Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of BOOK LOVERS by Emily Henry. I got approved to read this book pretty close to the release date, but I knew it would be absolutely no problem to devour an Emily Henry book in a single day, and I was not wrong. I loved BEACH READ and PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION, and Henry did not let me down here. My one complaint would be the whole Nora (the MC) is the evil, workaholic girlfriend in a Hallmark movie thing. While it's a fantastic twist on a trope, she literally got dumped for a small-town girl who knew what really mattered in life four times, and it felt a little on the nose and almost farcical. Thankfully, that was a really small portion of the book and the romance was as fantastic as always. I was hooked on Charlie and Nora and their banter and their blunt real-ness with each other from start to finish, and it was because of their chemistry that I couldn't put the book down. I'd highly recommend it!

Nora considers herself the typical cold woman that men leave during their Hallmark adventures to small towns. She is a badass workaholic literary agent who supports her authors tenfold, and also adores her sister Libby. The sisters have always been close, so when Libby begs Nora to go on a month long trip to small town Sunshine Falls, she can't say no. The sisters write a list of to-dos in the small town that any Hallmark fan will recognize to spend time together before Libby has her new baby. Unfortunately, this relaxing trip throws Nora for a loop when she bumps into attractive and broody publishing rival Charlie Lastra.

Favourite romance of 2022 so far! Emily Henry has written the perfect characters, pining, and banter that hits on every single page. I had a gigantic smile throughout my read and the ending is absolutely fabulous! As someone who can only handle one or two Hallmark movies a year, I love how the tropes were turned into something fresh and entertaining. Nora and Libby's sister relationship is well developed and simply enhances the story without overtaking the romance. I could feel the chemistry between Nora and Charlie, and I was just internally scream-swooning the entire book. This insanely satisfying read has emotion, depth, snark and spice. Highly highly recommend you put this on your TBR right now if its not already. Go go go!

Read if you like:
- small town romance
- books
- rivals to lovers
- undeniable chemistry
- brooding MMC
- open door spice
- Hallmark tropes (but make them better)

This is for romantics, big sisters and the book lovers.

Everything about this literally screams trope inside a trope and I loved every second of it. Nora was THE big sister and seeing their journeys, together and individual, was something else and I could not have asked for more. I loved the small town of Sunshine Falls and I’m even interested in reading Frigid.

Emily Henry is probably my favourite romance author- this book solidified that.

two sexy book industry city-people workaholics fall in love in a small town. i get the emily henry hype. a+ banter

Emily Henry has a way of creating very nuanced and complex issues for her characters, and I appreciate that. This novel was interesting because the typical romance beats were more present for the story of Nora and her sister rather than Nora and her love interest. That was an interesting twist on the usual structure, as was the idea of giving the story to the character a Hallmark movie usually villainizes. Emily Henry also has a bit of a predilection for poop/fart jokes I'm never going to enjoy! Despite that, I rank this one a bit below Beach Read and above People We Meet on Vacation.

This is the ultimate book of romance tropes, and I absolutely adored it! I'm a huge fan of this author and enjoyed each and every one of their books. I was so excited to see they were coming out with a new book.
Our main character Nora (my late nana"s name) was extremely goal oriented and full of control issues. Then we have Charlie who was quite the same, match made in heaven maybe? Next comes Nora's sister Libby who Nora basically treats as her child, even though Libby is married with children of her own.
I really enjoyed that this book not only was full of miscommunication and romance, but had wonderful family relationships, that were not always so wonderful. This was by far my favorite by this author, maybe because of all the book references maybe just because the story was unputdownable. Thos author will always by an acrobat for me!

Thank you to Berkley Publishing for my #gifted copy to read and review.

