Must Love Books follows Nora, a young editorial assistant at Parsons Press. Nora spends her days doing administrative tasks and reading through business books, longing for more. She was so sure she wanted to work with books, but Parsons Press has started to ruin books for her. After having her pay cut, a series of event unfolds and Nora spirals, struggling with her mental health.

Must Love Books got my attention straight away, because I love books about publishing and editing. It held my attention because of the beautiful and honest way it addressed mental health. Shauna Robinson does an incredible job of discussing Nora's suicidal ideations, providing metaphors and outlining her journey towards a happier life.

The romance in this book was perfect, Andrew was supportive and caring, willing to help Nora with her journey to improving her happiness. I liked that their chemistry developed naturally.

Overall I think this is a great book, I would recommend this to lovers of YA and contemporary.

I received this book via Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Thank you SourceBooks & Netgalley!

This was a really enjoyable “ happily ever after romance” where the HEA is accepting yourself and being true to it and the romance is loving and working on yourself. I liked Nora’s openness and honesty with her own mental health and how it affected her in all of her relationships. She made mistakes but also recognized her need to fix them and to give herself time to be in a place to accept the direction she was going in in her life. Books with new perspectives on romance catch my eye and this was such a delight to me!

Must Love Books is layered and interesting, it went in a different direction than I was anticipating but I enjoyed it! While it was hard to live these lies with Nora, I appreciated the growth that she stepped into at the end of the book.

Books like this help destigmatize talking about mental health can help articulate what people go through which is needed and important. I do wish the story itself had a bit more to it as it was a little predictable. Overall, I would recommend it!

This is a charming novel that I found really hard to put down!

I adored Nora but I was screaming at her (in my head) in a lot of this book - I think that will be a theme for most readers. We saw the writing on the wall so to say. The book is still enjoyable as it's real life - there's many people we know are in their own way but we can't stop them from making their lives implode.

Still, I found this book very enjoyable and I'd recommend it to a friend!

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for an eARC copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

This book wasn't quite what I expected. It is a light, enjoyable read about a young woman trying to find her path with a lot of twists and turns along the way. Although it was really obvious that Nora's two jobs were going to collide and she was going to lose both, I did enjoy the leadup to it. Overall, I loved watching Nora figure out what she wanted to do. The ending was unexpected and perfect for this book.

Phew, lots of thoughts and feelings on this one.

My mother once joked that I’m the best liar of her children, and I think that’s why books with people juggling more than one or two BIG lies—lies that require upkeep—always give me a small dose of anxiety. They’re always bad at it. They have to be, I suppose, for purposes of the inevitable Great Unraveling towards the end. If they were good at it, I don't imagine it wouldn’t make for a very interesting read. I expect the guilt, the build of tension as the lies keep piling on, the paranoia. This is essentially the tight spot in which our heroine Nora has found herself entangled, accepting a part-time job from a rival company where her former boss for her current company currently works. Confusing? Let me break it down a little bit.

Nora's in a bit of a slump. She nearing her five-year anniversary as an Editorial Assistant at Parsons. Except coming up on the anniversary, she's feeling nowhere closer to her dream of being a fiction editor than she was five years ago, and to make a bad situation worse, her salary's just taken another 15% hit courtesy of some slimy higher-ups-in-the-New York-office executive budget cutting (my words, not hers). Desperate times and desperate measures and all that, Nora quietly takes on a part-time freelance gig at a rival publishing company. It becomes an uncomfortable balancing act on her part, keeping her Weber and Parsons careers from collision. There's room for growth on either side, if she plays her cards right. "Her cards" here being hotshot bestselling author Andrew Santos.

