Hello
readers! 💙
How are you?
If you’re following me you probably knew this review would arrive (I hoped it would be sooner but the last months have been a nightmare!).
I mean, could I ever not talk about one of my
favorite authors? Of course not.
So, let’s start!
Title: Book Lovers
Author: Emily Henry
Publishing Date: July 8th 2021
(May 3rd 2022)
Publisher: Berkley Books
Pages: 400
Price: 12,85 €
Plot: 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.
Rate:
5+/5 stars!⭐
Review:
Lots of
people think that contemporary romances are a sort of second class literature.
I don’t think so. In my opinion, this is a restricted way of thinking. You
cannot enjoy a genre, you can dislike the dynamics or the general storylines
and that’s absolutely okay. It’s a
personal opinion and, for that, something to be respected. Nonetheless, it’s
wrong to generalize, declassifying an entire category without even reading a
book. That said, I think Emily Henry is the demonstration that kind of assumption
about contemporary romances is absolutely erroneous.
One of the
things I love the most about this author is her ability to create something
that is always so powerful in its own special way. She has an
ironical and sarcastic writing style, not excessively cheerful, that always fascinates
me. In this particular case, the first pages killed me! THAT was an amazing
introduction to Nora, and I’ve LOVED how Emily worked with the stereotype as “the other woman”, the obnoxious one
that always ends dumped at the end of a typical romance story. Nora is that woman and she doesn’t keep it
secret. She’s proud of who she is, even if others see her just as a workaholic
person, maybe snob too. I usually dislike a character like that, but Henry gave
her shape, depth, and a background that explains a lot of her.
She’s not a
villain. Nora is a person with her virtues and flaws, and even if the latter
are maybe the first that stand out, it doesn’t mean she’s not more than that!
She’s passionate about her work, she really cares about her authors and she
defends them fiercely when necessary (poor Charlie, sorry Dusty, I love you
too). She loves her sister, because if that wasn’t true, she wouldn’t accept to
indulge her going in this three weeks’ vacation with such a terrible list of
things to do (but it was so fun to “see them on stage”!). Plus, she adores
books and stories, and that is reflected in the way she handles her job as a
literary agent. The story itself isn’t a sort of “redemption”, because she
doesn’t need it, but it’s the chance for Nora to discover more aspects about
herself, reconnect with her sister (and maybe understand each other better) and
open herself to love, despite everything.
At the end of the book, maybe a little bit surprisingly, I’ve adored Nora. Her
stubbornness, her passion, her commitment to her work, her suffering for being
considered only a heartless person, her pain for the loss of her mother, her
traumas… She’s complex, she makes decisions I didn’t always agree with, but
she’s so human you can see her by your side.
And then
there’s Charlie. I fall in love with every Emily’s male characters. It’s
impossible not to, and he’s not an exception. If I compare him with the other
two main figures of Beach Reads and People We Meet on Vacation, I think Charlie
is the most direct one. He’s outspoken, he doesn’t say things compromising between
what he thinks and what people desire to hear, and he knows what he wants. He
has a steadiness that enchants me, together with a longing for being accepted
for who he is and what he loves to do for living. But that doesn’t matter
because when it comes to family, Charlie (as much as Nora) puts it in first
place. In Game of Thrones there’s a famous phrase that Jamie Lannister says:
“The things I do for love”. I think that describes appropriately many things
that happen in the book, both past and present ones. Love is frequently the
engine of good or bad choices, and often people don’t realize how much others
do thing for them just for real affection, even if it’s something that costs
them a lot. All becomes a little granted or unseen, and that’s unfair. This
book made me think about that a lot. It’s not “just a romance”, it’s a book about family and how it affects our
growth and life choices. It remembers us
that we have to take into consideration other things different from our wishes
and the sacrifices that others made for us. At the same time, it stresses that
it’s okay if the person we love takes a path different from ours; we have to
accept it will make them happier. Being different doesn’t mean that affection
is gone. We can’t make them like us, we have to let them free. This is love,
even if it breaks us.
And, since we’re talking about love: the
romance. I’ve loved Nora and Charlie from the start. Their first encounter
(which I was also lucky enough to hear read by Emily herself in a live on
Instagram) has been so full of sparks and underlying misunderstandings I found
myself giggling all the time and looking forward to their next meeting with
even more expectation. Their chemistry is undeniable and it was so sweet seeing
how Charlie manifested his interest in Nora and, most of all, his admiration
for her job – even if she didn’t get it. They don’t change during the book for no
one – as I said above, they didn’t need to. However, spending time together and
discussing between them (and not only about books), make them understand some
aspects of themselves better, allowing Nora and Charlie to comprehend and be
more open with each other and the rest of the people they love. I think this is
a wonderful change of perspective in comparison with what we usually find in a story.
And speaking about that, another peculiar thing is that sort of bittersweet atmosphere
that follows the reader during the whole “journey”. And it destroyed me inside,
because I was craving for a happy ending with tooth and claw, but you don’t
really know how it ends until the very last pages (and that’s why I ended up
crying like a baby in the penultimate chapter). I won’t make any spoiler, but keep
your handkerchiefs close.
Last but
not least, this is a novel about books. If in Beach Read we have the creation
of them, in Book Lovers we focus on what happens during and after an author
writes a novel. In my little way, it was cool to see something similar to my
job in those pages. Not to mention the fact that for me it’s awesome to read
about someone that shares my same passion for books and stories without being a
caricature. Making things believable and real for the readers is not something easy
to do, but I think Emily has this precious gift (as much as Emily Wibberley and
Austin Siegemund-Broka, the authors of The Roughest Draft), that is probably
one of the many reasons of all the success she has – and deserves – and I’m
sure she’ll reach with this new book of hers.
So, how can
I describe Book Lovers other than “remarkable” and “inspiring” as always?
Thank you Emily for another beautiful contemporary romance and for all the
laughs (and tears!!) you gifted me and thanks for the free book PRH International.
Until the next review! 💙
Chiara
