Beach Read
A literary novelist and a romance writer end up in neighbouring beach houses, and bet they can write each other's genre.
January is a romance novelist who has stopped believing in happy endings, and Gus writes bleak literary fiction. They spend a summer in neighbouring beach houses and bet they can each write the other’s genre. Emily Henry uses the setup to argue about what fiction owes its readers, and the book was largely responsible for the current romance boom.
Recommended by 1 Person
Katherine Center
Emily Henry is one of the all-time greats, and this contemporary romance is my favorite of hers. Two writers, one a writer of literary fiction, the other a romance writer, wind up summering next door to each other as they work on their novels. The sparring between them is unbeatable.
Source · June 2026
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