OK, I wasn’t looking for an emotionally intense book after Where the Crawdads Sing, so I picked out this popular BookTok book that everyone is saying is such a cutesy little rom-com. I haven’t read anything by the author before, but this book as well as her other one, People We Meet On Vacation, which is also on my list, is supposed to be pretty good.
I also wanted some beach vibes to get me excited for summer here, as I’m rarely ready for all the heat around the Holiday Season. But, as soon as I started reading, I knew this one would wreck me. I read this book in a day and a half, and boy, was I crying that night. I have an embarrassing video locked on a device that remains confidential of me crying and holding the poor book.
Can you honestly pick up an enemies-to-lovers, beach-themed book and expect yourself to have a safe emotional detachment from it? NO. It’s like an unwritten rule that enemies-to-lovers books rule your soul while you read them. Combined with that beachy, The Summer I Turned Pretty vibes, and bam, I was a goner.
Beach Read follows our broke, struggling, and mentally unstable protagonist January Andrews as she moves to a small beach in Lack Michigan following the death of her father, which she is still coming to terms with. There, romance writer January finds herself procrastinating her writing so much and in such a confused and unstable place, she eventually strikes up a deal with the devil.
Agustus Everett detests romance and happy endings. As a writer of bleak and “coldly h0rny” fiction, he and January have been enemies and rivals since they attended university together years ago. Gus has also moved to the same small town on the beach, and, coincidentally, finds himself, neighbors, with January.
The two are less than thrilled to find themselves in such proximity, but, they spend more time together and eventually begin to work together and help each other out of their quarter-life crises.
The intimacy and vulnerability of this book were perfect, and I loved the tropes and begrudging sexual tension. My sister prefers enemies-to-lovers in fantasy and high stakes, but I kind of like the contemporary ones like Beach Read.
Genre: romance, fiction
Age: 13/14+
Rating: 10/10