Beach Read by Emily Henry
"She learned to let it out, bit by bit, and that sometimes, it was okay to let a little ugliness into your story. That it would never rob you of all the beauty."
~~~~~~~
Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a Happily Ever After, he kills off his entire cast. They're polar opposites. In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months they're living in neighbouring beach houses, broke and bogged down with writer's block. Then one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She'll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he'll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.
How to find the words to describe this beautiful novel? It's hard to put into words describing a book that sat with you so deeply and I don't think I can be very critical of it because I loved it fully and absolutely. I picked up this book because I needed a beach read and what better book than one with that very thing in the title? It sounded cute and rom-com-ish. Perfect for a light summer read. I was sceptical of course, the last contemporary romance I had read was very underwhelming and it's not my usual genre. Augustus and January re-introduced me to the world of romance and I'm excited to read more like this.
January is our narrator, and she has just experienced a tragedy, is broke, can't write something good to save her life, and has no other option to for a place to live than a house she doesn't want, passed on from someone she doesn't like in this small beach town she's never been to. The world has hurt her, it's extinguished her light. She used to be someone who believed in only good things and now all she can see and feel are the bad ones. Enter Augustus, also jaded by the world but he's been there for a long time now and knows how to expertly navigate those dark shores. They don't immediately get along, rivals on the New York Times Best Seller List, complete opposites, and now, annoying neighbours, is it any wonder that they can't stop running into each other?
I loved the characterization. We had a heroine who was girly, who spent her whole life in sunshine and rainbows believing in True Love and romance and yet, despite her sunny disposition, she's not an airhead, unlike other books that paint these characters as annoying and in need of a reality check, January was real and enjoyable and oh so relatable. Not all strong independent women have to be hard and angry and ready to fight the world, they can be vulnerable and open and believe in happiness. This book showed us that and I loved it. Augustus is, at first, the typical rugged "bad boy" but very early on we see that he's actually very considerate and kind. Of course, he has his flaws and isn't the most sensitive of people but he's not an emotionless douche-bag that only really has his looks going for him you know? He's smart and successful and able to help the lost January find a lifeline in her current maelstrom of struggles.
The writing "challenge" between the main characters where they switch genres to overcome writer's block made for an interesting plotline. It sounds cheesy and overdone but it gave such a unique input into the novel. It allowed the author to bring in more serious subjects: the exploration of the tragic story of a suicide cult near the town where they both now live, interviews with people who lost their entire world that day, field trips to the death site as well as day trips to introduce Gus to the happier aspects of falling in love: carnivals, drive-in movies, and beach dates, how can you stay platonic when you experience so much together? Gus and January bond through the pain of their pasts and learn, together, how to find happiness again, understanding that even if ugly things happen, it doesn't take away from the beauty in life.
There's definitely a lot of darker aspects to the book but in no way is it a dark or unhappy story, quite the opposite actually. It was the most soul-soothing book I've read in a long time and I feel like this will become a yearly tradition. I cried when I was done, and all I want to do is open that book and crawl back into it. I can't wait to revisit Gus and January's world. 5 star read and probably my favourite book of the year so far!