by Emily Henry
About this book
January Andrews, a romance writer with writer’s block, is trying to come to grips with the fact that her late father had an affair and now her perception of romance and happily ever afters is now broken. She moves into the beach house left behind by her father to get it ready for sale.
Augustus Everett writes thrillers and lives next-door to the beach house. January knew him from afar back in college and had found him to be critical of her writing. He is apparently also stuck in a creative rut. They came up with the idea to each write a book in each other’s genres, with each other’s help in making field trips and interviews for research.
Book review
This is the second book of Emily Henry’s that I’ve read. While I enjoy the author’s writing style overall, I found that the plot was not gripping and characters were not super memorable.
Both hero and heroine seem to be uncertain and insecure individuals who come with a lot of baggage – January with her disappointment in her father, and Gus coming out of a divorce. They each struggled with a lot of questions about each other and family, which seem to be easily resolvable if they would only talk about it or ask.
I also found it jarring that towards the end of the story, after January and Gus had gotten close and romantically involved, Gus’ ex came back and he seemed to be considering a reconciliation. While I get that romance plots usually involve a conflict that hero and heroine needs to work out, I found it really hard to get over the fact that Gus could actually be considering getting back with his ex, especially given how far his relationship with January had developed. For me this raises serious questions about his depth of love for January and does not inspire confidence about fidelity in the longer term.
Rin Ranger 