My first time reading Emily Henry! And while it won't be my last, my TL;DR review of Beach Read is that it was an enjoyable enough read, but it's not a story I'll be thinking about much now that I've finished it.
I switched from the paperback to the audio edition because my library copy was due back, and there was a queue of people waiting for it, so renewing wasn't an option. Switching to audio highlighted some things that irritated me that I wouldn't have noticed as much if I had stuck with the print edition. Is it usual for authors to mention their publisher by name that frequently? I don't mean their specific editor or agent, but the actual publishing house. I lost count of how many times January said she was published by Sandy Lowe Books! By the end I muttering 'oh, for fuck sake!', 'here we go again!' and 'I get it, you don't need to keep telling me!' whenever January mentioned it. But maybe I am the one who is cracked in the head here!
January is grieving her father's death. A grief complicated by the fact that she learned something about him after he died that has left her wondering whether she really understood who he was as a person. January is also dealing with writer's block, but she cannot financially afford to step away from getting a draft of her next romance novel to her agent or editor.
Thinking that a change of scenery could help – or at least it couldn't hurt, right? – January decides to spend the summer writing at a house on Lake Michigan. Once there, she discovers that her college nemesis, Gus, lives next door. Gus is a literary fiction author who wasn’t a fan of January's stories during their college workshops.
When it becomes clear that Gus is also dealing with writer's block, they make a bet: they'll swap genres and see who gets published first. What follows is an entertaining read which balances humour with sincerity as January and Gus are forced to confront the reasons behind their writer's block.
Beach Read by Emily Henry is published by Penguin, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
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