I've got to say, I'm surprised at the number of people who have called this book lighthearted. I blame the cover, which is misleadingly bright and happy-looking. Yes, it is a romance at its core, but it also deals with a lot of difficult topics including the main plot, which seems to be Nora's job dissatisfaction contributing to an unsettling cycle of depression and anxiety, plus the general anxiety that comes with the uncertainty of the future, being a woman of color in an extremely white industry, and Nora's jadedness in the stagnancy of a job where the only change she's seen has been the burden of her expanded workload in the wake of layoffs, and a substantial pay cut. When you're in a situation like that, it can be really hard to look ahead with any sort of substantial hope for the future. I don't know that her banter with Andrew is enough for me to agree with "lighthearted" as a descriptor, but maybe that's just me.

I’m at a point in my life right now where I both have a lot and nothing at all going on. I’ve just turned 26 (a year younger than Nora), moved to a new city in a new state, and I don’t have any husbands, boyfriends, children, pets, or plants to care for, or to care for me. I’m in between work and am struggling to break into the publishing industry (though this book has me reconsidering that path a little bit. Yikes). There’s been a lot of looking back and a lot of anxiety-inducing attempts to look ahead while keeping my chin up. There’s a stagnancy, and a weird sense of urgency as well.

So when at the beginning she’s interviewing a girl with the same stars in her eyes that Nora had five years prior, and has a running inner monologue of, “yeah honey I was like you once, but then I learned and now my best work friend is leaving and my job makes me very sad,” and so on, I had a very fast and immediate rush of understanding for her. I remember thinking I just needed to keep turning pages because I thought there would be a super happy ending where everything falls together ~just so~ for her, and that was kind of what I needed to soothe the initially overwhelming and pessimistic feelings I was having.

But here's the thing: everything does eventually, inevitably, come to a head, and Nora has spent the entire novel on the razor's edge of anxiety trying to navigate her web of lies into a favorable outcome for herself and it just...didn't really work for me I guess?

It ended somewhat bittersweetly, but I think quite realistically. Maybe it's something where what you put into it is what you get out of it. It's not happily ever after, necessarily, but it's promising. And maybe that's what this novel probably needed. Everything isn't perfect and easy and just-so, but there's a lot of promise and it ends with her feeling hopeful for the first time in probably five years.

All that aside, it was good. I loved Andrew, but to be honest he was the only one who really made a strong impression on me. Everyone else felt a little faceless, including Nora who was a bit bland, but that also might have been an intentional characterization. Depression robs so much of your identity and Nora is very clearly depressed. Her situation and struggles resonated with me, but there were several times I was questioning whether I liked her, or if I just really wanted to and was willing to overlook things to achieve that connection. But I loved that the author called out the whiteness of publishing, I loved that there was the dive deep into mental illness because books like this one are what we need to start dismantling the stigma of mental illness—especially the notion that high-functioning mental illness is somehow less valid, and that it gave a glimpse of what it looks like and feels like when you can't allow yourself to not be present and active even when your brain is actively working against you—and I loved Andrew Santos, period. All in all, not a bad read. I'll almost certainly pick up Shauna Robinson's next novel, but as for this one I feel like the story I was hoping for was actually a sequel where things are really looking up, which is ultimately not this novel's fault.

I might end up revisiting this review. I'm not sure I really got to the heart of what's bothering me about it, but that's the gist. Three out of five.

Thank you muchly to NetGalley, Sourcebooks, and Shauna Robinson for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I think I was hoping for more of a romance story when reading this. While there was a taste, it was not what I was expecting. The story was good, just wanted a bit more.

Great book! Loved it and hope Shauna writes more! Loved how the main character navigated hard choices and loved seeing into the publishing world and struggles we’ve all had in the early career days. Definitely would recommend!

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the ARC, in exchange of an honest review.

Such a feel good debut this is.
Watching Nora & her struggles was emotionally tiring & heartbreaking.

I could relate to her so much, her character felt genuine, raw and believable.
For someone who wants to someday fulfill her dream of working in the publishing industry, this book was such an eye opener.

Just like Nora, I want to be surrounded by books everyday. The message of this book- the thrill, the joy and the satisfaction of doing something you love- was very well depicted.

I loved the ending. Rather than magically making everything right, it was a slow process of healing & finding happiness one day at a time.

