“Is there anything better than iced coffee and a bookstore on a sunny day? I mean, aside from hot coffee and a bookstore on a rainy day.”

Book Lovers, by Emily Henry

Summary

Nora Stephens’ life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.

Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away—with visions of a small-town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.

If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.

My Thoughts

The fact that this is my fourth five star read in a row is crazy to me; I’m on a reading kick this year. No but seriously, I never expected to rate a romance novel other than Pride and Prejudice five stars and here we are. Book Lovers is my second Emily Henry book and in my opinion her best. We’ll see if any other the others best it, but considering my taste in romance, I doubt it. I love characters I relate to, and Nora Stephens is just that. An ambitious, driven literary agent in the city, a deeply protective, parentified elder sister to her beloved little sister Libby, and a complicated woman who struggles with her emotions. It starts a bit stereotypical, with Nora being the stereotypical, Hallmark city woman who gets dumped by her boyfriends for the small town girl, but it evolves into so much more. I will say that the description of the book is a bit deceiving—Charlie and Nora have at best one bad interaction and aren’t really rivals, their attraction to each other being quick and their banter excellent. It’s more that Nora and Charlie are both closed off and unsure what to do with someone so similar to them, who reads them so well.

One of the best parts of the book is the relationship between Nora and Libby. I’d honestly argue that this book is less of a straight-up romance and more half romance half sisterly novel, with a large part of Nora’s story being focused on her relationship with Libby. How do you adjust from a life of taking care of your sister, of her being the center, to living for yourself? To learning how to grow apart and still love one another, to adjust to being sisters and not semi-parent and daughter? It’s a complicated question, and it takes time. It is also what is so beautiful about the story—the unconditional love between the sisters, the complications of their relationship, but the real understanding. They feel like real sisters.

The chemistry between Nora and Charlie is real. The banter is excellent, the tension swoon-worthy, the complications of the relationship real. One of my least favorite parts of romance is a contrived third-act breakup that is stupid, out of character, unecessary, or unforgivable, and does nothing but draw the novel out for no reason (looking at you Twisted Love) and Book Lovers is the first book I have read that pulls off a realistic third act breakup that is fully in line with character motivations and makes sense. I was rooting for it not to happen throughout the novel but I also understood why it did, understood that this would be a worse novel if it did not. Was the resolution to said breakup also a bit predictable? Absolutely; after the big revelation that Nora and Libby have before they begin healing their relationship, I could tell how it was going to end, was just along for the ride for the last fifty pages or so as it played out as I predicted. Does that make it bad? Absolutely not. It means that Emily Henry has written her characters incredibly well, that they never once break character and so you can predict what they will do. I also love how relatable their characters feel—one of Nora’s exes telling her that she’s closed off and never cries at the beginning felt like a personal attack and I had to stop reading to process, literally. They are hyper-organized, they love their checklists and characters, they need to be in control. Honestly, it’s like Emily Henry took me, changed a few small details, and then wrote a book about me. I

I especially love that this book takes the stereotypical hardass bitch from romance novels and doesn’t decry her for her ambition and her ruthlessness. She’s excellent at what she does, described as a “shark”, and despite what other people say about her in the universe, it’s a good thing. She’s proud of it. She is allowed to be tall, wear impractical heels, be ruthless and be meticulous, and still get her happy ending. There’s a lot of serious stuff in this review, but it also isn’t afraid to be unserious. It pokes fun at Hallmark movies, has main characters who know that they can play into romance tropes and don’t mind anyway, has jokes and silliness. It is also probably one of Henry’s spicier books, so fair warning on that. Overall, read this. It’s meant for the cynical, secretly a hopeless romantic, parentified, book-loving eldest daughters.

Review: ⚫ ⚫ ⚫ ⚫ ⚫

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