Book Lovers
by Emily Henry
When the opening pages of a book demonstrate the writer’s deep fluency and familiarity with romance tropes, even by being extremely meta about it, it’s a signal for me that I can trust the book I’m reading to fulfill the expectations I have. If Book Lovers were a person, it would probably be wearing a t-shirt that read, “I am your catnip, Sarah,” and would politely ask if it could hug me.
Because this narrative simultaneously operates on a “telling me a story” level, and on a “people in the book are editing another book” level, and on a “this book knows exactly what kind of book it is” level, I felt extremely safe and welcomed. So I said yes to the hug. It was a very enthusiastic one.
Continuing with the “if this book were a person” motif, this novel would be friends with all the romance readers. The lead characters, especially Nora, reference romance authors, tropes, archetypes, and specific books, so if you like romance-specific literary cameos, dive on in. The warmth and affection for romance and the people who love it is palpable.
The story opens with Nora getting dumped while explaining to the reader that in the world of romantic comedy tropes, she is the icy, business-super-focused New York-loving person. What happens to them? They dumped by boyfriends who go to some rural or small town place, meet someone, and realize “what matters.” This is precisely what happens (and has happened before). And if that character archetype, that storyline and the subtextual politics of it bug you, well, this is a delicious and deliberate subversion of a lot of it. (See this Q&A with the author for more detail.)
Immediately after she is dumped, she has a lunch meeting with an editor, Charlie, and it doesn’t go spectacularly well. Nora is a literary agent, and Charlie has rejected a book Nora is very confident will sell. But she’s late, he’s surly, they annoy each other, and, well, we know where this is going. Eventually.
Once the story began, there were:
- flirty email and then text conversations (*chef’s kiss*)
- sisters who adore each other but have some secrets
- a small town based on a book series complete with punny names for business
- people for whom New York is a home that they love
- lots and lots and lots of highlighted text when I was done
I’d be curious to read this on a Kindle with the feature where you see what other people have also highlighted turned on. I want to see which of my favorites match other people’s.
There’s also a lot of plot (and I’m trying not to spoil too much here): Nora and Charlie are surprised to see each other in the same small town where Libby convinces Nora to go for an extended vacation, just the two of them. Nora and Charlie end up orbiting around one another closer and closer, as proximity, attraction, and professional work bring them together. There are several books within this book, and while I found myself skimming some of the scenes about the editing and development process, the conversations between Nora and Charlie are magical.
Another way in which this story plays with narrative is that some of the tensions between Nora and other characters, such as her sister Libby, are based on the simple fact that two people looking at the same situation will have very different interpretations and will build two extremely different narratives from the same moment. One of the lessons that Nora has to learn, for example:
…is that managing someone’s life so they experience few obstacles can deny them the chance to feel like the main character of their own life.
Even the title Book Lovers refers to many subtle and prominent details of this book, and I gulped the entire novel in one day, disappearing into a few pages when I was supposed to be doing other things (oops). I love stories that are about people being seen and loved and appreciated exactly as they are, that in some part are about bending or destroying expectations. As I said, there was some skimming on my part when the plot started to seem slow to me, especially as more and more characters were introduced and connected to the central relationships. I wasn’t invested in every storyline (and there were several!) but I was very invested in the romance between two individuals who love books as much as I do.
– SB Sarah
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. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.
Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away—with visions of a small town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.
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.
Contemporary Romance, Romance
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Thanks!
This sounds intriguing, and a book hug appeals. Thanks for your review, Sarah.
I’m most of the way through this and loving it. I also loved People We Meet on Vacation but found Beach Read pleasant enough but not every memorable (except inasmuch has it’s part of the leaving notes/putting notes in windows plots that are so common these days. I agree that the dialogue between Nora and Charlie is just terrific, I still don’t know what little sister’s deal is, but I can’t wait to find out.
Oh, and LOVE how Nora handles her attraction to Charlie once it becomes serious to her. She just decides that she’s going to have a conversation with him about it. What an idea!
Is it just me (reading on Chrome) or are the ads in the center not showing up properly?
Thanks for the review. I’m #3 on the GBPL reserve list and jealous and cranky about everyone who got on ahead of me.
@DonnaMarie Count yourself lucky. I recommended the book at my library months ago and am currently #30 on 1 copy! Wait time “at least 6 months.”
Your link has an extra space which makes it not work. 🙂
Oh, bother – thank you for letting me know! I didn’t catch the extra space. All fixed now.
