A Not So Warm Beach Read

AHHHHHHHH

SO SORRY FOR TAKING SO LONG!!!!!!

I am so trying to handle school, three jobs and this blog. This blog just had to sit on the back burner, sadly. Anyways, I think posts are going to be more infrequent. I think I am going to write posts when I am procrastinating my homework (like right now). I again apologize but lets move on…

Title: Beach Read

Author: Emily Henry

Published May 19th 2020 by Berkley

Genre: Romance, Contemporary, Fiction

Pages: 361

“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.” –Goodreads

My Review:

Apparently, I have been crazy into romance novels this summer. I have never read so many before. I think it has to do with getting turned down for an internship at a publishing house because I “did not know enough about the genre,” but that is besides the point.

I listened to this book on audio, which let me say, I was not expecting the spicy scene halfway throughout the book and was getting weird stares while listening to it in my car.

This book was a pretty great book. And by pretty great I mean, really really great. The entire premise of the book was amazing. I think I mentioned this before in another review, but I am really digging the this-could-happen-to-literally-anyone books. I am so deep into fantasy novels that reading books about real life situations is such a load off my back. No longer am I swinging swords on the battlefield and running away from scary dragons, I am just casually relaxing by the beach gossiping with my girl January.

January is a great character. I think she is so down to earth. Authors try to make their characters different and quirky, but I think Emily Henry just brought us a real girl with real girl problems. She was obsessed with one dude in college. That one dude became her next door neighbor after her dad cheated on her mom, died, and than left January a fancy house. See, very normal.

One thing I will have to say about this book that irks me is that they are not near a beach. Technically any mass of land and sand probably equals beach, but they are on the shores of Lake Michigan. Isn’t it cold in Michigan?

The title totally made me believe nice warm read. And yes they describe it as warm sometimes, but I just cannot help but imagine the mitten shape of Michigan and how cold it must be.

This book was so cute and fun to read. I do not think it was the best book I have ever read. Certainly was not the best book I read this summer. But it was still a fun book.

The book kind of lacked in conflict and problems. Yes there were overlying issues and the main couple broke up ~sorta~ not. But maybe the main focus of the book was on the character finding themselves and not whether or not they fell in love with the dark, mysterious author who lives next door.

I am telling you, too much fantasy and too much romance. I need to read more normal books with normal problems.

All in all, Beach Read is a great read. It is fun and light hearted and nice book to pick up.

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie