What happens when a romance writer challenges a 'serious' writer to swap genres?

January Andrews is a fairly successful writer of women's fiction, but ever since the death of her father she has been lost in a sea of grief and anger, especially when she discovers he had a secret life. A year ago she had a perfect life: sexy boyfriend; happily married parents; and a successful career. Now none of those exist except in her memories and she has come to her father's secret beach house love nest to write her overdue fifth novel.

Unbeknownst to her, January's beach house is next door to Augustus (Gus) Everett, a writer of dark highbrow novels and also her college rival, formerly known as Sexy, Evil Gus or SEG for short. Thrown together in a small town January and Gus snipe at each other, he thinks she's all rainbows, unicorns and happy endings whereas she thinks he churns our dark and dreary worthy novels. Both of them are suffering writer's block so January challenges Gus to a bet, who can write the more successful novel in the other's genre?

I've read this plot device before, or seen it as a Hallmark movie, but this is nothing like those stories. January is struggling to come to terms with her father's secret life, Gus has his own demons. Gus is researching for a book about a cult which involves interviewing relatives of people in suicide cults and survivors of a fire which destroyed another cult. It's deep, and grown-up, and funny, and sad, and sweet, and small-town, and a wonderful opposites attract romance.

I loved every second of this rollercoaster novel and January and Gus were such vivid, rounded characters it was a pleasure to see them reframe their teen years and events closer to home over the course of the novel.

My first novel by Emily Henry and I loved it, look forward to reading more by this author.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Chose this as my next read for a bit of escapism but it didn’t quite work for me. It has pace and energy but the characters didn’t interest me and the plot was predictable. Sorry, not for me but I can see it would appeal so worth a read.

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest.

This is not my usual genre, I’m more of a crime/thriller reader but have been opening my mind to more women’s fiction and romance novels.

This was such a easy read and I read in one sitting. I couldn’t put it down. Henry develops the characters so well that I felt like I knew them. Moreover, her description of the beach and the cottages was so good that I could picture them in my head.

I absolutely loved this book. I am so extremely grateful to NetGalley for opening up my mind to something totally different. 5 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Beach Read is essentially a book about two writers living next door to each other who after a fun bet decide to swap genres and along the way fall in love. Told in first person by our heroine January- an optimist with rose tinted glasses and a big believer of love, romance and HEA (happily ever afters). January moves to her fathers beach house after his death and the breakup of her long term relationship. She is also going through shock and anger regarding an unexpected secret about her father following his death.

Our Hero is Gus a brooding pessimist who is also a writer but does not believe in fluff and romance. Both writers are in a slump and have deadlines to meet. From there the idea comes up to swap genres and together they delve into market research to gather material for their books and you can guess where that leads.

Just going by the book cover and the synopsis I thought this book would be a chick-lit rom com but it’s more like Women’s fiction. A slow burn angsty plot that is heart warming but also at times heartbreaking. Our two main characters had a lot of layers that we got to learn each chapter. This is the perfect beach read as the title suggests. Emily Henry’s writing is beautiful and she creates stunning vivid settings that really helped me to escape our current lock down reality and let my mind drift to a sunnier brighter tropics. The connection and banter between the couple was great, and their backstory and journey from childhood makes you root for their love. I did not give it the full five stars because I would have liked to read Gus point of view and have alternating POV for January and Gus that would have been perfect.

Thank you to the author Emily Henry, Penguin Books UK and Netgalley for this arc copy in exchange for an honest review.

January is a writer of romances, Augustus (Gus) writes literary fiction. They have met at lakeside houses while they are meant to be writing their next novel but both are suffering from writer's block. They decide to write in the style of each other. After an initial testy sparring they start to get on and before you know it they are confiding their angst about all sorts of issues. It isn't a spoiler to say that the inevitable happens.

I was disappointed in this book. Yes, at times it is funny but this isn't enough to make up for the lack of any real tension in the novel. The characters are somewhat dull and one dimensional. January is a bit of a spoilt child, stunned by the revelation that her parents' happy marriage wasn't all it seemed. I just wanted to tell her to get over it. Gus goes from being the aloof, arrogant artist to a little boy lost in a way that is just annoying. But for me the most tedious thing was the endless sex scenes. All curves and sweat and nibbling. It led to a lot of page skipping.

