I loved this book! Shauna Robinson perfectly captured that mid 20's feeling that you get when you're sire your life is going nowhere. Nora is incredibly relatable. As a book lover, I could totally identify with her and her desire to be around books. I loved the chemistry between Nora and her author, and found the narrative to be delightfully propulsive and entertaining. This book is a total treat and I look forward to ordering it for our library and recommending it to our patrons.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC. Must Love Books contains the backdrop that bibliophiles will find comfortable to slip into as they read. The love of all things books is woven throughout. The novel however, is so much more than a cute book backdrop.

Must Love Books finds our main character, Nora, struggling to make ends meet in a job she once loved. That struggle reveals her lifelong battle with depression and her quest to find her happiness again. Nora's description of how depression crept up on her like a creature rearing its ugly head was insightful. I found myself hoping Nora would be able to see her potential and embrace all that was good around her. This is a story of friendships, romance, growth, and courage. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from this author.

This was a charming story about a young professional who has lost her drive and wants to move on. When the publishing world fails her, she tries to adapt and change. With hiccups along the way Nora finds herself.

A smart, witty book about Nora, a young lady who is at a crossroads in her life. Her current job at a book publisher hasn’t turned out to be what she’d hoped and is getting worse by the day. Then she meets an author, Andrew Santos, and things start to get really interesting. The dialogue between these two is wonderful. Also, Nora’s journey to increase her happiness is totally charming. She makes the best decisions she can at the moment, is not always right, but is always learning and moving forward in her quest. A fun, intelligent read. This book is not scheduled to be published until next year and I already can’t wait for Shauna Robinson’s next novel. Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read and review an advance copy of this book.

I enjoyed this book. I would add a warning that there is talk of suicide and suicide ideation for those that may be triggered by such things. Even with that, I enjoyed the accurate portrayal of the issue and "darkness" Nora feels for a good chunk of the book. As someone with depression, I can relate to some of the things she was experiencing, thinking, and feeling.

Nora Hughes has been at her editorial assistant job for five years and has become frustrated with her lack of upward mobility and her measly salary. All of her favorite colleagues and mentors have moved on to other positions, and Nora has become disillusioned with the publishing industry, which is unfortunate, as books have always been her FAVORITE thing. When Nora receives a pay cut, she chooses to take on some freelance work for a competing publishing house and her web of lies and deceit begins to take its toll. Eventually, everything comes crashing down and Nora is forced to take a good hard look at herself and begin to figure out what she truly wants to do with her life.

I think most of us can identify with the feeling of being a young adult and not quite knowing what career path you want to take in life. I know I certainly can. I started as an elementary school teacher and ended up deciding it wasn’t for me, went to law school and now practice law. The feeling of hopelessness as you’re floundering around trying to figure things out is all too familiar. The author did a wonderful job of capturing that feeling of despair and the panicked feeling one feels when half-truths (or full-on lies) explode in your face. I thought this would be a light-hearted read, but for me it turned out to be a novel that really made me consider, even now, what additional things I might want to do with my own life. There were points in the book where I literally broke a sweat and bit my nails as I empathized with Nora and her plight. There were also some dark points where I wasn’t sure where this book was going to end up. This was a poignant, realistic story that I truly enjoyed.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I will publish this review to my book blog, Goodreads and Amazon closer to the publication date.

I totally expected a cheese-fest in this book, but instead got sweet and a lot of heart.
Nora is an editorial assistant at Parson's publishing in San Francisco. She's always wanted to work with books, but didn't imagine she would still be in this role five years after she started. Budget cuts and redundancies in the company means Norma's job is hanging by a thread, and it forces her to reevaluate what she wants to do with her life, with some very awkward encounters on the way!
This book isn't perfect; it took me a while to warm to Nora as a character, but once I saw a more real side to her that helped. By the end I was very much invested in what was going to happen to her! Overall though, an enjoyable and easy read.

I've been looking forward to this book since the author pitched it on Twitter! A book set in the world of publishing? Yes please! The premise drew me in and I was not disappointed with the finished product.

Nora is such a relatable protagonist and I really felt for her as circumstances with her editorial assistant job took a turn for the worst and kept turning. And I understood why she made the decisions she did even if they were misguided. Her struggles felt so real and I was saddened by unhappy she was with her life. I admired the steps she took to try to increase her happiness level. Finally, the love interest was dreamy - sensitive and caring but with a backbone. This book had its sad moments, specifically related to thoughts of suicide, but there was enough humor and witty dialogue to keep it generally light. I look forward to reading what Shauna Robinson has next for us.

I did not finish this book. I was so excited by the blurb, but I just felt bored while reading it. I couldn't connect to it at all.

Thanks to NetGalley for this preview!

This book was cute but a little slow and I liked the characters but also felt like there were lots of side characters that were tricky to keep track of. Nora's mental illness comments and depression really should have been addressed by a medical professional but it seemed like everyone she reached out to glossed over the issues. I knew that Nora's double job plan would explode at some point but the climax was very interesting and well written. The romance aspect for me was just fine.

This is a book made for book lovers and for those of us who got our "dream" job, which didn't turn out to be everything we thought it would be. As someone in my mid 20's who is currently living my 13 year old self's dream but not actually enjoying it, this book came into my life at the perfect time. I really enjoyed it and learned a hard lesson along with our main character, Nora.

1⭐️ - DNF at 20%

I wanted to enjoy this book because I love books about publishing/writers/bookish things but this book did not do it for me. At least the 20% that I read didn’t.

Firstly, I think the synopsis and the blurb are a bit misleading. I thought this would be more of a cute romance but it’s mostly women’s fiction I would say.

