Ok, gather round because I want to say a thing about Emily Henry's Beach Read, which is out today. I finished it this weekend on a patch of sunny concrete on day 64 of quarantine and I am not exaggerating when I say that it is magnificent. (Thread)

When her father dies and leaves her a secret lake house where he lived with a woman who was not her mother, January (our heroine) does what any of us would do -- she heads out there to clean it out and sell it and not think about what it all means.

Of course, that's never going to work, January. But you do what you want. She's a romance novelist who has been blocked since her father's death, and she has plans to clean the house and write an HEA at the same time. Cue me: Wow. That is also not going to work, January.

BUT WAIT. Next door, there's a MAN. He's (obviously) handsome and (obviously) grumpy but *also* a writer and the kind who writes Very Important Novels. BUT WAIT. He is *also* blocked. He's also very opposed to love (obviously).

So January and Gus make a deal. He will write an HEA. She will write a Very Important Novel. He will teach her about Existential Suffering. She will teach him about Romance. And they will write. And absolutely not fall in love because who has time for that.

Y'all, this book is GREAT. The dialogue is sparkling, the romance is tummy-flipping. I laughed out loud multiple times. There's a make out session that is pure . Gus is a Romance Hero, capital letters intended. They are adorable.

But this is January's story. She's dealing with her father's death, his secrets, the idea that she'll never fully understand him, the fact that her mother isn't quite who she thought she was, and of course, her own identity. She has to rebuild herself. And she has to do it alone.

It is an exceptional book. I am so grateful that it found me out here on day 64.

Beach Read, out today:
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2ADBDnH 
Indies: https://bookshop.org/a/5775/9781984806734
Apple: https://apple.co/2LETRYb