4.5 stars rounded up

"She learned to let it out, bit by bit, and that sometimes, it was okay to let a little ugliness into your story. That it would never rob you of all the beauty."

Where do I get my own Augustus Everett, but without the m-word complication?

Beach Read is the story of two authors who writes the total opposite of each other's stories—
January Andrews, who pens happily ever afters, and Augustus Everett, who ends his stories with doom. Lives encountered with catastrophic waves, they found themselves living in neighboring beach houses with a damning writer's block. So, to overcome the block, the two made a bet where they would write based on the other person's genre.

Honestly, I thought this book would only give me that fluffy and I'm-on-cloud-nine feeling, but this drove my emotions deeper than I initially expected. I really fell in love with how both the characters' emotions were so pure and raw that they almost felt tangible. The way it showed how a fairy princess or someone with a strong facade also carries so many secrets, emotional baggage, and the fear to bare their soul for the whole world to see. Though I guess the only thing that I found myself wanting for more is the interaction between January and Shadi because their relationship dynamic is so adorable and beautiful—a comfortable blanket that would protect you from the big, crashing waves life brings.

This book was so beautifully written I just found myself captivated the more I got lost between each line and page.