I am sorry not to have liked this book more. I thought it had an interesting premise but it failed to hold my attention. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I've just read this book from the confines of my house instead of on a beach in Barbados where I should have been but hey ho! I thoroughly enjoyed this book - yes it is predictable but very well written with endearing characters that made reading it an absolute pleasure! Cant wait to look up some more easy-read titles from this author! Many thanks to netgalley for an ARC in return for this honest review.

“And they lived happily ever after…”

Children films, romcoms and even the odd action have a happy ending. Why? They give an optimistic outlook for the viewer. You may completely be repulsed but even for a split second, in the cinematic world at least for a moment they’ll be happy – until a meteor comes and destroys the world. Life can bring so many challenges and it’s up to yourself how you tackle each hurdle. Heartbreak, grievance and emotions provide a new chapter to your personal story.

In Beach Read, we find a grieving January arriving a new town to unfold the secrets of her late father. How could the man that raised her keep a lie? Why did her mother standby and stay with him? Everything would come to light but first she needs to enter the beach house. With high emotions, her surroundings provide more evidence that during her 28-year life existence – her father was a complete stranger, as she continues into a spiralling black-hole, she is brought back to reality to blaring music from her ever so close neighbour. As life couldn’t get any worse for January, she finds herself living next door to her college writing rival, Augustus Everett. Awkward and determined not for her to be the old fairy princess they embark on a writing bet, who can publish a book first in each other’s’ genres. Research trips in each other’s genres turns out to be unofficial dates, they open up to one another to the point that the desire for one another builds so high, they can no longer resist. But can January keep her promise to Gus that she wont fall in love with him? Can she find love again, when her father ruined everything she knew?

This book was initially a struggle to get into but after a few chapters in, this book was hard to put down. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book, the characters and storyline were easy to follow. Throughout the book I was routing for the happy ending the main characters deserved but throughout the book it made me wonder if they could get it. Would Gus’ character really be falling for January? Was this another of his research projects for writing a book? Could January be capable of opening her heart again? Would January be broken furthermore? A simple love story with unexpected turns along the way.

As cliché as it sounds, I really do believe in happy endings. I am a bright light, hoping to see the positive aspects of life. Though, when I am tested, I do find myself sinking into a blackhole. I guess we all do, the mind is a complex thing – no one is perfect. We all must to be hopeful and see the small wins that life gives us…a constant reminder to look for a happily ever now.

I received an advance digital copy of this book from the author, publisher and Netgalley.co.uk.
All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

A fantastic, funny, heart-warming story about being forced to change your worldview and learning that it might not be such a bad thing and not losing yourself in the process. I genuinely have no real criticisms of this book.

When January learns that her parent's seemingly perfect, timeless love story is not what it always seemed, she stops believing in romance-for-the-ages. As a self-professed "women's" author, she has always found it easy to write characters that fall in love, overcome all obstacles and find their happily ever afters - until now. Recently single, broke and struggling to meet a deadline for her next book (for which she has no ideas), she moves to her father's secret second lakehouse. There, she meets a neighbour who is not quite a stranger, and slowly learns that happiness and ardour can exist simultaneously to disloyalty and broken hearts.

The characters were engaging and real. Gus was just the right balance of tortured, brooding male love interest but with enough spark to make it bearable. I loved watching his story and background unfold as he let January in over time, January herself was the idealistic heroine recently availed of the notion that life always tipped just this side of fairytale. After being forced to confront the fact that her quixotic view of romance may not even exist, I ached for her having to relearn how to trust and open her heart despite now knowing that perfection and happily-ever-afters may not exist.

This is a genuine, warm and touching read laced with both realism and hopefulness. You should absolutely not miss what is sure to be a summer favourite.

This book is far from the typical 'Beach Read its title suggests. If I'd read it on a beach I would have been very well tanned as I just could not put this book down. Starting from the thoughts of an author struggling for inspiration the story develops into an insight into her life and the resolution of some of her problems whilst she begins writing again rising to the challenge of tackling a totally different writing genre. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would definitely read more of Emily's books.

I was looking for a lighthearted easy read in these difficult times . I would normally really enjoy this book on a sun lounger but I enjoyed it all the same . This book certainly hit the spot .

I wanted to read a light, feel good romance for exactly the reasons expounded in the novel. These are anxious times (March 2020) and I was looking forwarded to some light hearted reading, with some humour thrown in. It didn’t quite hit the spot. To be fair, these are exceptionally worrying times, so it is a tall order to lift one’s spirits. The plot was fairly predictable, so the novel didn’t grip me and keep me turning the page. Really, there was little to distinguish it from other books of the genre. Perhaps I have just read too many in recent times and needed a change. My overall conclusion is that it was an inoffensive read, it helped to pass a couple of hours, but it was not the memorable sort of book that stays in your mind as a must read.