I just finished this last night and loved it so much! The banter between the characters was witty and snarky in a good way. I laughed out loud at many of the conversations. I loved that it was all about books, a bookstore, book editors, book agents, etc. Who doesn’t want to go to a bar named Poppa Squat? The author’s descriptions of New York City, sisterhood, romance, small town charm, love interest were all incorporated seamlessly.
I grade this an A and have placed it in my read again stack.
I loved this book and stayed up late to Hoover through the love story, skipping some other plots. Now I’m going back and re-reading at a more sedate and appreciative pace. Henry writes wonderful conversations, the characters are pleasingly nuanced and it’s frequently laugh-out-loud funny. A keeper!
I thought this one was okay (I think I went with a C+?); it went a little too meta for my taste.
Excited to read this one! Although I’m the inverse of @Laura George in that I loved Beach Read and liked People We Meet on Vacation but didn’t find it memorable. I think Emily Henry is another author where there is a clear split in the readership with regards to preference for one book over another.
I read the review this morning, went to my two out of state libraries-the wait list was in the hundreds. My hometown library doesn’t have the book. I did buy it and started reading it this morning, I am loving it so far. I REALLY didn’t want to go to work!
Oh yay, I was hoping this would get reviewed at the Bitchery. Unlike other commenters I loved Beach Read but absolutely hated People We Meet on Vacation. After reading this review I think I’ll give Book Lovers a chance and pick up the audio book (once again narrated by the wonderful Julia Whelan).
I keep not reading Henry’s books because I hate the covers which I know is stupid but gawd I hate these covers so much. I swore to myself after years of not reading The Magpie Lord because of the horrific uncanny valley cover only to eventually discover that it was my ideal book, I *swore* that I had learned my lesson and I was going to stop being so petty. And yet. These covers are so intensely bland and middlebrow and cutesy inoffensive this-isn’t-a-shameful-romance-novel that I cannot make my brain accept that this is in fact a romance novel. It is, right? Can someone reassure me there is on page sex?
I finished BOOK LOVERS last night. I’m with @Susan and others. I LOVED this book. I enjoyed reading the bits about editing, so there was no part of the book that I skimmed. I understand why @Lisa F found it too meta (there is one bit near the end with maybe five meta comments in just two pages. Had I been one of the fictional book editors from the novel I would have told this author to cut down the density here. But even all the mataness I loved, loved, loved.
I’m familiar with most but not all of the books listed in Nora and Libby’s Ultimate Reading List. You can bet I’ll be checking out the one’s I haven’t read.
Oh, and I’m going to reread BEACH READ next. Maybe I wasn’t in the right frame of mind when I read it last year. What I loved about PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION was the dialogue between Poppy and Alex. Their conversations over the years were so fast, funny, and full of the kinds of in-jokes and references you get an any long friendship. So back to BEACH READ I go.
I consistently enjoy Emily Henry’s books, but I ran into the same issue with this one that I did with Beach Read, namely that as a reader of a lot of contemporary fiction (both literary and genre) I could not recognize the characterization of the book publishing landscape. I don’t necessarily expect realism, but none of the books that Augustus and January wrote in Beach Read or that Charlie and Nora shepherd into existence in Book Lovers sound like they would be bestsellers (or more obscure serious books, or beloved cult favorites, or whatever positions they’re supposed to hold culturally in the worlds of these books). Even the tropes referenced in Book Lovers are honestly more recognizable from movies than from books (I know the small-town romance subgenre exists, but it’s not really coming from the kind of cutthroat, polished New York Publishing houses the heroes are supposed to work at (insomuch as those jobs even exist anymore, though I’m happy to pretend that they do), so I don’t really know that it makes character sense for them to be familiar with it?).
Anyway, I often apply a mental test like this to fiction where characters are creatives–not just “does this movie/book/poetry/music/etc. sound like it would actually be good” but “does it sound like it could actually have the impact the story wants me to believe it has,” and I don’t think these books pass that test. But I was still really invested in the characters, so I guess it can’t be too serious a criticism!
@Ginger: I’m on the hold list for both the physical and digital copy of this book with both my library cards (and will obviously just cancel the hold for whatever format/library doesn’t end up being needed). The estimated wait for the digital copy at one of the libraries is 658 days. Eep.
Emily Henry will always soar to the top of my TBR pile. This one did not disappoint!