Jenn McKinlay - Love at First Book

Emily Allen, a librarian on Martha’s Vineyard, has always dreamed of a life of travel and adventure. So when her favorite author, Siobhan Riordan, offers her a job in the Emerald Isle, Emily jumps at the opportunity. After all, Siobhan’s novels got Em through some of the darkest days of her existence.
Helping Siobhan write the final book in her acclaimed series—after a ten-year hiatus due to a scorching case of writer’s block—is a dream come true for Emily. If only she didn’t have to deal with Siobhan’s son, Kieran Murphy. He manages Siobhan’s bookstore, and the grouchy bookworm clearly doesn’t want Em around.
Emily persists, and spending her days bantering with the annoyingly handsome mercurial Irishman only makes her fall more deeply in love with the new life she’s built – and for the man who seems to soften toward her with every quip she throws at him. But when she discovers the reason for Kieran's initial resistance, Em finds herself torn between helping Siobhan find closure with her series and her now undeniable feelings for Kier. As Siobhan's novel progresses, Emily will have to decide if she’s truly ready to turn a new page and figure out what lies in the next chapter.

Comment: I got interested in this book because it had a plot that would feature people who work with books. That easy.

Emily left her routines in Martha's Vineyard to stay fro an year in Ireland, as part of a job that entailed being the assistant to her favorite author. Emily had a tough childhood with her parents always fighting and then her father left them, which means her mother became bitter and narcissistic, targeting Emily for her anger and dismissal... after a lot of therapy, Emily was able to set up some boundaries and this year in Ireland is one more way to do so, and if she has the chance to spend time with an author she admires, even better.

She is also going to do a part time at the shop where this author is in residence, and she hopes her librarian knowledge will help but the owner, Kieran Murphy doesn't warm up to her right away...

At first, I was quite enthusiastic over the book, and I liked the idea of an adventurous Emily leaving a heavy weight behind to try something different and that would help her with her self esteem too. The whole bookshop and author's assistant idea was quite captivating and I rooted for Emily to have a great experience.

The plot isn't complicated and it is quite focused on Emily's days and how the interacts with those around her. The author she admires wrote a children's series that was and is loved by many, but the last book was released ten years ago and no one really understood what caused such a hiatus. Emily spontaneously wrote a letter to this author and ended up invited to help, something that left Emily on the moon. But, of course, learning what happened and why is the author in a rush now to finish the last book of the series can be rather bittersweet.

I don't think it is necessary to be a genius to guess why now and why Emily's letter might cause a sudden decision, thus it is to expect some sadness to come... I mean, I didn't really think too much about this because the other elements were enough catnip for me and at first I thought the author was just quirky, but someone paying more attention might catch on sooner. Of course, certain things then have to happen in a predictable way...

There is romance too, between Emily and Kieran, and at first they don't seem to get along much, which means I was all aboard with this opposites attract idea. Plus, they kept quoting book passages to one another and I found this to be cute. I liked the fact Emily was a lover of books and that this was also something that drew them together. However, even supposing the point was never to focus on this, I also think the romance development was too predictable and lacked more chemistry for me to really believe in how intense their feelings really were supposed to be.

For me, the most interesting element in this book was how Emily dealt with her mother's issues and personality. Their relationship was always based on some toxicity from her mother, someone who could not value and care for Emily as most mothers do. We have plenty of scenes in which Emily mentions the amount of messages and voice mails and calls her mother makes and how much stress this causes and when they talk, how careful Emily has to maintain the boundary. Too bad that this element didn't seem to have any obvious closure....

As a whole, this was a cute story, even with the issues I wasn't as fond of, but I kind of expected more, in general. I think this story was almost there, whatever random meaning this there might have for me and which I can't explain properly. It was w what if thing, what if this had happened, what if this scene had turned out differently...

This is also the second book in a duo, related to a first one featuring Emily's best friend. I have not read that one, though, but I assume it might have similar subjects, considering some scenes here.

Grade: 6/10