Emily Henry - Book Lovers

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.

Comment: Two years ago I've read a book by this author which many readers liked but that to me was a little underwhelming. Nevertheless, the author's themes (books mainly) are very appealing and I've decided to try another one, and this time I was amazed by this story...

In this book dedicated to book lovers, as the title so conveniently alludes to, an editor and an agent must unite efforts to help an author have the best professional advice she can to publish her book. Nora is an agent whose personality and life is very similar to the dumped women in romances, always put aside when their intended finds true love. Charlie is an editor who wants to help his family even if that means working in a cliched bookshop, famous after a successful book made readers curious about its location, and by the same author he is now responsible for editing. Nora and her sister Libby are just in their holidays, for Libby wanted to relax before she's due to have her third baby, but the more the small town resembles the cozy romance setting everyone expected, the more Nora runs into Charlie and the more they interact in weirdly fun ways. Could it be that romance cliches are much more obvious than they ever imagined after all?

As a romance, this fit all the boxes for me and I had a great time spending time with these characters and following their thoughts. In this aspect, I must say I liked this book a lot more than the other, where there times when things felt very boring or not very interesting. Here, the characters' interactions and the situations they put themselves in always felt cute or captivating.

Nora is actually a fascinating character, a mix of vulnerability and strength often hidden under the guise of apparent indifference. I liked how the author characterized her and it was quite an idea, to compare her with those characters in books and in movies that so often are seen as villains or even redundant, only there to present an obstacle to the main characters' romance. Nora has had more than one experience being dumped by guys who found "true love" and this, along with her absent father and disillusioned mother - even though she kept an upbeat persona while alive - probably caused her to feel she was not meant for an everlasting love.

Of course, part of the fun is to watch precisely this happening and Charlie, who also seemed at first a bit standoffish, is the perfect partner for her. The setting is truly a cliché but I had so much fun following Nora and Charlie, and even sister Libby, while they did silly things, sometimes connected to the scenes int he book that made the place known among romance readers. This was even better when we find out Charlie is the son of the bookshop's owners, a must in any cozy romance. I also liked learning how being their child affected Charlie's perception on this, especially once he shares with Nora certain things about hos parent's past.

In a way, I'm surprised the author used so many expected tropes/situations often found in romances and included them in very clever ways, almost as if they were truly part of the natural lives of the cast of characters, instead of being just something handy to use. Even things not directly meant to interfere with the plot were fun things to find like small town vibe being perfect for a HEA against all odds, or the quirky restaurant being a spot for a failed date.... things we take for granted in romances but that here, somehow, were made to look easy, almost organic to this world.

I also liked all the conversations about agents and editors and the work entailed and how some things are processed. Any reader probably has some clue on this or that but it's always nice to me to read things that make the characters look more professional or knowledgeable about what they do. The plenty references to books or anything book related were also a big plus!

Also, when the story gets to a certain point, the options the characters have to do also start to fit in with what we came to expect after a few comments the characters say but I was still a little surprised by one small twist, which is not that impossible to guess, but that I feel was still clever of the author to have done it. It made me think ti was another plot trope added...

When I finished the book, I felt very happy, this really made me imagine myself along with the characters seeing and hoping for the same things they wanted. I think the author balanced very well all the details she used and the characters might become just another couple in romance, but I really believed them and hoped they would find their way. It was very satisfying when they did precisely that.

Grade: 9/10