Book Review - Beach Read by Emily Henry

Title: Beach Read
Author: Emily Henry
Genre: Romace/ Contemporary
Published: 2020
 
Description: 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 are 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 backwood death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book an no-one will fall in love. Really.
 
Review: Let’s just start by saying I’m not a romance reader, I don’t like reading contemporary romance stories, just like I don’t (often) enjoy rom-com movies. I do like the classic love stories or historical romances. So it would be no surprise to you, that I have never read a Emily Henry book before. Since it’s summer, I decided to give “Beach Read” a go, and I didn’t hate it.
 
We meet January Andrews, the writer of romance books, chicklits. She’s had a rough year and she has a terrible writer’s block. January moves into the beach house that her dad left her, maybe to be inspired with a new novel. Next door we have Augustus Everett, also a writer. He writes literary fiction and is also dealing with writer’s block. And Augustus was January’s rival in school. But they decide to use each other’s writing qualities to get out of their slump, by challenging each other to write a book in the other’s preferred genre.
 
It's a fun premise and I also enjoy the enemies-to-lovers trope most in romance stories. Where they start out as enemies, become friends first and then romance happens (not a spoiler, come on, you know this). And both characters were very interesting to get to know. They are well-developed and I rooted for both. Both Augustus and January have an interesting backstory, they have substance. And I also loved the fact that they were both writers, I enjoy reading about authors.
 
The book was just fine for me. It’s a very easy read. But I never really fully believed the romance between January and Augustus. Even though they are both fairly likeable characters, there is never a moment where I thought: yes, they are made for each other.
 
The story is also very predictable, but aren’t most romantic contemporary books? The book didn’t really have any big surprises.
 
It was just a fun, summer read. Accessible, perfect for first-time romance readers and a good book to pick up on your summer holiday. But it never grabbed me.
 
Rating: 3/ 5