I had been anxiously awaiting getting my hands on this book for SO many months and let me tell you, it did not disappoint!
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Author Emily Henry has a way of creating such likable and relatable characters- ones you quickly must find out more about. 💜⁣
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I really loved this small town romance as well as the focus on sisterhood, becoming our true selves, and a peek into the lives of book editors and agents.
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I’m sure the author drew these parts of the stories based on her own experiences and it was really entertaining to read about that side of the books we all love and enjoy. ✍️⁣⁣

Emily Henry has officially become a must read author for me and I can’t wait to see what she writes next! Book Lovers publishes on May 3rd and I highly recommend adding it to your spring reading list!

Emily Henry has done it again, she has written a story that went straight to my heart! Nora is trying to take care of everyone that she loves and neglecting what she wants in life. She's a fixer and a list maker and believes that there is a solution for every problem, until she is thrown a curveball in the surly, but attractive Charlie. Things in Nora's life begin to change and she struggles to make this change fit into her pursuit to make sure her loved ones have everything they want, but, what happens when she finds something she wants? I adored Nora and Charlie and the real life problems they must work through. An excellent story of learning to let go of the past, letting go of people, and embracing the future. Thank you NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this beauty. #booklovers #emilyhenry

How good is Book Lovers? So good I wanted to go back and reread it as soon as I was done.

Nora Stephens is a stereotypical Hallmark movie antagonist. She’s a big city career girl who needs order. Her last four boyfriends visited small towns, and fell in love with a small town carefree girl whose family business was in trouble. Her pregnant sister gets her to take a month's vacation to a small town to see if she can have her own Hallmark movie romance. While there, she finds a notorious editor, Charlie, who she had a rude meeting with back in New York, is working remotely there. If Nora is a female Hallmark antagonist, Charlie is a male counterpart by being safe and predictable.

Nora and Charlie are a top-tier couple. Their chemistry is hot, their banter is witty, and their communication skills are Godly. While I was reading, I couldn’t believe how healthy they were and kept waiting for stupidity to sneak in. Instead, I got open communication. Maybe there should be more books about the antagonists of rom-coms. Some antagonists make the most sense.

Usually, when a character loves New York City, I take away a star because I’m tired of New York City. However, even though Nora and Charlie love New York, instead of portraying as though New York is the only city in the world, it is represented as though the place was Nora and Charlie’s preference. It was other people’s preference to live in a small town called Sunshine Falls. There’s nothing wrong with either one of them as a place to live.

When I was editing this review, I wanted to reread this book.

This review is based on an advanced reader copy provided through Netgalley for an honest review.

Another perfect Emily Henry book! As a fellow oldest sibling, I really identified with Nora, and I loved her relationship with Libby (even though I found Libby to be frustrating at times!). No one writes sparkling dialogue and witty banter like Emily Henry, and I loved every conversation between Nora and Charlie. I would read anything by Emily Henry.

Emily Henry is The Queen of witty banter! Not only that, she makes me feel things that not many other authors can make me feel. A rollercoaster of emotions. I found this book sexy and hilarious but it also made me cry. I was already cracking up in the prologue so I knew I was in for a treat. Two sisters with an incredible bond who have been through so much together, made huge sacrifices, and would do anything for each other. A sexy romance where the sexual tension is beyond hot and the connection is magnetic and undeniable. A great choice to add to your summer reading list!

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for this DRC.

Another five-star romance from Emily Henry! "Beach Read" fans will find a lot to love in this story: similar to Henry's first adult romance, "Book Lovers" focuses on a pair of enemies-to-lovers who work in the publishing industry, engage in fast-paced, witty banter, and have sizzling chemistry. With Charlie Lastra, the author created a literary dreamboat every bit as appealing as Augustus Everett—no easy feat.

As is typical with this author, there's a lot to love here beyond the romance. "Book Lovers" is also a celebration of family (especially sisters), of living in a big city (specifically New York City), of pursuing your dreams (but responsibly and not in a corny way). The book grapples with the fact that growing older is often a bummer, but all that grappling is softened by a cast of lovable characters and truly funny jokes. And yes, the epilogue made me cry.

2.5 rounded up to 3 stars.


I'm not even a little sorry for this review or rating. I am not one who will rate a book purely on the author or Bookstagram's LOVE of said author.

