When I first saw the description for this book and the cover, I was instantly hooked and intrigued by the idea of a bookworm heroine trying to find her own real life happily ever after.

Read this if you enjoy books with:
📖 book loving MCs
📖 long distance relationships
📖 love triangle
📖 lots of bookish quotes and references

This story had a lot of thematic elements that I thoroughly enjoy in my romance books. I appreciated that the main characters were a bit more mature (late 20s and early 30s) and that there was a solid friend/family group for both of the main characters. The romance was sweet and throughly nerdy with lots of bookish references sprinkled throughout their conversations.

While the transition from letter format (during the first half of the book) to narrative form (most of the second half of the book) threw me for a bit of a loop, I could still enjoy the trajectory of the story and the journey that the characters go through. At times it was a bit insta-lovey for my liking and the love triangle kept me from being too invested in one of the two guys for a while, I did ultimately enjoy the unique and creative romance story.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Thomas Nelson for an advanced copy of this book, all thoughts are my own. Side note: I love this cover, it's super fun and very eye-catching! 😉

#AuthenticallyIzzy #NetGalley

I was excited to read this book by Pepper Basham, I just finished Heart of the Mountains, I also love her book Tge Mistletoe Countress. Authentically Izzy, is written in email or text format, which was hard to get used to at first.
When Izzy's cousin, Josephine, creates an account for Izzy for an online dating service, Izzy tells her she wants nothing to do with it. But Josephine is determined to find a man for Izzy, and keeps setting her up with blind dates. Izzy, corresponds, with several man on the dating site, hoping to dissuade her cousin Josephine, form setting up more blind dates, one man's posts, intrigue her and they keep sending emails to each other. There's only one problem, Brodie, lives across the ocean and Izzy, refuses to get on a plane.
This book had me laughing, it is all about the closeness of families and how they can also interfere with your life., sometimes in a good way.

Wasn't a big fan of the way this book was structured with the formate but over all it was a good story.
First time trying this author. Would definitely try another book

Really enjoyed this book. Took me a little bit to get used to the format of correspondence but it was very engaging and fun to read. Would love to read sequels!

This was a cute story but the fact that it was told between emails and letters made it a little bit cumbersome to read to read. Though I liked the concept it definitely did not add to the story for me and I would have liked to read part of it like a traditional book

Izzy is an avid reader of books and lover of the Lord of the Rings. When her cousin sets her up on an online dating site, she meets someone with similar interests and the book chronicles their romance as the pair live an ocean apart.

2/3 of the format of the book were email and text format, while the latter portion was told in a story narrative. I found this, together with large parts of the plot, to be very reminiscent of the “Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” (GLPPPS). Not only did the main characters lose their parents at a young age, the love interest live on an island off of England and their romance kindled by a love of books, there were even similarities with some of the character names and sub-romance plots.

I found very little of the book original since it was more-or-less a southern re-telling of the GLPPPS in a modern age. Rather than letters and telegrams, emails and texts were the primary story telling method.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Fiction for providing an eARC. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This was a super quick and cute read. The email format was a unique and cool idea - but it made it hard for me to really connect to the characters. I wish we got to read more of a backstory/character development before diving into the email correspondence. All in all it was a neat story and presentation - just not my cup of tea.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson--FICTION for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. I really liked the characters they were related and fun. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

I have long been a fan of Pepper Basham's romances, but this one is my all-time new favorite of hers.
Drop everything, clear your schedule and get it now! Let me tell you why: This epistolary novel is full of swoony romance, heartache, self-realization, and literary, authentic bookish fun - not necessarily in that order.

Family is a big thing in this book and both Brodie and Izzy's families are quirky and adorable, with the obligatory difficult...er...misunderstood family member.
This book will have you laughing out loud, sighing with happiness, and occasionally yelling at a character to change their ways. Wait until you get to the book wars scene. Too funny.

All-round pure entertainment with a heaping side of relatability and heart.

Book provided by the publisher on NetGalley, my opinion is my own.

I had the most fun reading this book! The literary wit is unmatched and the emails between Izzy and Brodie will enamor any You've Got Mail fan. (Which is everyone, right?) I wish I had siblings or cousins I could correspond with like Izzy does her cousins. This book warmed my heart and made me proud to be bookish.

