3 1/2 Caffeinated Stars!

I wish I loved this book as much as I loved the description. When I read the description, I know this book was going to be perfect for me. I related so much to Nina, and within the first few chapters, I was prepared to give this book Five Caffeinated Stars because it was incredibly witty and fun. I loved the banter that Nina and Liz had, and I understood Nina's anxiety. Unfortunately, this book didn't live up to the first few chapters.

After a couple of chapters, I just stopped feeling that connection to the book. As much as I should have related to Nina, I just couldn't. I never felt the link to any of the characters because we never really saw/experienced their emotions. We were just told how they felt, which didn't give me any connection. Though I didn't find a kinship with the characters, I did enjoy them. There were plenty of witty comebacks & it was fun to see them interact.

Something that I loved about this book was the story. It felt unique, and I appreciated many of the plot points. I will say that at times, it felt as if the author took the easy way out of any of the conflicts. I would have liked to see the characters overcome their obstacles. There is something beautiful about seeing character growth, and I didn't see much of it in this book.

Though I didn't love this book, I enjoyed it. It was a quick read that kept me entertained. The characters are interesting, and the plot was fun. If this book sounds like something you would love, I say give it a chance. There was great potential in this book, but with a lack of connection with the characters, it just wasn't my favorite.

Nina has never known her Father and her Mother left her to a nanny to be raised. Nina has wondered who her Father is all her life. She gets a visit one day from her Father’s attorney, he has died and she is in his will. Suddenly she finds she has all sorts of family she never knew about.

This is a quirky book that feels like chic lit. I had trouble keeping interested in the story, which is the main reason for a 3* rating. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.

Such a sweet, softly funny, and utterly relatable book. I adored Nina! She was a shy bookworm who struggles to keep her anxiety in check through obsessive scheduling, reading, and conversations with her cat Phil. Wouldn’t most of us rather read than engage in life with actual people?

But Nina begins to wonder, after meeting cute and funny fellow trivia player Tom, whether she isn’t taking her reading and anti-people tendencies a little too far. Just when she convinced herself to get more outside of her comfort zone, life throws her a serous curveball and her anxiety flares up again.

With a wonderful motley crew of side characters, some funny trivia scenes, scattered book references, and the delightful characters of Tom and Nina, this book takes the reader on such a fun journey! I want to be on Nina’s trivia team!

Thank you Netgalley and Berkeley for my advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

Billed as a quirky romantic comedy, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill certainly is that, but it also fell into chick-lit a bit. I think all readers will agree that a protagonist that works is a bookstore is a character after our own hearts. And that was certainly true for Nina.But there is where I found her quirky adorableness ended. Many of her thoughts and dialogue bothered me. Yes, it was quirky. But sometimes it was just a little much. There is also a lot of pop cultural references which I am sure many will love, but again, sometimes I felt the amount of them was a little much.

Well, I really wanted to love this book, but it ended up being only okay for me. That said, I'm sure it's going to be very popular and my opinion is probably in the minority!

One sentence summary: Nina is a loner and book lover who finds a long-lost family and a love interest all at the same time., throwing her simple life upside down.

The book was very witty and reminded me of Gilmore Girls. The conversations were very rapid-fire and the pop-culture references and cultural observations were non-stop. It was fun to read Nina's thoughts and think, "hey, I never knew other people noticed that!" I could see it being adapted for film at some point.

Several things kept me from rating it higher, but they're more personal things that may not bother another reader at all. First, I think it'd be better in first person point of view. The narration kept me from getting into the book- we're in Nina's mind so much, just let her tell the story! Second, I just didn't really care for the characters that much. Nina, Tom, Peter, and Archie are cute, but I never really got invested in their stories (or anyone else's). Other characters pop up, but really don't have much to do, like her trivia teammates. It just didn't really flow for me, I guess.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Twenty-nine year old Nina Hill has lived a fairly singular life. Her single mother thought she didn’t need to know anything about her father and then proceeded to leave Nina in the care of a wonderful nanny until she left for college. Nina relies on herself, her books, and her planner to keep her life in order. Her very organized life is upended when she finds herself with a new family courtesy of the father she never met. Abbi Waxman’s novel is about what can happen if Nina can get past the anxiety and open herself to change and a wonderful new path in life. Nina might just find people who “get her” and even like her. I enjoyed The Bookish Life of Nina Hill and was delighted to see a few characters from Waxman’s first novel, The Garden of Small Beginnings, make an appearance. Recommended to fans of the author and easy, breezy novels you could read in a day.

Anxiety-prone Nina Hill is doing just fine in life, with her carefully detailed planner, small circle of friends, book clubs, and trivia nights. When a lawyer shows up at her LA bookstore job to tell her that her father has died, Nina didn't even know his name, let alone that he knew she existed. Suddenly she's inherited a messy, complicated family of siblings, nieces and nephews, and multiple stepmothers. With her life thrown into chaos, she definitely doesn't have time for Tom, the cute, sporty, trivia rival who seems to be interested in her.

