Must Love Books has been described as The Bookish Life of Nina Hill meets Younger. It is about an overworked and underpaid woman, Nora Hughes, who discovers she’ll have to ditch her “dream job” and write her own story to find her happy ending.

I appreciated the premise of this book about a young woman at a crossroad in her career searching fo happiness. However, for the most part, it did not live up to the synopsis for me. It was incredibly slow... the writing style was too descriptive for me and I lost interest early on. I’m glad it explored more complex mental health issues but I feel it would have benefitted from more research and better character development.

Must Love Books is not as light and fluffy as it suggests. It is a story about self-discovery, overcoming life hurdles and learning from your mistakes. I recommend this for readers who are looking for bolder realistic reads that do not shy away from heavy feelings.

Must Love Books by Shauna Robinson was just the read I needed. Nora is an editorial assistant for a sinking business book publishing company. Frankly, she is kind of sinking too. She isn't making enough money and gets in a pickle when she tells a lie. Nora faces a lot of anxiety and dark thoughts in this story. She also meets a really cute guy. I love a story with characters that feel real, pages filled with emotion and rawness, a little romance and a few laughs thrown in for good measure. Really enjoyed this story and looking forward to more by this author in the future.

Dnf @ 60%.

I could not get into this book, I did try, but something did not work for me. It might have been my own expectations going in as I thought it was a lighter rom-com and it was a bit heavier than I had hoped.
Overall, I did like the writing style and will definitely try reading something from this author in the future.

I think so many millenial women can relate to Nora Hughes. Thinking you've found a job that will end up with you in your dream career to have it all dashed when your employer just doesn't appreciate you or can't keep up with the times and slowly starts to go under. This was inspiring, relatable, and such a wonderful debut from and author I am excited to read more from.

Book Review: ****/5

This book was published yesterday, and you need to run and get a copy. I found this book to be such an easy read. However, I do need to disclose up front that the main character has thoughts of depression and suicide.

Nora is an editorial assistant who has lost all her work friends due to layoffs within the company. She is feeling overwhelmed and underpaid after taking on the increased responsibilities left over from her teams' loss. When a very important author walks into her life everything becomes increasingly more complicated. When she decides to take a freelance job with a competing publisher her feelings of anxiety and depression escalated. She begins to question if her dream job is really her dream come true. Will she find her happy ever after or will her feelings of depression take over her life.

When I picked this book up, I thought I was going to read a really cute Rom-com. However, what I found was not what I expected. I got really invested in the characters and become upset listening to Nora explain to us readers the way she felt like her life had no purpose. I felt that it was really easy for everyone at some point in their lives to have similar feelings. Shauna Robinson did an excellent job at character development with this book. Robinsons' ending, though not what I expected, was a very satisfying ending in my opinion.

I would like to thank Sourcebooks and Shauna Robinson for the e-ARC of this book from Net Galley.

A painfully honest and thought-provoking debut that takes a deeper look inside the publishing world and the inner workings of a depressed girl searching for answers. Rife with thoughts on failure and the ache of loneliness, this is a book about mental illness and the fight to survive.

Nora Hughes is in a rut. Working as an underpaid editorial assistant, Nora doesn’t know what to do with her life and finds herself making questionable decisions to make ends meet. It isn’t until Nora meets the young and impressionable author Andrew Santos that Nora sees a bit of light at the end of the tunnel and tries to find her way into a life she’s happy to live.

While I found myself completely frustrated with Nora at times, the author portrays her struggles with depression and identity in a realistic manner. I identified with a lot of Nora’s moral dilemmas, including her struggle with finances and finding a career. The best part of this book is seeing a different side of the publishing world and, most of all, watching her newly developing relationship with Andrew unfold. This book is equal parts infuriating and surprising. A well written first novel about suicide, discovering oneself, and finding love.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Must Love Books follows editorial assistant Nora, whose dream job isn't feeling so dreamy anymore when all her work friends are moving onto greener pastures and her company cuts her already meager pay. Desperate to be able to still afford to live, Nora secretly gets a part-time freelance position at a rival publishing company. Enter Andrew Santos, author extraordinaire, whose choice to sign a new contract could make waves in Nora's career, although it would mean losing her budding relationship with Andrew.

