This book was a delight! The romance was really sweet and fun, and I can't wait to see it on shelves!

Cute book for a reader interested in a youthful escape read. Really fun bookish details, sweet quotes, etc. Ultimately for me it was just a tad too youthful, but I know many readers will love it!

I picked this book up because the cover screamed "bookish" at me, and I love bookish romances, so I thought it would be a match made in heaven! And while this is a bookish romance... it was not a match made in heaven at all.

Authentically, Izzy is told mostly in an epistolary format, until about 60% of the way through where some narration is sprinkled in. I usually enjoy books told in this way, but it just didn't work for this book I don't think. It started to drag pretty quickly, especially as there were very long paragraphs written out in these emails and I just had no motivation to trawl through them. It also felt very out of touch, writing long emails as if they were letters, in a time where I don't know a single person who communicates through emails unless it's for work. Maybe that's being part of a younger generation but... these characters are only meant to be ten years older than me, so I don't think I'm way off. I was also confused as to why these cousins who live houses apart from each other, are writing so many long emails to each other. Just go and have a conversation in person.

Speaking of being out of touch: they are thirty-year-olds, talking like they are 80. It was all a bit "holier than thou", a bit twee. The way every single character would write phrases like "Oh my heart!" "Squee!" etc., they didn't feel like real, modern people. It felt like they were speaking as if they were in Regency times, which would work excellently, for, you know, a book set in Regency times... if you want a Regency-era romance where they communicate through letters, then just write that!

There was also a love triangle which didn't work to begin with, but then just died off two-thirds of the way through the novel, and it was if the second guy just stopped existing. There were other side plots that were introduced and then just never picked up again - for example, the love interest's brother seemed to want to mess in their romance, but then nothing came of that; we learn early on that Izzy's parents died when she was twelve, and that it was in a plane crash so she hates flying, but then we pretty much hear nothing about it for the rest of the book and she's suddenly perfectly happy to fly here there and everywhere.

Other little things that annoyed me was Izzy being kind of misogynistic as she says that she should write/read women's fiction because of the melodrama in her life, that there was some weird diss against Miley Cyrus in favour of Kate Middleton "there is no comparison" (I just don't understand what the point of adding this in was), and countless, COUNTLESS HP references. It's 2022. Everyone knows what the author of HP is like at this point. It is completely unnecessary (and kind of telling) to include HP references in your novel in 2022. Also a lot of Christian/religious tidbits that kept throwing me off the story.

Overall, I would not recommend, and I'm really disappointed as I was expecting a fun bookish time, but instead I was bored out of my brain.

The plot sounded so good, but unfortunately, this was a DNF for me. The format was really not my favourite, and I think that is what put me off in the first place. I was expecting the texts and emails to end and the real/normal story to begin, but it didn't happen.

The character had so much potential, and usually the idea of nerds/book lovers finding themselves together makes me happy and excited to read a book, but the writing style wasn't for me.

I really tried with this book. It is cute and I thought the main characters were fun but it was unfortunately a DNF for me. I just couldn’t get into the emails back and forth. While this isn’t for me, someone else may really enjoy this book and I think everyone should give it a chance.

Unfortunately this book fell a little flat for me. Maybe it was the epistolary format? It made it seem so drawn out, as there was so much unnecessary information added in.

Kind of a shame as Izzy as a character has so much potential and I feel I could’ve related to her had I liked the format more, she’s a librarian and book lover and has anti-social tendencies.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC!

The book started off quite well and I loved the whole story being told in most emails and messages thing. But it got old really quickly. While I do think the characters individually were quite funny, especially Izzy our protagonist who is a librarian and book nerd (like many of us), but the chemistry between the characters was lacking. The families were great and the cousins were hilarious. I loved everything about them. I just think the story would have benefitted more if it didn't have as many emails/messages as it did and a bit more classic narration.

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a missed opportunity. While I typically enjoy epistolary fic, the plot was slow and the characters weren’t as endearing or developed enough. It was hard for me to get attached. I REALLY wanted to love this one but it wasn’t for me…

Authentically, Izzy is a delightfully bookish romance. I hope other avid readers will fall in love with the story the way that I did. Told primary in an epistolary fashion, the novel was full of book quotes and had bookish references galore! Izzy and Brodie were enjoyable characters with the sweetest romance. The side characters were also lovely!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are completely my own.

This book was such a fun read. I’m a HUGE fan of epistolary fiction, so that, along with the cover design, immediately drew me in. The banter was witty, heartfelt, and encouraging. I loved the sibling relationships and the lessons the characters learned along the way. There were definitely some strong themes and character arcs in this book that I sooo loved.

I’d recommend reading this book in addition to another one to enjoy it fully. Sometimes, the banter between characters in emails can feel a bit too much if you’re reading dozens of pages in one sitting. I alternated between two books and definitely enjoyed it more.

All in all, an enjoyable, clean, faith-filled read!

Favorite quotes:

“If someone loves you, she should encourage you to become the best “you” you can be and share in your dreams instead of rearranging them to her own designs.”

“Loneliness can be a scary place until we stop being afraid to be alone with ourselves.”

At first, this book was too dull for me. For approximately 60% it was written through emails, which I find interesting but I prefer to read it as an extra and not as the complete writing. But then this changed, and it was written like most books. This was bittersweet for me because it made it much easier to read and entertaining, but I also felt as if the author had exhausted herself from writing emails and decided to change everything suddenly. In any case, that allowed the story to move forward and the reader to empathize with the characters. When at first I only knew the characters through emails, they all seemed very unreal and annoying to me, I don't know anyone who speaks like them at their age and the protagonist was a little irritating for me with books (you read and you like it, we get it.) The final problem of the book, with which the love is finished reaffirming, seemed to me that it unraveled too quickly.

