Introverted book nerd unexpectedly inherits a family she never knew she had while trying to save her job in a bookstore and deal with a blossoming romantic relationship. A sweet, upbeat story about taking chances and stepping out of your comfort zone.

What an interesting read! Nina Hill is the most interesting character I’ve encountered ina while. Unpredictable, intelligent and flawed, she adds such a fascinating dimension to this story of family and finding your place in the world. A character driven, quirky and surprisingly deep book, this one is a keeper !

This book was absolutely brilliant!

It was witty and clever and so delishously funny, I had a smile on my face the whole way through and laughed out loud at the liberal street fight scene. Nina is sharp tongued, honest and so Lizzie Bennett with her comic comebacks and her ability to see the truth in things and have something to say about it. It feels a little like "Eleanor Oliphant is absolutely fine" but without the tragic background. I want to rave about this book to everyone I meet and I hope it makes it onto as many book club lists as possible. I look forward to the movie which I feel sure will follow.

If you love books and laughing this is the perfect book for you.

Thank you Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A sweet, whimsical read. Nina Hill is a relatable character as a fellow book lover and trivia buff, and I found myself wanting to come back to her story again and again. This book builds a world that's easy to escape to, one of found families and cats with human names and a love story that's predestined to work out, and anyone looking for a light, fun read will surely fall for its charms.

I had such high hopes for this going in. I absolutely LOVED the first twenty pages or so—the wry omniscient voice was strong, unique, and completely charming. It was the best thing about the book. But then halfway through the second chapter it faded out. I still wanted to find out what happened next, but it no longer felt unique; it lost that special thing that set it apart from similar books.

My biggest suggestion (and I'm saying this as someone who never presumes to make suggestions, but I'm doing it now while there's still time to tweak): edit the intros to each chapter so they say "In which our heroine ..." instead of "In which Nina ..." That would at least call back to the voice of the introduction.

I loved this book! As a librarian and a book lover anything with "book" in the title catches my eye. Nina Hill is in her 30's. She has her life arranged just the way she likes it, with work in a book store in a quaint neighborhood in LA, book clubs, sporadic exercise and daily goal planning. She's a trivia master and the book is sprinkled with pop culture references and bits of trivia to prove it. Then Nina meets Tom at a Trivia contest. She's very interested, which frightens her, yet attracts her. They keep running into each other as the plot progresses. Nina also finds out that her father has passed away and left something for her in his will. Except Nina didn't know her father, not even his name. Her mother is a photographer who toted baby Nina along with her on photo shoots all over the world until Nina started walking. Then Lou, her nanny took over and raised Nina to adulthood. No mention of her father ever. It turns out she has quite the extended family - aunts, brothers, sisters, neices, nephews, even grand nieces and grand nephews. Some are very nice, some are not. As Nina works to incorporate all the new people and information in her life, she learns a lot about herself, her family, and her expectations.

Well-written, funny and a lot of fun to read, this book will appeal anyone who loves to read. I grew very attached to Nina and her friends and new family - I was surprised when the book ended. I wanted it to keep going for another 10 or 100 chapters. I look forward to reading other works of Abbi Waxman.

Nina is a young woman who has carefully arranged her life in a way that plays to her strengths (including voracious reading and vast trivia knowledge) and accommodates her quirks (including anxiety and a strong need for structure and alone time). When circumstances suddenly upend her carefully planned life and intrude on her small social circle, Nina must decide the extent to which she wants to embrace or hide from these potential changes. Four stars. for this light, clever, and entertaining read, none the less enjoyable for its occasional lack of believability.

Charming and funny and sentimental in the best possible way, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill is a delightful read! Nina Hill may live in the sprawling city of Los Angeles, but she's managed to keep her life fairly small and curated. Between her job at the bookstore, weekly book club meetings, and her cutthroat trivia team, she stays busy and content. That is, until she finds out her long-lost father has died, and the perennially alone Nina has an entire family right there in LA. As she begins to meet her new family members, and through them, the father she never knew, Nina's world begins to expand in surprising ways.

This was a fun read, it reminded me of an episode of "New Girl" mixed with the movie "Amelie". The LA setting comes alive and there are some beautiful passages about books and reading that will set any bibliophile a-quiver. Nina, who any bookish introvert will relate to, had just the right amount of spunk mixed with crippling anxiety to make you want to like her and root for her. Things may get tied up a little too neatly at the end, but that's OK, it just adds to the fun, frivolous vibe of this book. Overall this was relaxing and engrossing weekend read! Also contains some memorable and laugh out loud quotes that I may use IRL...."grilled cheese in any form was her spirit animal" (yes...!!)

