What’s the last book you totally devoured? The Bookish Life of Nina Hill was that book for me. First of all, can you ever go wrong with a bookish book? I think not. This was simply a flat out fun read that I so enjoyed from start to finish. It had me laughing out loud and I couldn’t get enough of the author’s witty and sharp writing. Side note: My planner obsessed self really appreciated Nina’s planner pages that were between each chapter (such a cute touch!).

I especially loved the quirky characters we get to meet in the story, and I could easily see myself and Nina being BFFs. I saw so much of myself in her. Plus, I’m always a sucker for the large, dysfunctional family dynamic, which was particularly hilarious and well done here.

This thoughtful, charming, heartfelt, relatable story could be a great fit for any and all bookworms, and will definitely be one I recommend over and over.

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley for the complimentary copy in exchange for my honest review.

Nina Hill is a character recognizable to any avid bibliophile. She works in a bookstore, and while she doesn't prefer books to people, fitting reading into her life is very important. Her life is thrown into upheaval after the death of her unknown father, bringing into her life a family she never knew she had. In addition, she's entering into a flirtation with an attractive and smart man that might not be the right guy for her because he's not a reader.

The humor in Abbi Waxman's other books is here, but there are many things about the character and story that just don't ring true. Nina is described as anxious and shy, but she has no problem making friends or going to a wedding where she doesn't know anybody. There was a part in the story where Nina learns to drive a stick shift that seemed extraneous.

All-in-all it was an entertaining read, but not Waxman's best.

I loved this book. I love how Abbi Waxman brings in characters from previous books to interact with her new characters. I found the graphics in the book charming while still adding layers to the story. I was especially drawn to how complicated Nina was. She wasn't just her anxiety, she still wanted connections with other people, just on her terms. Very realistic while still being laugh-out-loud funny.

This was a much anticipated book for me, and it delivered! I found it to be charming and fun, with Nina Hill being a bookish introvert craving structure that I really related to, and the story of her finding connections she didn't think she wanted was entertaining and warm. Waxman found a really cute way to end the story as well. This was a little different from Waxman's previous two books- more light romance/contemporary than family drama, but I thought it was a great turn (and there's a fun Easter egg for fans of The Garden of Small Beginnings :)).

Nina Hill likes herself just fine, thank you. She tracks her days down to the minute, including her time to do "Nothing" (aka reading time.) Her work at the bookstore and her trivia team satisfy her need to see people and she is pretty happy being the only child of a globe-trotting photographer mother.
But her life is about to change with the news that her father is dead. The father she never knew. The father who signed release paperwork releasing all claim to Nina even before she was born. Suddenly, her stress levels are skyrocketing- she has a sprawling family, a potential love interest from a rival trivia team, and her beloved bookstore is in danger of being closed forever.
The book started off a bit too twee but moved past it quickly. The ending also was sort of out of step with the middle which was frankly the best part of the book. I would recommend this book to readers who like characters breaking out of their shells and get to have a small dose of romance.

Three stars
This book comes out July 9th
ARC kindly provided by Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

If you love books, can you find love with someone who doesn't? How do you cope with the knowledge that you are not an only child of a single, world-travelling mother; but instead have a large complicated, extended family with stepmothers, step brothers and sister and more? How do you help your boss keep her bookstore open when the rent is past due? These are the dilemmas Nina Hill is facing in this book. Sprinkled throughout are her planner pages for the day revealing key details about her current state of mind. This is a great title for summer and vacation reading, but it also helps us to consider issues like heredity, family dynamics, anxiety and books! Also includes random trivia facts. Bonus!

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

SYNOPSIS: The setting is in the quaint Larchmont Village of Los Angeles where Nina’s whole life revolves around. She has a great job in a bookstore, bragging rights as a trivia champion, a planner aficionado detailing her planned day to day life, and a cat named Phil. Life is almost perfect when suddenly a lawyer contacts her about a father she never knew existed, suddenly dies and with a possible inheritance of not just financial matter but also family all living close by! How does an introvert living and absorbed in her fictional life deal with a new extensive family of step siblings, nieces, nephews and the possibilitybof a budding romance to top all this off! 😂😍

