Lily’s Library: Beach Read

A Review of “Beach Read” by Lily Kathleen Lauritson

While the opportunity to spend as much time as you’d like at a beach house that is now yours sounds really amazing to some, January Andrews does not share the same sentiment. In fact, January would like to be anywhere else at any other time, but writers block does not seem to care about the tumultuous past she now shares with her father. It also does not seem to care about the past rivalry she shared in college with one Augustus Everett. But while the situations just seem to get worse and worse, January discovers that sharing a neighbor with an infuriating young man and a town with her father’s mistress might bring more growth than she anticipated. Emily Henry’s highly acclaimed novel, Beach Read, is a heartfelt and cozy embrace that not only lets readers revel in the enemies-to-lovers relationship between Jan and Gus, but it also lets readers know that you can go through anything with remembering that there is always an end. And sometimes it might be sunnier than we imagined.

As January Andrews begins her journey, she is anything but pleased. Having buried her father not long ago, been broken up with by her “mature and accomplished” boyfriend, and coming to a writing slump that may seriously harm her career she didn’t know where else to turn. So, naturally, she ends up at the home that her father bought as a love shack for him and his mistress that he left to her in his will. Naturally, right. Not only does the home come with furniture she refuses to use besides a sofa and hallucinations of the happy couple existing in paradise while she was at home with her mom, but it also comes with January’s biggest college rival, Gus, as her next-door neighbor. Things could only go up from here.

While January forced herself to avoid Gus as much as she could, they are soon thrusted into each other’s worlds again as they come to discover that they are both struggling to get their footing as accomplished authors. Not only have they both written acclaimed novels, but they are also expected to produce stories of the same recognition and soon. So, instead of hunkering down and ignoring each other, they come up with a bet. Gus, has to write and publish a love story with a happy ending, and January has to write and publish a more “realistic” and gritty tale. What neither of them anticipated was to find themselves in a developing story of their own.

January and Gus soon find that their adventures and frequent time spent together has served as inspiration more than anything ever could. They venture into dark bars to meet and hear the stories of scarred individuals. Then the week after they go to drive-in movies and cuddle up to one another like friends do. Friends.

Even though both writers try to force their feelings away due to the fear of complicated histories and other tasks being important, they eventually give in and fall into each other’s lives seamlessly. However, this fall is not without some bumps. While January is struggling with reconciling her father’s past and his destructive behavior, Gus is trying to manage an ex-wife reentering the picture after he has finally found someone to help put him back together. None of this comes easy to either character. But, at the end of the day, they realize that as long as they have summer barbecues and beach reads, they can weather anything, together.

January and Gus’s Beach Reading Playlist
– Daylight by Taylor Swift
⁃ Difficult by Gracie Abrams
⁃ Beach Song – demo by Leonie Biney
⁃ July (Later On) by Lily Williams
⁃ Put A Little Love On Me by Niall Horan

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