The thing I don't like about the romance genre is how absurd the stories get. The way characters connect, how everything fits so perfectly into place; it starts feeling icky. I realize the genre is meant for readers to escape reality, but all it ends up doing for me is jumpstart a lot of eye rolling.
Not the case with Beach Read. The coincidences are still there in the narrative, but with enough rough edges, enough baggage that's not interconnected, that it's okay.
Our hero and heroine are trapped, deep in life's quicksand, in real and heartbreaking ways. That's a good thing. What's even better, they don't rescue each other from it. They buoy each other up because they fight for the right to do it.
This book is romance with glitches, pain, miscommunication, and so many tears. I didn't roll my eyes once. Also, both main characters are writers -- I really liked that.
The meet-cute happens because January has inherited a lake house, from her father, she never knew about. Her first night there, she encounters an annoying and rude neighbor who turns out to be Gus, her writing "rival" from college. He criticised her work when they were just students, and now she's a romance novelist and he's a Writer. They resume a frenemy-type relationship until they realize they can help each other with writer's block.
Pushing each other along to complete their books, things get real. Each character slowly unfolds to the other. Real stories are told. Real feelings shared. [slight spoiler coming up] They realize that it's not the happy ending that matters, but it's experiencing the happy moments as they are that counts.
This book is about love, but it doesn't limit itself to one kind. It's about romantic love, the love you have for your best friend, loving a parent, and finding the will to love after a betrayal. It's a sweet and light read that has purpose and heft. It's an appropriate choice so close to [eye roll] Valentine's Day. It lifts up the too steamy, mostly ridiculous genre of romance as well.
Recommended.
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