Aug 29

Aug 29 Book Lovers

Author: Emily Henry
Publisher: Berkley
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

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.

TL;DR Review

Book Lovers is a compulsively readable, super smart book that takes a common trope (small-town romance) and and subverts every single element. Reading it was very fun.

For you if: You prefer romance novels that have a little extra something to give them more substance.

Full Review

I don’t read very many genre romance novels; I typically prefer my romance plots to live inside fantasy novels. That said, I do keep an eye out for the kinds of romance novels that have a little extra oomph; more literary characters or interesting experimentation or uncommon representation, something like that. Luckily, a friend who knows my reading tastes well flagged Book Lovers as a good one for me, and when my library hold came in during vacation, I knew it was the perfect time.

For me, what made this book so fun to read (aside from it having a strong plot and great characters and excellent steamy scenes) is the way it takes a common trope — small-town romance — and subverts it so completely. It 100% flips all the elements on their head in a way that is just smart and creative and enagaging. For that reason, I don’t want to tell you much about the plot, but suffice to say that the main character is the spiky-heeled, ambitious NYC woman that gets dumped and left behind when all the romance novel dudes take a trip to some small town and fall in love with the innkeeper’s daughter or whatever. So that’s the first subversion, and it only grows from there.

Another fun thing about this book: It’s a bit of inside baseball on the publishing industry, since the main character is a literary agent and the love interest, Charlie, is a sought-after editor at a big publishing house. (Hence the title.) Last thing I’ll say is that Julia Whelan reads the audiobook (I switched between ebook and audiobook), and I can’t imagine experiencing this story without her sultry rendition of Charlie’s voice. Just incredible stuff.

If you’re looking for a fast, fun, super readable book that plays with genre in a smart way, give this one a go. And yes, I count myself a proud new member of the Emily Henry fan club.