I usually like epistolary fiction, but this one was really hard to get into and I didn't finish. There were too many letters and texts going around without establishing who these people were... it didn't help when a lot of them had the same last name, too. The plot moved much too slowly. Through, I hate to give up on books I'm reviewing, I just couldn't continue.

I received an advanced readers copy of this boom thanks to Netgalley, unfortunately I just could not bring myself to finish it. I’ve somehow only gotten through chapter three after 2 weeks. I really think I just could not get into this book because of the style it was written in through emails and texts, it was hard for me to keep track of who each person writing was and who they were writing to. It also rubbed me the wrong way that somehow Lord of the Rings was being used as something only nerds would know about, even if you didn’t read the books those movies have been out 20 years now, it honestly seems like a stretch that so many people wouldn’t get the obvious lord of the rings reference you were making.

Did not finish. Although I really tried to, I just couldn’t bring myself to keep reading. Others would probably enjoy this writing style, it just wasn’t for me.

Surprisingly, I liked this very much.

I have to start by saying I had no idea it was a Christian romance, which is what made me drop one of the points because of the constant talk about God. However, this is also on me because I haven't done my due diligence when requesting and only focused on the description. I do have to say there are no toxic values to it and my own personal values affected my rating.

The second star I dropped from a perfect score is for the writing style. More than 50% of the book is written in e-mail form. While I have no issues with this style (I absolutely loved Cecelia Ahern's <i>Where Rainbows End</i> aka <i>Love, Rosie </i>). But there was so much narration that it just made me skim over everything going on.

I was not a fan of two of the side characters, Josie and Penelope. Josie was the absolute worst, but Penelope was at times sufferable. But, seriously, how can there be people who had no idea about Gandalf or The Lord of the Rings characters? You don't even have to see the movies, it's just pop culture.

Other than that, I absolutely loved the love story between Isabelle and Brodie and how they brought the best out of each other. I liked that Izzy was her own person and she grew and learned from her previous relationships. I would've loved to get to see their chemistry in a steamier environment, but, then again, it's a Christian romance.

Special thanks to Net Galley for providing me with a free copy of the book in return for an honest review.

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I am not a fan of books being written or stories being told through email rather than a narrative. Also, so many NA books today are being told in dual perspective third person and I much prefer first person so this felt like a double disconnect. A great idea but not executed up to my expectations.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy of this title in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Izzy is a librarian living in the US who doesn't have the best track record with men. When her cousin sets up her profile on a dating site, Izzy isn't particularly thrilled - especially when she suspects that the seemingly perfect foreigner who strikes up a conversation with her is actually her cousin in disguise.

The premise of this story was very nice and would capture any booklover's attention. We've got two main characters who are avid readers and work in a book-related sphere - Izzy is a librarian who dreams of opening her own bookshop and Brodie is an actual bookshop owner. But I found the execution rather disappointing.

The novel starts out as epistolary with the characters exchanging mostly emails - which I could believe for Izzy and Brodie but found very strange for Izzy and here cousins. Wouldn't it make more sense for them to call each other or at least text instead of sending lengthy email messages back and forth?

To make matters worse, around half way through the book, the author introduces the third person point of view for both Brodie and Izzy while also continuing to include emails between various characters, which was so confusing and ruined the pacing for me.

There's also a miscommunication trope which I am not a big fan of most of the times.

I wish I could say that the love story stole my breath away but alas! It was really mediocre.

I wanted to like it more but it didn't give what I wanted it to give.

I was truly so excited for this book. Two bookish people falling for each other sounds SO cute. Unfortunately, this was so painful to read through.
I am a huge fan of a letter, email, or even chat exchange in a book. This epistolary novel had none of the good, and all of the bad of taking on this style of book. The letters were unbearably long at times, and even then there was no heart to them that made me want to sit through and read it. I ended up skimming through too much of this. Don’t even get me started on the insane amount of quotes the author put into this book. It was TOO much.
Considering Izzy was talking to her cousins through most of the book, their conversations felt STIFF. Nobody speaks like that, and it was exhausting to read through these conversations. They sounded like robots half the time. Not only that, her cousin was absolutely awful to her and I was getting tired of it, Izzy only stood up to her about 60%? Of the way through.
The characters did nothing for me. Basham wrote two people who are fairytale perfect for each other, but I felt none of the romance that should have come from that. Also, there was a second love interest but he felt so irrelevant to the overall plot. He really could have been cut and I wouldn’t have felt a difference.
Last note, I wish I would have known more about this author before starting. There was quite a bit of religious narrative that didn’t feel any bit relevant, and was not something I was really enjoying.

I’m sure this book may be someone’s cup of tea… just not mine

I loved the plot and the cover! The book started really well, but everything was in a message or email format. The messages got longer, which made me want to skip it all! I read around 1000 pages and was still stuck with the same. I just couldn't read anymore.

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

Thanks, Netgalley for the ARC!

This was my first contact with Pepper Bradshaw's writing and it couldn't have been better. Funny, cute and cozy, reading through emails and family dynamics was absolutely charming.
Izzy and Brody's relationship building is so beautiful that it's hard not to get attached.
I loved seeing how Izzy grew through the story and learned value from her.
Authentically Izzy is a passionate book in an unconventional way, and that only makes it better.
Read Authentically Izzy and prepare to fall in love❤

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

Two book lovers bond over their mutual love of LOTR on a dating site - sounds like my kind of read.

And it really was. A delightful romance about learning to truly you see yourself and all the worth you bring to the world just be being you.

I will say I did struggle to really get into the book, it seemed like time would slow down while I was reading and was going no where slowly despite the content being right up my ally. It did also seem to wrap up a bit too quickly in the end.

But if you looking for a literary romance that’s delightfully sweet then give this one a read.