Beach Read
FROM THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF FUNNY STORY!
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.
As featured in The New York Times Book Review ∙ Entertainment Weekly ∙ Oprah Magazine ∙ Betches ∙ Shondaland ∙ Good Morning America ∙ The New York Post ∙ Good Housekeeping ∙ CNN ∙ and more!
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.
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.
As featured in The New York Times Book Review ∙ Entertainment Weekly ∙ Oprah Magazine ∙ Betches ∙ Shondaland ∙ Good Morning America ∙ The New York Post ∙ Good Housekeeping ∙ CNN ∙ and more!
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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Community Reviews
I finally read Beach Read, and while I liked it, I didn’t love it. What stood out to me most was how real everything felt. There’s no perfect happily-ever-after, just a “happy for now,” which honestly, is as close to reality as it gets. Life is messy, love is complicated, and Emily Henry does a fantastic job capturing that. No one in this book is perfect. Mistakes happen, people fall for the wrong person, careers stall, families disappoint. But all of it felt real. This book didn’t give me hopelessly-in-love-romance; it gave me the full weight of adulthood, grief, and figuring out what comes next when your idea of life completely shifts. The characters weren’t idealized versions of people; they were flawed, messy, and dealing with very real struggles and that authenticity worked for me.
That said, I wish the side characters had been developed more. I wanted more from January’s parents (seriously, more answers, please!), and I really wanted to know more about Gus’ past. Why did Rose stay? And logistically… how did Gus afford college and grad school? If it was all scholarships and loans, then how did he afford a Michigan beach house after publishing just two books?? Make it make sense.
Also, let’s talk Midwest winters. As someone who knows the Midwest, I have to call shenanigans on January’s winter wardrobe. If they’re walking along the frozen shores of Lake Michigan in winter, layering up under her coat sometimes is NOT cutting it. You need thermal everything, a windproof jacket, and probably some emotional support.
Despite my nitpicks, I still found the book enjoyable. The banter was fun, the emotional depth was there, and I liked how the romance felt grounded in reality. I just wish some of the gaps were filled in.
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