What a delightful book. Waxman has a witty sense of humor, and I kept laughing aloud at Nina's quirky thoughts. The narrative may be a little too twee for some readers, and all kid/teen characters are unrealistically precocious, but overall it was a fun, satisfying read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishing house for providing an advanced copy for review. All thoughts and opinions are my own!

I am calling this wonderful novel, the perfect love letter to a bookworm. The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, is all about Nina's book-filled existence and what happens when major life events began to interfere with her carefully scheduled day.

Nina has her day arranged exactly as she likes it from working at the bookstore during the day, to leading multiple book clubs for readers of all ages, to participating in her local trivia team. If she has any free time at all, she blocks that time off just to catch up on her reading.

Her mother has never told her about her father so it is a complete surprise when she gets a call that her father has passed away and included her in his will. Not only does she find out that she had a father, but she also finds out she has MULTIPLE siblings from his different marriages. For someone who is introverted, the overwhelm is huge.

Not only that, her trivia nemesis is turning out to be the guy of her dreams. Unfortunately, her life is just too busy to squeeze him in. I mean...books.

Waxman cleverly leads chapters with Nina's handwritten daily agendas and to-do list, which gives you a little snapshot into how much these major life events are sending her world into a spin.  Nina's struggle to evolve and open up to others is addressed with so much heart and humor that you will find yourself smiling a lot through these pages.

I am a bit of a Nina and, truly, have never felt more understood.

This one will definitely be making my top ten list of 2019 and is worthy of a little book splurge for your summer!

This book was a fun read. Nina is a very relatable character and I felt myself rooting for her throughout the book. In the story Nina's perfectly planned life goes off the rails when she learns that she has a family she never knew about. Add a guy into the mix, and Nina suddenly has a lot to deal with! I recommend this book to anyone that's looking for a quick, funny, and witty story!

Nina is an introvert; she is perfectly happy with her life. She has a small apartment,a cat named Phil and works in a bookstore. Nina loves books and enjoys life through the books she reads. Her life is upended by news that her father ,which she never knew, has died and she has a whole stepfamily of people who want to get to know her.
This is a touching story and a very enjoyable read. The plotting and characterizations are on point. How will Nina cope with this instant family??? -she wants to curl up in a corner and ignore them , but that's not going to happen.

This story was both hilarious and touching. Nina Hill is 29 and perfectly content with her life. She plans it all out in detail in her daily planner and she fills it with her work at a local bookstore, trivia contests with her friends, movies, and most of all reading. Her carriage house apartment is filled with books!

But her ideal life hits a snag when she learns that the father she never met has died and left her something in his will. He has also gifted her with three sisters and one brother, nieces and nephews, and even great-nieces and nephews. From a family which consisted of an absent, globe-trotting photographer for a mother to a multitude is quite an adjustment for anxiety-prone Nina.

And then there is the man she is interested in who plays for another trivia team. Tom is interested in her too but both being nerdy makes it hard for them to get together. But it does lead to hilarious interactions for the reader.

I loved Nina's interactions with her friends. I loved that she got to know a nephew and a brother that she never knew she had. I liked that her world was expanding and she was coping with all the changes. I loved Nina who had always been happier alone and lost in her books but who is opening up enough to add in more people to her life.

I read this one in one evening and would have read it even faster except I had to keep setting the book down to wipe away the tears of laughter that made it hard to see the print. Highly recommended!

4.5 stars

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill was such a quirky and fun read. The writing hooked me right from the start and really drew me into the story. The Los Angeles setting was a wonderful surprise, and I loved seeing all of the different locations and references, especially the book store where Nina worked. I have actually visited this store (which is cleverly called Knight's in the book) and I cackled several times at the author's hilariously accurate descriptions of the area and different LA-isms.

Book lovers will identify and relate a lot to Nina. She sometimes came across as a socially awkward book snob, but I still found her character very endearing. She's living what she considers to be a wonderful life, but as the book progresses we see that that life isn't quite as fulfilling as she believed it to be. Though there is romance in the book, I really feel like the main love story is between Nina and herself. She's coming into her own, accepting, growing, making mistakes, and adapting to all the new things and people in her life. Considering her world got turned completely upside down, I felt like she responded really well.

I loved the colorful cast of characters that we meet throughout the book, especially Peter, Lydia, and how cute was Tom? He complemented Nina well, but I would have liked a little more time spent on establishing and building their connection. There is a little bit of drama, and I feel like Tom overreacted, but I also liked that he wasn't a doormat and knew what he wanted. The resolution to their drama was perfect though and left me with a huge smile on my face. Overall, this was a fantastic novel and I definitely plan to read more from this author.

