Beach Read by Emily Henry

 

Beach Read by Emily Henry is the absolute darling of the romance novels subreddit. I have had on hold at the library since early in the summer, so it's apparently quite popular maybe even outside of reddit.  January Edwards is holed up in her father's house on Lake Michigan as she tries to write a romance novel, but her dad just died and her mom's not handling it well, and the happiness of a romance novel seems hard to commit to the page.  It turns out that living next door is Augustus Everett, another author, critically acclaimed, also suffering from writer's block. January and Gus went to college together and outside of that one time in the basement at a party, they haven't ever really gotten along. 

Interesting characters: Sure, they're interesting. Well, they have interesting back stories. January is dealing with the loss of her father and there's a complication in that loss.  But, on the whole, despite being pseudo-homeless, broke, and without real ideas for her next novel, she's witty and has a positive outlook on life and what will be next in her life. Gus is less developed, particularly early on in the novel.  Henry has set it up so that we are always aware of the contrast in which Gus can look at the same scene and come up with a realistic, pragmatic approach, but January can see the same thing and have a more rosy story.  

I thought that contrast was especially well done in a scene in which the two go to a small carnival.  January looks around and sees love stories everywhere she looks, but Gus just sees hard work and betrayal. I don't think I'll actually remember much about this book, but that scene and the back and forth between the two characters, was spot-on.

So they're interesting, but they read as flat to me. I finished this book last night and had to look up January's name just now. The first few chapters of this book were kind of terrible and I think that the slow build-up of the narrative just turned me off from the characters themselves. The book definitely picks up speed and I stayed up way too late on a Sunday night reading it, but the people in the book just read as generic people with an interesting profession they cared about. A profession is not a personality trait.  

Believable conflict: I did totally buy the enemies to lovers trope here. They were probably the best writers in their college workshops, competing for the title of the best. They write diametrically opposite genres and each thinks the other doesn't respect their work.  I believe that this sort of rivalry would be something that could exist in a modern world. 

Emotional tension: Eh. I just didn't care much, to be honest. This book has one of my least favorite tropes, which is that something could be solved with a simple conversation and since that conversation didn't happen (or the characters keep putting up blocks to prevent it), it just reads as dumb. I know that authors like to put out "miscommunication is common in the human condition," but I will only buy that excuse if the miscommunication isn't just a plot device. If it's integrated well into the story or if a character frequently does this, I might be forgiving of that type of trope. As it stands, I found Gus keeping a secret a little too convenient for me.

Happily ever after: Why does it so often have to be marriage or babies? Why?

I think this is probably a solid read. I mean, it's fine.  The banter is great. I loved how January would frequently get bogged down in a scene by looking around and creating stories for people. I adore how Lake Michigan is part of the story.  But I have a lot of nitpicks and those nitpicks prevent me from getting on the "this is the best romance novel of 2020" bandwagon, especially when Love Lettering exists. 3.5/5 stars from me.

Notable lines:

1) "...when the world felt dark and scary, love could whisk you off to go dancing; laughter could take some of the pain away; beauty could punch holes in your fear." (page 3)

Just a solid example of how January can spin a negative.

2) "But the worst thing, the hardest thing, had turned out to be being angry with someone you couldn't fight it out with." (page 131)

Man, haven't we all felt this during a breakup?

3) "...when we weren't gleaming for each other, I sort of felt like we just worked okay together. Like we were costars in a movie and when the cameras weren't on, we didn't have all that much to talk about." (page 206)

I know a couple that this reminds me of. They make an absolutely gorgeous couple, but I frequently wonder what they talk about or if they talk at all once everyone else leaves.

4) "But the sun - fuck, the sun was brilliant on those winter days, glancing off every crystal edge sharper than when it had first hit. It was like being on another planet, just Gus and me, closer to a star than we'd ever been" (page 351) 

When Dr. BB and I were first dating, we'd talk endless walks around the lakes in Minneapolis. I remember many a winter day, the temperatures in the single digits, but just glorying in the beauty of the day.  The sky would be so blue, the sun so bright it would hurt your eyes as it bounced off all the crisp white snow. At night, we'd get some coffee and walk around, the cups steaming, our breath steaming, and the air would be so fresh and vibrant and it did feel like we were the only ones on the planet.  This feeling. It makes winter worth it.