I loved this book! I had completely forgotten what this book was about and when I saw the cover I just assumed romance/romcom....there is a little romance but it is more of a side story.

Nora is a 20 something female battling depression and struggling to figure out what to do with her life. You are rooting for her the whole time and it made me unable to put the book down, I just had to find out if she found happiness.

What I liked:
-Everything about Nora but especially her sarcasm that came out with Andrew
-How sweet Andrew was with Nora
-eveyone loves books!
-a glimpse into what it's like to work for a publisher (I just assumed it was all starry eyes and what dreams are made of. Haha)
-The characters, the story....it was all just so good!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

First things first, this cover is misleading. So many times illustrated covers lean towards a light book and this is NOT a light read. It's about a woman's struggle with her job in the publishing industry. All of a sudden, suicidal thoughts are introduced and made it a sad read instead of a lighter read that I was expecting. It was written fine, but wasn't enjoyable for me. I would recommend changing this cover to avoid a miscommunication of expectations.

This was SO good. I said it once and I’ll say it again: BOOKS ABOUT BOOKS ARE MY FAVORITE THING!!!

However, Must Love Books was not JUST about that. It was also about serious issues: happiness, mental health (+TW: anxiety / depression / suicide thoughts mentions), adulting and finding oneself.

I had a great time from the beginning to the end. The short chapters made the pace just dynamic enough.

I loved Nora and her energy right away, it felt completely realistic and relatable: a constant back and forth between her attempts at being optimistic and confident, AND her mental health issues coupled to the harsh reality that can be life sometimes.

The depiction of Nora’s mental health, and how it can spiral out of control because of small, added things, hit close to home too. I really loved how layered her character was. Yes, she is witty and can drop some very good jokes. Yes, she is also in a very, very dark place. She felt REAL.

I vibed with Andrew immediately too— he was just a sunshine, charming and attentive, handsome, funny and smart... Acts of service are my love language so his little attentions for Nora made me swoon.

Nora and Andrew being POC and respectively 27 & 33 was HIGHLY appreciated. Yes to representation, yes to adult characters.

The side characters were all great too: Beth, Lynn, Rita, Eric, Julie and Kelly… They all brought a little something to the story and just made sense in Nora’s character development.

Finally, this book is less about romance than about finding one’s path— it was beautiful, real and raw. Solid 4.5 stars.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Landmark!

Great book about publishing and working in it to finding love and one's place. I did enjoy the romance between santos and girl. I also enjoyed her friends and trying to figure out the job and what she loved doing. Great book.

I found this romance to be enjoyable, especially for a bibliophile such as myself, but it wasn't anything to bend over backwards for. I liked the main couple and their perspectives, but I found it to be very predictable and otherwise bland at times. I think the reason I stuck through to the end was because it involved books. Thank you for the e-arc!

Nora has been languishing in an editorial assistant position at a publishing house for five years, feeling stuck on the career ladder and searching for a greater purpose. She secretly begins a freelance editor position at a rival publisher in hopes that it'll lead to a better job, but when she develops feelings for an author in contention for a contract at her full-time job, her initial plot becomes more complicated.

I made it about 65% through this book before I started skimming out of boredom and disinterest. Tonally, it was tricky to tell exactly what the author's intentions were - parts of the book felt like more uplit women's fiction but it would then take a very sudden dark turn that felt disjointed. There was also way too much telling and not enough dialogue to break up huge chunks of Nora's internal thoughts. The characters were flat and I wasn't really connected to the stakes of Nora's situation. By the midpoint, the story felt so repetitive and slow that I just didn't care about the outcome. In hindsight, it reads like a first draft that needs to be fleshed out.

On the bright side, there is some beautiful writing, and having friends in the publishing industry, I knew that the author knew what she was talking about in the book's breakdown of that workplace.

The overall tone of this book was too depressive for me. I kept hoping it would get better if I read on, but no. It was tedious. The ending was okay, but I'd have prefered that to be halfway the book with a more uplifting ending.

I loved this book!

It is a beautiful about Norah Hughes, an editorial assistant, stuck in her job, battling depression and feeling like there is more to life. When her salary was lowered due to staffing changes, she has to take a 2nd job which leads to a lot of lies mixed humor and desperation. The book was fast paced and I found myself really excited to pick it up and see what was coming next. There was some romance & friendships thrown in as well, really cute book.

I was gratefully granted an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

This book was tedious. I did not like the main protagonist for the first 50% of the book. She was a mean, self-pitying woman who refused to make moves to change her situation. I liked her more when she started to name what she was feeling, depression and suicidal ideation, but at that point, the book was dragging through the sand. After 64% I started skimming the book as the predictability of the situation she put herself in became too cliche to trudge through. The relationship was so yuck because of how it was built that the inevitable is apparent from the beginning. Unfortunately, this is not a book I’ll recommend.

Nora Hughes is a twenty something editorial assistant for publishing house, Parsons Press. She thought it would be her dream job until five years later she is still in the same position and her friends and co-workers have been downsized. When her salary is slashed in half, but her responsibilities double, Nora decides she needs a new plan to realize her dream job. Nora reaches out to a former colleague and is offered a freelance job for a competing publishing house. In order to get the job she fibs and tells the new company that she is unemployed. She juggles the two jobs and everything seems to be going smoothly until she meets up with a young, but established author her publishing house is courting. The sparks fly between the two and Nora has been tasked with getting him to sign the contract with Parsons Press. The two bond about being persons of color in the mostly white publishing world and their love of books. As Nora and Andrew become closer she begins to feel more conflicted with the secrets she's keeping. This novel explores the struggles of mental health and depression, and the challenges of being a person of color in a white industry. You cannot help but root for Nora and hope she finds the happiness she deserves. This is a sweet book that any avid book lover will adore, with fun references to the world of publishing and much loved books.. Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Nora goes on a journey of self-discovery in "Must Love Books." I love that she is a flawed character that goes through a major journey of growth and development. Shauna Robinson's book was hard to put down.

