My review will be publicly available on April 26th, 2022 on my blog, GiaReadsBooks. You will be able to find it with this link: www.giareadsbooks.com/book-reviews/book-lovers. On May 3rd, I'll be publishing my review on other retail/review websites like Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, etc.


Genre: Romance
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Spice Rating: 1.5 Star*
**Only 1-2 explicit scenes, but they’re mature! I definitely wouldn’t consider this book “smutty”, but it’s not for the faint of heart.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group, Emily Henry, and NetGalley for sending me a copy of Book Lovers in exchange for an honest review.

Review:

Book Lovers follows Nora Stephens – a strict, schedule-ridden, unlucky in the love department literary agent – as she tackles her job, her love life, and most importantly, her 5-month-pregnant sister, Libby. When Libby pressures Nora into spending an entire month away from her first love (aka New York City) in a place called Sunshine Falls, she’s horrified to think about dealing with the spotty Wi-Fi and “small town” vibes, but willing to do anything to reconnect with her sister. Upon arriving in Sunshine Falls, Nora realizes she’s in over her head when she runs into her literary rival, Charlie Lastra, at the only semi-cool place in town. Nora’s luck runs even drier when they’re tasked with editing the next supposed “bestseller” together. Nora knows she is not main character material, but after many long nights, lots of shared bad coffee, and too many awful salads (with mystery ham on top?), she might finally start to feel like the main character in her own life.

Emily Henry never ceases to amaze me. She is, by my definition, the queen of rom-com books. Book Lovers is no different. Nora is a fascinating main character and I loved being inside her head. She was naïve at times, frustrating at others, and entirely exhausting most of the time, but I loved her witty comebacks and sassy sense of humor. Nora also surprised me a lot with her decisions, which is something that rarely happens with me these days. I will say, though I probably wouldn’t have made all the same decisions as Nora, it was a pleasant surprise to see a main character that I loved but didn’t necessarily agree with all the time. (Also, I imagined Nora as Sandra Bullock’s character from The Proposal, and I have no idea why, but I felt like sharing that with someone.)

I thoroughly loved Charlie (though I had a tough time imagining him in my head). Henry had me eating out of the palm of her hand with the dialogue between Nora and Charlie. When I tell you I was wrapped up in a blanket burrito (California style), laughing so hard I had tears streaming down my face at some points in this book, I’m not exaggerating. Henry is a master at writing well-developed, funny, and flawed, yet still loveable, main characters. I’ve never read a character (or a book) of hers that I disliked.

The only thing I think this book lacked, hence the missing ½ star, was a fully fleshed out romance. That sounds ridiculous, right? It’s a romance novel, so therefore romance is to be expected, but I felt like there was something missing from Nora and Charlie’s story. It could literally be that I wanted more than what was delivered, which is totally valid (and a personal qualm), but their relationship almost felt rushed towards the end. Literally just a few more interactions between the two of them that further developed their relationship would have bumped my rating up to a solid 5/5.

That being said, I loved this novel. I know that’s not shocking to anyone because I love Emily Henry and would read her to-do list if I could, but I feel like the way I feel about this book needs to be shouted from the rooftops. “Emily Henry has done it again!” “Charlie Lastra could hit me with a car, and I would thank him!” “Nora Stephens is my spirit animal and I love Sandra Bullock!” “Books about books are my favorite things ever!”

Once again Emily Henry has delivered a heartwarming romance that will have a squealing with delight while simultaneously bawling your eyes out. At this point she could publish her grocery list and id be trying to find out how to get an advanced copy. As a cold hearted bitch from NYC with a soft spot for romance, I related a little too closely to this protagonist. In a world full of hallmark romances, where people give up their big city lives to live on a Christmas farm in the middle of nowhere, it was so refreshing to have a romantic lead who wasn't willing to give up her life and career for a chance at insta-romance. Both leads are incredibly well developed, and the banter between them is funny and sexy. While the romantic aspect of this book is top-notch, the heart of the story is the love between sisters. I will be recommending this book to everyone I have ever meet no matter how annoying it makes me.

Get ready for another literary couple to fall in love with: Nora and Charlie.

Nora's life is like a Hallmark movie, only instead of being the one who falls in love in a small town while saving a local Christmas tree farm, she's the girlfriend back in the big city who gets dumped. She's obsessed and attached to her job as a literary agent, lives in high heels, and can't fall asleep without the soothing sound of sirens, car horns, and distant shouts. When her sister forces her to take a vacation to Sunshine Falls, a tiny town in North Carolina, Nora isn't sure she'll like it. And she's even less sure when her brooding editor colleague, Charlie, winds up being in the same place.

