ask that,” Shadi answered.
“You’re the only person who even knows about the Love Shack,” I pointed out.
“I am not the only one who knows about it,” Shadi argued.
Technically true. While I’d found out about my father’s secret lake house at his funeral last year, Mom had been aware much longer. “Fine,” I said. “You’re the only person I told about it. Anyway, give me a second. I just got here.”
“Literally?” Shadi was breathing hard, which meant she was walking to a shift at the restaurant. Since we kept such different hours, most of our calls happened when she was on her way into work.
“Metaphorically,” I said. “Literally, I’ve been here for ten minutes, but I only just feel that I have arrived.”
“So wise,” Shadi said. “So deep.”
“Shh,” I said. “I’m taking it all in.”
“Check for the sex dungeon!” Shadi hurried to say, as if I were hanging up on her.
I was not. I was simply holding the phone to my ear, holding my breath, holding my racing heart in my chest, as I scanned my father’s second life.
And there, just when I could convince myself Dad couldn’t possibly have spent time here, I spotted something framed on the wall. A clipping of a New York Times Best Sellers list from three years ago, the same one he’d positioned over the fireplace at home. There I was, at number fifteen, the bottom slot. And there, three slots above me—in a sick twist of fate—was my college rival, Gus (though now he went by Augustus, because Serious Man) and his highbrow debut novel The Revelatories. It had stayed on the list for five weeks (not that I was counting (I was absolutely counting)).
“Well?” Shadi prompted. “What do you think?”
I turned and my eyes caught on the mandala tapestry hanging over the couch.
“I’m led to wonder if Dad smoked weed.” I spun toward the windows at the side of the house, which aligned almost perfectly with the neighbor’s, a design flaw Mom would never have overlooked when house shopping.
But this wasn’t her house, and I could clearly see the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that lined the neighbor’s study.
“Oh, god—maybe it’s a grow house, not a love shack!” Shadi sounded delighted. “You should’ve read the letter, January. It’s all been a misunderstanding. Your dad’s leaving you the family business. That Woman was his business partner, not his mistress.”
How bad was it that I wished she was right?
Either way, I’d fully intended to read the letter. I’d just been waiting for the right time, hoping the worst of my anger would settle and those last words from Dad would be comforting. Instead, a full year had passed and the dread I felt at the thought of opening the envelope grew every day. It was so unfair, that he should get the last word and I’d have no way to reply. To scream or cry or demand more answers. Once I’d opened it, there’d be no going back. That would be it. The final goodbye.
So until further notice, the letter was living a happy, if solitary, life in the bottom of the gin box I’d brought with me from Queens.
“It’s not a grow house,” I told Shadi and slid open the back door to step onto the deck. “Unless the weed’s in the basement.”
“No way,” Shadi argued. “That’s where the sex dungeon is.”
“Let’s stop talking about my depressing life,” I said. “What’s new with you?”
“You mean the Haunted Hat,” Shadi said. If only she had fewer than four roommates in her shoebox apartment in Chicago, then maybe I’d be staying with her now. Not that I was capable of getting anything done when I was with Shadi. And my financial situation was too dire not to get something done. I had to finish my next book in this rent-free hell. Then maybe I could afford my own Jacques-free place.
“If the Haunted Hat is what you want to talk about,” I said, “then yes. Spill.”
“Still hasn’t spoken to me.” Shadi sighed wistfully. “But I can, like, sense him looking at me when we’re both in the kitchen. Because we have a connection.”
“Are you at all worried that your connection isn’t with the guy who’s wearing the antique porkpie hat, but perhaps with the ghost of the hat’s original owner? What will you do if you realize you’ve fallen in love with a ghost?”
“Um.” Shadi thought for a minute. “I guess I’d have to update my Tinder bio.”
A breeze rippled off the water at the bottom of the hill, ruffling my brown waves across my shoulders, and the setting sun shot golden spears of light over everything, so bright and hot I had to squint to see the wash of oranges and reds it cast across the beach. If this were just some house I’d rented, it would be the perfect place to write the adorable love story I’d been promising Sandy Lowe Books for months.
Shadi, I realized, had been talking. More about the Haunted Hat. His name was Ricky, but we never called him that. We always spoke of Shadi’s love life in code. There was the older man who ran the amazing seafood restaurant (the Fish Lord), and then there was some guy we’d called Mark because he looked like some other, famous Mark, and now there was this new coworker, a bartender who wore a hat every day that Shadi loathed and yet could not resist.
