Unfortunately this was a dnf for me. There was a great premise and I thought it could be a fun enemies to lovers, but I just found it too cringy and Lexi was quite an annoying main character.

A good fun concept, great descriptions, and a leading couple with bright chemistry, but slightly hampered by an unlikeable lead, and the pov changing a little too much. Needed more rigorous editing.

A nivel about books and booksellers for those who love reading about those sorts of things. It was good to pass the time with, but I felt like the romantic plot started and stopped and I struggled to get on with it.

Thanks again to NetGalley and the publisher!

I have never wanted to go to Washington, but this book makes it sound exactly how You’ve Got Mail makes New York feel, cosy and small town and very appealing.

The two leading characters are extremely likeable and I wish it never had to end.

I have already recommended this book multiple times and I hadn’t even finished it.

This was just okay for me. I love an enemies to lovers story and I love bookish stories but this just fell a bit flat for me, I think it’s because I really disliked the FMC I found her so annoying and childish.
I thought the book could have been shorter, I found myself skim reading towards the end.
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Thank you NetGalley and Avon Books UK for the opportunity to review this book.

I thought that I was going to enjoy this - book focus, enemies to lovers- these are things that are normally a hit for me. Instead I felt it was simply blah
It had an uderwhelming love story with annoying protagonists and twee surnames.

Bookishly Ever After is my first book by author Mia Page. This is an enemies-to-lovers story about rival book shop owners Lexi Austen and Sam Dickens, who vie for the most custom in their Washington, DC, book shops.


The premise of this book and story was right up my alley. But I did find it to be a bit slow, especially in the beginning. Overall, I am glad that I stuck with it and finished the book. It was a cute read.

If there was a way an author could transport every dream and wish for the perfect book and put it down on paper then Mia Page has succeeded with Bookishly Ever After.
This is everything I want in a book. From enemies to lovers, bookshops, Jane Austen quotes and a love for the West Wing. I feel like this book was written just for me and I loved every single page.
I smiled, I laughed, I was rooting for Lexi throughout. I adored the characters, their struggles and the banter between Lexi and Sam was just superb.
All the love for this book and will be telling all about it!
Thank you for the opportunity to read an early copy.

I read an eARC of this book so thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley.

There were a lot of things I liked in this book. It’s centred around two rival bookshop owners and I love bookshops, there’s a lot of references to Jane Austen and it’s set in Washington D.C. which made my inner Leslie Knope very happy.

I found this interesting and I wasn’t bored at any point and I felt engaged and I wanted to know what happened. The pacing was quite good and I was invested in the setting.

This fell down a bit for me though fairly early on because of the premise for the romance. It started off so deceitfully that I didn’t want it to succeed because it would end with someone being manipulated and badly hurt. Lexi is annoyed that a rival bookstore has opened and the owner is infringing on her market and doing things he shouldn’t like putting out books before their release dates so people will go to his shop instead. While his behaviour isn’t great, her solution is to make him fall in love with her without reciprocating so she can infiltrate the enemy? Her friends tell her this is gross behaviour but she does it anyway… and of course she develops feelings for him. This wasn’t a great start, I couldn’t root for this romance knowing it was originated in a plan to manipulate and potentially hurt someone.

I was far more invested in whether Lexi would manage to find a way to keep her bookshop afloat. This rivalry was quite interesting and I did feel sorry for her as she had depressing meetings with her accountants, lost staff members because she couldn’t give them pay rises and had to deal with an opponent who wasn’t fighting fair. I was rooting for her to save her business and hoped she’d find a solution.

The romance though felt toxic, I don’t mind an enemies to lovers romance. This felt as though they were both quite self-centred and harmful to each other. It wasn’t as wholesome as I would have hoped.

This might be one for fans of Jane Austen retellings or messy romances. The bookstore rivalry was interesting and I was invested of the resolution of that storyline.

Who doesn't love a good enemies to lovers story? I know I do. Bookishly Ever After is a great concept by giving the main characters the same last names as classic authors and having them bookstore rivals that live in Washington DC, but making one American and the other British as a contrast to how different the cultures are.

The sex scenes were lacklustre but what I liked about it wasn't sprung on the reader. There was build up to it. I've read things in the past where there is no build up and its just sprung on you. Bookishly Ever After isn't like that and gives a warning well in advance as to where it is headed.

This was a good debut novel by Mia Page. It's obvious how much knowledge she has of the publishing industry. We need a sequel... STAT!

Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I don’t like writing bad reviews. And I really wanted to like this book more. An enemies to lovers story about rival bookshop owners? Couldn’t be more up my alley. But to be honest I found myself really disliking Lexi. It’s pretty rare for me to dislike a main character so much. I just…listen, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being proud to be British. But this book beat you over the head with it. Lexi’s character was so pretentious any time she compared Americans to Brits. For example, “Americans getting up early to ‘work out’ as they call it to feel ‘virtuous about life’.” I’m not a work out person myself, let alone a morning work out person, but people who do it aren’t trying to be virtuous. They’re probably trying to fit it in before working too many hours at their job. She mentions having the “sorry” trained out of her since being in the US and describes Americans being more direct compared to Brits; she uses examples like asking a question without preceding it with “can I ask a question,” emails with no “hope you’re doing well” or “don’t worry if it’s too much trouble.” Maybe I’m being an overly sensitive American but these are things I literally do always - apologize even if I didn’t do anything wrong, flower up my emails so they’re not too serious, and say “don’t worry if it’s not too much trouble” while simultaneously worrying that I’m asking too much of someone. Those are just the examples I took note of, I eventually had to stop or else I’d never get through the book. She even seemed pretentious about which part of DC she lives in vs where Sam lived. It would be one thing if it felt like good-natured ribbing. Hey I don’t mind being the butt of a joke. But that’s not how it felt to me.

