I have this worry that Pepper Basham is stressing about the release of Authentically, Izzy, and I want to alleviate that stress. Let me tell a story of my own…

Many, many months ago I was perusing my favorite publishers in NetGalley when I came across Pepper’s novel, Authentically, Izzy, in Thomas Nelson’s galley shelf. The very first thing I thought when I saw the cover was, “This is perfection, I must request a copy NOW!” So I did, and Thomas Nelson delivered. I realized the book wasn’t releasing to the public until November, so I held out reading it until it got a little closer to publishing time. End of September came and I planned my October reads knowing that Authentically, Izzy had to be one of the books I read. I just could not wait any longer! I’m a full-time working mother. I teach by day and mom/wife by night. This means I have to plan down to the page how much to read each day in my free time (LOL, free time…what is that?) to make sure I get every book I need to read and review completed. I always go to GoodReads or Amazon before I read a book to check out page count so I can divide my pages properly according to my review and work schedule demands. I have to be very careful going to GoodReads or Amazon though because I tend to get caught up in reviews. I hate when this happens. I don’t ever like to read reviews BEFORE I review a book because it can skew my reading.

So, why did I tell you all of this? I’ll get to that in a minute. I promise.

Pepper Basham is one of my most favorite authors. I adore her writing style and love how endearing and relatable her characters are. She is queen at getting a reader’s heart to be super invested in her stories. I typically devour her books and then am left wanting more. I LOVE Authentically, Izzy. This story is magical. Izzy is the type of character I wish were an actual, real human because I want to be her friend. She is such an awesome heroine. I loved getting to be a part of her journey to understanding how un-dealt-with grief can deeply affect a person. How it can shape you into someone you’re not sure you ever wanted to be. I 100% loved how Brodie could see the amazing potential in Izzy from their very first interactions. If you read my reviews, you know that my #1 favorite quality in a hero is when he can see, when he pays attention to details. I love that quality, and Brodie has it in spades. I also love the instant chemistry between Izzy and Brodie, and how their relationship grows over the course of this story. Their early interactions are hilarious. I had some serious laugh-out-loud moments that I had to share with my husband. He laughed, too! But this story is way more than just laughs. It’s so much amazing heart and depth. My heart hurt in some parts. I teared up a bit. I even got a little frustrated at times. But I also cheered for Izzy and Brodie. I had all the feels with this book and I loved every single second!

So, now let me explain why I told you all that stuff about my reading schedule and GoodReads and comments. When I was checking out page #s for this book I saw reviews. Actually, my eyes didn’t focus on the reviews per se, but the stars. There were 1 and 2 star reviews. My heart dropped. How is this possible? What are they thinking? Then I read a couple reviews. Some people are not a fan of Basham’s choice to make Authentically, Izzy an epistolary novel. Let me address this issue — I adore that this book is written in modern-day letters (emails!). I found it incredibly clever. When Izzy and Brodie are in their respective countries, their interactions are through IMs and emails. When they are together in the same country, Basham returns to typical prose. Makes sense, right?! I did have a difficult time reading the emails until I realized that this book needs to be read in actual book form. I read on my Kindle. I love my Kindle, but it was no match for this story. I quickly switched from my Kindle to my NetGalley reader and had NO PROBLEM reading and loving and enjoying heartily this amazing story. So, yes, this story is formatted differently. Put your Kindles and eReaders away for this book and purchase an actual copy. I promise, you won’t have any issue getting into the storyline if you do.

Authentically, Izzy is a wonderful story that I loved wholeheartedly. Yes, it’s written in a unique format, but I found that to add to the magic of this story. I highly recommend this story. If you are a fan of humor and chemistry-filled Contemporary Romances, then Authentically, Izzy is a story you will not want to miss.

I received a galley copy of this novel in eBook form the publisher, Thomas Nelson, via NetGalley, in order to review. In no way has this influenced my review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I have taken some time to read this because the letter writing format doesn’t grip me. After many reading sessions, I can say that the story was good but the format wasn’t for me. I liked the names and the settings and some of the dialogue. But the format made it seem stilted to me, and I found it difficult to immerse myself. I’d like to be clear that another reader might feel completely differently. Thank you for the ARC.

I so expected this book to be different! I'm a little underwhelmed.

This story is told mostly through e-mails and text messages, which is fun at the beginning. But soon I started skipping over the sender and I got all confused about who was sending the e-mail to whom and it just got annoying. I would've liked to have some 'regular' dialogue in between the e-mails to make it all a bit easier to read.

