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. 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.

When Emily Henry’s Beach Read is your favorite book ever, the book you consider perfect, it’s hard to read and review any of her other books without very high expectations. I think Beach Read was just lightning in a bottle for me, the perfect book at the perfect time. So while I enjoyed Book Lovers thoroughly, laughing and crying at all the right places, it didn’t quite reach the Beach Read status for me.

But I love that Emily Henry has created the anti-rom-com heroine in Nora, a love story for the character that is usually the one that gets left behind when the hero falls for the quirky, lovable bookish love interest. HOWEVER, it’s the quirky, lovable bookish character that I most identify with, that steals my heart, so it’s those kinds of romances that I’m drawn to the most. But I can still appreciate the need for more stories like Book Lovers.

I adored the chemistry between our two main characters. The build-up was the best kind of torture. I loved that Charlie and Nora were so similar. Most romances are about opposites attracting, but their similarities had me rooting for them.

“Sometimes, even when you start with the last page and you think you know everything, a book finds a way to surprise you.”

Emily Henry, Book Lovers