Beach Read Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Emily Henry (Author), Julia Whelan (Narrator), Penguin Audio (Publisher)

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Brought to you by Penguin.

Binge-watched Normal People and Love Is Blind and now looking to escape into another suitably steamy love story? Look no further....

Two writers, one holiday. A romcom waiting to happen....

January is a hopeless romantic who narrates her life like she's the lead in a blockbuster movie.

Gus is a serious literary type who thinks true love is a fairy-tale.

But January and Gus have more in common than you'd think:

They're both broke.

They've got crippling writer's block.

And they need to write best sellers before summer ends.

The result? A bet to swap genres and see who gets published first.

The risk? In telling each other's stories, their worlds might be changed entirely....

Set over one sizzling summer, Beach Read is a witty love story that will make you laugh a lot, cry a little and fall head over heels. For fans of The Flat Share and If I Never Met You.

Listening Length

10 hours and 13 minutes
Author

Emily Henry
Narrator

Julia Whelan
Audible release date

18 May 2020
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Audio
ASIN

B0876FJZWC
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	10 hours and 13 minutes
Author	Emily Henry
Narrator	Julia Whelan
Audible.com.au Release Date	18 May 2020
Publisher	Penguin Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B0876FJZWC
Best Sellers Rank	751 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 10 in Humourous Fiction 18 in Romantic Comedy (Audible Books & Originals) 51 in Humorous Fiction

Customer reviews

5 star		39%
4 star		36%
3 star		18%
2 star		4%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from Australia

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A SOLID PLOT AND CHARACTERS EQUALS A GOOD READ

Reviewed in Australia on 17 March 2021

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Emily Henry is a new author for me and I was impressed with her natural, witty and insightful style. The elements she brought to the book balanced it well – contemporary issues, dysfunctionality, humour, romance and much more. The feel mixes light and heavy together and revolves around navigating yourself though life - finding happiness, dealing with negative feelings, forgiveness etc. I also liked Emily’s realistic, yet passionate approach to sex.
Being a nonfiction book, there’s a fair amount of serendipity involved in the plot, but an acceptable amount for the sake of entertainment, imo. The characters (main and secondary) are well-developed and the plot takes you intimately through their experiences, using the female character, January’s perspective to take you there. I really liked ‘Beach Read' and will definitely look for more of Emily’s books, but I'm unsure what significance the title has to the scenario.

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Ruby shiels

Perfect

Reviewed in Australia on 21 May 2020

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I honestly think this was a book written just for me and I really can’t exactly explain why but all I know is that Gus and January will always have a special place on my shelves.
This book made me laugh, sob, smile and swoon and I just adored it I highly, highly recommend this book please just read it.

2 people found this helpful

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Rae

Deeper than the normal rom com book

Reviewed in Australia on 16 January 2021

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Okay,so I thought this qas going to be a light chick rom com and its got some light moments for the most its a hard look at two peoples lives and also some inside at people around them. Lovely book, not as haha as I thought but left me with a ok this is a good ending type feeling.

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Jade

Enjoyment!

Reviewed in Australia on 3 February 2022

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I ordered beach read because I had seen it everywhere and while I enjoyed it a lot I wish it wasn’t so hyped because my expectations were at a 5 star and it just wasn’t there for me. I liked it a lot but I didn’t love it.

Overall it had some really good plot points and it’s a very easy to follow/ easy to read book :)

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U311082

Smart, Sexy and Funny

Reviewed in Australia on 26 April 2021

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I've been going down a Rom-Com rabbit hole recently and seemed to be caught in a spiral of 'same-same' until I picked up Beach Read. This is the book I was looking for - it gave me all the heart-thudding highs and angsty lows that I was looking for without being too trope-y or trite. A firm favourite already.

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Barbara Kerr

A fishfowl

Reviewed in Australia on 2 May 2021

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I liked Beach Read, but it sits in a weird place between romance and Women's Fiction which might be unsatisfying if you're expecting something that hits the relevant enemies-to-lovers beats. It's still enjoyable, just know going in that you won't necessarily get the air-punching "ah-ha!" moments that seem to be set up in the beginning.

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Cassie Fox

Like watching a fluffy Netflix romcom. Enjoyable and fit for purpose

Reviewed in Australia on 4 January 2022

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By no means life changing but then that’s not why your buying this book anyway. It’s a nice, comfy, easy read that you will enjoy whilst your reading it but not consume your thoughts for weeks after.

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Lana G

Great book! Very relatable.

Reviewed in Australia on 18 December 2020

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I really enjoyed this book! Though some parts made me angry and upset because I could relate to the characters issues with relationships very well! But it was a happy ending which was nice! Highly recommend the read!

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Sharon

Great read but not sure title really fits

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 June 2020

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As the blurb states this story features two authors who are both on a deadline but struggling with writers block. January has made a name for herself writing stories that focus on happy ever afters, whereas the same cannot be said for the type of stories that Gus writes as his stories normally focus on the darker side of human nature. Their paths cross when January moves next door into the beach house that she discovered her dad owned after his death.