Nora's frustration with her stagnant and unerpaid job are so realisitc. All of her poor decisions come together and such a painful to watch way... a well written nightmare for her. I like the hope at the end.

The title and cover of this book drew me in. I enjoy reading books with book themes so I was excited to read this one and it did not disappoint! Must Love Books was a fun, light hearted read. The book follows Nora, who works for a publisher, as she struggles with being stuck at her job and making ends meet. I enjoyed getting a little insight into the publishing world and how things work. The characters were very likable and I really felt for Nora as she found the right path for herself.

Thank you Net Galley and Sourcebooks for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

I love books about books and the publishing world and anticipated this to be a light rom-com based on the description. I was surprised when the book took a turn in tone when the protagonist Nora mentions she is contemplating suicide which she refers to as "the creature." She thinks of ending her life because she is an editor's assistant who is stuck in her life while everyone around her is moving forward. She continues to grapple with her stagnant life until she meets an author who helps her realize a new path to happiness. I didn't love Nora's character or the story which I found to be slow. It does deal with mental health issues that, I think, are we as a society need to be discussing more. I did enjoy reading about the inner workings of the publishing world. Thank you Netgalley for this arc.

I'm a sucker for any books that focus on publishing, especially when it focuses about the administrative and marketing sides. Nora is so relatable as she struggles with a paycut, juggling 2 competing jobs, and a budding romance with Andrew Santos. Add on to that the listlessness of depression and a lack of satisfaction in life, and you have a book that's perfect for anyone feeling at odds with their career. This book couldn't have come at a better time.

*Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review*

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC for an exchange for an honest review.

Interesting story, it has more serous topics.

A very engaging romantic comedy that also gives us a glimpse at what it might be like to work in the world of publishing. Some serious themes are woven in (mental health issues) that give this novel unexpected depth.

Must Love Books is one of my favorite romances of the year thus far-- it's not your typical cliche romance fare in that it's far smarter and goes much deeper than most books in the genre. I would argue that it's actually more 'contemporary fiction', with a romantic bent, than a pure romance. That's a plus for me, though I could see it being a negative for certain readers who are expecting something titillating or simple and fun. Robinson's novel will challenge you to consider your own life, what makes you happy, what path you're on and whether it's the right one, all while delivering a heartwarming and relatable story.
At the risk of going on too long, I'll list the things I particularly enjoyed:

-- P.O.C. main characters, but it's not at all exclusionary, nor does the book veer into being about race or social justice. It just features diverse characters, without making a big deal of it.
-- It gives us a peek behind the curtain of the publishing industry. I really enjoyed that Robinson managed to balance this by giving us just enough information, without it becoming 'a book about books' or 'a book about writing'.
-- Depression and anxiety are portrayed in a very authentic, real way. I love this because it's so rare that romances tackle bigger issues, or include characters who are anything more than 'quirky'. It's nice to see that people who are dealing with depression can hold jobs and find love.

I disliked this book from page 1. The writing and the tone were so bland that my brain hurt. The plot was non-existent and after more than half of the book, still nothing was happening. I just didn't care about the main character or the story at all.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I am a lover of chic lit. I love an easy beach read. This book checked all the boxes. I wanted to love it - but it fell flat for me. It was an easy and quick read - characters were ok - it was pretty predictable - story was decent - but the end fell apart. Felt rushed and just thrown together.

If you want an easy read, I would say add it to you pile.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for an eArc in exchange for an honest review.
I went into this thinking it was going to be more Rom com than what it was based on the comparison to The Bookish Life of Nina Hill. For me, Must Love Books was actually pretty depressing.
I had to rearrange my expectations part way through so that I could enjoy it for what it offered. In the end it felt like a somber coming of age story, and a close look at what depression can look like.

I mean you had me at the title!!
First time I've come across this author but I definitely want more of her in my life.
This book had some great laugh out loud moments in it. Really good and will definitely be recommending this to my book club