Beach Read

Preview

Failed to add items

Sorry, we are unable to add the item because your shopping cart is already at capacity.

Add to basket failed.

Please try again later

Add to wishlist failed.

Please try again later

Remove from wishlist failed.

Please try again later

Adding to library failed

Please try again

Follow podcast failed

Unfollow podcast failed

£0.00 for first 30 days

LIMITED TIME OFFER

Get 3 months for £0.99/mo

Get this deal

Try Premium Plus free

Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.

Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.

1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.

Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.

Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.

Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.

Access exclusive sales and deals.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Beach Read

By: Emily Henry

Narrated by: Julia Whelan

Get this deal

Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

'The hottest book of the summer' JOSIE SILVER, author of bestselling One Day in December
'The perfect escapist romp' LAURA JANE WILLIAMS, author of Our Stop

Binge-watched Normal People and Love is Blind and now looking to escape into another suitably steamy love story? Look no further...
______________________________

TWO WRITERS, ONE HOLIDAY. A ROMCOM WAITING TO HAPPEN...

January is a hopeless romantic who narrates her life like she's the lead in a blockbuster movie.
Gus is a serious literary type who thinks true love is a fairy-tale.

But January and Gus have more in common than you'd think:

They're both broke.
They've got crippling writer's block.
And they need to write bestsellers before summer ends.

The result? A bet to swap genres and see who gets published first.
The risk? In telling each other's stories, their worlds might be changed entirely...

Set over one sizzling summer, Beach Read is a witty love story that will make you laugh a lot, cry a little and fall head over heels. For fans of The Flat Share and If I Never Met You.
______________________________

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

'Reader, I swooned! Beach Read is a breath of fresh air. My heart ached for January, and Gus is to die for - a steamy, smart and perceptive romance. I was engrossed!' Josie Silver

'Full of banter, heat, and sexual tension, I felt the thrill of falling in love right alongside January and Gus. A gorgeous page-turner of a novel' Laura Jane Williams

'Funny, and seriously sizzling' Best

© Emily Henry 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Contemporary

Genre Fiction

Literature & Fiction

Romance

Romantic Comedy

Small Town & Rural

Women's Fiction

Comedy

Witty

Funny

Feel-Good

Listeners also enjoyed...

Tessa Bailey Book Set 3 DA Bundle cover art

Escape to New Zealand Boxed Set, Books 1-3 cover art

Featured article: The top trending BookTok audiobooks

For audiobook lovers, nothing comes close to the feeling of stumbling upon a new favourite adventure, love story, or thriller. Finding that new favourite is now easier than ever! The world of BookTok is overflowing with audiobooks ready to become your new obsession....

Critic reviews

Reader, I swooned! Beach Read is the hottest book of the summer - the pages simply sizzle! My heart ached for January, and Gus is to die for - a steamy, smart and perceptive love story. I was engrossed! (Josie Silver, author of bestselling One Day in December)

Full of banter, heat, and sexual tension, I felt the thrill of falling in love right alongside January and Gus. A gorgeous page-turner of a novel that provided the perfect escapist romp (Laura Jane Williams, author of 'Our Stop')

Original, sparkling bright and layered with feeling. If whipcrack banter and foggy sexual tension is your catnip, you'll adore this book (Sally Thorne, author of 'The Hating Game')

A touching and heartfelt book about learning how to love again. I closed this book with a satisfied sigh (Jasmine Guillory, author of 'The Proposal')

Beach Read is exactly the witty, charming and swoony novel we always want; it also happens to be the unexpected wallop of emotional wisdom and sly social commentary we need right now. I adored it (Julia Whelan, author of 'My Oxford Year')

A smart, witty, warm, sexy novel ... Perfect escapism. I loved this book from the first page and can't wait to read more from Emily Henry (Emma Murray, author of 'Time Out')

A great escapist beach read but so much more as well. Emily writes beautifully, almost poetically in places and I will certainly look out for her work in the future. 5 stars! (Julie Houston, author of 'A Village Affair')

A clever and witty novel that will make your nerve-endings sigh with happiness (Debbie Viggiano, author of 'Willow's Wedding Vows')

I would say this book is so much more than "just a beach read" but to do so would completely miss the point! As January reminds the reader and the perfectly-painted Gus alike, romantic comedies take skill, heart and guts to traverse the depths of what it means to fall in love - and Emily Henry makes sure this book has it all (Elizabeth Neep, author of 'The Spare Bedroom')

Beach Read has everything the title promises - a romping plot, family secrets, and the thrill of falling in love. I cannot wait to read what Henry writes next (Amy E. Reichert, author of 'The Optimist’s Guide to Letting Go')

Most relevant

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy. I volunteered to leave an unbiased review.

I put this off a long time. But the hype just didn't die down. So I leapt into it. And I REALLY enjoyed it. The daddy issues were a both a bit much and a little on the nose for me (I have them and they are bad) but this was a whole lot of fun. My first read by this author and I'd recommend this for sure, especially to people who are dipping their toes into the woman's fiction/light romance genre. Gus and January were a lot of fun and at first I wished for a couple of chapters in Gus's POV, but now I've finished, I'm kinda glad I didn't get them.