Beach Read is written by Emily Henry and follows protagonist January Andrews, a romance writer stuck in a life rut, as she reconnects with Augustus Everett, a fellow writer January knew from her college days.
This book was lauded to me as not your usual romance book to which I was skeptical. I can now confirm, this isn’t your usual romance book. The story is presented as a stock romance that can be found on the shelves however under a realistic lens that past romance reads I have come across have failed to utilize. The book presents situations, characters and plot points that made the book feel like situations that would genuinely happen in my life. This is a rarity in these reads at the point that I found it a refreshing way for this story to have been presented as. The realism of the book is presented in a way that I have found in recent favorite TV shows of mine, such as Please Like Me or Sex Education.
I did find certain points convenient, such as a supporting character being revealed to be related to one of our protagonists for the purpose of plot progression. The way I could give this a pass is the setting is a small Michigan town and my understanding of small American towns is this is possible. There are conveniences for plot progression however the way they’re presented are presented in the best way they can for it to work.
The book is skillful in its development of characterization and plot. It helps to have January’s first person narration giving us that deeper look into her mentality throughout the book and it’s events. I enjoyed however that while we didn’t have first person narration by Augustus, I could picture the state his mind would have been in and the conflicts he would be having without that narration.
I highly recommend the book for anyone looking for a lighter read with some depth. Particularly for the Sydney crowd, this is a perfect winter or lockdown read.