Literary Kitten

Today I present you with my experience reading my first strictly romance book! This month, I wanted to go a bit out of my comfort zone and as it’s the month of looooove, I finally picked up my first romance book. People seem to regard Emily Henry highly so I went with one of her books, Book Lovers!

I want to preface this review by stating: I’m obviously not a romance reader and I went into this experience pretty blind; I barely knew what this book was about before reading.

I found out, however, Book Lovers centers around Nora Stephens, a literary agent, and Charlie Lastra, a book editor. Nora and Charlie meet at a point and they get into an argument over one of Nora’s clients’ upcoming books. From that point on, Nora sees Charlie as pompous, rude, and rigid.

Now two years later, Nora’s client’s book is a success and she is traveling with her sister to the setting of the successful book, Sunshine Falls, to repair their relationship. Big surprise! She finds out Charlie Lastra is actually from Sunshine Falls and they run into each other. The obvious trope here? Enemies to lovers.

Right off the bat I’ll say: It’s best to go into this book expecting something fun, lighthearted, and sweet. Don’t go into this expecting it to be a possible literary masterpiece because that WILL ruin the experience for you. Emily Henry’s writing is deep but she always takes the edge off; it’s light-hearted and inspires plenty of laughter. This book is FUN. This book is exactly what it should be for a romance book.

Here’s what I liked:

Emily Henry’s writing is hilarious. There were so many parts that made me laugh out loud while reading. The way the book opens is such a funny introduction. Typically with the small-town trope, the lead guy/girl leaves their current “stuck-up” partner for a small-town guy/girl who does something humble like own a Christmas tree farm. For Nora, she’s that “stuck-up”, “bitchy” partner who has been left FOUR times for the small-town sweetheart. This had me CACKLING. However, the best and funniest writing is always Nora and Charlie’s banter.

“I’m just surprised how far you’re taking this small-town-transformation thing. And just so you know, those bangs do not make you more approachable. You just look like a hot assassin in an expensive wig.”

All I just heard,” I say, “is hot and expensive.”

Nora and Charlie have insane chemistry; the spicy scenes are hot and the banter is peak. The two leads are also incredibly likeable. Nora has a lot of character growth and delves into her psyche. We learn a lot about why she is the way she is; why she hasn’t been able to commit fully to love and why she’s a workaholic. Charlie is extremely charismatic, flirtatious, put-together, but unafraid of messing up sometimes.

“I read once that sunflowers always orient themselves to face the sun. That’s what being near Charlie Lastra is like for me. There could be a raging wildfire racing toward me from the west and I’d still be straining eastward toward his warmth.”

Lastly, as a book lover myself, all the passionate passages about books and reading were so relatable. Henry describes the experience of getting lost in a book so well; why book lovers love to read, the escapism, the study, the satisfying endings.

“Nora.” He just barely smiles. “You’re in books. Of course you don’t have a life. None of us do. There’s always something too good to read.”

“That’s what made me fall in love with reading: the instant floating sensation, the dissolution of real-world problems, every worry suddenly safely on the other side of some metaphysical surface.”

Here’s what I didn’t like:

Honestly, I don’t have many complaints about this book. There’s just a couple things. First off, there were unfortunately some parts that made me roll my eyes with how corny it was. I’m mostly referring to the epilogue. For people who have read this book, you know what I mean! The ending is really sweet, but the epilogue is like one of those over-the-top milkshakes topped with an insane amount of whipped cream and a straw that’s stabbing through a donut and a cookie; it’s too much. It is great for some people though and I can understand that.

My second complaint is the Libby (Nora’s sister) story arc. For the most part, I found the relationship between Nora and her sister depicted really well; it wasn’t shy of arguments and there was a depth to their sisterly connection. However, Libby kept a lot of secrets throughout the book and it was dragged out quite a bit. We didn’t find out for a long time what the secrets were and once we found out, we already knew what they were because it was all so predictable.

At the end of the day, I really enjoyed my time with Book Lovers. I could totally see myself reading more Emily Henry when I need something to lighten up my life; something not so serious and something to cleanse my palate.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Song: Symptom of Your Touch: Aly & AJ

originally posted on: February 22, 2024 (on previous site)