Book Review: Emily Henry - Beach Read (published in 2020)

I know Emily Henry as a YA Magical Realism author. I’ve read A Million Junes and I absolutely loved every second of it. There aren't many authors who like Henry can make me fall in love with characters and their storylines.

I didn't know if her foray into romance would be successful for me. There aren't many romance authors I like. It's a genre I don't dive into very often. Josie Silver's books are always a hit for me and it turns out it doesn't matter what Emily Henry writes, because I'm there for it.

This novel is about two authors who know each other from college who meet again years later. They decide to challenge each other to write one book in each other's genre. January writes romance novels with sappy happy endings and Augustus (Gus) writes dark literary fiction.

I find the characters and their problems to be realistic. The writing is sarcastic, funny and heart-warming. The fact that Gus is planning to write about a cult adds another interesting layer to the narrative. Speaking of layers, this isn't a light and fluffy read in the slightest. It's about family secrets, cancer, divorce, death, regrets, should I go on or is your interest peaked?

The idea was born out of a writer's block. I don't want to be annoying, but am I the only one who hopes Emily Henry will have another one that inspires her to write another gem like this again?

5 stars

Statistics:
Date read: June 12, 2020
Date published: May 19, 2020
Publisher: Berkley
Format: Audiobook
Pages: 361
Genre: Romance
My Number of Books Read by this Author: 2
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