Beach Read

This is definitely a book in which I think the title and the cover don't accurately reflect what it was about. The characters are lounging on the beach on the front of the book – and very rarely make it to the beach at all in the pages. I also get that the title is probably poking fun a little at the idea of romance novels as light books you read on the beach, and the basic premise of the book involves the characters exploring their genres, but I think you could have taken the entire story and set it in the mountains and it would have been the same. I like that Emily Henry writes emotionally complex characters. But I think this might be my least favorite of the three adult novels she has published, mostly because I struggle with reading leading men who can't say what they feel. I understand that Gus's backstory explains why he is the way he is. But something January says to Gus really summarizes what frustrated me about this book: "I don't need you to be Fabio...I just want you to tell me how you feel. I want to know what it is you want." I just didn't like how they each made assumptions about what the other was feeling or needed throughout the story. What I did enjoy was the way both January and Gus explored why feel-good fiction is not just naïve or unrealistic.