Nora works for Parson's Publishing and is having a crisis. Parson's is struggling financially and Nora has seen many friends laid off but keeps reassuring herself that everything will be ok. Nora is then informed she will take a paycut to help the business stay afloat. Nora takes on a freelancing job to help pay the bills and has a glimpse of the type of organization she could be involved in. She also meets an author who forces her to confront her life and make tough decisions.

This book was a bit too long for me and could have used an edit. I did enjoy the ending.

The premise of this book was super cute and somewhat predictable. However, as someone who feels like they are currently at a career crossroads, I definitely identified with a lot of the issues in this book. I also like how they took "real" issues like careers and money and anxiety and wrapped it up in a cute little novel.

This is a quite enjoyable book, though it hit a little too close to home (academia adopting the buzzwords of modern corporatocracy is...not a great thing to be reminded of, though it's hardly this book's fault in any way). The premise was engaging, and the writing was immersive as well. It just wasn't quite a light/fluffy as I'd hoped (which, again, is a me issue and not at all the book's issue).

This book is about a woman in her late twenties dealing with fighting against her illness of depression and suicidal ideation, handling the stresses of a demanding job at a company that is sinking, and trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life.

I loved this book. It definitely had a sad, depressing side, obviously since it is a book about dealing with mental illness. About 80% in it had me depressed and crying to the point I had to step away from the book for a little while. But, it also is a sweet, fun story with witty, sarcastic banter between Nora and Andrew. I loved the upbeat, optimistic, joyful Andrew. He is such a great character and complemented the character of Nora well. I also really liked the inside look into the publishing world. I thought the ending was perfect. Well done!

Thank you Net Galley and Sourcebooks Landmark for this digital arc in exchange for my honest review.

#NetGalley #MustLoveBooks

This is such an adorable story about Norah Hughes, an editorial assistant, stuck in her job and feeling like she needs more. Norah's character was flawless. She had a lot of dimension and her humor was fantastic. The book was fast paced and the follows the typical romance of a major miscommunication (idk what else to call it without spoilers). Great story!! 4.5 stars.

Nora Hughes love books, so what better place is there for her to begin her career with books than an editorial assistant position at Parsons Press. But what she didn't count on was the continual restructuring, downsizing, overworking and underpaying that comes along with a job at Parsons Press, and now she is hanging on by a thread because they cut her already non existent pay.

Enter an opportunity to pick up some extra cash moonlighting for a rival publisher, which she secretly takes, leveraging old Parsons authors with her new job to try and secure a better position in the future. When she meets author Andrew Santos in an unfortunate meet cute at Parsons, things get even more complicated for her, and for both of her jobs, too, when she tries to sway his decision professionally while also falling for him personally.

This was a great debut novel that hooked me right from the start. It touches on topics such as mental health, happiness, and basically just trying to get your life together in adulthood, which is obviously really, really hard. I was on the edge of my seat with Nora as she juggled both jobs and her blossoming relationship with Andrew, and cringed every time I thought "it's all about to come crashing down!"

4.5 stars and a great and entertaining read. Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC!

3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 stars

Must Love Books was much more of a finding yourself journey than a romantic journey. Nora, the main protagonist, is barely scraping by as an editorial assistant at a small publishing company that mostly specializes in business books. She doesn't particularly like her job and her co-workers are the only bright spot in her day - until they all slowly get laid off or leave for other opportunities. Nora knows that she needs to make a change soon and one of her options is to sign her company's biggest author for a new contract and secure a promotion. However, the author is sweet, sincere, and smart (the three big s's?) and she knows that he could do better at a bigger publisher. Nora winds up in quite a pickle where her career and her love life are all on the line. The question is, will she be able to salvage either one?

This story really doesn't focus on romance as the main storyline, which is perfectly okay. This is more a career crisis and finding out how to be financially stable while still enjoying life and your job. I could absolutely relate to Nora's struggles with career and finances so I kind of felt at home with this. You leave this book feeling soothed and better about life, so I'm going to call that a win.

Loved this book! I used to work in publishing and this was as if I had stepped back into the office once again. The details were spot on, the characters believable, and the romance was sweet. Great job for a debut novel! I could not put it down and cannot wait to read more by Shauna Robinson.

Must Love Books absolutely blew me away. It's brilliant, heartfelt, and made me shed more than a tear or two. As someone who wants to work in publishing after graduation, the premise hit me particularly hard (and made me reconsider my future plans more than once). Robinson captures a beautiful blend of longing and practicality. There were so many quotes I highlighted in this novel—so many quotes that resonate with me.

Robinson writes candidly and honestly about mental health and depression; this book is sure to strike a chord with anyone that has gone through the same mental health struggles that Nora has. I appreciate that Robinson never fell back on the stereotype of a person with depression as someone who does little else but stay in bed all day. It's often more complicated than that, as Nora points out.

This novel is flush with humor, beautiful writing and brilliant characters that will make you believe in the beauty of the world again. It's hard to keep spoilers out of this review because all I want to do is to shout how amazing this book is from every rooftop in America. I'm incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to read this novel in advance of its publication. Must Love Books should be on everyone's most anticipated books of 2022.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.