Beach Read

After her father’s death and the revelation that apart from her mother, there was another woman he obviously loved, January falls into a deep hole. Hopelessly romantic as she is, she does not understand the world anymore and has to realise that her parents’ perfect marriage was far from the ideal she had always pictured it. Her mental state also keeps her from doing her job: writing romantic novels. How can you write about love when you lost all believe in it? Totally broke and to overcome her writer’s block, she moves to her father’s beach house which she plans to clear out and sell and where she hopes over summer to finish her next novel. When she arrives, another surprise is waiting for her: her neighbour Augustus Everett was at college with her and her greatest enemy. He always looked down on her Happily Ever After novels while he himself was more of the serious literary writing type. Soon, they realise that they have much more in common than they had thought and somehow they come to have a bet: swap genres and see who is the first to sell a book.

Emily Henry’s novel not only has the perfect title but it also keeps the promise that comes with it: it is a beach read just as you’d imagine: A bit of romance here, also some struggle but none too depressing there, all wonderfully narrated so that you just rush through it while enjoying the sun. It is a light-hearted escape to forget about the world and your own problems for a couple of hours and to only indulge in reading.

Even though I am not that much into com-coms, I enjoyed the book thoroughly. At times, I had to laugh out loud as the author really manages to find a carefree and relaxed tone; when in other novels you again and again read about barking dogs, in “Beach Read” you get this here: “Somewhere, a Labrador was farting. “

Even though a typical summer read which does not weigh too much on your shoulders, there are some more serious aspects one could ponder on, but clearly, the romantic fight between the protagonists is in the centre and it is clearly meant to be enjoyed.

3,5 Stars

The title, the cover and the description all made me believe that this is fairly light chick-lit. But it isn't really, there is a lot of sadness, anger, helplessness, hurt, the feeling of betrayal, being not self-confident enough. Which all leads January to have a writers block - and a deadline to deliver her next funny rom-com book at the end of the summer.

I didn't mind the more serious tone and all the troubles accompanying our two protagonists. It just got a bit repetitive after a while, especially when January thinks about her Dad and his second life. It became tedious.
I also expected their 'bet' to be a bit different - that each of them would write a book for the other person. This wasn't the case, they only try to incorporate the others prefered genre into the book they are currently working on.
But apart from that the book was really ok, and I liked reading how January and Augustus become re-acquainted with each other.