The other day I was on a hunt for a couple CDs at my local Barnes & Noble; although the website said the location had what I was looking for, I could not find them myself. So naturally, I placed an online order for the CDs instead of talking to an employee.

While I was waiting for the online order to be completed, I walked around the store to waste some time. On one of the displays, I saw a few books that peaked my interest. I picked up Beach Read by Emily Henry purely because of the positive reviews I had heard. I’ve been looking for a good book, and Beach Read did not disappoint.

Summary: (SUPER SPOILER ALERT!!!)

Beach Read tells the tale of 2 millennials who write books. The narrator, January Andrews, is a popular women’s fiction writer and her “nemesis”, Augustus Everett, writes literary fiction (so obviously, they are natural born enemies because they “don’t understand each other”…foreshadowing). At the beginning of the novel, January talks about her childhood and how her life seemed perfect until her dad suddenly died. She learned at his funeral that his extended “work trips” he used to go on were really just weekend getaways to go cheat on her mom. She was so depressed with this tragic news that she and her “perfect” boyfriend, Jacques, broke up and she stopped talking to her mom. Needless to say she had a hard time writing her next project. Since she was also now broke and homeless, she moved into the beach house her dad gave her (which also happens to be the house that he lived in while he cheated). Poor January cannot catch a break. Homegirl has been through the ringer.

January and Augustus once knew each other in college. They met a few times and January hated him from the very start because of his seemingly snarky and “I’m better than everyone” kind of attitude. However, one night, at a party, they danced together and Augustus decided he was in love with her. She never reciprocated any sort of feelings towards him after that (platonically or romantically) and eventually moved on with her life.

When she moves into the beach house, she meets her grumpy neighbor. Lo and behold, her neighbor is Augustus! They tussle at the beginning of the book for around 80-100 pages because they write different genres and “have different life views”. Then they decide to make a deal; January will teach Augustus how to write a women’s fiction romance novel and Augustus will teach January how to write literary fiction. Whoever finishes and publishes first wins (there’s not really a prize. It’s pretty much just bragging rights). And, of course, Augustus says “January! don’t fall in love with me” at the end of the chapter before the challenge begins. SPOILER ALERT! She falls in love with him.

A large chunk of this book displays the chase; January is pretty much in love with Augustus as soon as the challenge starts. January makes it her life’s goal to get Augustus to spill his guts to her because she uncontrollably overshares to him (this is my favorite dynamic). By the nature of the challenge, the two are bound to fall in love. January’s “lessons” for Augustus are essentially dates disguised as “lessons” and Augustus takes January to interview a ton of cult survivors during his lessons. Ah, yes. Nothing says “I love you!” like taking the girl you’re madly in love with to the burned remains of a cult. How romantic of him <3!!!

Mind you, this book is around 300 pages, so there is a TON of information/plot points I’m leaving out (just in case you decide you’d like to read this book). So, I am choosing to skip around 100 or so pages to move straight to the ending. The ending has a little bit of a plot twist and the couple appears as though they are finished! January sprints home in a fit of both hysteria and rage with tears spilling out of her eyes because of something that really isn’t Augustus’ fault (but she blames him anyways). SPOILER ALERT! They end up kissing, crying, and making up in the rain. Both Augustus and January finish writing and end up publishing their books. January is finally inspired to write again! Woo hoo!

And then they live happily ever after! Thank God.

Review:

This is not necessarily a bad thing, but Beach Read reads like a Wattpad story. Emily Henry just kept throwing new events at me left and right. It’s a lot more polished and well written than something like After (a published novel that was extremely popular on Wattpad), but it has its cliché moments that can be pretty hard to sit through. Regardless, Beach Read executes the popular enemies-to-lovers trope very well. I was very attached to the characters (even though I hated both of the main characters at times…they were really frustrating), the book was well paced, and sure, it was super cheesy a lot of the time, but this novel has some pretty unique moments that make it stand out from other rom-com novels. By “unique”, I mean really weird. 

The two main characters have extremely intimate moments that I feel I should not be listening in on…I won’t dive into any specifics, but one moment they’re crying about how difficult their lives are (and to be fair, they’ve got some pretty gnarly trauma) and then they’re hooking up??? I don’t know…maybe it’s just me…but it’s a little weird to talk about your dead dad or victims of religious cult and then immediately feel the need to kiss someone. But hey! They were heavily driven by their newfound understanding of each other! Who am I to judge?!

A lot of the problems Augustus and January face in their relationship during the course of the plot could’ve been solved if they had just told each other the truth. Whether it be the two of them obviously having feelings for each other and being too afraid to say it out loud or lying in order to “protect” one another, their relationship issues are pretty fixable. They talk a LOT yet 9/10 times their issues are a result of miscommunication. Maybe if they just…told the truth…a lot of tears would’ve been saved. But that doesn’t make for a good book now does it? Regardless, it made me want to pull my hair out. I kept angrily talking to myself (like a crazy person), saying things like “they’re so stupid” and “why would *insert character here* say that”. Emily Henry, you are a genius. If the goal was to make me frustrated, this book, especially these characters, passed with flying colors. The frustration with this relationship was worth it; I wouldn’t have been as obsessed with these characters and the plot if they didn’t act this way. And this dynamic is exactly what makes Beach Read such a good story.

I also really enjoyed how some of the “smaller” seeming things mentioned at the start of the book come around again in the end, but the one I was most excited for was never spoken of again. Augustus hates being called “Augustus” (he goes by his last name instead) because his dad was a very very angry/violent man and hearing his own name gives him flashbacks. So, at the beginning of the novel when January calls him by his full name, he shudders in fear. I expected Augustus to finally be comfortable with his name by the end, especially because January says it and he loves her or whatever, BUT IT WAS NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN? Now I am heartbroken. That could’ve been such a well executed full circle moment.

Conclusion:

I know it seems as though I am talking a lot of smack about this book, but honestly, I LOVED it. One night I decided to start reading it and I literally could not put it down; I took around 5 hours out of my day to read it all in one sitting.

Overall, I’d read it again. I’d say Beach Read by Emily Henry earns itself an impressive 4/5 stars; its cheesiness, constant use of clichés, and characters that have had nearly every single horrible thing imaginable happen to them make this book shine. It is worth all of the hype it has received and it’s camp perfection.