THOUGHTS: Once I started reading this amazing book, I could not put it down. First of all, the setting of the story is in Los Angeles, in a quaint neighborhood of Larchmont Village, which I frequent at least once a week, for the best NY style pizza, Jenni’s artisanal Ice Cream, cute shops, vintage stores and one of the few Rite Aids left in town. Waxman made Los Angeles feel like a small town with a community feel; with its struggling Indie bookstore, week-end farmer’s market and other community events. There was a part in the book where Tom said to Nina, “It’s a small world”, and Nina responded “ No, it’s a big world but Larchmont is a small community”, where people know and care for each other. As many who would read this who are also booklovers “bibliophiles”, you will be able to relate and love Nina’s life! I mean, wouldn’t we all want to work in a bookstore and have all the time in the world detailing our daily life for journaling and going to all the bookclubs? In this book, you will be immersed in Nina’s life completely and deeply from how she enjoys her isolation by being nose deep in her book reading for hours at a time, to her detailingly planning her life, fostering her budding love life, and navigating a newly inherited family. Abbi Waxman is a genius and can transform even the most mundane interactions of our daily lives into something engrossing and captivating, while injecting humor along the way. What a fun and light read that we all need in our lives. I would pre-order this now in anticipation of the release date.

📚 📚📚📚📚/5

Thank you @netgalley and @berkleypub for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Nina Hill is an only child whose single-mother spent most of her life galavanting around the world and allowing a nanny to raise her child. The only constants in Nina’s life were her nanny, Louise, and books. Nina works at a bookstore, lives a very organized life, and is content with the people she already has in it. When all of a sudden, a lawyer contacts her to tell her that her father (who she never knew) has passed away, Nina finds out he left her something in his will and a huge family! On top of that, Nina develops a crush on a guy who competes in her trivia league, even though all he’s good for is sports knowledge.

Will Nina’s anxiety prevent her from getting to know all the new people in her life? What did her father leave her in his fill?

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill is not your typical contemporary romance. As someone who loves books, I loved having a main character who also loved books. Waxman incorporated Nina’s love for reading in a seamless way, that didn’t seem too overbearing. I really enjoyed Nina’s characters appreciation of spreading the love of books too. Nina has two book clubs she belongs to – an adult one, and the one she ran for younger students. I loved this idea, and am even considering incorporating a book club in my classroom.

I also enjoyed the romance aspect. While this was a rom-com, in a way, I enjoyed Nina’s and Tom’s relationship. It was cute, flirty, and surprisingly serendipitous at the end.

However, in this book, the most important relationships are the ones Nina begins to develop with her new family. I don’t want to give too much away, but I think Waxman nailed what it would be like to meet this gigantic family of yours for the first time.

Overall, I’m rating The Bookish Life of Nina Hill a 4.5 out of 5 star rating. I enjoyed the quirkiness of this novel, and will be tuning in for more from Waxman in the future!

*Important Note* I was given a digital Advanced Readers Copy of this book thanks to the author, NetGalley and Berkley Publishing. All opinions are my own. Cover art was obtained from NetGalley.

Calling all bookworms! I have the perfect summer book for you. Twenty-nine year old Nina Hill has the perfect little life. She loves her job at the local California bookstore, her friends on her trivia team, and her bookshelves full of books to read. When her absentee father dies, Nina discovers she has a whole slew of relatives she never knew she had and is not sure she wants. Add in a cute guy interested in her, and Nina's quiet bookish life will never be the same. A super light read with a love story that's not a romance novel, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill will speak to all those introverted bookworms out there trying to survive in a world full of people. Don't expect too much in the way of character development, just a cute little plot that you could easily see on the Hallmark channel.

I just loved this book--it was about a VERY quirky character was just going along with a life she liked, but then quirky things started happening to her. How she handles it and what happens to her is fun to find out and best of all (spoiler alert) it has a happy ending. A Quick and Easy read!!

This was a delight to read! I'm a sucker for books that take place in bookstores/libraries. I enjoyed all the titles and authors that were mentioned. This book was charming, and I'm going to have fun recommending it. Thanks, Netgalley, for this arc.

Oh, man, I loved this book! I really don’t know what I expected going in, but I don’t think I realized I would relate quite so much to this main character! But I mean, this is a book about an introverted bookworm, so clearly that will speak to a lot of us. The thing I loved about Nina Hill, though, is that while she IS an introverted bookworm and she does have anxiety that stops her from doing certain things, she is not a caricature of those things. She feels like a real girl. She has friends and hobbies and a sassy personality and no one thing completely defines her. I think sometimes when people are “bookish” in books, or when they are shy, or when they have anxiety, that becomes ALL they are. Nina feels like me or someone I would be friends with. In fact, she is someone I WANT to be friends with.

Nina Hill works at a local bookstore that she loves with all of her heart, and spends her free time reading and playing on a competitive trivia team. She keeps her life organized and doesn’t have time for the unexpected. But then she finds out that she has an entire family she never knew at the same time she begins to fall for the captain of a competing trivia team. Suddenly the girl who loves to be alone is not alone at all. She starts to have trouble grappling with it all.