Both January and Gus were interesting characters and it's only as we scratch beneath the surface do we discover that both have been holding onto their fair share of emotional baggage that is preventing them from moving forward. Will they be able to open up and to one another and help each other heal? I have to confess that personally I much preferred January as a character to Gus, there was just that little something about him that prevented me from warming to him wholly.

What I loved most about this book was the exploration of genres, the concept of questioning why a book written by a male is typically classified as fiction and can be read by both men and women whereas a book written by a female is typically classified as women's fiction and deemed to appeal to women only. One night after a few drinks a bet is made for them both to try and write something outside of their normal style, Gus to write a Happily Ever After story and January to explore something a little darker.

The whole bet storyline was hilarious and I really enjoyed the intellectual sparring between the two of them when talking about their books and current writing progress. As for their research days, these certainly provided some interesting topics for discussion as well as some hilarious comedic moments and compromising situations. I loved their witty banter and the interactions between them although I was a little concerned that it might have been vering towards the corny at times but the author managed to cleverly avoid it going down that road.

My only minor gripe about this book was the title itself as it didn't really work for me, yes they both live in beachfront houses but other than that it didn't really fit with the whole concept/theme of the story that unfolds.

Overall I found Beach Read to be a heartwarming read that dealt with some emotional and sensitive topics such as relationship breakdowns, grief and infidelity.

23 people found this helpful

sotron

Perfect in genre

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 May 2020

Verified Purchase

It's hard to picture what you could want from a romcom that this book doesn't deliver. I have great love for this genre, that gets such a hard time but can be of such use if you let it. A book like this is perfect escapism when life is easy and you're on a beach with someone you like, and is necessary escapism when you're running away from the dark and being confronted with the harsher sides of humanity loses its appeal. Beach Read knows this, leans into it and makes some great jokes about it. Everything from the setup to the chemistry and secondary characters is enjoyable beginning to end, and I was rooting so hard for the leads I was practically bouncing up and down. If I have some *minor* qualms, they have to do with a little relationship pacing and feeling we should get a little more of a few characters, or at least earlier (Shadi, mom). However, that's easily forgiven when Henry easily tackles any worries I'm having about tropes just as they're popping up, and feels so often effortless, warm and funny. I loved living in her book for a few hours, and I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't.

12 people found this helpful

Raluca A.

This is not a beach read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 July 2020

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This could have been so good and ended up being so bad. I read, probably like you, the book description and thought well, this is an interesting premise, let's check it out. I was expecting a feel good (I mean it's called beach read), funny, endearing story. And I received a mildly depressing, eye rolling, annoying book. Who wants to be depressed on the beach?

Admittedly, my expectations of this being fun probably made the reading experience worse than it would have been. However, the characters were just annoying with their dramas that seemed exaggerated to me. January's dad died an year ago and she still can't get over the fact that he wasn't the mean she thought he'd be and that's fair game, some things shock you and you don't get over them. But do you think about it constantly every other day and how hard it is for you to live everyday life? If you say yes, you might enjoy this book, but it's a hard no for me.

Then, there's Augustus, who is so mysterious, so bad boy, so "can't tie me down" that it's such a cliche from a 90s teenager show (and he's in his 30s, not his teens). I just couldn't empathise or like him based on this.

There's also how she sees his smile, talks to him, looks at his hair and is turned into jelly that I can't stomach. Plus, their stories that came out of the exchange seem like total crap - I wouldn't want to read those books or I'd be tricked by a title such as "Beach Read" and I'd then leave a bad review on Amazon to prevent others from being tricked by it.

8 people found this helpful

KBa76

A romance to fall in love with

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 May 2020

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Beach Read has so many of the elements I’d expect of a light summer read, but there’s a glimpse of darkness within that actually makes this so much more engaging than you might expect it to be.
Our main character, January, has always felt like someone who believes in love and its power to transform us. She writes romance and has always looked for her happy ending. But when we see her things aren’t going quite to plan. She is struggling to write, she is grieving her father and yet trying to reconcile herself to the discovery that her father had a secret second life.
Upon arriving at his second hideaway home, January is nervous about what she’ll find. Nothing could prepare her for the discovery that her new neighbour is an old college acquaintance, Gus.
Like January Gus is a writer. But we quickly see that, like January, things in his life aren’t quite going to plan.
What follows is quite obvious - they slowly form a new bond, breaking down the barriers each had in place and eventually starting a relationship each has secretly harboured dreams of since they first met.
The interaction between these two was great fun. Seeing two such different outlooks and the little bet to each write a book in the style of the other gave it an interesting twist. Not everything runs smoothly, but it always feels like we’ll end up where we hope.
A huge thank you to NetGalley for granting me access to this prior to publication. I loved it!

7 people found this helpful

Ticks every box!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 May 2020

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I loved this book! I have been reading A LOT during lockdown and was craving something a bit different.

I instantly warmed to this book and loved the two main characters. It has angst, love, insight and keeps things ticking along at a cracking pace! Will definitely re-read this!

11 people found this helpful

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Beach Read Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

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