This was the perfect distraction from all the misery that is our world right now, it swept me away! Yes there were a few very convenient plot points and yes, the male lead Gus was INFURIATING, but I was still glued to the story and rooting for them to make it. Not normally a romance reader, it has encouraged me to pick up more from the genre.

3.5 ⭐ rounded up

Many thanks to netgalley!

Writing this in March 2020, I really enjoyed this piece of escapism! A good story about loss and grief but also a really good romance thread running through it - the sexier scenes were really well written and actually really sexy! I stayed up late to finish this box and that, to me, is a definite sign of success!

I wasn't expecting to love this book as much as I did. It's sweet, and warm and fuzzy, and also hot and sad. I'm going to miss January and Augustus.

DNF @ 13%
This book is giving me anxiety. I honestly don't want to dnf another ARC, but I can't do it, for precisely two reasons:

<b>1. Tone </b>

When I requested the arc, I expected a light-hearted rom-com. This is very much not a light-hearted rom-com. This starts a heavy sadness as the main character narrates precisely how miserable her life is, how her father is a dirty cheater, how everything in her life is a lie. Lots of rom-coms start from a place when heroine's life is shitty, but almost non of them manage to make me feel so bad.

I think it was possible to start this in a more relaxed tone and let some of those feelings creep into narrative later. But precisely because of the way it started, I think the author failed to establish the proper tone for a rom-com story. Maybe I should mention that I'm a tad bit obsessed with tone, so it's probably not that big of an issue for others.

I just want to say that I don't have a problem with rom-coms dealing with serious issues. Flatshare does that wonderfully. But the thing is, Flatshare never loses its tone, and even when it's discussing abuse, it seems like the book wants to have an honest discussion. Not just a way to make readers feel like shit. I can appreciate books that talk about serious topics without falling into melodrama, but I don't appreciate books that want to make me feel sad. Specially if those books are marketed as rom-com. If you want something funny and serious at the same time just read Flatshare

<b>2. Love interest </b>

The other thing is ruining this book for me is the love interest. The first unattractive thing I read about him is that he's not capable of having a relationship past one month. I can't explain how much this type of guy in literature disgusts me. This is very common trope in romance genre and it's rooted in the idea that the "worthy girl" can turn any commitment-phobe to the ideal man. It's 2020 and I honestly don't need that level of sexist shit in my life. I don't need stories that tell me it's my job to turn a guy right. In real life it's certainly a choice, and I won't fault anyone for making choices that make them happy. But it's existence in literature is representative of some ideas that I find deeply disturbing.

The other thing that turns me off about him is that he looks down on heroine because she likes romance novels. I don't think a man who doesn't respect the basic fact that different people have different needs, and they look for different things in literature, could be remotely attractive, not to me anyway. I get that it's supposed to be a character flaw, and he probably gets fixed by the end of novel, but this is simply one of those deal-breakers that make me instantly lose respect for someone. I can accept a lot of crazy ideas, but I can't accept people who are stuck in a single narrow-minded world-view and bash anyone who doesn't fit that. I don't care how pretty he's supposed to look, the inability to respect those who are different is the most unattractive trait a man can have.

Okay so most of my complaints has to do specifically with me and my taste. I don't think the novel is badly written. It's just not for me.

I really needed this book. I didn't realize how much I needed it until I was giggling along with all the awkwardness and banter and feeling like I'd been taken away from the dark, dreariness of this lockdown. It's exactly what it seems to be: a very cute, sweet romance.

Beach Read is a warm, summery story about a romance writer (January Andrews) and a vair vair serious literary writer (Augustus Everett) who have been long-time writing rivals ever since they attended college together. They find themselves in neighboring beach houses for the summer, each trying to write their next novel whilst doling out perfect comebacks to each other. What could possibly happen?

As they get to know each other a little better, they decide to strike a deal: Augustus will write a happily ever after and January will turn her talents to the serious world of literary fiction. Whoever sells their manuscript first, wins.

I really enjoyed the dynamic between January and Gus. It's not quite love/hate because the author stops short of really making them tear into each other, but there's a lot of tension created by their competitive history. The banter is funny; a little snarky at times, but good-natured. Emily Henry has also perfected that blend of broody and sweet with Gus-- it turns out Romance love interests can be both darkly mysterious and not assholes. Who'da thought?

