fleur____'s review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Infidelity, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Cancer, and Medical content
Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, and Vomit
lovelynovellas's review
emotional
sad
slow-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
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Medical content, and Cancer
maybe_michi's review
dark
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Beautifully romantic read, if you crave love mixed with topics that make you look at life a little differently, set in a cute lake town, this is the book for you
Perfect (and sometimes hot) summer read... especially for the beach ;-)
Perfect (and sometimes hot) summer read... especially for the beach ;-)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infidelity
Minor: Suicide, Vomit, Violence, and Medical content
toofondofbooks_'s review
emotional
hopeful
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I don't have a lot of things to say in a critical sense. I just really liked the vibes in this book. It dealt with a lot of themes around familial trauma and grief of people we knew / thought we knew. It wasn't really a light read the way that the title would suggest, but I was fine with that, because I really like romance to have depth to it and I really felt that this one did. I still like People We Meet On Vacation better, but this was pretty solid.
no thoughts just vibes you know
no thoughts just vibes you know
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Vomit, Cancer, Cursing, Injury/injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Addiction
caspeer's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
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
4.5
Great book! Super cute and easy to read. I would highly recommend reading it if you’re in a reading slump. I’m a little sad at how the relationship progressed so fast at the end of the book, but other than that it was a beautifully written book that I would recommend to friends who enjoy romance books or books about finding your way in life after loss. Amazing character development and relationship building.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Infidelity, Death, and Vomit
Moderate: Alcohol, Cancer, Child abuse, Injury/injury detail, Medical content, Genocide, Gore, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Chronic illness, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Car accident, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Pregnancy, and Violence
stardustandrockets's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief, Sexual content, and Infidelity
Minor: Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Vomit, Injury/injury detail, Alcohol, Cancer, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Car accident, Cursing, and Suicide
emmasbookshelf27's review
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I really liked this book. It definitely wasn't a rom-com because it had more serious moments than funny ones. But I liked it that it handled more realistic issues. I really liked that there were books being written within the book. Lastly, I really liked that there wasn't insta love, yes the characters had a thing for each other before but they fall in and we get to see that process rather than the unfounded love that just appears in some books.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol, Cancer, Death of parent, Medical content, and Sexual content
katrinarose's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I think I was spoiled by Talia Hibbert’s books because this one was a disappointment for how good the reviews are. January wasn’t very likeable and Gus was pretty cliche. Obviously romance books are going to be corny but this was over the top. I think I need a break from romance for a while, and to be more selective when I do read one again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Grief
Moderate: Cancer, Death, Medical content, and Sexual content
bookswithsoumi's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Review:
Check out this review and more on Books With Soumi
Beach Read was chosen for the Book of the Month for April 2020 and was listed several times as one of the best romances of the year. Unfortunately, Beach Read did not live up to the hype for me. I tried so hard to love the book like everybody else on the internet. I was even reading it with my best friend, who had also been wanting to read this romance for a few months.
I either do not care for the enemies-to-lovers trope (unlikely since I do love Pride and Prejudice), or the emotional chemistry between the two characters, January and Gus, was not developed enough for me to connect with the characters.
The secondary characters were flat as well, mostly appearing in backstories like January’s family or in text messages like Shadi, January’s best friend. Pete and Maggie, the bookstore owners in the town January moved to, make rare appearances but do not help bring out the character traits of any of the main characters.
I did not give the book one star and instead gave two because the feminist messaging did resonate with me. I liked that January was proud of writing women’s fiction. I especially loved the passage where January explains that even by calling her novels “women’s fiction,” some of the population is turned off, demonstrating the double standard that when people (usually men) write men-centered fiction, the book is just fiction and not “men’s fiction.” However, these remarks are made due to Gus’ misogynistic comments against women’s fiction. I was instantly turned off, and I tried to empathize and connect with Gus as the author intended, but I could not.
Overall, I was disappointed with the book. I will have to make a more conscious effort to read books with an intentionally diverse set of characters, instead of just Shadi, who rarely makes an appearance, or Sonya, the woman that January’s father had an affair with before he died. Sonya is not technically the villain of the story, but it is interesting that out of the seven characters that appear in real-time in the story, the one making the most detrimental and questionable moral and ethical decisions had to be a woman of color.
Time to read: 10 hours over 15 days
Tl;dr: I felt like I still stuck in COVID-19 quarantine with the lack of character interaction and growth in this book.
Who might enjoy this book?: fans of the enemies-to-lovers trope and books about writers.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Medical content, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Vomit
Minor: Misogyny
sonygaystation's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
3.50/3.75 because I can’t tell how I feel. Woman with problems eerily similar to my own with whom I share a birthday was not a good mix for me. Being in her head with first-person PoV as she deals with a lot of difficult, personal stuff was overwhelming. Bad time in my life to read this, needless to say. Idk maybe others can enjoy this as a romance or romantic comedy novel but I sorta never wanna read it again?
