What is a ‘Beach Read’
A friend asked me to recommend to her a good ‘beach read.’ I asked her what she meant. First of all, she needed a paperback book she could take to the beach. Didn’t want to take the tablet to the beach, of course. Then she said the story needed to be light. Most books that our book clubs read are NOT ‘beach reads’. Some of us, myself included, are a bit snobby about them–mediocre writing, romance stories with no theme, predictable endings and such. NOT real literature! Now there seems to be a new book out that is actually entitled Beach Read. The review from Lorelei’s Lit Lair (another blog) suggests it may well be worth the while.
SUNNY REVIEW FOR BEACH READ BY EMILY HENRY
A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.
Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.
They’re polar opposites.
In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block.
Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.
I’m reading the perfect “beach read” — 28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand. Jake and Mallory begin a 28-year “same time next year” romance in their 20s that continues every Labor Day weekend at Mallory’s cottage on Nantucket until Mallory gets a cancer diagnosis. It’s classic Hilderbrand — likeable protagonists and less-likeable supporting characters, a bitter-sweet plot, complicated relationships, a lovesong to Nantucket … It’s not great literature, and it won’t make many book club lists, but if you like Hilderbrand, she doesn’t disappoint with this latest effort.
I have that book on my list for beach read….and we all need good beach reads!
I just finished The Gown by Jennifer Robson. Good story line and sympathetic characters. Story takes place in post war England and does involve the wedding gown for Princess Elizabeth.