The writing itself was entertaining, though the 'curse'words (Oh my heart. Squee). I knew it was a Christian romance going in, I didn't think it matched the time the story is set in. Also, the love triangle just was a huge let down (and with such a jerk of a man too).
The 'romance' bit between Brodie and Izzy is realistic enough and quite entertaining.

I could've strangled Josephine and Anders for being such complete busybodies. My goodness. Josephine set up Izzy's online dating account because 'she really needed to find herself a man of the realistic variety', but then completely started to go bonkers when Izzy and Brodie hit it off. Woman, butt out of other people's business!

All together it was an entertaining read, but it felt alltogether too long because of the e-mail format during the first 60% of the book. I'm sure the book will appeal to someone, but unfortunately it wasn't me.

The main reason I requested this book was the fact that it was an epistolary novel. Plus, a love story. Plus, elements like books amd library. One of my favourite love stories is an epistolary novel. But this one just didn't work for me.

Izzy works in a library and lives the life of a loner. So her cousin forcefully creates her profile on a dating site. After a little chiding, Izzy finally meets someone on the dating site
and they begin to communicate through emails (even Izzy and her cousins communicate through emails). That person is Brodie. Then someone called Eli starts to frequent the library and Izzy kind of likes him and then writes to her cousins about him.

'Before I knew it, he’d asked for my phone number. While I stumbled through an answer, Aunt Louisa came up from behind me and gave it to the man.' (Seriously!)

They're (Eli's eyes) a deep, dark blue. His hair is light-to-medium brown and . . PS: His smile was his best feature in my opinion.'

Okay, so one should not use this format just for the heck of it. Not every story is suitable for this format, especially if there are 6-7 characters to deal with. In this book, frequent letter exchanges between 6-7 people made the read terribly confusing. After some initial correspondence, I was not interested in Izzy's (too frequent) conversation with her cousins.

Brodie didn't seem interesting to me. Eli seemed interesting (from the blurb) but I lost interest with 'Before I knew it, he’d asked for my phone number…'

The letters are unnecessarily long, people talking about mundane things.

To be honest, it doesn't work like that. And this book, sadly, didn't work for me. Very disappointed.

I really tried to like this book, I really did. But unfortunately, it fell flat for me. The format, being emails, was not a drawback for me, but it was very slow. And I just could not get into it like I wanted to.

“To quote a popular fiction that feels rather appropriate, ‘I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you.’” -This book
Pepper Basham has done it again! She swept me off my feet with an adorable story about romance and books.
The format was a series of emails and or texts. It took a minute to adjust but I really ended up loving the letter form of correspondence. I actually met my husband on line so I enjoyed watching this relationship bloom. It was fun and just what I needed for a HEA. PB is a favorite for clean romance. I highly recommend this one.
Thanks Thomas Nelson via NetGalley.

I love Pepper Basham's previous Books, so I was determined to give this a try..... never I've read a book like this,.....the story starts with an email between her and her cousin, regarding her love life, Izzy is a librarian and struggles with knowing where she belongs, and she has a bookish-loving heart....... thanks to her nosey cousin signing her up in an online dating site she met Brody. that also loves all things books.....this book was a lot of fun to read going back and forth with the email/text format that is for the majority of the book.....It was sweet how Brody and Izzy were able to become friends via messages and watch their friendship blossom into more.

The epistolary format was a struggle and reading from my kindle made it hard to focus, it took me a little bit to get into it. A bit slow romance, but still a fast read. I know this style of novel is not for everyone, but I think the author did a great job,

I loved the family dynamics. the built up of their romance. Fun romantic story with relatable charatcters, sweet, charming, with both light and serious moments, and an all bookish loving heart delights in one book.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank you to the publisher for my review copy. All opinions are my own.

mmmmmm. Nope. I had to put it down. I really wanted to like this title...it was a little too slow for my taste.

Normally I don't mind epistolary novels, but honestly,,, this one just annoyed me. I think it was the writing. It just bothered me so bad.

I was unable to get into this book, and normally I can read just about anything. I did not like the way the book was written via emails back and forth, and that made it impossible to get engrossed in the story as I usually do.

There was a lot I enjoyed about this book, the unique formatting, the Lord of the Rings references and the wonderful way it was an escape from the realities of life. I did find it unrealistic in how online dating operates, but that doesn’t impact my enjoyment because again, escapism. I was a touch put off by the consistent references to being part of a church. I know this is a cultural thing I’m picking up (I’m Australian and we keep things secular) so it’s a me thing, not a the author did wrong thing. That didn’t really impact my enjoyment of the book, I took it for what it was, but I do think it may have influence the choices that were a touch boring for my taste. I don’t mind a G Rated story, I don’t need sex, but I do need *something* that gives the story it’s edge.

