Book Lovers by Emily Henry- Book Review
Title: Book Lovers
Author: Emily Henry
Publisher: Penguin
Publish Date: May 3, 2022
Rating: 4.5/5
Summary(blurb): Nora is a cut-throat literary agent at the top of her game. Her whole life is books. Charlie is an editor with a gift for creating bestsellers. And he's Nora's work nemesis. Nora has been through enough breakups to know she's the one men date before finding their happily-ever-after. To prevent another dating dud, Nora's sister persuades her to swap her city desk for a month's holiday in Sunshine Falls. It's a small town straight out of a romance novel, but instead of meeting gorgeous lumberjacks, handsome doctors or cute bartenders, Nora keeps bumping into... Charlie. She's no heroine. He's no hero. So can they take a page out of an entirely different book?
**This book review may contain spoilers**
This book is basically a small town romance trope, and the book itself tells you it's a small town romance trope, and the book's setting is the actual setting of a small town romance book published by one of the main character's clients. So this book literally screams 'small town romance'-- the literal words "small-town" appear about thirty times in the book.
The blurb says it all-- this book is about Nora Stephens, a job-obsessed and cold literary agent whose "whole life is books", and Charlie Lastra who is Nora's work rival. Nora is persuaded by her little sister Libby to have a one-month vacation to Sunshine Falls, the village that was the setting for the hit book Once In A Lifetime (A book by one of Nora's clients, as well as Libby's favorite book). And in the village, she meets none other than Charlie Lastra, and apparently Sunshine Falls is Charlie's hometown. Anyway, although lots of things happen (including the introduction of the ideal blond muscular lumberjack), Nora and Charlie eventually fall in love with each other. And there's this side plot of Nora and her younger sister-- Nora loves Libby terribly and is very worried about her due to multiple small findings like a divorce lawyer's contact number. There's a nice plot twist at the end, and I really enjoyed both the romance arc and the family arc.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and especially liked the ending-- the reveal that Libby made the Checklist in order to persuade Nora to stay, how it All Worked Out in the end and Charlie moved back to New York for Nora, and particularly how the epilogue describes all the major characters not with names but with physical traits/actions (such as having paintings auctioned, having retired, having a baby on the hip, etc). Not only that but all throughout the book between Charlie and Nora, there was a huge amount of witty banter, which I always enjoy. This book was a prime example of the Romance Trope Done Well, the characters had easily identifiable traits and were perfect for each other, they were very likeable and made you want to support them. Although this is the first Emily Henry book I've read, apparently the author has written tons of romance books, and it's evident that she's a genius in crafting novels from her sentences.
However marvelous the good parts are however, there were a few elements to the book that were less than satisfactory-- the largest disappointment being that the book wasn't about book lovers at all. I thought I would really like this book because the title was Book Lovers, and presumed that it would be about two book lovers (as in fans of reading in general or a specific book) falling in love, but only half of that came true. Yes it was a romance, but they don't have a shared love of a specific book or series-- their only connection to books are that they are in the publishing industry. And although there are references to other books such as Wuthering Heights in the book, it wasn't enough (Wuthering Heights is on my TBR). I expected this to tell a story of two people falling in love with the same book, then somehow meeting and sharing stories about the book, then talking more about their lives, gradually falling in love-- this was the storyline I had wanted. Maybe I should write a book like this someday?
Another slight disappointment was that the characters weren't as relatable personally. As mentioned before, I had very different expectations for this book because of its title, and was prepared to liken myself to the main characters-- however, none of the people I know are like any of the characters in this book, so it was hard to really cheer for the main characters and genuinely hope everything would work out in the end.
Basically, this was a very nice book-- a great example of the romance trope with well-described characters, all of them with their distinctive characteristics but not feeling like a massive caricature. I loved the witty banter and the ending, but the title misled my expectations and the characters weren't personally as relatable.
I would recommend this book for grade 8 or 9 and up, there are some graphic scenes and swear words in the book.
No comments:
Post a Comment