Beach Read is a smart romance that would, indeed, be a great book to read during your summer vacation.

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I don’t review many romances, but I was ready for a change of pace and Beach Read received such good reviews that it seemed like just the thing to satisfy my desire to lighten things up a bit. I wasn’t disappointed. But this doesn’t mean it was a frothy romance – the book tackles some weighty topics but the very witty banter between the likable hero and heroine kept the story from becoming too heavy.

A summary of Beach Read from Goodreads:

“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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Spoiler alert – of course they fall in love!

January and Augustus actually have a past. They went to college together, where January considered him an arrogant writing rival. By a twist of fate, they end up next door to each other in a vacation town on Lake Michigan. They’re both licking their wounds from recent betrayals and heartache.

They slowly get to know each other and lower their barriers. This was really well done – no insta-love, just two wounded people really getting to know each other, warts and all, while falling in love. The chemistry between January and Augustus was palpable. Their clever conversations, funny “dates,” and respect for each other make them one of my favorite romance couples.

If you like smart romances and don’t mind some steamy sex scenes, check out Beach Read. I think you’ll like it!

What smart romances have YOU read recently?