Review: Book Lovers

Goodreads Synopsis

One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn't see coming. Nora Stephens’ life is books--she’s read them all--and she is not that type of heroine. If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again--in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow--what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.

My Thoughts

My IRL book club chose to read BOOK LOVERS for our February book. I’m glad we did because I loved it.

The enemies-to-lovers and forced proximity tropes are two of my favorites and BOOK LOVERS didn’t disappoint. The execution of the enemies-to-lovers trope was excellently written, producing a spicy slow-burn romance with some of the best bantering I’ve ever read. The sexual tension between Nora and Charlie is palpable and leaves you wanting for more.

In her author’s note, Emily Henry mentions that she loves watching Hallmark movies. Most of the movies were about some kind of rich, cold business man who leaves the big city to shut down a struggling small business and turn it into a profitable chain location. While the business man’s there, he meets a small-town girl that helps him realize life isn’t all about work or money. He falls in love and decides to stay there, dumping his equally heartless girlfriend in the big city. She said BOOK LOVERS is about her question of does the seemingly heartless ex-girlfriend get her happily ever after?

I love concept of BOOK LOVERS. I love that Nora was successful as a book agent and that she loved living in New York. I love that she loved her authors and worked hard for them. And, I especially love that she didn’t have to compromise her dreams for her happily ever after.

BOOK LOVERS isn’t just a heart-warming romance, it’s also a story with some meat to it. It explores complicated familial relationships, feelings of not fitting in, extreme anxiety, different types of love, loss, and healing. It hit very close to home and is as if Emily Henry wrote about my own feelings of struggling after my mom’s passing. (This isn’t a spoiler as you learn that Nora’s and Libby’s mom passed away in the first chapter.)

I honestly don’t want to say anymore because I don’t want to give anything away. Just know that BOOK LOVERS may be a fun contemporary romance AND it’s so much more! It’s my second 5-star read of the year and I look forward to reading more books by Emily Henry.

Have you read BOOK LOVERS? If so, what did you think?

Trigger Warning

There is a trigger warning for loss of a parent.