Secondly, this had such a slow start that I was struggling to stay focused while reading it. Nothing about Nora was making me want to continue reading even without the romance aspect of it.

From other reviews I have read, there is a bit of romance in this but by 20% our heroine only interacted with the hero twice. And both times were short, work related and pretty meaningless.

I think this is more down to a personal preference, I thought this book was a romance and it’s not so unfortunately I will not continue reading this.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with the ARC for this book in exchange for my honest review.

Nora finds herself 5 years into the same job overworked, underpaid, and unsure of her direction in life. She has friends who are moving up in careers, a client that will make or break a promotion, and a lot of secrets.

Shauna Robinson had me hooked from the beginning with romance, character relatability, and a great pace to finish this book reading for the next.

I ran the gamut of emotions from "FUCK THIS IS MY LIFE HOW DOES SHE KNOW" to "OOOOH I LOVE A GOOD ROMANCE" to "Holy shit this book just got deep" to "Too deep? Kinda scary." To "Omggg I love everyone right now."

It made me want to 1. Figure my life out and get a new job ASAP and then
2. Grab random people and demand they read it so we can talk.

I love it when that happens.

This is a VERY slow read! Painstakingly slow!

I enjoyed parts of this story. I liked the main character Nora and the struggle she went through. It was candid and real and could be anyone.

The story was too slow for my taste. I like a slow burn but this novel took it to a whole other level. I also didn’t feel attached to any of the characters.

If you want a woman’s fiction that pits a woman’s will to provide for herself against getting the dream job she wants and a slow burn then give this a go.

I received an ARC from netgalley for my honest opinion

I expected this to be a light hearted rom-com title. Though there is romance, it’s much more about finding your way forward in life, not getting trapped, finding your passions and what is fulfilling. Throw in some romance and friendships, a good read.

There’s been a recent wave of books about publishing (very meta, I know), but I always find myself interested in all of them. The premise of this book piqued my interest, so I added it immediately. Must Love Books navigates the difficulty of realizing your dream job is not as great as it initially seemed and subsequently finding a new dream.

When Nora Hughes landed an editorial assistant position at Parsons, she was overjoyed to be working with books. Now, years later, she’s burned out after juggling duties of multiple jobs after multiple waves of cuts. When her pay is cut, she decides to freelance at another publisher secretly, figuring she’s already handling multiple duties so what’s a couple more? Then she’s tasked with getting Andrew Santos, a bestselling Parsons author, to resign and she suddenly finds herself enjoying her job. But between her two jobs and now Andrew, she finds her loyalty torn.

I should begin this review by stating that while this book has a romance, the romance is not the main part and also (spoiler! sorry) does not technically end with them together. Thus, by definition, this book isn’t in the romance genre. I still enjoyed this book, but I feel like people should know this going in.

The romance was cute though! Nora finds herself more open with Andrew, able to joke with and tease him when she can’t find joy anywhere else. He’s also very supportive of Nora throughout the story, helping her begin her journey towards happiness. Beth, Nora’s friend and former co-worker, also helps Nora throughout the story a lot as well.

Must Love Books mainly focuses, however, on Nora’s character growth. A joking conversation with Andrew leads her to realize that she’s not happy but doesn’t quite know how to break out of it. She’s struggling with her two jobs, partially because both are so open-ended about her future, and completely unsure about where to start to get out of what has become a persistent depression. Nora always thought that being an editor was her dream job, but now she’s stuck in her role as an editorial assistant, she doesn’t know what she wants out of life anymore.

As you might have seen in the content warnings I list for this book, there are some thoughts of suicide. These are mostly abstract thoughts, and not anything Nora acts upon, but seeing the depth of her unhappiness emphasized her eventual road to happiness. I was glad to see her finally reach out to other people, namely Andrew and Beth, who help her begin to find what makes her happy. This book really emphasized that happiness is not something you have to accomplish, something that once you have, you will always hold onto. I really liked part of the author’s conversation at the end of the book on happiness and working towards it.

This book also depicts publishing in a way I haven’t really seen before. Part of Nora’s love-hate relationship with publishing was how everything was centered around how much money a book would bring in, in addition to the constant job cuts, forcing multiple roles on her with less money and leading to her burnout. We also see her and Andrew bond over being people of color (half-Black and Filipino-American, respectively) in a white-dominated industry.

While not the romance I expected, Must Love Books was still a heartfelt book, navigating the truth of dreams and the happiness they bring with them. I enjoyed the romance and particularly loved the character arc throughout the story. If you enjoy Suzanne Park’s books and/or Honey Girl, you should check out Must Love Books!

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was so excited to read this debut by Shauna Robinson - a book about books and the publishing industry! It was a cute story, though it went deep periodically, especially around the main character's struggle with mental health. I appreciated reading about a younger person in publishing trying to figure out her career desires while working in a mostly thankless position at a publisher whose books she does not love. It was fun "insider baseball" about publishing, but I felt like it was overdone and dragged the pacing of the story down a bit. Little things bugged me - she was so worried about not having enough money for rent with the financial cuts at work, but she kept eating out and buying books even while complaining. I struggled with many of her choices, but I still wanted to finish the book and see what she decided to do. A fun book, though not amazing.

This book is really relatable! With the main character in a low paying job that she hates and also suffering depression which is so damn common in this day and age. I think it’s a wonderful story that a lot of readers will be able to relate to and enjoy. I’ve very grateful for being granted an advanced reading copy of this title and will definitely be recommending it to customers at my store.

After the initial pages, I found myself not connecting with the story or characters, so I decided to pass on this book. Did not finish