At this point, I'm convinced Emily Henry can do no wrong. The banter between Nora and Charlie is sweet and playful, the setting is charming (yet flawed enough to feel real), and even the supporting characters are well-rounded and lifelike. Everything about this book screamed Hallmark movie, and yet Henry used classic romance tropes in tongue-in-cheek ways to explore a unique story about family, grief, dreams, and responsibilities.

While this book is centered around a love story between Nora and Charlie, in some ways it's more of a love story between Nora and herself. I loved seeing a strong female lead who could admit she was still growing while also knowing exactly who she was and standing up for that. (Honestly, I'd love to be Nora. How do I sign up for that cool life?)

If you loved Beach Read and People We Meet on Vacation, you're going to love this one. It's every reader's dream: a cute love story, just the right amount of steam, relatable characters, and a plot revolving completely around the magic of books.

WHY IS THIS BOOK SO GOOD‽ !‽ The banter! Gah! ❤️
I cannot remember the last time I laughed out loud so often, and yet I still got choked up from the poignancy a few times. Emily Henry is a genius.

It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.

Nora Stephens is a shark of a literary agent, she has a true talent for smelling a bestseller and will fight ruthlessly for her clients. What Nora doesn’t have is much of a love life. In fact, in the classic trope of romantic fiction, Nora leans more towards emotionally-unavailable, career-driven current girlfriend than adorably-approachable future wife. Her younger sister Libby thinks they can switch the narrative if she can get Nora out of New York City and into the rural mountain town of Sunshine Falls, North Carolina (the real life setting of a recent bestseller by one of Nora’s clients). Emily Henry once again gives us relatable characters that we can root for and a unique narrative in which their idiosyncrasies can shine.

Oh my, Emily Henry has done it again. I fully expected to love Book Lovers after reading the description, and I was right. The story of Nora and Charlie is sweet and expected, but that doesn’t mean it was boring. I loved every scene they were in together. I also thought the story of Nora and Libby was a great addition. It made this story become more than a romance. It was a story of sisterhood and growing up after having lost a parent. This book has officially knocked Beach Read to the second place spot on my list of favorite books.

Thank you Berkley Publishing Group and Net Galley for a e-copy of this advanced reader! I am going to be sharing so quotes, so know those may not be finalized in the official printing!

I really don't know where to start with this review. I finished it last night and my head is still swimming with emotions. I usually don't read advanced reader copies until a month before release, but a friend got me really excited to read it and I just had to jump in. I finished 25% within two days and 75% in three hours, if that tells you how much I loved this book.

<i>"I still feel like a city person, through and through, but maybe it's possible to have more than one home. Maybe it's possible to belong in a hundred different ways to a hundred different people and places."</i>

We have a lot of topics in this book from what is going on tomb stones, what sharks do, the green M&M and if she is sexy, skinny dipping, bigfoot erotica, why lists are important, sisterly love, not judging a book by the cover, not judging a person by your first impression and control. As an enneagram one, I have a lot of issues of letting go of control, so I really related to our main girl Nora in that way.

<i>"I'm a grown man, I can buy my own bigfoot erotica" </i>

Nora has this belief that she is the cold-shouldered, unlovable corporate woman that every love interest leaves in tropes. You know, the one who leaves to go save a small town hotel because he fell in love with their daughter in the month he was in said small town? She thinks she is the jilted lover in all of those scenarios. She loves two things : her job and her sister/family, so she spends a lot of her time working and people don't see why she isn't "living her life".

Charlie is LITERALLY my type. I am not going to say a lot because his story unfolds as the book itself does, but he is the equivalent to do not judge a book by its cover. Think Roy Kent from Ted Lasso.

This book deals a lot of sister love, trauma of losing a mother, abandonment and just overall a hard childhood, so warnings to those who might be triggered by that.

I also want to voice that this is probably the most steam I have read by Emily Henry, which is 100% not a bad thing, I personally enjoyed it, lol! There were also two Easter Eggs to Beach Read that I didn't catch, but my friend did! Not anything you have to know before hand, very small Easter Eggs. Just fun for those of us that have read her other romantic comedies!

Overall, this was amazing and Emily still holds a place as an auto-buy romantic comedy author. Now to try to find where I can buy this book and get a signature too!

Nora has her life all figured out. Things run smoothly just the way she’s planned in her busy book life in NYC…. (Except in romance.)
She’s been dealt some rough blows, like the loss of her mom, then raising her younger sister and sticking with a sure job instead of taking the chance on her dream job.
Then there’s a plot twist when she and her sister take a trip and run into her rival(?)and things get interesting. Eventually things get a little worrisome and she can’t figure out how these feelings fit in with the full plan. We get to come along to see if they do…
I love the snark, the banter, the humor and the connection between Nora and Charlie, even if she thinks it’s just not enough. Can they figure it out and make it work or is it just a fling?
I have enjoyed Emily Henry from Beach Read to People we meet on Vacation and this is no exception ! Fun, witty, though-provoking and a page-turner!
Thanks to Net-Galley for an advanced copy of this fun and fabulous book!