I went into Must Love Books thinking it was going to skew more adult rom-com, which was a mistake. Ultimately, this book is women's fiction, and centers much more on the main character's personal journey than anything else. Although I did find myself wanting a bit more from the romance due to my own preconceived notions of this book, it was quite refreshing that, since Nora's personal struggles were at the forefront of the conflict, the romance didn't suffer from a poorly fabricated conflict in the third act. Instead, it was easy to understand and empathize with Nora's actions, especially as a working adult with student debt in the modern economy.

Aside from the fact that this book isn't a romance, it's also important to know that part of Nora's emotional struggle is dealing with depression and suicidal thoughts.

While I did generally enjoy my time with this book, there was a point where it went from well-paced to too-slow, somewhere between the 50-75% mark. Although no real-life emotional journey of self discovery actually happens over night, narratively it was difficult to watch Nora still think herself in circles after being given the tools she would ultimately need in order to make choices that would actually move the plot forward. And though I feel like I know Nora personally, I also think that her personality is juuust common/vague enough that it was easy for me to project my own anxieties and insecurities onto her story, which can be a good thing for relating to the narrative but isn't the best news for character construction.

I'd definitely recommend this for anyone interested in Nora's kind of journey, particularly the struggle to find a more-than-survivable career in the modern world.

This was exactly the book I needed to read right now. I love books about books theme, they’re some of my favorite books to read because the character in the book is just as obsessed with books as I am.

Nora Hughes has been working the same job title for 5 years while increasingly receiving more and more responsibilities, without the promotion and actually getting a pay reduction instead of a raise. Not knowing how to make ends meet, Nora takes on a secondary job with another publishing company, a big no-no in the industry. Nora is trying to simultaneously juggle both jobs while also starting a relationship with an author that if she can get signed onto her publishers, could mean a lot for Nora and her career going forward.

When Nora gets caught having the two jobs, she must figure out her next step forward and what will truly make her happy in life.

This was such a feel good novel, I emphasized with Nora so much with everything she was going through. It was heartbreaking to read her thoughts of suicide but the author portrayed it in such a great way that I was rooting for Nora the whole time she was having her dark thoughts about her internal monsters.

I loved how this book touched so much on a Black woman working in publishing and the struggles the main character Nora felt with that. I don’t feel like it’s talked about enough in books, especially in romance books.

This romance is also one of my favorite types of romance because of the spice level. There weren’t too many details and it had more of the fade out moments which I love to read. The romance was more based around support and sweetness and I loved reading it between the two characters.

I cannot wait to see what Shauna Robinson comes up with next, she is now an auto-buy author for me.

*Many thanks to Sourcebooks for the gifted copy for my honest review!*

I have to say this book left me conflicted. It got me with the cute cover and title but this was anything but cute. It was heavy, it had strong mental health themes, and a cutthroat world of publishing, and finding oneself.

Nora Hughes has been a publishing assistant for five years, she’s seen colleagues come and go. After her last remaining friend leaves, she also receives word she’s getting a pay cut.

Scrambling on how to pay her rent she hears of a consulting writing job, however she isn’t forthcoming with her situation.

She meets Andrew the companies last big author, and she has to get him to sign his contract. However, getting him to sign with her new company could secure her a full time position.

This was all a little underhanded and lead to conflicts and internal struggles. Nora wasn’t expecting actually caring for Andrew or that a relationship could happen between them.

Andrew was by far the highlight of this book for me. It did also highlight that sometimes you have to make your own path, and that there is more than one way to find your dream career.

This has some major trigger warnings, including mental health and suicide ideation. It also is more a happy possibility than an HEA.

Thank you to the publisher for the arc for review, all opinions are my own and given freely.

Must Love Books is a thought-provoking, well-written debut novel that, even though it made me uncomfortable in places, kept me turning pages. Sometimes, being uncomfortable is a good thing. Readers should be aware that this is not a classic romance though there are romantic elements and the potential for a HEA. I would classify it as contemporary fiction or even women's fiction as it centers on the life, struggles, and evolution of Nora, a twenty-something woman of color, unfulfilled, and underappreciated, searching for her path in life while stuck in what she thought was her dream job.