Lets start here:
1. I've read all of Emily Henry's books and while I've enjoyed them, I don't find them profound or epic or UHMAYZING the say most folks do on Booksta. They're great summer reads - fun stories, but nothing incredibly written or amazing.
2. When I got this ARC I seriously felt like I won the booksta lottery. Thank you Berkley for the arc...seriously forever grateful!
3. This book was not great. There. Its out there. I didn't enjoy it.

Now...details on the why of this review:
1. The prologue was amazing. It was snappy. Quick. Sassy. The writing style felt so very different than Henry's other books - it didn't feel overly wordy or descriptive and clipped right along.
2. Then we got to the fictional smalltown and things came to a grinding, screeching halt. We went back to super-wordy-ville and overly descriptive town and I got bored. So very bored.
3. Libby was so charming and cute and fun, until about 60% of the way through the book and it felt a bit forced?
4. The romance. Never once did I feel the chemistry, which is odd because this is what I think Henry does really well.
5. Henry leaned into this book being about tropes and talking about tropes and filling the pages with tropes. It felt meta and cute and unique at first and by the end I was done. Got it. We had a Hallmark small town with a Hallmark hottie, enemies to lovers, small town/big city, savior sister complex tropes and all we did was talk about them.

I'm just so bummed. Nothing happened. We talked about the tropes over and over and sat at the bookstore and drank coffee and I just kept waiting for something to happen.

Mark my words...this will be the next darling of BOTM and everyone will rave and it'll get 5 star reviews galore. I'm gonna keep it real and say...this fell flat. Hard.

4.5/ 5 stars


I absolutely adored People We Meet On Vacation. So I was so excited to read Book Lovers. It was definitely one of my most anticipated reads of 2022. And it did not disappoint. I absolutely loved it!

This book is a romantic comedy. It has fun banter! It will make you feel! And there is an amazing sister relationship. Plus the heroine is a literary agent! I adore reading about the publishing industry!

The narrator is 32 year old Nora (1st person POV). Her sister Libby invites her on an adventure (which includes trying to complete a fun list). Libby desperately wants Nora to get a life and not work so hard.

I absolutely adored the relationship between Nora and Libby! This was such a big focus of the story. I also really liked Charlie, the main male character. I loved the relationship between Nora and Charlie. It was so much fun!

Book Lovers made me feel a lot (which I look for in my top reads). There were some great reveals and the last chapters were really powerful. This is definitely a must read!

Emily Henry writes fun, and entertaining romance novels that do not take themselves to seriously! A definite addition to the collection.

Nora Stephens, in the book industry also known as “shark”, is a successful New York agent whose life is dedicated to her job. Accordingly, relationships have not been that successful so far, but that’s ok for her. When her sister Libby asks her for a four-week stay in Sunshine Falls, North Carolina, the place where one of her best-selling books is located, Nora is reluctant, she cannot stay away from work so long; yet, Libby is pregnant and Nora does not want to refuse her sister’s greatest wish, she is the only family she has. Nora knows all the stories about New Yorkers coming to small towns and falling in love, she has read them all, even published some of them, therefore, she can only ironically comment the fact that on her first day, she runs into Charlie Lastra – her biggest nemesis.

Admittedly, I am not really a fan of rom-coms, no matter if they come in form of books or movies. However, I really enjoyed Emily Henry’s “Beach Read” and as there was so much talk about “Book Lovers”, I was looking forward to reading it. Of course, the bestselling author did not disappoint, quite the contrary, I thoroughly enjoyed how she does not take the genre too seriously but lets her characters comment on it mockingly again and again throughout the novel.

“We know how this ends.”
Libby squeezes my arm. “You don’t know. You can’t until you try.”
“This isn’t a movie, Libby,” I say.

