Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Genre: Romance, Contemporary Romance, Women’s Fiction

For the longest time, if you asked me what my favorite Emily Henry book was, I would have answered without hesitation: Beach Read. Lately, though, I’m not so sure. I still love the story, but maybe I’ve just read it too many times. Maybe I love the trope more than the book itself. Maybe I’m realizing that what I loved wasn’t the book, but the feeling it gave me, and now I’m noticing that feeling shifting.

January Andrews is a romance author. She fell in love with the genre reading small paperbacks at her mother’s radiology appointments in college, growing up in a family filled with love. Augustus Everett, or Gus, is an intense, dark literary fiction novelist and has never had someone truly choose him, despite being one of the most revered authors of his generation. They end up being next-door neighbors after January inherits her father’s lake house, that comes with a rather traumatic story for the author.

Gus and January knew each other in college, January had a crush on him, but she assumed he didn’t like her and didn’t take her writing seriously. In truth, Gus is secretly obsessed with her, while convinced she hates him. Over time, they form a warm and honest friendship: he teaches her the craft of serious literary fiction, she shows him the charm and heart of a romcom. But January can sense that Gus always keeps one foot out the door, holding back pieces of himself, and it leaves her questioning how real their connection can be.

I think the story as a whole is great, I love how it’s written and I love how even though he struggles to express his own feelings to her, he is so supportive of her and her struggle as he has been through his own. I love how he speaks to her and how they learn to trust each other.

What I don’t love is how the ending played out.

What I think he should have done when his estranged wife, whom he’d been trying to divorce, came to him asking to get back together, was run straight toward January. I hate that he even considered it. I know many people probably would in that situation, but I still hate it. I hate that he made January wait so long, even though everything he said to her was beautiful. I hate that she made him question them after he had been giving her mixed signals. I think he should have begged more.

This is through no fault of her own. If Augustus Everett begged me to let him prove he could love me forever, I too would fold.

I still love it; my top ranking is still between Funny Story, which I’m about to re-read, and Beach Read. You should still read it; it has some of the best dialogue in romance novel history, and I stand by that.