Disclaimer: I wrote this back in like May and forgot to publish it!
So this blog has ever so surely descended into being a book blog, and hey I’m not complaining, I love books and with the world as it is the best way for me to stay sane is to enter the many worlds in those books. It’s not what I’d planned but it makes sense for me, I love reading and I love talking about books so it's a pretty natural progression for me! Today I’m writing about a book that I read a while ago, Beach Read by Emily Henry.
So originally Beach Read was recommended for me from instagram off of @bookofthemonth’s April Book recs for fire signs (Sagittarius here!) with the caption “You’re itching for an escape. This will help.” and boy how right they were, I have been itching for an escape, from lockdown, from my anxiety and it seemed like a perfect way to pretend I was on holiday. But then I looked and it wasn’t available until July in paperback so I quickly forgot about it, until the other day when it came up on my kindle when I was browsing the store. I downloaded it and looked at the about info and I didn’t think too much of it, I remember thinking that it would probably be alright but nothing to rave about. I was wrong. I read it in a matter of hours.
So Beach Read is about two writers trying to write their books over the summer for their looming deadlines, January a romance writer, and Gus a serious literary type. However, they’re both struggling with their writing and so they make a bet, they both don’t like the other’s genre and so they decide to swap genres and see who can get their book published first. It’s a silly bet but it’s such a cute book, and trust me there is more to it than the bet, there’s other plotlines as well that are really interesting as they unravel.
When the book starts it is immediately engaging as well, it starts off with January arriving at her recently passed dad’s secret house that he spent time with his mistress in. You realise that January only discovered about her father’s affair at his funeral, and immediately you want to know what will happen, and this is also reinforced by her conversations with her friend Shadi who jokes about a sex dungeon. It makes it light, even though it’s a pretty heavy thing emotionally for the main character. But it helps to make her easy to sympathise with, and I think that’s something that Henry does really well, she makes you empathise with the characters.
(Slight spoilers ahead!)
Now, I absolutely LOVE an enemies to lovers story, and that’s exactly what this is. January and Gus get off on the wrong foot, both before they realise that they have a history when they meet again in the book, and when they originally met at University. This leads to them being sarcastic and stubborn when it comes to one another and I love it. I honestly think that had they not started off as enemies I probably wouldn’t have liked this book as much. But it is perfect, the grudgingly realising that they’re stuck next to one another all summer and then the slow realisation that they’ve always harbored secret crushes on each other. I LOVE it.
I think the only thing that slightly annoyed me was how quickly January and Gus write in the book, they both effectively write a book in like three months. And hey, maybe that’s just because I can’t write that fast it doesn’t seem realistic to me, even though that is all they’re doing over the summer (other than hanging out with each other and Pete’s book club). I just wish I could write that quickly! But that was the only thing that really stood out to me as something I didn’t quite believe.
If you’re looking for a summer read that takes your mind off of everything, and is really cute I’d really recommend that you check this one out! It is so good and easy to read that it takes you away immediately. Even if it isn’t the usual type of book that you might read. Let me know if you pick it up!
Love,
Carey
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