You do not need to find the typical tropes, Nora will find them for you and Emily Henry does not leave out a single one: the big city girl who looks down in small town life, the sister who mysteriously vanishes during daytime and does not tell what is doing or where she is going, the incidental meeting with the one man she does not want to see far away from home, the charming bookshop, cringeworthy small town activities, another attractive man – who does not like the first, of course – you name it. Even though there are no big surprises, I totally enjoyed diving into the story and seeing all the clichés unfold.

As a book lover, it was easy to fall for this one, a lot of references and hints to the industry offer the perfect setting for the two protagonists to fight their feelings which, needless to say, they cannot admit at first. Another perfect summer read by Emily Henry.

THIS IS EMILY HENRY'S BEST BOOK SO FAR! The complicated relationships! The pain of growing up! It was pure perfection. I am an only child and a single woman, and I was sobbing by the end of this book to make sure every relationship got its HEA--from sisters to lovers. I've been recommending it to everyone I know!

Confession- this is the first of Emily Henry's books that I've read, despite knowing that they are hugely popular and selling about a million of them as a bookseller. That said, I wasn't sure what to expect from the book. Was I going to love it because everyone loves Emily Henry's other books or be really disappointed because everyone loves Emily Henry's other books?

The writing style wasn't one I was a fan of- it went a little too stream of consciousness and heavy on the descriptive metaphors for me. Because of that it took me awhile to get into the book, but when I did, I really enjoyed the plot. It's a clever reverse on the typical romance book trope. Nora is the character who is career driven, focused, problem solving, loves NYC, and usually the one in movies or books the hero ultimately leaves for the small town heroine. Its happened to her multiple times in fact. Her married sister Libby is more the typical romance heroine- flighty, fun loving, the Marianne to her Eleanor. The two are incredibly close, but lately things have been off so when Libby wants to take a sisters' vacation, Nora agrees and hopes they can reconnect. Libby sets up a bizarre, small town get-away with a list of things for them to do that are classic small town romance book items and Nora isn't sure about she's going to enjoy her vacation. But in comes Charlie, her professional nemesis from New York, also in town for the month. And suddenly she finds herself having more fun than she'd planned.

Nora and Charlie are not your typical main characters or romance heroes, and that's why I liked them so much. They are sharks in the literary world- Nora is a cutthroat literary agent and Charlie is a killer editor- and at first meet are far too similar to even politely pretend to stand one another. But beneath the shark smiles are deep vulnerabilities they refuse to allow anyone to see, and heavy protective needs towards the few they love. These are people who don't want to change, don't want kids, don't want to work less and party more- they like their lives (mostly) as is, despite what society may tell them about being wrong. It takes a lot of courage to be that person, and Emily Henry peels back some incredibly insightful layers about how much courage that really takes. Henry reminds us that even the people who seem to have it the most together on the outside, or the ones we think we know the best, have hidden vulnerabilities, hidden pieces that make them the way they are, and that even the strongest of us need love and support from family and friends to make it through the tough times.

A love story to New York, to the power of books, the power of family, and the power of love- in all its aspects, this was a delightful plot with twists on the typical tropes that will keep you smiling.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Absolutely fun read. Hilarious, involving and with characters that are interestingly different. Laugh out loud funny.
Emily Henry is a wonderful author. Keep them coming please.

What more could a book lover ask for than a book about the book writing process? A book about the book writing process, mixed with a love story, family drama, a book store, grief and loss, and understanding. Nora Stephens has earned the nickname the shark in the book publishing industry. She will stop at nothing for her clients. When her sister wants to take a month's vacation in a town from Nora's best client's latest bestseller, Nora agrees because she has always done everything for her sister after her mother died. Her sister has a list of all the tasks that she wants to accomplish while on vacation. The fact that they are all the makings of your typical romance novel does not slip past Nora. But when Nora runs into her arch-nemesis, Charlie Lastra, in the little town, Nora knows that no good will come of it. Or will it. This story is another fun ride by Emily Henry. She has become a staple in my reading arsenal. I love her writing, her characters, and her world-building. Thank you, NetGalley, for the eARC. 4 stars.