Published by Penguin on May 19, 2020
Genres: Fiction, Romance, Romantic Comedy, Women, Contemporary
Pages: 384
Format: eBook
Source: Library
Goodreads
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!
"Original, sparkling bright, and layered with feeling..."—Sally Thorne, author of The Hating GameA 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.
This was one of the most hyped books on my TBR for 2020. I heard it was a lovely, summery read that would whisk me away from the day to day drudgery. I can’t remember whose review or blurb I read but LIES! You owe me a new kleenex box!
Beach Read was absolutely not what I expected! Or rather, my strong reaction to the story and characters wasn’t what I expected. I adored January’s wit and flaws. She felt like a friend right from the start. Gus was complicated and I appreciate that. His wishy washy nonsense was getting old from the beginning though. I mostly enjoyed them as a couple, but I was ready to tell January to cut her losses by 75%. While more a tale of self-discovery, there is a fair amount of chemistry to heat up the romance.
My absolute favorite part of this book might be the notes the couple shared back and forth. Their banter was so much fun to read and I looked forward to each time they shared a scene. Of course, this is followed closely by Chapter 13 which made me laugh for a solid 10 minutes.
By the end, I was crying, swearing, and angry texting Mr. B because I was not prepared for a BIG EMOTIONS book. I definitely recommend Beach Read but I will say that I don’t find it a beach read unless you are okay with bawling in public. Unless I’m the only one that cried in which case… ignore my review?