I snapped back into the conversation as Shadi was saying, “Fourth of July weekend? Can I visit then?”
“That’s more than a month away.” I wanted to argue that I wouldn’t even be here by then, but I knew it wasn’t true. It would take me at least all summer to write a book, empty the house, and sell both, so I could (hopefully) be catapulted back into relative comfort. Not in New York, but somewhere less expensive.
I imagined Duluth was affordable. Mom would never visit me there, but we hadn’t done much visiting this past year anyway, apart from my three-day trip home for Christmas. She’d dragged me to four yoga classes, three crowded juice bars, and a Nutcracker performance starring some kid I didn’t know, like if we were alone for even a second, the topic of Dad would arise and we’d burst into flames.
All my life, my friends had been jealous of my relationship with her. How often and freely (or so I thought) we talked, how much fun we had together. Now our relationship was the world’s least competitive game of phone tag.
I’d gone from having two loving parents and a live-in boyfriend to basically just having Shadi, my much-too-long-distance best friend. The one blessing of moving from New York to North Bear Shores, Michigan, was that I was closer to her place in Chicago.
“Fourth of July’s too far off,” I complained. “You’re only three hours away.”
“Yeah, and I don’t know how to drive.”
“Then you should probably give that license back,” I said.
“Believe me, I’m waiting for it to expire. I’m going to feel so free. I hate when people think I’m able to drive just because, legally, I am.”
Shadi was a terrible driver. She screamed whenever she turned left.
“Besides, you know how scheduling off is in the industry. I’m lucky my boss said I could have Fourth of July. For all I know, he’s expecting a blow job now.”
“No way. Blow jobs are for major holidays. What you’ve got on your hands is a good old-fashioned foot job quid pro quo.”
I took another sip of gin, then turned from the end of the deck and nearly yelped. On the deck ten feet to the right of mine, the back of a head of curly brown hair peeked over a lawn chair. I silently prayed the man was asleep—that I wouldn’t have to spend an entire summer next door to someone who’d heard me shout good old-fashioned foot job.
As if he’d read my mind, he sat forward and grabbed the bottle of beer from his patio table, took a swig, and sat back.
“So true. I won’t even have to take my Crocs off,” Shadi was saying. “Anyway, I just got to work. But let me know if it’s drugs or leather in the basement.”
I turned my back to the neighbor’s deck. “I’m not going to check until you visit.”
“Rude,” Shadi said.
“Leverage,” I said. “Love you.”
“Love you more,” she insisted and hung up.
I turned to face the curly head, half waiting for him to acknowledge me, half debating whether I was obligated to introduce myself.
I hadn’t known any of my neighbors in New York well, but this was Michigan, and from Dad’s stories about growing up in North Bear Shores, I fully expected to have to lend this man sugar at some point (note: must buy sugar).
I cleared my throat and pasted on my attempt at a neighborly smile. The man sat forward for another swig of beer, and I called across the gap, “Sorry for disturbing you!”
He waved one hand vaguely, then turned the page of whatever book was in his lap. “What’s disturbing about foot jobs as a form of currency?” he drawled in a husky, bored voice.
I grimaced as I searched for a reply—any reply. Old January would have known what to say, but my mind was as blank as it was every time I opened Microsoft Word.
Okay, so maybe I’d become a bit of a hermit this past year. Maybe I wasn’t entirely sure what I’d spent the last year doing, since it wasn’t visiting Mom and it wasn’t writing, and it wasn’t charming the socks off my neighbors.
“Anyway,” I called, “I’m living here now.”
As if he’d read my thoughts, he gave a disinterested wave and grumbled, “Let me know if you need any sugar.” But he managed to make it sound more like, Never speak to me again unless you notice my house is on fire, and even then, listen for sirens first.
So much for Midwestern hospitality. At least in New York, our neighbors had brought us cookies when we moved in. (They’d been gluten-free and laced with LSD, but it was the thought that counted.)
“Or if you need directions to the nearest Sexual Fetish Depot,” the Grump added.
Heat flared through my cheeks, a flush of embarrassment and anger. The words were out before I could reconsider: “I’ll just wait for your car to pull out and follow.” He laughed, a surprised, rough sound, but still didn’t deign to face me.
“Lovely to meet you,” I added sharply, and turned to hurry back through the sliding glass doors to the safety of the house, where I would quite possibly have to hide all summer.
“Liar,” I heard him grumble before I snapped the door shut.
Product details
- Publisher : Penguin Publishing Group (May 19, 2020)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 400 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1984806734
- ISBN-13 : 978-1984806734
- Item Weight : 12.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.46 x 0.87 x 8.2 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #423 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #66 in Contemporary Women Fiction
- #112 in Romantic Comedy (Books)
- #278 in Contemporary Romance (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author

Emily Henry is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Book Lovers, People We Meet on Vacation, Beach Read, and the forthcoming Happy Place. She studied creative writing at Hope College, and now spends most of her time in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the part of Kentucky just beneath it. Find her on Instagram @EmilyHenryWrites.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2022
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Top reviews from the United States
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This book is the story of a girl named January. January is a romance author who's feeling a major slump because she was always inspired to write based on her parents' own larger-than-life love story, and her own good luck in love. But now she's just discovered that her father was cheating on her mother-- while she had cancer-- and when she falls into a depressive funk, her boyfriend-almost-fiance decides he just can't handle it because she's not fun anymore, and they break up.
Ouch.
Now January's father has died and she's at the beach house that she thinks used to be his love nest, trying to figure herself out and what she's going to do next. The picturesque town is beautiful but she's too upset to enjoy it, and all she can think about is the fun loving person she used to be. That's when she meets her grumpy neighbor-- or at least, she has several passing interactions with him where she can't really see his face. And it turns out that Grump is actually her old college writing class rival, now famous in his own right for writing pretentiously depressing lit-fic. The two of them end up bonding at a social event gone wrong and becoming closer-- close enough that they start talking about their writing road blocks and then come up with a challenge: they'll trade genres and see if writing something else fixes it, and the winner gets to have the other person blurb their book.
At first I was thinking this book was going to get a four or a five. The way the emotions the characters feel can be so beautiful. It's kind of like if someone turned every meaningful 3AM conversation you've ever had into a book. The portrayal of depression and grief felt dead-on, and I liked that every light moment of banter was counterweighted by some heavy emotional stuff. Where this book failed for me was that it started to feel a little too cyclical. After a while, it felt like Gus and January started to have the same arguments over and over. The ending, when Gus does his confession, felt a little bit mean the way he did it. And I hated the way he ended his "romance" novel-- because it didn't have an HEA. THAT'S NOT A ROMANCE NOVEL GUS. Oh my God, if I read a romance that ended the way his did, I'd be so mad.
In the end, I'm giving this a very high three because I loved the way this author wrote about two authors falling in love and I did think that it was just the right amount of quirky. It gave me good '90s rom-com vibes. If you enjoyed Beth 'O Leary's THE FLAT SHARE, I think you'd enjoy this too. Same vibes.
3 to 3.5 out of 5 stars
A story revolving around two writers, each writing in specific genres from romance and literary fiction. January and Augustus couldn’t be any more different (aside from attending the same university where they were classmates). January believed in happily ever afters, whereas Augustus was more focused on creating intricate storylines. Each had their own style and ideas when it came to their writing, but… through the unexpected encounter in North Bear Shore, their summer changed for the better.
First off, this story heavily focused on January and Augustus’s writing careers and how they went about creating their stories. So fair warning, the beginning was a bit slow but as I got more into the story, it started to pick up in pace. Right off the bat, January went to North Bear Shores in order to get away and try to write her next novel. Among other personal reasons, January just needed to get away and have a clean start to get her mind off things, but also try to finish the novel she promised her publisher she would have ready. Along the way, SURPRISE! January’s old classmate/ her rival (at least to her) Augustus Everett. Augustus a.k.a. Gus happened to live in North Bear Shores, and guess what?… HE LIVED RIGHT NEXT DOOR TO JANUARY!
When I heard things about this book, I was told it had an “enemies to lovers”, but honestly I felt like it was more of Augustus and January occasionally making playful jabs at each other, it was never malicious or hurtful. If anything there was more teasing and playful competition to see who’s book would end up being better. I found Augustus and January interesting, funny, sweet, thoughtful, and overall they had a good connection to each other.
Now… while I liked Augustus, I wouldn’t say he was “best book boyfriend”, he had some qualities to him that I liked, but I still feel like I’m more of a Alex Nilsen type of gal. I feel bad because as much as I was anticipating reading and learning about Augustus, I felt like people overhyped him for me, and I feel bad that my expectations weren’t met as I had hoped. That being said, I still did like Augustus, and loved the connection he shared with January. Augustus was more of the intellectual, reserved, slightly grumpy at times, and endearing. If I had to choose between Emily Henry’s male characters of Augustus and Alex… I’m going with Alex (don’t hate me!)
