The Book:
Book Lovers by Emily Henry
Published May 12th 2022 by Berkley
Date read: April 15, 2022
The Characters:
Nora
Charlie
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The Plot (from Goodreads):
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.
The Review:
I am so excited that I got the opportunity to review this book as part of @Booksparks #SRC2022 campaign. I adore @EmilyHenryWrites, and this title was VERY highly anticipated for me.
Henry must have known she would hook us in with this title. I never can pass up a book about books!
Our two MCs, Nora and Charlie, are both kind of grumpy and unhappy with where they are when we meet them. Nora has been dragged on a live-your-own-rom-com vacation by her little sister to whom she can’t say no, and Charlie had to go home to Sunshine Falls to help out his family. Both wish to be back in New York City. Instead of sunshine-and-grump, we have grump-and-other-grump. It worked, though–Nora’s sister Libby was the sunshine we needed, and the reader could just tell that Nora was soon to break out of her grumpy workaholic shell.
The banter between Nora and Charlie was amazing. It felt natural and was funny, and made their conversations and texts a lot of fun to read.
I loved Nora and Libby’s complicated sister relationship. Nora felt the need to fix everything in Libby’s life, but often did so at her own expense. The growth here felt very realistic as Nora learned that she needed to let Libby be her own person.
I’m always a fan of the save-the-bookstore plot, and I wish we got to see a little more of Libby’s efforts!
My only gripe with this story was the reveal of what was going on with Libby. It was hyped up throughout the whole book that something was wrong with her, and in the end, her issue just felt entirely unimportant!
This is the perfect lighthearted summer read, just in time for beach season. If you’re headed off to a small town for vacation this summer, make sure you’ve packed Book Lovers!
QOTD: Do you live in a big city, a suburb, or a small town? I just moved to the middle of the woods in the Hudson Valley, which will be a big (and very welcome!) change after living in big cities since college.
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