Beach Read

9781984806734|excerpt

Henry / BEACH READ

1

The House

I have a fatal flaw.

I like to think we all do. Or at least that makes it easier for me when I m writing ­building my heroines and heroes up around this one self-­sabotaging trait, hinging everything that happens to them on a specific characteristic: the thing they learned to do to protect themselves and can t let go of, even when it stops serving them.

Maybe, for example, you didn t have much control over your life as a kid. So, to avoid disappointment, you learned never to ask yourself what you truly wanted. And it worked for a long time. Only now, upon realizing you didn t get what you didn t know you wanted, you re barreling down the highway in a midlife-­crisis-­mobile with a suitcase full of cash and a man named Stan in your trunk.

Maybe your fatal flaw is that you don t use turn signals.

Or maybe, like me, you re a hopeless romantic. You just can t stop telling yourself the story. The one about your own life, complete with melodramatic soundtrack and golden light lancing through car windows.

It started when I was twelve. My parents sat me down to tell me the news. Mom had gotten her first diagnosis ­suspicious cells in her left breast ­and she told me not to worry so many times I suspected I d be grounded if she caught me at it. My mom was a do-­er, a laugher, an optimist, not a worrier, but I could tell she was terrified, and so I was too, frozen on the couch, unsure how to say anything without making things worse.

But then my bookish homebody of a father did something unexpected. He stood and grabbed our hands ­one of Mom s, one of mine ­and said, You know what we need to get these bad feelings out? We need to dance!

Our suburb had no clubs, just a mediocre steak house with a Friday night cover band, but Mom lit up like he d just suggested taking a private jet to the Copacabana.

She wore her buttery yellow dress and some hammered metal earrings that twinkled when she

Emily Henry is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of People We Meet on Vacation and Beach Read. She studied creative writing at Hope College, and now spends most of her time in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the part of Kentucky just beneath it. Find her on Instagram @emilyhenrywrites.

Once I started Beach Read I legit did not put it down. Betches

One of... 
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Reader, I swooned! Beach Read is a breath of fresh air. My heart ached for January, and Gus is to die for a steamy, smart and perceptive romance. I was engrossed! Josie Silver, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One Day in December

This is a touching and heartfelt book about love, betrayal, grief, failure, and learning how to love again. I adored going along on Gus and January s journey, and I closed this book with a satisfied sigh. Jasmine Guillory, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Proposal

Beach Read is original, sparkling bright, and layered with feeling. Has trying to see the world through your long time crush/rival s eyes ever been this potent and poignant? If whipcrack banter and foggy sexual tension is your catnip, you ll adore this book. Sally Thorne, USA Today bestselling author of The Hating Game and 99 Percent Mine

Beach Read is exactly the witty, charming, and swoony