I really enjoyed the first half of the book. As a librarian, it was fun to see into the world of publishing and learn more about the editing process. I also enjoyed the banter between Nora and Charlie, particularly when they're being snarky with each other. But, my gawd, the overwrought anguish over Libby moving! I get it, she's your sister and you're incredibly close, but for all that's good, grow up and get over it. It went on too long and completely derailed the flow of the story. Totally spoiled the book for me, and I couldn't get past it. I finished it, but skipped over much of the melodrama.

I've never picked up a book that was so up-my-alley and been so thoroughly bored by the majority of it, and yet, somehow the parts that did work for me really worked for me. There were absolute gems when Nora and Charlie were bantering, but some of the formatting decisions... Technically, the copy I have of this novel is an uncorrected proof, so the format-related issues I had could change, so I won't harp on them...but man, do I want to.

Synopsis: Nora, workaholic-by-choice, is dragged onto a month-long vacation to the very town the bestselling author she represents gained her fame from. There's more to it than that, but...I just can't be bothered. It's a rom-com with a tiny dose of 'a tragic past' about two cutthroats who work in the publishing industry and how their ruthless attitudes suit each other perfectly.

I tried so hard to care about something other than Charlie Lastra in this book. I really, really did. I thought the prologue was so funny, and it made me so excited to read the rest of the book -- a proper hook entrance! But immediately following Nora and Charlie's first meeting is a timeskip that introduces us to the present-day plot of the novel, where Libby, Nora's little sister, has sprung a vacation on her and (coughguiltedcough) her into going with, as we later learn, ulterior motives. I cared...so little about Libby. I don't know if Emily Henry intended for the reader to like her or not -- I mean, Nora is our narrator and she's obsessed with the woman -- but I hated how Nora acted every time Libby was on the page. The things that made her character interesting were immediately drowned out by the guilt, responsibility, and outright panic Nora feels any time Libby is on the page. And yes, that is a character flaw of Nora's that's acknowledged, but Book Lovers is a first-person novel. All we see is Nora's reaction to Libby, which is...bad.

What really has me torn about this novel is that I thought the romance between Charlie and Nora was so good (...well, not the smut; that was subpar), but the rest of the book felt so lackluster to me. I don't really know how to rate this one, except to round down since I almost quit reading it more than once... I don't know. If you liked Emily Henry's other books, you'll probably like this too, but I think for her writing to really shine, the secondary plot should be sacrificed for the main plot. Would that make the characters more one-dimensional? Probably. But it would be a more enjoyable read.

**STAR BREAKDOWN**

Cover: ★★☆☆☆ [boring]
Story: ★★☆☆☆ [another 'vacation' book from Emily Henry... I would have liked to see more of Nora's life in New York before she's whisked off by Libby]
Characters: ★★★☆☆ [Charlie, mostly. Nora when Charlie's on-screen. I barely remember the other side characters, and I think my review makes it clear how I felt about Libby :/ ]
Would I Reread?: No
Would I Buy?: No
Overall Rating: ★★☆☆☆

**PLAYLIST**

-Look What You Made Me Do by Taylor Swift
-Blank Space by Taylor Swift
-Wildest Dream by Taylor Swift

...why is this entire playlist T Swift? 🤷

OH MY GOD?????? EMILY HENRY??? SOS. I'm not gonna lie, i have been anticipating this book for quite some time & after PWMOV and Beach Read... I had VERY high expectations for it. Well, with that being said: MY EXPECTATIONS WERE SOMEHOW SURPASSED!

I felt so much throughout this book. I laughed, I cried (yes, i'm a very emotional person) and overall I had an amazing time. The banter and the enemies to lovers was done BRILLIANTLY. I ate up all the crumbs Nora and Charlie left for me. Nora is for sure my favorite Emily Henry heroine, and Charlie? he gives Augustus Everett a run for his money.

Book Lovers is one of those books I will not be forgetting.

Thank you so much Netgalley & Berkley Publishing for the ARC!

I’m not crying, you’re crying!! 😭♥️♥️ I absolutely adored Book Lovers. For one, the banter was clever, hilarious and so much fun. A lot of the time it felt like being thrown into an episode of Gilmore Girls. Two, the chemistry between Nora and Charlie was fantastic and they fit together so well. I loved the emphasis on how not everyone is right for everyone else, but when you find your person…. Everything feels right. My favourite part of the novel however, was Nora’s personal development. Her journey made this such a few good story. Not because everything was fake or perfect looking, but because her struggles were deep and relatable and seeing her overcome them legitimately made me cry. Love love love.

