For What It's Worth


Thursday, June 9, 2022

Review: Book Lovers by Emily Henry

 

One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn't see coming....

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. ~ Goodreads

Source: libro.fm ALC (advanced listening copy) in exchange for an honest review

Review: I seem to be hitting romance gold only about once a year these days (last year it was The Love Hypothesis) and I guess 2022 is Book Lovers

Books Lovers is like a Hallmark movie with a twist. A typical Hallmark movie is about a cut throat business guy who goes on a business trip to a small town, falls for the charming local girl and embarks on his true calling - an artisanal cheese maker, gets married in a barn with twinkle lights and has 10 kids. This story is about the cool, icy blonde city girlfriend who doesn't know how to love or have fun, who was left behind. More than once. 

Nora, a literary agent known as "The Shark" is forced to work with her nemesis (they had one bad business meeting years ago) Charlie, a book editor, on her star clients latest book. It's an uneasy truce at first but, over texts, they slowly reveal a softer, more vulnerable side of themselves and understand each other in ways no one else does.

There's another, maybe even bigger, relationship in Book Lovers though. The one between Nora and her younger sister Libby. Nora has been Libby's defacto mother since her death - and maybe even before. Nora's whole life revolves around making sure Libby is happy and well taken care of. Even though Libby is now a full grown adult, married, with another baby on the way - Nora makes her choices based on securing Libby's financial and emotional well-being. 

Libby begs Nora to finally take a break from work and take a vacation to the small town of Sunshine Falls, the location of Libby's favorite romance novel. She presents Nora with a check-list - because Nora can NEVER resist a check-list - of small town/Hallmark like things to do. Like save a small business, go out on a date with a local, get a makeover... Nora relents and off they go to Nora's idea of hell. 

The trip is supposed to bring the sisters closer together but Nora can feel the usually free-spirited and open Libby drifting away. Nora feels helpless not knowing what the problem she needs to fix is. 

And, of course, Charlie just happens to show up in Sunshine Falls with his own surprising connection to the place.   

Not quite a rom-com - although I laughed out loud many times, and not quite enemies to lovers - great witty banter but it's clear their irritation with each other is foreplay - Book Lovers was an absolute delight with a great balance of romance, tropey goodness (with a twist!) and meaningful relationships.

If I had one gripe (I always have at least one lol) was that Libby didn't want to be treated like a child but she acted like one. She also didn't like Nora coming in to fix everything - fair enough - but didn't open up the way she was trying force Nora to. It took me a while to empathize with Libby like I did Nora. She didn't have to accommodate or apologize in the way that Nora had to. But that's probably a POV thing. We only hear from Nora, so of course, that's who I rooted for. 

The romance is A+++ I adored the way Nora and Charlie really saw each & respected other - flaws and all. They had these beautiful, tender moments of solace with each other.

I really liked People We Meet on Vacation by Henry but I LOVED this one even more. I rarely like romance on audio but Julia Whelan's narration was sheer perfection. She got the voices and nuance of all the characters down perfectly. The heart and humor had me emotionally invested the whole time. 



28 comments:

  1. Sounds like a good book, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

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  2. I agree, not a rom-com, but a fantastic and wonderful story nonetheless. I was also a huge fan of the romantic element. Charlie would just lay it out, and I would swoon. They had a great dynamic too, and I loved that they knew each other prior to crossing paths again.

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    1. The romance was fantastic. Usually you need opposites to balance each other out by they were so similar and it worked - they didn't need to change. They needed to be understood and accepted.
      I wish I put that in my review lol

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  3. I have heard really good things about this one and I should have picked it up! It's on my list. Thanks.

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    1. I liked it so much. Especially on audio.

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  4. A lot of people seem to be really loving this one. I'm glad you found a romance that worked for you!

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    1. The romance was great but it felt like it about more than that. Really well done.

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  5. I'm glad to hear you loved it. I've seen it all over Bookstagram, so I decided to put it on hold at the library. I'm #490 in line, lol!

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    1. oh no! Then it will come 23 weeks early when you aren't ready lol

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    1. I hope you like it! I thought the audio was great.

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  7. I really liked Beach Read, and I have People We Meet on Vacation as well as this one, so I need to get on it. I'm so glad you loved it.

    Lauren @ www.shootingstarsmag.net

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    1. I haven't read Beach Read but I really liked people We Meet on Vacation. I think she's an auto read author for me at this point. Her romances hit all the right notes while having a deeper story within.

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  8. The story between her and her sister sounds interesting.

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  9. "artisanal cheese maker" :)

    Nice review! This sounds like a really fun (and funny) read!

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    1. Or a wooden duck carver lol It was a nice one that upended the tropes

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  10. I've seen this around and just the title alone makes me really get to it. It's so great to know that you enjoyed this. Also, thanks for mentioning that there's a sister relationship here. Love books with that!! I've only read Beach Read by her and while it was generally an okay book for me, I'm still really excited to try more from her!

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    1. It's a very *bookish* book lol

      I think the sister story was even bigger than the romance IMO

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  11. Oooh, I'm glad I grabbed this one a couple of weeks ago now! :) It was on a kindle sale and I thought "why not" even though I didn't know much about it.... I also have Beach Read from the author but haven't read that one either.

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    1. I haven't read Beach Read yet. A lot of people didn't like that one so skipped it.

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  12. I feel like such the lone wolf with this one. I feel prey to the classic "everyone else loves it" (basically FOMO) nd I picked it up on audio even though I was truly excited for it. I've proven a million times that never works out well, so no great surprise... I DNF'd it. *sigh* I thought the banter was pretty clever (something that always scores points with me) but after 80-90 pages I realized that I just didn't care about a single character or the outcome. I thought your comments about Libby were interesting because my take on the dynamic between she and Nora was that I couldn't figure out why Nora was so intent (almost obsessive) about "taking care of" Libby - when it seemed to me that Libby was a grown adult, a wife and mother, and mostly had her life together. So chill out, Nora. But then, again. I didn't have the full story. Anyway, so glad this one was such a hit for you!!

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    1. I totally get that! I hadn't read anything about it so I, luckily, had no hype monster looming,

      I can see you feeling that about Nora. They both were out of line in different ways. Libby was pushing Nora towards something that she didn't want to do and not talking & I felt that was pushy and immature of her but Nora could just Libby live her life and not need to fix everything. She's a grown ass adult. I wanted them to have a big drag out fight lol There was a reason for both of their actions but really, I was in it for the romance and fun twist on tropes.

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  13. I've heard a lot of good things about this one. I really want to read it. I'm glad you loved it so much. :)

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    1. It's been harder for me to find romances that make me happy so it's always good when I do!

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  14. Once a year is better than none a year lol. It's always great when a book can make you laugh and also feel delight over the relationships!

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