*I voluntarily read an advance review copy of this book*

I enjoyed reading this book. I kept wanting to pick it up and keep reading. I love its love for books and reading and the media references throughout. The bookstore and neighborhood were lovely settings. I also appreciated the accuracy and sensitivity of the writing about anxiety. There were enough good plot twists to make the book somewhat unpredictable. What I didn't like was the characterization of only children and small families as being not enough or less than. The main character's family situation is highly unusual since her mom is mostly absent, but the writing extended to only children in general far more than I thought was necessary. I also didn't really like the love interest. I think the author was trying to show that people don't have to share their priorities and hobbies to work as a couple, but I also didn't understand what the couple really did have in common other than a physical attraction. I also didn't like the suggestion that the main character had to choose between reading and people and that people were the better choice. And I wasn't really interested in some of the ramblings of the main character's thoughts and the jokes weren't that great which I attribute to the author's writing style which is just not a great match for me.

Chick Lit is one of my least favorite genres, but a friend just recently raved to me about Abbi Waxman, so I thought I'd give this one a try. The writing is chatty and colloquial, with frequent bits of some biting wit tossed in for good measure. The story is a cute modern fairy tale where shy girl born to outgoing, world-traveling single Mom discovers family she never knew she had at the same time her trivia team loses, her bookstore is bought out, she finds love and, you guys! IT'S ALL TOO MUCH FOR HER!

I am 100% certain this will be a hit with women looking for a light summer read. It's great fun.

I really wanted to love this book, but it really fell short of my expectations. As a librarian, I felt like I should have loved this story, but I didn't. It was all over the place.... family issues, anxiety, relationship woes, a food fight, pot-infused make-up. Just too much going on and too many characters. There were a lot of storylines that weren't really developed well. The author tried to do too much.

And, why did Tom keep focusing on how small Nina is? It was like a weird fetish for him. And, Nina was very uncharacteristically casual about having sex with Tom. For someone with so much anxiety and an almost compulsive need to plan, it was very odd for her to be so open to random sex. Also, why is the cat talking? Why? The characters in this book just don't make sense to me. There were simply to many characters for the length of the book, so the characters lack depth.

There were definitely some funny conversations and witty remarks. But, overall, it was cheesy. And, I think it will only appeal to a very small audience.

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill is one of those books that you read and feel like you know Nina so well. I understood Nina Hill to an alarming degree but that was mostly because of my own bookish life and desire to be left alone. This book is charming, relatable, and hilarious. I highly recommend for book clubs, rainy days, or that day during the week you book nothing so that you can just read.

Delightfully bookish romcom that leads more women's fiction than straight romance. I had some minor issues with the pacing, but a fun and compelling slump buster of a read.

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill is a story I think all bookworms can relate to in some form or another. I really enjoyed the story, Nina's character, the family dynamic, and I am 100% obsessed with this amazing cover!

Nina is in her late 20's and is a self proclaimed bookworm. She has a calendar filled up with things like trivia dates and 'free time' ie- reading and works at a book store. She's introverted and is happiest when around books. When Nina finds out her father, who she never knew, passed away and left her something, shes's shocked. She's also shocked when she finds out he comes from a huge family and she has a brother, sisters, nephews, and nieces. It was always just Nina and her mom (more like Nina and her beloved nanny) and she doesn't know how to feel about all this.

Among everything going on in the family, the bookstore she works at is having trouble financially and one of her trivia rivals who she's been interested in for the longest time asks her out. There is a lot on Nina's plate and she feels extremely overwhelmed. I loved Nina and Tom's relationship and rooted for them. I also liked watching Nina interact with this new family she was a part of and seeing how she fit in with them.

Even though Nina is near 30, this is very much a story about self discovery. Watching Nina grow and come into her own was a wonderful thing. This book is part romance, part chick lit, and part cont. fiction. I truly enjoyed it and recommend it to everyone who wants to read about someone who loves books as much as they do!!

I absolutely loved The Bookish Life of Nina Hill. As a book lover, I immediately felt drawn into Nina's world. She was a kindred spirit. I highlighted so many quotes on my Kindle in this book. I was totally caught up in the story and I couldn't wait to see how Nina's story would play out. Well-written and lots of fun.

I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley and I am voluntarily sharing my thoughts.

A bookish book with a bookish title for bookish people. This story was just good fun. You may have to ignore the pesky, practical questions in your head like, "how does Nina live in LA on what I imagine is a tiny salary from her job working as an independent book store employee?" but if you can successfully do that you'll probably enjoy this delightful book. I enjoyed the quirky, peripheral characters but could have used a little more development of Nina's relationships with her newfound family members. All in all this was a enjoyable, quick read and anyone with a love of books, office supplies and trivia will find a kindred spirit in Nina.