Tonally this book blindsided me. I like to go into books solely on the recommendation of someone I know without actually reading the blurb, but sometimes that does me really dirty. 2020 has been cruel (as I’m sure it has for many) and I think if I had read about these problems last year when I couldn’t literally personally identify with them, or maybe in a couple years when I’ve had time to settle with them, it might not have put me off as much. But here we are. I enjoyed the development but I’m glad to be done. Idk, it’s not even a bad novel. Just absolutely was NOT a comfort read for me, which is what I want when I choose to read romance/romantic comedies/HEAs.
All of this being said, I loved Gus. He carried the entire novel. He was so funny and also he broke my heart (“no one had chosen Gus” *literally* made me emotional) so naturally he is my favourite. I would devour a thousand more Gus-es. January though? Not so much. She is sarcastic and aggressive, oblivious and yet bonkers judgmental, and also the world’s most infuriatingly unreliable narrator. I disliked the first 120 pages of this book so much because of her and her unbelievable inability to let go of opinions that have little to no basis in any exemplified truth (re: all of Gus’s actions this entire novel) that I almost returned it to the library, but Gus had me holding on. I’m glad I did because he makes this book extremely worth it. I sympathized a lot with him and I think January needed to cut him a little more slack than she did for nearly the whole book. I just loved him!!!!
Aside from the super shifting tone/plot and January’s infuriating personality, I think what kept me from loving this book was the writing style. Here is a list of things Gus’s eyes did in this book that I, swear to god, am not making up: flashed, leapt, flinched (what does this mean?), bounced, displayed the illusion of flames. To change up the uncomfortably descriptive adjective-noun pairings, at one point Gus’s mouth “judders” and imagining the physics of that stressed me out so much I put my kindle down for a moment. Sometimes I wish desperately to be everyone’s copy editor because mechanics like that make me itchy and also, I want to remind authors to not have their characters scratching fresh tattoos, especially when said tattoo is a giant inked in ball. That is my villain origin story.
But, and I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this enough already, I loved Gus a LOT. Like one of my favourite characters I’ve read this year. I would own this book specifically for him. He deserves all good things happening to him and I owe him several important chunks of my brain that lit up a little too much during the emotional beats of this book.
Tonally this book blindsided me. I like to go into books solely on the recommendation of someone I know without actually reading the blurb, but sometimes that does me really dirty. 2020 has been cruel (as I’m sure it has for many) and I think if I had read about these problems last year when I couldn’t literally personally identify with them, or maybe in a couple years when I’ve had time to settle with them, it might not have put me off as much. But here we are. I enjoyed the development but I’m glad to be done. Idk, it’s not even a bad novel. Just absolutely was NOT a comfort read for me, which is what I want when I choose to read romance/romantic comedies/HEAs.
All of this being said, I loved Gus. He carried the entire novel. He was so funny and also he broke my heart (“no one had chosen Gus” *literally* made me emotional) so naturally he is my favourite. I would devour a thousand more Gus-es. January though? Not so much. She is sarcastic and aggressive, oblivious and yet bonkers judgmental, and also the world’s most infuriatingly unreliable narrator. I disliked the first 120 pages of this book so much because of her and her unbelievable inability to let go of opinions that have little to no basis in any exemplified truth (re: all of Gus’s actions this entire novel) that I almost returned it to the library, but Gus had me holding on. I’m glad I did because he makes this book extremely worth it. I sympathized a lot with him and I think January needed to cut him a little more slack than she did for nearly the whole book. I just loved him!!!!
Aside from the super shifting tone/plot and January’s infuriating personality, I think what kept me from loving this book was the writing style. Here is a list of things Gus’s eyes did in this book that I, swear to god, am not making up: flashed, leapt, flinched (what does this mean?), bounced, displayed the illusion of flames. To change up the uncomfortably descriptive adjective-noun pairings, at one point Gus’s mouth “judders” and imagining the physics of that stressed me out so much I put my kindle down for a moment. Sometimes I wish desperately to be everyone’s copy editor because mechanics like that make me itchy and also, I want to remind authors to not have their characters scratching fresh tattoos, especially when said tattoo is a giant inked in ball. That is my villain origin story.
But, and I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this enough already, I loved Gus a LOT. Like one of my favourite characters I’ve read this year. I would own this book specifically for him. He deserves all good things happening to him and I owe him several important chunks of my brain that lit up a little too much during the emotional beats of this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Cancer, Child abuse, Sexual content, and Vomit
Moderate: Cursing and Infidelity
Minor: Medical content
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