Beach Read – Past Midnight Book Reviews & More

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️

Title: Our Perfect Storm

Author: Carley Fortune

Pages: 410

Listening Hours: 10 hours 52 min (approx)

Format: audiobook (Libby)

Publication Date: 5/5/26

Categories: Romance, Contemporary, Childhood Friends to Lovers, Beach Read

Best friends have one week in paradise to fix their friendship or fall apart in this heart-stopping, utterly romantic new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Every Summer After and One Golden Summer.

Frankie and George have been best friends since they were eight years old. Both passionate, impulsive, and headstrong—they’ve always clashed . . . and come back together. Until now. It’s the eve of Frankie’s wedding weekend, and she doesn’t know where they stand or even if George will show up as her best man.

Then, at the start of the festivities, in walks George. For one glorious evening, surrounded by her loved ones, Frankie’s life is finally perfect. But it all comes crashing down when her fiancé dumps her the next morning, leaving only a note as an explanation.

Crushed and confused, Frankie returns to her family’s home to wallow. But George has a different idea and a plan for healing Frankie’s broken heart. He wants her to go on her honeymoon. With him. For one week, to the lush rainforests and misty beaches of Tofino.

Frankie agrees, seeing the trip for what it really is: one last chance to repair their friendship. Even if it means unearthing secrets and long buried feelings neither knows how to handle. Even if it means falling apart for good.

Content Warning: parental neglect

+ There was dual narration for this story, which I love. The female narrator was fantastic and really kept me in the story. The male narrator did a great job being George.

+ Set in Canada, Frankie is about to marry her fiancé Nate when he leaves her a day before the wedding. She is devastated. But her best friend George is there to pick her up and help her move on – they go on her honeymoon and spend a week together connecting and remembering the memories of their past and noticing the new things about one another. This is such a summer read, especially with the setting, the surfing and just being on vacation.

+ Clearly Frankie and George are the best of friends, they grew up with one another. They have memories of them together going back to when they were 8 years old. Their connection is undeniable but I do love how as adults they took different paths and George leaving for his career hurt Frankie, but they needed to grow. Now back together Frankie sees George in a different light. Most of the book is them hanging out, remembering memories – it’s only in the latter part of the book when they decide to take things further. There is spice, but I think it’s beautiful because they know each other so well.

+ George is amazing (except for him not telling Frankie how he felt for years). But his grand gesture of love at the end was the sweetest.

+~ This is a romance but both Frankie and George have issues with their parents. I get that Frankie resented her mom for going off the study whales, but I couldn’t stand how Frankie hated whales because of it. 😅 I mean, it’s whales! How can you hate them? Of course she didn’t hate them – she hated what they represented, which were very hurt feelings she harbored as a kid. George has issues because of his parents too. All of this affected them trying to be together – but they do eventually get therapy. Yay!

~ Everything is almost perfect between Frankie and George, until the miscommunication trope. George was bad at telling Frankie how he felt, for years! Frankie was oblivious also. So hey it is realistic, and honestly everything was so good between except that thing.

Final Thoughts:

This is only my second book from this author. The first book I read was okay, I thought it wasn’t for me and was a little boring. I was hesitant about this one, but I think because I listened to this as an audiobook, it helped a lot to keep me invested. So I might have to just listen to her books from now on, instead of reading it. I thought this was a cute childhood friends to lovers romance, with tons of summer vibes and a sweet ending!

Read if you like:

childhood friends to lovers
summer read

Book Links:

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Other Books I’ve Read From This Author:

This Summer Will Be Different by. Carley Fortune | Book Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Title: Beach Read

Author: Emily Henry

Format: ebook (kindle unlimited)

Pages: 386

Publication Date: 5/19/20

Categories: Women’s Fiction, Adult Fiction, Romance, Chick Lit

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.

Content Warning: grief, cheating

I’ve read two Emily Henry books and this one is my third and maybe my favorite of the three! It’s summer and I wanted a summer time book and what better book than one named Beach Read and it’s set in summer? This is the perfect summertime beach read and aptly titled.

Gus and January are both authors and in the middle of writing their next books. They both have houses next to one another, but January is there only to pack up and sell the house while trying to get some reading done. She’s dealing with a lot of emotional baggage concerning the passing of her dad and the secret life she never knew he led. She is trying her hardest to figure who her dad was and dealing with his betrayal but also missing him and loving him just the same. Gus has his own issues he’s dealing with too. He didn’t grow up in a happy, stable home like January and that makes him see life differently than January. They are opposites that attract and spending the whole summer together makes them break down boundaries, build trust and love and so much more.

I loved the characters in this book, even Gus who is so tortured. January really is miss sunshine despite everything she is going through and her best friend Shadi is already a true love story. I love their friendship. Gus’ aunt Pete was also a fun side character.

I didn’t feel like this was a rom-com. There were funny moments yes, especially with the way Gus and January interacted but there are heavy issues taking place in this story like grief and parental abuse. This is definitely more women’s fiction than a rom-com. But I loved it. I love that January and Gus both grow from being with one another and letting down their guards. I could relate to her heartbreak and search for the truth about the person she loved.

Quotes from the book:

“…when the world felt dark and scary, love could which you off to go dancing; laughter could take some of the pain away; beauty could punch holes in your fear.”

“He fit so perfectly into the love story I’d imagined for myself that I mistook him for the love of my life.”

“I wanted to know whether you could ever fully know someone.”

“Happy endings don’t happen to everyone. There’s nothing you can do to make someone keep loving you.”

“No matter how much shit, there will always be wildflowers.”

“Unless the world freezes over in a second ice age. And in that case, there will at least be snowflakes, until th ebitter end.”

“The beautiful lies were all gone. Destroyed. And I was still upright.”

Tropes: opposites attract, writer romance

Why you should read it:

characters are complex and there is lots of growth
Gus and January’s relationship, they have fun together and them both being authors challenged the other which was great
themes about marriage, love, friendship, life

Why you might not want to read it:

not a typical rom-com, it deals with some tough topics like grief and infidelity

My Thoughts:

I’m so happy I got to read this one! It was exactly the kind of romance I was in the mood for, something with depth that challenged the characters to grow while they fell in love. January’s journey to making sense of her father’s life also made me tear up. It’s the kind of summer read I was looking for and I’m glad to knock this one off my TBR list. Great book!