There were points in the book where the characters would have lines of dialogue and then midway through there would be an unnecessary pause to summarize the conversation. For example when Sam is telling Lexi about Amanda and how she used him for his family/connections. The “summary” that happens between dialogue didn’t really do anything to save time because…well it was like 2 sentences of summary that could’ve just been 2 sentences of dialogue instead. It’s not like she was summarizing minutes or even hours of conversation and it ended up being annoying and distracting rather than helpful to move the plot forward.

I noticed a couple times, the author even used phrases that are not common for Americans. At one point Sam says “you’re not meant to be back here” which is not something I can picture an American saying really. They are more likely to phrase it “you’re not supposed to be back here.”

At times, it didn’t feel like the timelines were right. There was a point at which it’s meant to be Wednesday. The next chapter mentions a staff meeting “this week” and then the next chapter is “the next day” and it’s Wednesday but not a full week passes. There’s also the Tipsy Browsing event where she goes to the office to see how successful numbers are from Saturday’s event. Only to go on to refer to it having occurred on Friday.

Some of these things may be a bit nit-picky but they are things that I found to be distracting and impacted my enjoyment of the book. However, back to the characters and plot. While I found Lexi to be mostly unlikeable, I found Sam to be mostly likable. Even though he’s made out to be grumpy, this ends up being a misconception and he actually seems like a gentleman. However, I do agree with the assessment of one of the side characters that I think he was a bit self-sabotaging; then again so was Lexi. I do also feel like their “fights” were literally him overreacting and her not communicating and just accepting that it was over.

As a side note, not intended as author/book feedback, but the Kindle version of this was terribly formatted. Random sections were all right-aligned, the chapters had no space between them and the dialogue was sometimes hard to follow because of the way it was formatted. I did go between reading this directly from the NetGalley app and the Kindle app for this reason but found myself annoyed at the NetGalley version too as there was no table of contents and no option to read aloud which I sometimes like to do while doing household chores. I did, however, find there was at least one part of the book where there are two different versions of dialogue between Sam and Lexi which I found interesting.

I can’t state enough how I do not enjoy leaving bad reviews and I also know that I often write more about books I don’t like than I do about ones I like so if you made it this far I’m sorry. This book just wasn’t for me.

I do love a good bookish story.
This is an enemies-to-lovers story about rival book shop owners Lexi Austen and Sam Dickens, who vie for the most custom in their Washington, DC, book shops.
Both shops have coexisted fine over the years until Sam takes over Great Expectations, primarily a second-hand bookstore, and begins changing his offerings. This affects Lexi's business, a bookshop set up by her grandmother.
You have plenty of Britishisms, with Lexi's character originally having been from the UK, and comparisons. Obviously, there is a connection to two classic authors, given the names of our two main characters, but it was a bit predictable.
Yes, Lexi and Sam have chemistry, but ultimately, they come across as quite immature in handling situations, considering they are meant to be mature business-owning adults.
There's plenty of to-ing and fro-ing, will they, won't they situations, but it was a pretty long-winded read and could have been shorter.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books for an ARC.

Enemies to lovers fun, Austen references galore, and frustrating will they won’t they moments. Bookishly Ever After is a bubbly, book loving romcom, which I really enjoyed. Great for fans of You’ve Got Mail.

Huge thanks to the author and publisher for the chance to read this ARC, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review..

“Two rival bookstore owners. One chance for a happily ever after…“

I love a good enemies to lovers with the added bookish vibes is even better!

This had serious You’ve got Mail vibes but with a twist. A book about books for book lovers, I loved the descriptions of the cozy bookshop. I did find it was a little predictable, but I still really enjoyed it.

If you’re going into this expecting a “You’ve Got Mail” type story, ehhhhhhh, sort of but not really (though it does give a nod to the movie so it knew what it wanted to be!). I couldn’t find my groove with this book. I didn’t super love either of the leads, but especially the female lead. Her attitude and motives were off putting to me. Additionally, I’m not usually a fan of 3rd person POV and this was not an exception. It was cute, but just didn’t grab me.

This book was a letdown. It was way too long and repetitive. The main character was annoyingly self-centered, and the male lead was bland.
The setup of warring bookstore owners had potential, but the pacing was off, the dialogue was unrealistic, and everything was over-explained. It could use some heavy editing. As it stands, it was a miss for me. Not sure I would recommend it.

I read this whilst driving to Italy. It was a very cute, summery read and one I am glad I read whilst on the road. I really enjoyed the enemies to lovers. Lexi and Sam were really suited and the stubbornness for their relationship made me want to clatter their heads together at times.

I did feel the story at times was quite childish with how the characters acted and some of the dialogue but who wouldn't love Lexi inheriting her Grandmothers book shop and making it her own whilst dealing with Sam - another bookshop owner - and he poaches her clientele.

I enjoyed it though. it was a quick, easy read. Thank you to Mia Page, Netgalley and Avon Books for allowing me access to this ARC.

This book wasn't for me. Maybe because my expectations were too high, I have no idea. The beginning was promising but overall it felt as if the plot just dragged and wasn't entertaining at all. I also had a hard time liking the characters, especially both main characters. I don't know, I expected something else..

Enemies to lovers? YES
Bookish vibes? YES

I love a book about books. I love enemies to lovers. This book delivered what it needed to keep me entertained and it is cute AF! I enjoyed this book for its predictable comfort and cute story.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book early!
I enjoyed the Austen references throughout the book. I do feel the book dragged just a bit, but it was still enjoyable.