Even though my plan for the year was to read more series, I’ve actually been reading a lot of standalones lately. After having a couple of very busy months moving and getting a puppy, my energy for reading has waned and I’ve needed to read a lot of shorter books to make sure I have content to post. For this reason, standalones have found their way back into my read pile.
Julieta and the Romeos by Maria E. Andreu
This book was so fun. I love books about writers. I really enjoyed the sections that told the story that was written by Julieta and her collaborator. The slight changes in style and tone to show that this was written by someone else were perfect. These were my favourite parts of the book, other than the romance, obviously. I’m a sucker for a romance and the one in this is pretty mature considering they are teenagers.
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. . . .
Beach Read by Emily Henry
This is another book that looks like a romance, but the romance is the least interesting part. Well, kind of. I love January and Gus and their romantic interactions had me smiling like an idiot. But this book has so much substance. There are complex relationships, the romance is perfect and I didn’t want to put it down. I couldn’t recommend it enough.
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.
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