Book Lovers by Emily Henry

Book Review Sep 11, 2023

My review

4/5 stars

Emily Henry is an author that I constantly see recommended on my social media feeds, but this is my first personal experience of her writing. I really enjoyed it.

Nora and Charlie were both very loveable, engaging characters. I was invested in their slow burn, banter-filled relationship from the start; getting satisfaction out of guessing what their next interaction would look like. They both had just the right amount of personal agency from each other to make them interesting in their own right, while not driving them to be so different that the chemistry didn't make sense.

I came for the romance, and got it in spades, but I was pleasantly surprised by the dynamic between Nora and her little sister. I had so much fun trying to piece together the puzzle of what was going on between them and following along as Nora played the role of a caring detective in her sister's life. I related hard to the role of a responsible older sister and felt that the author had done an excellent job of capturing that feeling.

My favourite aspects of the book were the slightly meta parts. The two parts that stick out are where Nora is painted as a cold, brittle workaholic with no feelings, and then has that reflected back to her when she is editing a book for work, and when Nora and her sister travel to a town made famous in a romance book only to be disappointed, and they do this as the plot of a romance book. The author had some very clever fun with the genre and I was there to see it all with glee.

The only thing that stopped me from giving this a 5 star review was the fact that it took me longer than normal to read, i.e. it didn't have me hooked. I can normally bust through a romance book like this in a couple of days, especially if I'm enjoying it enough to get the urge to read over all other responsibilities. While I enjoyed this book hugely, I didn't have that urge, so it can't get the full 5 stars. I will definitely be reading more by this author in the future though.

Book blurb

Nora is a cut-throat literary agent at the top of her game. Her whole life is books.

Charlie is an editor with a gift for creating bestsellers. And he's Nora's work nemesis.

Nora has been through enough break-ups to know she's the one men date before finding their happy-ever-after. To prevent another dating dud, Nora's sister has persuaded her to swap her city desk for a month's holiday in Sunshine Falls.

It's a small town straight out of a romance novel, but instead of meeting sexy lumberjacks, handsome doctors or cute bartenders, Nora keeps bumping into...Charlie.

She's no heroine. He's no hero. So can they take a page out of an entirely different book?