This was an incredibly readable book, and I devoured it in one sitting. Fast-paced and witty, I really enjoyed both the voice and the story. The only thing I found I had even a slight problem with was a couple of things the love interest does (no details because, spoilers), but those didn’t really hamper my love for the book much. I’ve been reading a lot of contemporaries in this same vein recently and I will say that this is my favorite I’ve read in a while.

4.5 stars

*Thanks to the publisher for a digital copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Nina is an only child with an absent (photographer) mother and no real family to speak of but for her old nanny Lou, and her cat Phil. She’s ticking along just fine with her obsession with scheduling and organizing, leaving her Thursdays as sacrosanct to read whatever she likes for however long she wants. She’s always been fascinated with books and reading: she’s a trivia savant, and she’s got no room in her life for surprises. Well, surprises happen but she’s so anxious about them, and focused on her anxiety that she often overloads and falls incapable of even the smallest tasks unless or until she has the time to overthink her every option and place the ‘new thing’ into a box that she can either ignore or schedule to fit her life. There’s a certain camaraderie with Nina for those of us who are more introverts than normal, who love books and reading, and would (if pushed) read the same book over and over again if nothing new caught our eye. She’s got her favorites that are all “mood dependent”, and her relationship with her boss Liz, her co-worker Polly and the customers that come into King’s Bookshop where she works are intriguing – even they are trying to get her to ‘let go’ of her over-organized life and be spontaneous.

But, as Nina says, “I’d rather be home reading”. A sentiment I can fully get behind as Nina and I use books in the same way: to explore other people, places and options, all while being transported away from where we are, or to those places that feel happier and simpler. But things are getting more complicated for Nina by the second: her competitors in the “Trivia League” are closing in on them, and their captain: gorgeous, arresting and obviously Sports aware is intriguing, even though she doesn’t want him to be. If that’s not enough to throw a spanner in the works, she is visited by a lawyer who has a bequest from the father she never knew about, and there’s a TON of family that comes along with the information. None of the family knew of Nina, and she didn’t know about them – and it’s just one more thing that she ‘wondered’ about as a kid, but never really thought was possible for her.

What emerges is Nina trying to ‘acclimate’ to the news, with a nephew that is wonderfully accepting and takes her though the family connections, to an older brother (in utero when her mother and father had their moment) who is surprisingly like her, and all of the other ‘emotions’ one might expect from a family who has suddenly discovered your existence. From laugh out loud moments to her attempts to ‘figure out’ just why people act the way they do without her books, and her budding relationship with Tom, captain of the rival team, Nina’s plate is pretty full. Waxman details Nina’s philosophies, her reading and even her anxiety in ways that make you want to be her new best friend – with hours of ‘quiet co-reading’, coffee, tea, snacks and plenty of comfy socks. There’s so much happening in this book that it gives Nina no time to ‘process’ the information as she normally would, and the changes in her, as well as her commitment to the books she loves, the store and her dogged determination to keep her life “sane if lonely” is a lovely story and one that many readers can relate to on one level or another. Easy to read, funny and heartwarming, this is a book to grab and enjoy, particularly if you are a ‘reader’ who devours everything around them, usually multiple times.

I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

Review first appeared at <a href=” https://wp.me/p3OmRo-atc /” > <a> I am, Indeed </a>

Coming out July 9th, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman is an adorable novel. The protagonist, Nina, is a woman in her late twenties who works at a bookstore and loves to be alone (except for the presence of her cat Phil, of course). Her favorite pastime is to curl up with a good book. This is evident the moment people step in to her apartment and see her vast collection of books. Nina feels that she is living the life until she is introduced to an entire family she didn't know she had as well as a potential new love interest. Now, overwhelmed with people, Nina struggles to find a balance and realizes her life may have not been as perfect as she once thought.

This is a quick, light read that is perfect for the beach or just a little down time. If you are looking for a book to read and simply enjoy without a whole lot of thought I suggest you grab this in July, 2019. It was a fun read!

Thank you to NetGalley, Berkley Books, and Abbi Waxman for an ARC ebook copy to review. As always, an honest review from me.

Like:
- Too cute but there’s definitely some adult content at times (not too much)
- Lots of trivia games
- Socially anxious, planner and overall funny person — sums up the main character, Nina Hill

Love:
- Relatable for all bookish nerds like me!
- The colorful, fun cover
- Such an enjoyable read … I cannot get enough of it (an actual note I wrote to myself while reading)
- Sarcastic and witty
- Shows that people like her can have a love life. There’s hope for people who don’t fit the typical extroverted, supermodel beauty, perfect life societal ideal.

