A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.
Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.
They’re polar opposites.
In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block.
Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really. (taken from goodreads.com)
This book has been ALL over Instagram, Youtube and Twitter. Everyone I follow has been talking about this book and I know why!
January and Augustus are college rivals, or at least that’s how January remembers It. They both are successful writers who have hit a rough patch in their lives, so when January moves in next door to Gus, the whole summer turns on its head.
The two make a bet that they have to write each others genre, which makes the summer so much more fun. Gus is very much a dark and brooding character, and January is this burst of sunshine that Gus wasn’t expecting, the two balance each other out very well.
The setting of this novel was great, a small sleepy beach town which is the best backdrop for a romance novel.
I really enjoyed this book so much! The writing was fun and the characters were so well developed throughout the novel.
The story line has depth, dealing with heavy topics such as abuse and parent loss. The strong theme of grief is there throughout the whole novel, which was something I loved. This may sound weird but books that have a theme of grief are ones that I connect to more.
I loved how we got to know so much more about Augustus as the book went on and how this wasn’t a “girl fixes boy” story. This was just so good and I loved it so much!
If you’re looking for a book that will make you laugh, cry and just feel full I recommend this one.