Books like Beach Read by Emily Henry

Augustus Everett, an acclaimed literary fiction writer who has lost faith in love, sits beside a brotherhood of broken authors in a New York summer on the Pacific Coast. January Andrews, a bestselling romance novelist with a cynical outlook, shares the same beach house and a stockpile of writer’s block. When a chance encounter leads to a mutually destructive challenge, the two polar opposites agree to swap genres: Augustus will write a romance that ends happily ever after; January will write the next Great American Novel. Their days are filled with harried field trips, awkward interviews with a backwoods cult, and the relentless pursuit of a manuscript that will reshape their lives. The test is simple yet daunting—complete a novel in three months without falling in love—a premise that turns their creative and emotional boundaries. As deadlines close, each must confront what they believe about happily ever afters and the power of storytelling.

First publish date: 2020