Beach Read explores the friends to enemies trope, and Henry’s execution includes generous doses of sometimes snarky, sometimes flirty, funny, good-natured banter. There were a handful of times I giggled as I was reading. Augutus Everett is an authour of literary fiction books, and January Andrews is an authour of happily ever after romantic books. They’re spending the summer on lake Michigan as neighbours and because they’re both in a creative rut they strike a deal to publish a book and not fall in love. It’s an endearing premise, and one that delivered for me.
The plot is interesting enough to keep you turning the pages- not only to learn the progression of the lead romance but also to uncover the individual journey’s of these characters. I think that is because the character development is solid thanks to their past and the side quests they are navigating in their personal lives.
There are two occasions on which Taylor Swift is referenced. First is the reference to the YBWM music video because January and Augutus hold up notebooks in their windows to communicate as they each work on their own books. That is just the good old fashioned kind of cute. The second references the old Taylor from the LWYMMD video.
After reading Happy Place last month, I simply wanted more of Henry’s work. Her books are consistently highly rated, so I tempered my expectations at the start and I ended up enjoying Beach Read. While Happy Place explores the evolving dynamics of relationships and friendships over the course of a decade, Beach Read is a enemies to friends and friends to lovers trope, unfolding over the course of a week in the summer. Maybe, there’s something to say about how I haven’t read contemporary romance in many years, and my enjoyment of these books is based on the novelty I’m experiencing right now. Either way, I’m hopping, skipping, jumping on my way to pick up the next Emily Henry.
Here are some of my highlights.
- “But so far, this was the third-worst day of my life, and that January was probably buried wherever they put the old Taylor Swift.”
- “I was on a beautiful beach, in a beautiful place, and I was alone. Worse, I wasn’t sure I’d stop being alone again.”
- “How could I trust my own feelings? People were complicated. They weren’t math problems; they were collections of feelings and decisions and dumb luck. The world was complicated too, not a beautiful hazy French film, but a disastrous, horrible mess, speckled with brilliance and love and meaning.”