Reviews with content warning for Infidelity - Beach Read

Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Beach Read by Emily Henry

709 reviews

_cozyreadercorner's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

another cute, lighthearted read that i thoroughly enjoyed.
lovable, vulnerable characters with an undercurrent of unspoken attraction in their fun and witty banter, told from the point of view of the painfully relatable, hopeful female protagonist. all the essential elements of the classic Emily Henry romance novels.

in the cozy, charming fictional town of North Bear Shores, Michigan, two promising writers find themselves living in neighboring beach houses for the summer and they could not be any more different:
• January (Janie) Andrews - romance author who strongly believes in and has only ever written happily ever afters… that is until the events of the past year has her questioning the existence of true love. only heard of May, June, August as names so January was a first and took a bit get using to. imagine if her name was July, then her nickname could’ve been Julie… as in Julie Andrews. 😂
• Augustus (Gus) Everett - literary fiction author known for penning stories with dark themes – none on which border the topic of love, and who January regards as her competitor and nemesis from college. and his name also resembling a month, a coincidence? i think not! 🧐

at the start of the book, the only thing they have in common is their writer’s block. so with the mounting pressure to submit something to their agents by end of the summer, what do they do? challenge each other to swap genres then bet on who's book gets sold first of course. and out of the pure generosity of their hearts, they decide to spend every weekend giving each other lessons: him inviting her to join his field research and her planning romantic “dates” for them to derive inspiration. two rivals agreeing to spend an inordinate amount of time together and to keep things platonic… a quintessential romcom premise and i love it lol.

coincidentally People We Meet on Vacation was the previous Emily Henry book i read so i picked up on many parallels as i was reading through but actually ended up liking the setup and execution of this one a lot more.

sympathized with January and Gus’ situations/backstories: both of them grappling with their complicated family relationships and their hesitancy to open up to each other — very valid given the weight of the secrets they were holding on to.
despite having differing tastes and outlooks on life, they were mutually curious about the other –open to listening to each others’ opinions and respecting them. then the fact that they were able to pick up and keep up with each other’s banter (helps that they're both working in the same industry) shows they were oftentimes on the same wavelength, which made their chemistry more believable. also, people who had never/rarely crossed paths in school becoming reacquainted and clicking later in life does happen quite often and they usually end up being a pleasant surprise.
felt like another major reason why the two meshed so well is that they knew when to push and pull back. as they grew more comfortable with each other, they would unconsciously let slip tidbits about themselves they didn't mean to share. and although they both want to probe more, they never put pressure or cross boundaries if they sensed that the other was not ready to dive deeper.
many wholesome moments: talking to each other across their respective back decks, holding up notes to converse through their adjoining windows, playfully teasing one another during their lessons/field trips, spending time with Pete and Maggie. just a ton of feel-good, small-town hospitality.
equally as many swoon-worthy moments (without being too sappy) in their stolen second glances, sweet gestures, and a whole lot of flirtatious subtext that often has Jan thinking "is he saying what i think he's saying or am i just reading too much into this" haha 🤭
what was also realistic about all of this was that throughout their situationship?, they weren't the center of each other’s universes, rather they were just in each other’s orbit. and they actually spent time separately to reflect and sort out their individual problems.
found Jan’s internal monologues painfully relatable and refreshingly self-aware. many of the metaphors / analogies were also very pretty (a creeping blush as fireworks across the cheeks 🙊). there are occasionally some parts that made me 🤔 ("i'm a dumb bunny"?? what lol)
even though i know it would've been too much of tangent, still a bit disappointed we didn't get more on that cult sideplot. i started getting invested but again i know delving into it would have made this belong into a whole other genre lol.

[SPOILERS AHEAD]:
so funny to find out that these two had polar opposite first impressions of each other in college:

January holding a grudge on Gus (for years?!) for a critique he made about her writing in their class – which to be fair, was a very ass-holey thing to say, so then she creates this rivalry with him in her head and can't help but acknowledge his talent while also secretly growing attracted to him. truly a fine line between love and hate.
meanwhile Gus over here was off in la la land, head over heels for her trying to get her attention and couldn't figure out for the life of him why she was ignoring him and what he could have done to make her hate him so much

it really be like that sometimes... two different realities haha.

