This is a post series I’ve wanted to start for a while now. You may be wondering what’s been holding me back. The answer is very simple: turns out I haven’t read many good books about books. I like to have a few posts planned in advance, so this one has been put on the back burner.
I’ve recently bought a few books that fit within this trope, I just need to get around to reading them. Which is easier said than done. We all love buying books and never reading them. I feel like buying books and reading them are two separate hobbies.
Beach Read by Emily Henry
This is still the only Emily Henry book I’ve read, but it was a five star read. I went into it expecting it to be a fluffy romance but it really isn’t, which I was actually quite happy about. I loved the descriptions of January and Augustus’ books. They form a bet that they can’t write a book in the other’s usual genre and most of the book is spent doing research for their books. Which sounds kinda boring, but trust me, it’s not.
Synopsis: 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.
Julieta and the Romeos by Maria E. Andreu
Julieta and the Romeos is a rare book about books where you actually get to read excerpts from the book being written. Each chapter either started or ended with part of the story (sorry I can’t remember which) and it offers a nice change in pace. The story Julieta is writing is also a contemporary romance, but it’s so refreshing for a book to do this. Plus there’s a little twist to the writing, which you’re told about in the synopsis. I won’t reveal who the secret writer is, but it’s quite sweet.
Synopsis: Julieta isn’t looking for her Romeo–but she is writing about love. When her summer writing teacher encourages the class to publish their work online, the last thing she’s expecting is to get a notification that her rom-com has a mysterious new contributor, Happily Ever Drafter. Julieta knows that happily ever afters aren’t real. (Case in point: her parents’ imploding marriage.) But then again, could this be her very own meet-cute?
As things start to heat up in her fiction, Julieta can’t help but notice three boys in her real life: her best friend’s brother (aka her nemesis), the boy next door (well, to her abuela), and her oldest friend (who is suddenly looking . . . hot?). Could one of them be her mysterious collaborator? But even if Julieta finds her Romeo, she’ll have to remember that life is full of plot twists. . . .
Check out Young Creative Press on all socials
You can also check out my StoryGraph here
Like this post? Why not read this one too: Monthly Wrap Up: January 2026