What I really did enjoy was the love for this story I felt the author had and while this book and I were not a perfect fit, I know it will be beloved by others.

I thoroughly enjoyed the uniqueness of 'Authentically, Izzy' in the way it was largely presented in emails. I was able to follow it easily and had many laugh out loud moments while Izzy navigated her feelings, her family and a possible new online romance. I was busily searching for a possible kingdom to see what the inspiration might be for Brodie's home off of the Scottish coast. I highly recommend this gem for a feel good story of personal growth and love.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

This was just ok for me...

What I loved: All of the LOTR references of course! Drew me in right away. :) The clean and sweet romances, lots of books and bookish convo!

What I didn't love: The epistolary format was a struggle. I've read similar books before but they've always been letters/correspondence with just two people. This was between three-four people at least and it felt a bit jumpy. I struggled to remain focused because of that and the chapters seemed long.

This was a good story. I loved the setting as I dream of being a librarian. I loved the online love interest. But, I just felt like it wasn't very tied up in a pretty bow like romance novels usually are. I still was wondering at the end "is she going to or is she not?" It also needed a little more "umph" in the romance department. I just don't like the sweet and clean romance novels. Give me some serious passion. Sweet story, but needed more passion for my taste.

This was a super fun light-hearted rom-com that was just what I needed after a few heavier reads. This was primarily an epistolary novel; however, in part 2 when the main characters meet in person, it goes back and forth between 3rd person limited and epistolary style. With the first part being completely in the form of emails/letters, the change in narrative was a bit startling at first, but it was somewhat essential to the story-line. Filled with witty banter, awkward meet-cutes and a ton of literary references (probably half of which I didn't get, but that was fine), this book had a lot of playfulness to it. However, don't mistake light-hearted for non-substance as this one had plenty of substance as well, and some deep life lessons.

This book follows Izzy as she deals with an older cousin trying to play matchmaker in her life. Izzy is a bookish introverted type and so, this has all sorts of potential to go wrong. When she ends up with not 1, but 2, men vying for her attention, it becomes completely hilarious. In act 2, things get a bit more serious, but there is plenty of witty banter to offset that seriousness and act 3 is when Izzy does some serious soul searching and a great deal of character growth occurs. There are fun family dynamics (as well as a few not-so-fun, but that's how life is, isn't it?) included as well and I think that as long as you can enjoy an epistolary novel, this is one that can be for just about anyone. The faith thread in this one is a bit more subtle, but it is still present underneath. Regardless, it's completely clean. With endearing and well developed characters, fun book-ish references and a super sweet romance (that reminded me a great deal of my own) that is wholly authentic (and that's a rarity among romance novels - especially contemporary ones), this is one I can wholeheartedly endorse. If you enjoy classic literature as well as modern popular favorites, I believe you'll glean more from this. Having a knowledge of Lord of the Rings (either books or movies is fine, but both is even better) is also a plus in enjoying this one. I believe you can still enjoy it even if you don't have that knowledge - it will just be amplified if you do.

Special thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance e-copy of this book. I was under no obligation to provide a review and the thoughts contained herein are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a cute romance novel and it was a fun read.

I really hate to write bad reviews especially when it is one of my favorite authors , but just did not enjoy this book. At first I thought it was cute, but it quickly became repetitive. I also found it had to believe that the characters mainly communicated by email. In today's time, family and friends text, not email each other. I ended up skimming the second half of the book. Pepper Basham is a wonderful author, but this book just wasn't for me.

I enjoyed this one! It was my first Pepper Basham book and I definitely want to read more!
Since most of the story was told in emails and texts, I found it hard to connect with the characters.
The faith content was good, and it was clean!

DNF at 25%

I really had no idea this was a Christian romance. I wouldn’t have requested if I knew, as religion is not something that resonates with me at all. It’s my fault for not researching more before requesting. Also, the ebook PDF format made it so hard for me to focus on the story reading from my Kindle. Please, make EPUBs for the send to kindle option!

Authentically Izzy is a perfect book if you love matchmaking, pen pals, romance, and Lord of the Rings nerd. This book was a lot of fun to read going back and forth with the email/text format. The characters were sweet and very likeable. There was a lot of book and movie references throughout the book which made it interesting. I really enjoy Pepper Basham’s previous books but I didn’t really connect with this book, however I would recommend to someone to a certain audience. I enjoyed the format and definitely enjoyed the writing style it was very clever.
I want to thank Netgalley and Thomas Nelson for providing me with a arc in return for my own honest opinion.