5-Star review for Beach Read by Emily Henry

Wow! I didn’t expect this book to hit as hard as it did, partially because of the illustrated cover. Don’t get me wrong, I love illustrated covers for light-hearted Rom-coms. While this book had several LOL moments, there were a lot of topics that were heavier than I thought there would be.

I went in kind of skeptical because of the “dare” to get a literary fiction writer to write a romance. I thought this would be a way to tear down the genre while making this book seem superior to all other romances. Don’t worry, that doesn’t happen.

There are some heavy topics touched on like January finding out her parents’ relationship was not the perfect relationship like she thought it was and that she struggles with believing in HEAs now. This book does a good job in dealing with those.

The chemistry between the 2 characters is fire right from the start. He’s the grump who lives next door and she’s the bright-eyed “fairy princess” who usually looks at everything positively. The banter is great, the make outs and sex are terrific, the whole story was terrific.

I know I’m just blabbering at this point, so I’ll just say again that I absolutely LOVED it!

Image description: Yellow background with the title in bold white letters across the top. On the right hand side a lady in a red one piece bathing suit and over-sized hat is laying on her stomach on a blue flowered towel with an open book and pen beside her. On the left hand side is a guy wearing a black shirt, white shorts, blue baseball hat sitting cross-legged with an open book in his lap on a red striped towel. The Author’s name is in white at the bottom.