Emily Henry skillfully conveyed how messy people and relationships can be:

January's conflicting feelings about her dad – how she can love him and miss him after his death, while hating him for having an affair while her mom was battling cancer and how she can view him as two-faced for the shitty thing he did but still never doubt that he loved her (his letters to her made me tear up 🥲)
January confronting her mom for knowing about the affair all along then blaming her mom for growing distant because she refused to discuss it. but still missing her and feeling sympathy for her keeping the secret in order to keep up with the illusion that everything was alright.
January holding grievances – biggest being not going to grad school like her peers in order to stay with her mom – and growing tired of maintaining a facade (ie. staying in a relationship to assure her parents). although she knew it was all beyond her parents control , she still couldn't help place a little blame on theme.
Gus and January exploring and learning why some people don't leave bad situations. it's very easy from the outside looking in to ask "why didn't they leave?" but through both of their parents' relationships and the ex-cult members' stories, it's difficult to navigate those situations once you're in them.

biggest surprise was Gus having been married and in the middle of a divorce. felt sort of... bleh? that he kept that a secret from January for so long while they were flirting. he still could've told her but left the part out about his ex-wife cheating and leaving him for his former best friend.

also his confession to her was a bit eyebrow-raising because why did he tell January he could imagine reuniting with his ex-wife after she proposed getting back together? i understand sometimes people choose the familiarity of the known over the fear of the unknown but that was quite a long-winded way to get to the "but i want to be with you" part lol.

Content Warnings

louisa_hall's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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noellegrace8's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Henry has this way of writing romances but not in the traditional way - instead, hers are always about a lot more than that. Mostly, they focus on self-improvement and realizations, and working through one's past. This one delved into the complicated nature of the human being/ the human condition.

The plot was clever and cute - the whole bet scenario. And I liked that the rivals-to-lovers wasn't simply a misunderstanding, it was genuinely murky circumstances and their relationship required some actual character development/learning.

I will say, tbh, screw January's dad, and kind of screw Sonya as well. While some background on them did make me understand what happened with them better, it didn't make it any more okay. They were crappy. Him in particular.

I will also say that there were some moments January got on my nerves. She had this audacity where she felt entitled to Gus's feelings or thoughts, completely blind to his pain. I also felt that Henry tried to write January as a very extraverted-hopeful-person-in-a-rare-rut type of gal, but after the initial description, she didn't really live up to that. She was a lot more mellow, jaded, etc. than we were at first led to believe, and it's not like she ever made it back around to being that person. Regardless, she was interesting and intrigued me.

An absolutely worthwhile read.

I give Julia Whelan 4.5/5⭐️. Normally she's easily a 5⭐️-er, but there were a few moments this time that I didn't prefer, such as January's dad having a kind of southern accent even though he's from Michigan/Ohio area.

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kailinwitte's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Sells itself as a fluffy light romance book, but as the plot and characters develop, it’s surprisingly deep, emotional, with bits of wisdom and reflection. Undersold.

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chelseaisreading's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

INJECT THIS DIRECTLY INTO MY BLOODSTREAM — Emily Henry deserves nothing but love and happiness for making books this fun to read while still tugging at my heart. The YEARNING!

I will say this is really a HFN than an HEA if you’re a purist, but I still loved these two and how meta it got at times. It makes me want to write 💛

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hyithia's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

good first:

I felt like this dealt with the complexities of familial relationships well
I do enjoy a slow burn
the overall premise of switching book genres was interesting
well developed characters, each one felt unique and like there had been thought put into them, which is not common for side characters

dislikes:

the writing style. it gave me the major ick. way too millennial and trying way too hard to be edgy. seems like others really love this style but unfortunately it just makes me cringe.
Everett. why are we glorifying a man who is so emotionally unavailable? it's giving "I can fix him".
"beach read". is the beach in the room with us? there were a couple of beach scenes but honestly this book really should have been called "house read".
what even was that whole thing about Everett liking January in college? and treating her poorly because he liked her? hate that.

overall:

I found this book to be problematic. if you don't think too hard while reading it, maybe you'll enjoy it.

Content Warnings

oceanelle's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Not my favorite Emily Henry book. I think it could’ve done with one less subplot—

the cult subplot did nothing for me, though I know it helped Gus’s character arc a bit

—and January’s avoidant attachment style got on my nerves by the end. Still, I appreciate how Henry always manages to build compelling, emotional scaffolding with depth around her romances, rather than relying exclusively on tropes and thin characterization. I cried when

January read her father’s letters

, and I really loved what happens in the “one year later” time lapse.

Content Warnings