Beach Read

Emily Henry's Beach Read, published in 2020, is set over a summer in a lakeside community. January Andrews writes romance novels with happy endings, and she is not in a good state: her father has died, and she has learned that he was having an affair. She goes to stay in a beach house he owned and which she had not known about, intending to prepare it for sale, and finds that the man in the neighbouring house is Augustus "Gus" Everett, her old rival from college and now an acclaimed writer of literary fiction. Both of them are blocked and both are coping with crises of their own.

To get themselves working again, January and Gus make a bet: each will spend the summer writing in the other's genre, January attempting a literary novel and Gus a romance. The arrangement puts them in each other's company for research outings and writing sessions, and the professional rivalry and the personal connection between them stop being easy to separate.

Penguin Random House Audio released an audiobook edition. In April 2023 a film adaptation was announced, with 20th Century Studios producing and Yulin Kuang directing.