One of the things I enjoyed from the story was how book centered it was. What I mean is, this story was not only about love, family, and the harsh realities of life, but also how books can bring people together. There was a specific quote that stood out to me that encapsulated the feeling I get whenever I read, and it was, “That feeling of falling head over heels in love with a story and it’s characters…” I loved that Emily Henry included that small quote because it spoke volumes to me, and it was like, “YES I KNOW THAT EXACT FEELING YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT!” My fellow book lovers will understand and love this quote.
Overall, this was a sweet, funny, heartfelt/ a bit emotional story that was good. I liked January and Augustus’s relationship and especially loved their banter, even when they were tearing off each other’s clothes January still managed to roast Augustus haha. If you love stories centered around people who love books, writers as the main characters, funny, romantic, little bit of spice, and overall a feel good book, then you should check out this story.
Top reviews from other countries

Both January and Gus were interesting characters and it's only as we scratch beneath the surface do we discover that both have been holding onto their fair share of emotional baggage that is preventing them from moving forward. Will they be able to open up and to one another and help each other heal? I have to confess that personally I much preferred January as a character to Gus, there was just that little something about him that prevented me from warming to him wholly.
What I loved most about this book was the exploration of genres, the concept of questioning why a book written by a male is typically classified as fiction and can be read by both men and women whereas a book written by a female is typically classified as women's fiction and deemed to appeal to women only. One night after a few drinks a bet is made for them both to try and write something outside of their normal style, Gus to write a Happily Ever After story and January to explore something a little darker.
The whole bet storyline was hilarious and I really enjoyed the intellectual sparring between the two of them when talking about their books and current writing progress. As for their research days, these certainly provided some interesting topics for discussion as well as some hilarious comedic moments and compromising situations. I loved their witty banter and the interactions between them although I was a little concerned that it might have been vering towards the corny at times but the author managed to cleverly avoid it going down that road.
My only minor gripe about this book was the title itself as it didn't really work for me, yes they both live in beachfront houses but other than that it didn't really fit with the whole concept/theme of the story that unfolds.
Overall I found Beach Read to be a heartwarming read that dealt with some emotional and sensitive topics such as relationship breakdowns, grief and infidelity.

Admittedly, my expectations of this being fun probably made the reading experience worse than it would have been. However, the characters were just annoying with their dramas that seemed exaggerated to me. January's dad died an year ago and she still can't get over the fact that he wasn't the mean she thought he'd be and that's fair game, some things shock you and you don't get over them. But do you think about it constantly every other day and how hard it is for you to live everyday life? If you say yes, you might enjoy this book, but it's a hard no for me.
Then, there's Augustus, who is so mysterious, so bad boy, so "can't tie me down" that it's such a cliche from a 90s teenager show (and he's in his 30s, not his teens). I just couldn't empathise or like him based on this.
There's also how she sees his smile, talks to him, looks at his hair and is turned into jelly that I can't stomach. Plus, their stories that came out of the exchange seem like total crap - I wouldn't want to read those books or I'd be tricked by a title such as "Beach Read" and I'd then leave a bad review on Amazon to prevent others from being tricked by it.


Our main character, January, has always felt like someone who believes in love and its power to transform us. She writes romance and has always looked for her happy ending. But when we see her things aren’t going quite to plan. She is struggling to write, she is grieving her father and yet trying to reconcile herself to the discovery that her father had a secret second life.
Upon arriving at his second hideaway home, January is nervous about what she’ll find. Nothing could prepare her for the discovery that her new neighbour is an old college acquaintance, Gus.
Like January Gus is a writer. But we quickly see that, like January, things in his life aren’t quite going to plan.
What follows is quite obvious - they slowly form a new bond, breaking down the barriers each had in place and eventually starting a relationship each has secretly harboured dreams of since they first met.
The interaction between these two was great fun. Seeing two such different outlooks and the little bet to each write a book in the style of the other gave it an interesting twist. Not everything runs smoothly, but it always feels like we’ll end up where we hope.
A huge thank you to NetGalley for granting me access to this prior to publication. I loved it!

I instantly warmed to this book and loved the two main characters. It has angst, love, insight and keeps things ticking along at a cracking pace! Will definitely re-read this!