I had never read a book by Elinor Lipman before, so I decided to go into "Every Tome, Dick & Harry" without looking up the synopsis. Right from the start, I really enjoyed the book—especially the developing relationship between Emma and Frank, which was the absolute highlight for me. Their dynamic was charming and engaging, and I found myself looking forward to their scenes together.

However, as the story progressed, I felt a major disconnect from Emma herself, as well as most of the other characters. I was particularly interested in her relationship with the chief of police and was hoping to be more invested in it, but unfortunately, it fell flat for me. I went into this expecting a cozy, feel-good relationship fiction novel—something along the lines of Jojo Moyes—but that wasn’t quite what I found.

That said, I do think this book will work well for other readers, especially those looking for something on the lighter side. As for the audiobook narration, Piper Goodeve did a great job distinguishing the different characters, but I occasionally struggled to differentiate between Emma’s inner thoughts and her actual spoken dialogue.

Thank you to Elinor Lipman, HarperAudio Adult, and NetGalley for the ALC in exchange for an honest review.

I received this book as an ARC from Netgalley.

The story started out cute and had me laughing at parts, but I felt like the direction ended up going all over the place. The characters are all lovable but there's just a lot going on here. I feel like there's a good story underneath everything but there's a decent amount of, meh, that you have to get through.