Book Lovers By Emily Henry

Genre: Romance
Rating: 5 Stars, No 10 stars

Holy smokes the sexual tension and banter in this book.

The time has come, after seeing it hyped across Booktok and Booksta for MONTHS, I finally caved and read Book Lovers by Emily Henry. I will be honest, I wanted to hate this book I really did, because there is no chance that a book is hyped up would be good. But holy moly did Emily Henry hit it so far out of the ballpark we can’t see the ball anymore it was so good.

It’s been a few weeks since I finished this book and I’m still thinking about it from time to time. And again being honest, I’m almost using it as a rating guide for any romance book I attempt to read, which probably isn’t far but this book set my 2023 book bar SO HIGH it’s hard not to do.

A little background (with no spoilers I promise):

Nora Stephens’ life is books, she’s read them all and knows that she is not that kind of heroine. She’s not the small town girl who gets the big city guy who came in to buy her parent’s failing farm, or the happy go lucky girl that meets her soulmate in the bookstore on a random Tuesday afternoon. The only heroine you could ever call her is the one for her clients, for them and her little sister Libby there is nothing wouldn’t do. That’s how she finds herself in a small town in North Carolina for the month of August. Libby is convinced that Nora needs to step away from her workaholic ways and become the romance book heroine of her own life.

Enter our male lead of this adventure Charlie Lastra. He shares a past with Nora has an editor that turned her down years prior to their spontaneous reunion in the small town of Sunshine Falls, North Carolina. He’s actually from there and has come back to help his mom run her bookstore (which come on now perfect is that?). Anyway Charlie is like Nora, in that he’s a workaholic who loves his work and they end up having to put aside their tension (sexual tension) and work together, which will throw Nora’s carefully planned solo existence into a tailspin and take you on a ride until the every end of the book.

Which their love story is what I love most about this book. Charlie is the best book boyfriend I’ve read in a while because he not only sees Nora, the real Nora, but he also doesn’t want to change her. He likes her just the way she is and is willing to find a way to fit himself into her life unlike her previous failed romantic suitors who wanted to change everything about her. He also gives Nora the space she needs to figure things out, he isn’t giving her ultimatums and all that drive the couple apart in the third act. Their relationship is real and so authenthic it kept me on the tip of toes wondering when they’d finally figure out how perfect they were for each other.

I also really loved Nora’s grief over losing her mom. Even though it had been years, for Nora there were days where it felt so real. Her journey of feeling like she had to take care of her sister because she was the only family Nora had left was so genuine and heartbreaking at the same time. Nora put her life on hold to take care of Libby and just continued to do things in her life to make Libby’s life easier which is such a noble and loving thing to do, even though you could tell that it was driving Nora to the breaking point.

The ending of this book was perfection. We had gone on this journey of “will they, won’t they” between Nora and Charlie that I was almost scared we’d enter Hallmark movie territory with that happy ever after they ride off into the sunset ending, but the way that Emily Henry wrapped it was perfection. It wrapped it up in such a way that it kept you guessing much like Nora and Charlie had kept you guessing throughout the novel.

I’m happy that I took so long to read this book because it was definitely worth the wait. It’s the perfect kind of book for my fellow readers that loved Gilmore Girls because the cast of characters in Sunshine Falls reminded me of Stars Hallow and Nora definitely gave off Rory vibes (more Rory when she’s with Jess vibes). I’d also recommend this book to any romance fan that loves a story where the love story isn’t Hollywood perfect but authentic and real.