Dislike:
- Some of Nina’s extended family — I don’t see the reason they need to be so rude to her. Luckily it doesn’t take up much of the book or create too much tension.

Wish that:
- Nina could better explain to people why she needs to be alone when dealing with a lot of anxiety, post panic attack, or a day that required too much socialization. I absolutely understand that this can be very difficult, but this perspective and explanation could also be very validating for others who struggle with anxiety and/or an introvert. It’s also a great way to educate others, who can’t relate to Nina, as to the frustrating life moments that Nina and so many others experience.

Overall, this book is why I love reading. Thank you to the author for bringing me such joy while reading The Bookish Life of Nina Hill. The book has truly been the highlight of my week … well, besides all the cats I’ve also gotten to pet. I’m sure Nina Hill would agree with that one!

4.5 STARS!

Such a fun read, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman is an adorable and heartwarming novel!

Nina Hill is quirky, sarcastic, and an introvert. She lives in a small apartment with her cat, Phil and works at a bookstore. Nina doesn't have much of a relationship with her mother as she was basically raised by her nanny, Louise. Nina is also imaginative. She gets lost in the stories she reads and loves, which is what all bookworms do. Soon, Nina uncovers that her deceased father (whom she never met) made her a beneficiary in his will. She also discovers she has brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces and even great-nephews/nieces. She finds what she's always longed for... A family. Along the way Nina also finds love.

Abbi Waxman takes us on a journey throughout this novel. A journey of self-discovery through Nina's eyes. One in which she battles anxiety and has to realize she doesn't have to be alone to feel content. This journey allows Nina to grow and come into herself. The only fault I found was there were moments that the plot felt a bit rushed, and I'm that person that always wants more in a story... especially from the secondary characters. Regardless, it was a joy watching Nina live outside her books for once!

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill was brilliantly witty and at times emotional. I enjoyed it 100%! It was small parts romance and bit of angst, but overall this book leaned more towards women's fiction. Without question, this novel will captivate you and make you laugh. If you're a fellow bookworm like myself and Nina Hill then this is a must read!


*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Berkley through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.*

Nina tends to live her life through books - she works in a bookstore, is captain of a trivia team, loves to organize her life, although rarely does anything of not happen, and is actually almost quite content. Her mother is deceased and Nina has no idea who her father is, but she is soon to find out - he knew about her and has included her in his will, much to disgust of some of her siblings and their offspring. A truly fun book..

I absolutely loved this book. It was very sweet, without being to syrupy. The characters were likeable while the story was a little on the predictable side, it was entertaining. I found myself really rooting for the main character, Nina Hill.

"Some people take energy; some people give energy...Occasionally, you get lucky and find someone whose energy balances your own and brings you into neutral."

Any book with "bookish" in the title immediately has my attention. The premise got me even more though. A quiet bookstore clerk that loves trivia and has always known life as the only child of a single mom discovers who her dad is (although he's now deceased) and that she has ample brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, and even great-nieces and nephews? I'm in!

This book had me laughing out loud from the very beginning and the book references made this little book nerd so happy. The dialogue is to die for and Nina is hilarious, especially when she's not trying to be (which is all the time...). She talks to her cat, fills her head with the most useless trivia, and tends to stick her foot in her mouth more often than not. Her conversations with her friends (from her book club and trivia team! is she me?) focus on dating, dick pics, and random facts. I found myself constantly highlights quotes because they kept making me giggle. I'm actually surprised the whole book isn't highlighted.

As funny as this book is, it also deals a lot with anxiety. Nina may be quirky and fun but her anxiety is never far away. Meeting unknown family members out of the blue creates new reasons for Nina's anxiety to make an appearance but they also help her realize there are other people like her out there. As she grows, she learns to let other people in. And the people that come into Nina's life are certainly worth keeping. All of the characters, and of course Nina's inner dialogue about them, were superb.

This is the book for all book lovers, trivia nerds, and those dealing with anxiety. Basically, it's the perfect bookstagram book!

This was a cute story, I adored Nina, I could totally relate to her.I find the story interesting,fun and fast paced.This is defiitely for all the book lovers.I like the writing a lot and I find myself hooked, I literaly devour it in one sitting.

Nina's life will change the moment she learns that her father she never knew has died and she has a whole new family. This isn't easy for her , she has to go out of her cofortable zone.
It was an enjoyable read and I liked all the characters.