Hi, yes, Emily Henry? I’m officially suing you for writing a character based on me, that contains said character having someone else write a novel about them... I do not need to be called out like this, you will be hearing from my lawyer.

In all seriousness, this was an absolute pleasure to read and I stayed up possibly too late because I could not put it down. I adored Nora and related to her a bit too much. I felt it was such a refreshing escape from the repetitive tropes we see in so many of our romances lately, and despite sort of knowing where it was going, I enjoyed every bit of it. I’ll scream it from the rooftops, but we need less romance novels that rely on traditional, unhealthy, and outdated tropes- and while I felt this novel was going to fall into that a few times, it always surprised me.

While this is a romance, at its core it’s mainly about Nora and her sister Libby. It had the perfect balance of a healthy romantic relationship and a strong, loving sibling bond as well. I find that many books or movies throw the friends/family to the side when the love interest is introduced, by Henry is able to strike the perfect balance between them. I felt that each character we were introduced to was fleshed out and integral to the plot, making me care about each of them in different ways.

I’ve only read two Emily Henry books, but this one is by far my favorite (and I loved the last one too!) Convinced me that Henry is officially an auto buy author.

This was a delightful read! I'd been wanting to read one of Emily Henry's books for adults, since I loved her YA book, A Million Junes, so much. This was a much lighter read, and a lot of fun. I loved the idea of making the go-getter career woman the main character instead of the villain, and I loved all the publishing talk. I couldn't quite connect to the parts of the story that revolved around the main character's relationship with her sister-- I'm an only child, so maybe I'll never "get" sibling plotlines - but I imagine that aspect of the story would really work for readers with siblings! The romance was sweet and satisfying, and I had a great time reading this.

While I enjoyed the book, I think I had high expectations based on the premise and other reviews I’ve seen for it and it ended up falling a little flat for me. I loved the banter between Nora and Charlie the most, but I felt like their relationship was shadowed by Libby’s character (who became unbearable for me at the end) and the small town itself which made the story unnecessarily drag.

WOW Emily Henry has done it again. This book was nothing short of amazing. I laughed, smiled, and even teared up throughout this whole book. Not only was the banter between Nora and Charlie incredible but Nora was so relatable and strong and I just loved everything about her.

This book and these characters are ones that I will carry with me forever. Book Lovers is definitely now in my top 5 all time favorite reads list.


Thank you so much Berkley Publishing for this ARC!

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the advance review copy; all opinions are my own.

After having thoroughly enjoyed both BEACH READ and PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION, I was fully prepared to love BOOK LOVERS. What I didn't expect was for how deeply it would sneak up on my feels, but sneak up, it did. This story portrayed a deftly crafted romance between Charlie and Nora who really are two delightful city-slicker peas in a pod, but I found its true sucker-punch power was in the way it wove all aspects of Nora's life together into a poignant, imperfect, deeply human happy ending. From forming a healthier relationship with her sister, to courageously pursuing the life she truly wanted personally and professionally, to discovering a loving partnership that was honest, safe, and real with someone who was truly her perfect match, Nora's story took us on a deeply fulfilling growth and healing journey.

BOOK LOVERS was sexy, emotional, and sharply meta-aware, flowing smoothly on a wave of top-tier snark, banter, and effortless chemistry between its characters. I look forward to seeing whatever Emily Henry comes up with next!

I'm 1000% buying this book!!
Maybe life-changing is a bit strong, but this book is going to stick with me for sure. I identify with Nora so, so much; she's strong in ways that hardly anyone can see, and her experience as a woman who ruthlessly goes after what she wants while pushing aside her own needs is so evocative. I loved the pacing, the characters, the romance, the cute tropes. I haven't read Beach Read yet (I know, I know, shame on me!) but for sure this is going to be my favorite Emily Henry book forever. I can't overstate how much I enjoyed this book, I need to have it on my shelves ASAP and it's definitely going to be a book I reread over and over again! Just glorious.

Once again, Emily Henry has hit it out of the park with a smart, yet swoon worthy romance. There are so many parts of this book I loved that I don't even know where to start. Obviously Nora and Charlie- such well written, realistic, witty characters that you find yourselves rooting for from the beginning; the sisterly love storyline; and of course all the nods to book tropes, plots, and characters (anyone else pick up on the January Andrews mentions?!) I will definitely be adding this to the list of Emily Henry books I rave about when making book recommendations.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review!