Title: Beach Read
Author: Emily Henry
Publisher: Berkley
Published: 19 May 2020
Trigger Warnings: Death of a parent, divorce, cult, child abuse
If you know me, then you know this is not my usual fair of reading material. Yet, I did end up enjoying it more than I thought I would.
January Andrews is what is expected of a romance writer. She always finds her happily ever after. And if it doesn’t exist, then she makes one up. Augustus Everett is one of the great new literary writers on the scene that always looks at life as a realist. Never given the option to have a happy ending.
January and Augustus are neighbors now in this small-town. Yet, there’s one small hitch, they’ve met before. January and Augustus are writing enemies, so will they get along or will everything come crumbling down.
I did actually enjoy the book, as I said, it’s not my usual read but it did feel more down-to-earth than other (white, hetero) romance novels I’ve read. January is unable to continue on with her happily ever after story she always told herself when her father dies and a secret affair comes out. She’s at his lake house to clean it out and sell it. Unknowingly, the woman he had the affair with lives in the town as well. It’s all a bit of a mess.
Before her father’s death, the only other difficult time in January’s life was when her mom was diagnosed with cancer. She did beat it, but then it came back again when January graduated from undergrad. The reason January became obsessed with romance novels is she read them during her mom’s chemo treatments. A way to find the happiness in such a horrible situation.
Augustus’s takes time to reveal his story, as he definitely plays his cards close to the touch. But his reticent and closed-off personality does become more understandable when it’s revealed that his dad was horribly abusive and his mom never left him. He never understood why she stayed, hence his research into cults for his next story. He’s trying to understand why someone stays.
Of course, everything comes together in the end. And January and Augustus do get together as well, since how could a romance story end without the two leading characters getting together.
This was definitely the kind of book someone reads during the summer, on a beach, with a piña colada, unfortunately, I was just in my house reading it. I still had a fun time reading it and it was definitely a good brain break of a good.
Happy Reading Darlings!
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