The first time she met the love of her father’s life was at his funeral.
Beach Read
by Emily Henry
Genre: Contemporary Romance
About: January writes romance books, inspired in part by her parents beautiful, fated, the stuff of fairy tales, own love affair. Except that was all a lie. When her father dies, January discovers he'd been cheating on her mother and even had a whole other house that's now hers to sell. But when she goes to visit the house, she discovers that her neighbour is none other than her old college rival. They're both writers with messy families. Both stuck in a writers rut. And both determined to ignore how their bodies react when they're forced, time and time again, to be near each other.
Thoughts
I didn't connect with this one much. But I think that was a me problem. I do enjoy contemporary fiction but it's not my normal, go-to read and I've gone through quite a few recently so I think I need a break from them. Yes, I'm breaking up with Emily Henry for now. I did love Book Lovers and Happy Place and, the more I think back on it, You and Me on Vacation was also a solid read. This one though... it felt too similar to Book Lovers with the couple's banter, job, and their overall chemistry being almost mirrors. So although I realise Book Lovers came after Beach Read, I read the other one first so this felt like a re-read, the characters were just not different enough.
The side characters were also extremely side. January's best friend is not present. I didn't care that she'd fallen in love because I didn't know her and, although she makes up for it at the end, I thought it was pretty crappy of her to bail on January for a guy she'd just started dating. For all she knew, January could have spent the 4th of July drinking alone in her dad's sex dungeon.
The mum is also barely present. Gus's friends, his ex, all of them are so far in the background as to be non-existent. It's January and Gus and some pop-in aunts for the entire book.
Though the main reason I felt so meh about this one, I think, is because the books that both Gus and January are writing sounded so frigging interesting. I wanted to read about the suicide cult that somehow was going to be a romance, and I wanted to read about a family of circus artists with their imploding secrets. Those books were exciting, and it made the one I was reading seem less so in comparison.
Overall, maybe I would feel differently about this book if I'd read it before Book Lovers, or even if I'd saved it for a future holiday read. Unfortunately, I didn't care about these characters and the story felt like one I'd read before.
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