Loved it! Abbi Waxman gets better with each book! Nina is a romantic heroine for folks who don't like romance novels.

dnf at 15%, this book and the writing style just weren't for me. maybe I will try out another one of her books, but I just did not like this one.

Nina Hill was a delightful read. This is a funny, upbeat, slightly anxious and very clever novel.

Nina is a late 20s, book- and reading-obsessed woman who works in a very quirky bookstore. She had an extremely unconventional childhood, as the daughter of a single Australian globe-trotting photojournalist mother who hauled her around for a few years and then planted her in L.A. with a nanny. She was told that her mother was not certain about who her father was, which turns out not to be true.

Nina is smart as a whip, more than a little neurotic but not in an annoying way, and has her life set up exactly the way she wants. She lives by a daily planner and is organized to an extreme level. She gets anxiety attacks but not frequently and she has come up with coping mechanisms over the years.

Two major interruptions appear to upset her tightly orchestrated existence: a lawyer shows up to let her know that her birth father has died and she is a beneficiary under his will. She is not happy about suddenly acquiring a messy family and several siblings. And the other distraction is a man, a seemingly wonderful guy who forces her to confront her many fears and insecurities.

This book was very intelligent fun with an appealing cast of characters. Thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in return for my honest review.

Rating: 3.5 Stars
This was a smooth, enjoyable read. The author’s personality comes through very strongly, though I am not sure if this is intentional or unintentional. I found her wit to be charming for the most part, though I wish that the reader had received more insight into Nina’s thoughts. It was fun to see a lot of my own character traits in Nina: bookish, anxious, and obsessed with planners.

The plot felt very formulaic, and at one point a character made an off-handed joke about something that later actually happened. I wonder if this was meant to be a humorous jab at the formula.

In terms of the long lost family storyline, I was not too sold, but I was definitely sold on the characters, which is why this rating hovers between 3 and four stars for me.

I really enjoyed this book. It was fast moving, had quirky characters and caught your emotions as it related to what the primary character, Nina, was facing. In my opinion it was on the spectrum of "Chick Lit" so it was a nice chance to escape into the emotional world of an introverted, "Bookish" young lady whose world is shaken up. As a librarian, I can think of many patrons that I can happily recommend it to.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit as it was different from what I normally read. So many different aspects of this novel had me drawn to it, from the beautiful cover, to the highly relatable anxiety prone protagonist who loves a good plan, and above all a good book. Nina's carefully constructed world starts to shift in unexpected directions when she learns via the death of a father she never knew, that she has a whole extended family out there waiting to meet her. The book centers around Nina's interactions with her new family, her job at the bookstore and a new love interest. The engaging cast of characters really does make this character driven novel. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know each one and reading about Nina's interactions with each one. No story about the love of books is complete with a literary reference or two and this story contains an abundance ranging from the classics to more modern favorites. The only aspect of the story that fell a little flat for me was the love interest. Overall it was a highly enjoyable read that had me laughing out loud and smiling my way through.

Thank you to Netgalley for the digital ARC of this book. Although I enjoyed reading The Bookish Life of Nina Hill,I found it was to some large extent a book in need of a editor. Parts of the story are charming and witty, but there is a lack consistency with respect to the focus of the narrative and there are also way too many plot lines (family, romance, career, health issues,...), some of which receive short shrift. The best: Nina's trivia team, her new found family, and her sardonic cat. The least effective is the romantic storyline which feels canned. Nina's mother also makes too brief an appearance for such a key character; that story line remains unresolved.

Quirky characters -- I had to give this book some time before I could get into caring about the characters, but once I did, I really enjoyed it. Would recommend this to library readers. It appeals to different generations, which is always good.

I love books with characters who love books, so I really enjoyed that aspect of this story. It was also nice to have a main character with anxiety issues to give the reader a glimpse of what that is like. The story was cute, but the romance aspect didn't really work well and I got a little frustrated with Nina always needing to be rescued.

I thought this was a fun novel. Everything from the cover to the characters to the writing. I know the patrons at my library will love it, so I've already got a few copies on order. Thank you so much!

Absolutely loved this funny, quirky sort of Nina, a book lover and loner until she discovers she has an extended family of brothers and sisters. Anxiety plagues her but she is a planner and routinized until she meets Tom at a Trivia night, and begins to meet her family members. At times laugh out loud funny while heartwarming,, unique and highly recommended.