Beach Read

Starred review from March 23, 2020
Henry (Hello Girls) hits all the right notes with this clever, compassionate contemporary romance. January Andrews, a 29-year-old romance author, has always believed in happily-ever-after. Then her father dies and she inherits his secret lake house in North Bear Shores, Mich., and discovers his long-standing extramarital affair. Broke and suffering from writer’s block, January’s moves into the “lakeside cottage brimming with charm and proof your father was an asshole and your life has been a lie.” Her new next-door neighbor is Augustus Everett, the tortured darling of the literary fiction world. Their contentious front-porch chats lead them to construct a challenge: they’ll each spend the summer writing a novel in the other’s genre, giving one another tutorials in their respective approaches and going on research trips together. Whoever finishes and sells their book first, wins. January’s struggle to reconcile her inherent optimism with the recent upheaval in her life is thoroughly convincing and handled with empathy. Her and Augustus’s path from writing partners to friends to lovers is a constant delight and the inevitable third act communication issues are deeply rooted in the characters’ psychology, making them believable and fresh. Readers are sure to fall hard for this meta, heartfelt take on the romance genre. Agent: Taylor Haggerty, Root Literary.

Narrator Julia Whelan inhabits the first-person point of view of January Andrews, a bestselling romance writer who was a hopeless romantic until her father died and she learned of his mistress. Listeners share January's despair as she faces a summer of failing to write her next romance novel while packing up her father's secret beach house. She's dismayed to discover that her grumpy neighbor is her college rival, Augustus Everett, an acclaimed author of literary fiction. Whelan perfectly captures January's defensiveness, which soon gives way to laughter and yearning. She portrays Gus in a deep, gruff voice suited to his brooding personality. When the authors make a bet to write and sell a book in the other's genre, both break through writer's block and give in to an intense attraction that sparkles on audio. E.E.C. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

Starred review from August 1, 2020

Former college rivals January Andrews and Augustus "Gus" Everett find themselves living in neighboring lake houses, both struggling to write the fiction they are known for. As they come to a tentative friendship sparkling with renewed sexual tension, January and Gus challenge each other to write in the other's style. January, known for her light and happy romantic fiction, finds solace in using her anger and sadness about her father's recent betrayal and death to pen a dark, sad story, but also finds her faith in happily-ever-afters renewed as she falls for Gus. VERDICT A deceptively cheery cover hides a delicious and thought-provoking story beautifully narrated by Julia Whelan, recommended for those who also enjoyed Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes or You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle. Whelan's voice brings the thrumming emotion and attraction between January and Max alive, making the reader wait with bated breath for their next interaction.--Elizabeth Gabriel, Milwaukee P.L.

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