A review by keytheelibrarian
Beach Read by Emily Henry

adventurous emotional funny inspiring reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

emily henry is a phenomenal writer. let that be known and established FIRST! she definitely pushes pen to paper and submerges you into the world she creates. her characters, and not just the main ones, her side characters like pete and maggie and shadi (i love shadi) and maybe even sonya's dusty ass are so well written it's like i can see every conversation and imagine fully formed people having them. despite what i'm going to say in this review, i am excited to read the next two of the emhen trio 🫢🏾

january and gus are...definitely a couple πŸ˜ƒ. i think i was just very optimistic going into this, and that's not necessarily a bad thing, but didn't expect it to be so...pessimistic. without spoiling anything, there's so much sadness in this book from the very beginning. and then, as you read it's piled on and worked through and to be very honest it's exhausting but through all that, it's still a good book and by the end i was crying happy tears for gus and january, but also because it was over- in the best way possible. 

gus ate january up every time and i mean it was to the point that i was questioning if he even liked her fr like.....buuuuut it's a romance so πŸ™ƒ

NOW, what really upset me about this book, what really took away from it for ME, was the lack of hygiene. i made a (several) post about this, but the lack of a shower after sex in the wilderness...? i don't know, it all felt very ick 🀒 to me and once i noticed it i couldn't unnotice it. it didn't help that january (who i imagine has crazy b.o.) goes on to say she doesn't shower for days. i was also told this trend of anti-cleanliness shows up in tpwmov so that's just...great πŸ˜ƒ! 

overall i did enjoy it, but i have to give it an even 4⭐s. i think once we got into the third act of the book and started tying loose ends, everything moved so fast and it was hard to keep up. with that being said, no stone was left unturned and that's something i can respect. 

p.s. the way this book had me writing a little on my wip everytime i picked it up...magic
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