Beach Read by Emily Henry

I’m pleased to share my review for the latest book by Emily Henry on my book review blog today. Thank you to Penguin Books UK for a digital review copy via NetGalley – my thoughts are my own and not influenced by the gift.

Synopsis:

January is a hopeless romantic who likes narrating her life as if she’s the heroine in a blockbuster movie.
Augustus is a serious literary type who thinks true love is a fairy-tale.
January and Augustus are not going to get on.

But they actually have more in common than you’d think:

They’re both broke.
They’ve got crippling writer’s block.
They need to write bestsellers before the end of the summer.

The result? A bet to see who can get their book published first.
The catch? They have to swap genres.
The risk? In telling each other’s stories, their worlds might be changed entirely..

My thoughts:

This book was actually very different to how I expected it to be – not as ‘light and fluffy’ as the title suggests. Instead I enjoyed meeting two writers dealing with hefty amounts of emotional baggage who had known (and kissed) each other during college and who are now neighbours overlooking a beach.

The story starts as we meet January, Gus, and Pete and slowly start to find out more about January and Gus. I enjoyed how the story evolved, as we found out what had happened in the past and how that had led them both to be living next to the beach, struggling to write their next books.

This is a book that looks at how our families shape us and how we love others, and how everyone has a different background story (including the families who lost family members to cults). There is sadness and humour, anger and love in this story. I enjoyed the book and will be recommending it to friends.

Emily Henry:

Emily Henry writes stories about love and family for both teens and adults. She studied creative writing at Hope College and the now-defunct New York Center for Art & Media Studies.

Find her on Instagram @EmilyHenryWrites.