The story is told entirely from January's POV, which I personally like. I prefer single perspective romance novels because I think a good portion of the tension comes from not knowing what's going on inside the other person's head.

I will say that I might have been more critical of some aspects of this if I was in a different mindset right now. While I expected the novel to be cute and a little cheesy, it is a bit more cheesy and sentimental than I usually prefer. I would have been happier without things like this:

"I don't need snowflakes." He kissed me. "As long as there's January."


I also expected it to be a little more saucy, lol. There’s sex scenes, for sure, but they’re cute and kinda dorky rather than tense and exciting. I know that a lot of people prefer that; I just thought the whole competing authors dynamic was pretty hot and would have liked to see that played upon a bit more. And I loved the jokey banter… I just sorta wanted them to stop the jokey banter DURING sex.

But, fuck it. This was such a heartwarming feel-good book. I had a good time, that's all I can say.

A good romantic read that would be prefect for reading whilst relaxing on a sunlounger!! Nice characters with issues on both sides!! A lovely story looking at complex relationships, having doubts and working out what is best for your life.

This book focuses on two characters January and Augustus, both published authors and both with tragic stories of their own.
Having recently lost her father and at the funeral finding out he had been unfaithful, January finds herself in possession of his second home by the lake, Living next door is an elusive man with his own problems, however January is soon to meet him and realise this man is Augustus and she knew him in college.
Augustus rights dark and deep books, January is a pro at writing a romance novel so they challenge each other to take each others genre and publish a book, the first to be published is the winner.
What follows is an excellent story, January shows Gus what romance is, and Gus welcomes January into his world while each reveals their own back story,
Loved this story, so well written and the characters were very likeable. The storyline was original and left me wanting more.
Thanks for the advance copy!

January, a broke romance writer escapes to a beach house to finally finish writing her novel as well as deal with her father’s death and the knowledge that he seemed to have had a second life.
Next door, she meets her college ‘nemesis’, a literary writer who appears to be in the same boat as her; broke and experiencing a writer’s block. The lack of progress seems to evaporate when one day a deal is struck between the two; they will swap genres for their next book.

Having read the blurb and the praising reviews, I thought I would love this book. And I did. About the first thirty per cent of it. Then (slight spoilers ahead) when January and August finally started making out, it just felt rushed. And the angst overblown. There were of course some good parts and I can’t fault the writing style as I did mostly enjoy reading the descriptions and January’s narrative as it could be funny and witty. Some of the darker themes like dealing with the loss of a parent were well explored. It’s just the overall plot and dialogue weren't doing it for me - the conversations between characters felt overly cliched and sweet for example:

‘I both love and despise falling in love.’
‘Same.’ I said. ‘Men are the worst.’
‘The wo-orst,’ she sang.

That could have been cut. In that instance, the author provided us with some long summary of what January and her friend have been up to for the entire day and when we did get some conversation, it wasn’t profound but spurting cliches and platitudes. That seemed like a recipe that was followed throughout the novel.

Another thing that bugged me, was the intensity of the words between January and August, especially at the beginning of their developing relationship where they’d just feel too large for the brief amount of time they knew each other. It just made the book feel overly exaggerated to me. Sometimes it was written like they were madly in love through what they were saying but then I would lack the evidence to support that through how they were behaving.

Half way through I kind of lost interest, and didn’t enjoy reading it, but I hate abandoning books so I pushed through. The last few chapters unmade whatever good parts I managed to find earlier and I just wanted to get rid of the book and never see it again. Would I recommend it? Sure, to those maybe who enjoy some angst mixed with romance, don’t mind cliches too much and who feel don’t bothered when they see more descriptions explaining why someone is doing something instead of the actual actions themselves, in which case you might as well give it a go. It wasn’t necessarily an awful book, but it does require in my opinion a lot of tweaking.

January is a romance writer. Her father dies and leaves her his secret love pad on Lake Michigan. She has always believed in romance but now she is hiding away from her agent as she is unable to write her next book. Does she still believe in love?

At the lake she meets neighbour Gus who is also a writer, they used to go to college together. As Gus is also struggling to write his next book they agree to swap genres and write each other’s books. Gus thinks a romance will be easier to write than his darker works!!

I loved the connection between Gus and January, their wit and banter made me laugh out loud several times.

This is a journey for both characters, as we get to know their childhoods and what made them into the adults they are now. At times sad but also funny.

This is my first Emily Henry book, I am already searching for her other books!!!

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for a review.