This is an interesting and quite a clever concept for a book. Most of it is a series of continuous communication through e-mail and text between Izzy and her three cousins. She grew up with them since age 12 after her parents died, so to her they are the same as two sisters and a brother. Izzy is what could be called a book worm of the highest level. She is absolutely obsessed and very knowledgeable when it comes to books and authors. She works in the library with her aunt, which seems to be the perfect job for her, however, her dream job would be to own her own bookstore.

The first messages mainly deal with the shock Izzy is feeling when she learns one of her cousins’ makes her a profile on an online dating site. This particular cousin is married, expecting twins and feels everyone should be as settled and happy as she is.

Through the online dating site, Izzy does, in fact, meet several interesting men and of course there is one who is only interested in her helping him write a book. Then she meets Bodie, and though Izzy and Brodie seem to hit if off and spend months writing back and forth, Brodie lives in a different country.

The best part of the book to me was when the story went into just simple text, to continue the story in a narrative form. I really got caught up in the actual story then. I thought the text messages and e-mails were too much, taking up well over half of the book, maybe even three-quarters of it. I found myself scanning them quickly towards the end. The messages were creative, with humor, however, I felt just too many.

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

A charming literary romance! While the format is not something I am used to (back and forth correspondence, for most of the book), I'm so happy that I stuck with it. Pepper Basham paints a beautiful picture of the surroundings within the story and has you hoping for the fairy tale ending that Izzy deserves.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Basham writes a beautiful tale of love and discovering how to be authentically yourself! ‘Authentically, Izzy’ is primarily an epistolary novel until the 50% point. I love a good epistolary read and really enjoyed reading along with Izzy and seeing her work on uncovering her position in the world, while also dealing with the struggles of dating.
This romance tugs on the heart strings while also peppering in a nice amount of book references (That don’t leave you feeling lost if you haven’t read the books they’re referencing!). Basham writes the story in a way that makes you feel like you’re involved with the story itself. This is a beautiful book to read if you feel stuck, as it teaches you that sometimes meeting the right person is all it takes to help you uncover who you truly are and where you are meant to be.
I definitely recommend this to anyone wanting a cozy, romantic read. I’ll definitely be picking up a physical copy for myself when it is released in November ☺️

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. I really tried to like this book, but it just was not for me. The premise was lovely, but I just found it hard for me to focus on all the rapid different email conversations. Another thing I just wasn’t a fan of was the wording , it almost felt like the characters were a tad snobby with language .

The formatting for the kindle ARC was impossible to read. I cannot easily review it if it’s hard to read. But would love to give this a try later.

There’s only one word to describe this book — fun! I absolutely loved the setting and the characters, and how could you go wrong with the subject matter — books. Izzy is swept off her feet by her own Prince Charming from an island with Royals. Cliche? Maybe, but such a perfect read for a book lover. Highly recommended.

This book really wasn't for me. Based on the description of it, I thought I'd really love it seeing as I also am a total nerd about Lord of the Rings, books, and dating hasn't proven the most successful lately. However, since the majority of the book is only told through emails and letters, I had such a hard time connecting with the characters. Instead of getting to know the characters better and through that falling in love with them, it just felt boring and flat to me. I read nearly half the book before I started skipping through it because I wanted to know if Izzy and Brodie met up. About 2/3 of the way we start getting a little bit of non-letter/email writing and from there, it switches back and forth but by that time I had fully given up on trying to make.it through. I hate not finishing a book, especially one that seems to have had such potential, but in this case, I just had acknowledge Authentically, Izzy wasn't for me.

I liked that this book is unique and is told mostly through letters and emails! It's a very unique take! That being said I do wish there was a bit more to break up the letters with more scenes but overall it's well done!

I love Izzy. I really love Izzy. I think her being worried about being chubby is a bit of an old take. I would have loved that not to be there. But otherwise I think this is a great read and will be such a great beach read!

Meh. This was okay. There are some romance books that just don't hit "the feels" as much as others and are quite boring to read. This was one of them. I wasn't blown away by the story or the characters, and that's important when they are so many contemporary romance books out there to choose from

I am so thankful for getting an Advanced Reader Copy of Authentically Izzy. I was very hopeful when I requested it because I read the description and it called out to me insanely!

I absolutely loved it and will be buying a copy when it is released. I loved the Lord of the Rings references so much. The Lord of the Rings reference in the description is what made me want to read it.

I can't wait to get my own copy in November!