In addition to the downward spiral of her career dreams, Nora also struggles with her identity in a predominantly white working world, her self-worth, her ability to financially support herself, and her mental health. These lead her into some dark mental places and questionable decisions. While some of those decisions made me uneasy, and I could see the repercussions coming, I understood why she made them and appreciated the fact that she struggled with the morality of those decisions, both before and after.
I found Nora to be very realistic in light of her circumstances and also a relatable as well as a sympathetic character. I applaud the author's open, honest look at mental health and the self-sabotaging actions that can follow in the path of anxiety, depression, and low self-worth. I also appreciated that she didn't give Nora any easy answers. Instead, we see a realistic portrayal of someone suffering the consequences of their actions, learning from them, and arriving at the point where they are ready to put in the hard work, with professional assistance, to move forward. I have high hopes for Nora and her potential for happiness - and love - moving forward.

If you're in the mood for an introspective, thought-provoking novel of a young woman's journey of self-discovery, give this one a try.

*ARC received for fair and unbiased review

I can’t wait for this book to be out so that I can convince everyone to get it asap. Because it was so beautifully written. I really loved how author has the capability to make us vicariously live through the characters. Especially, I really loved the way their problems have been portrayed.. Along with that, I quite loved how raw and authentic the MCs were. I definitely loved it

This is Women's Fiction/Romance. The main character, Nora, in this book was very hard for me to love/care about. Nora is in a dead end job, but she does not go out trying to change anything for most of this book. I just wanted to yell at Nora for most of this book. The mental health problems of this book I feel could have been done better. This book was ok, and I did not love the main character. I was kindly provided an e-copy of this book by the publisher (Sourcebooks) or author (Shauna Robinson) via NetGalley, so I can give an honest review about how I feel about this book. I want to send a big Thank you to them for that.

I went into this one thinking it would be a sweet romance set in the editorial world, turns out it wasn’t much of a romance, more like a story about self-discovery and the struggles when life gets hard and you don’t seem to have many options to change your situation. So, it wasn’t so much that I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I didn’t expect it to be about that.

I did like however, how the author portrayed Nora’s feelings and efforts to make the best out of what she had. Her relationship with Andrew was kind of sweet but I would’ve liked to see more about it.

It was also interesting to see a side of the editorial world that I rarely find in books.

✨Thank you to the author, @netgalley and @sourcebookscasa for a free eARC of this one in exchange of an honest review. All opinions are my own. ✨

Another cure for my anxious, nervous mind with its effective healing powers: such a lovely feel good novel!

I love books about books theme: the romance part of the story perfectly balanced with self worth-self discovery-finding yourself and purpose in the world parts. The author’s respective and realistic approach of mental health issues also blended well with the entire premise.

Absolutely not the rom-com chick-lit piece of fluff I was expecting or hoping for. It was pretty slow and pretty stressful and I have enough of that in my normal life. I think I'll go back to pirates and ghosts and murder.

I really thought this book would be a good match for me. I really enjoy reading books about the publishing/writing world, and add a bit of romance in as suggested in the synopsis and I thought this would be a great read. However, unfortunately this one fell flat for me and I ended up DNFing it.

The synopsis made me feel like it was going to be a more uplifting story about a woman finding her path and a romance along the way. I didn’t find this story at all uplifting and found it to be quite depressing. Paired with it being very slow, I had to force myself to pick it up and get back into the story.

I am giving this book two stars because I do feel like it will work for readers who enjoy a slow burn story and aren’t deterred by the depressing tone of the story. If you are not looking for a fun, romance, bookish read and know what you are going into you could enjoy this book. It just was not for me.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest review.

Booklover Nora Hughes is having quite a midlife crisis at 26 when she finds herself unable to escape the sinking ship that is her first job in publishing. She's an editorial assistant at Parsons Press, a business-oriented publisher that is dead set on publishing only the tried-and-true business books of old and on increasing profits to the point of laying off most of the high-ranking employees and dropping the work of three people onto poor Nora. She's falling deeper and deeper into depression with no end in sight and no escape from Parsons Press when she meets bestselling author Andrew Santos and warm friendship blossoms into more.
This sounds like it would make a great rom-com, right? Well, it doesn't. Robinson goes deep into the feelings of inadequacy and hopelessness that Nora is mired in. Even with fun and cute moments between Nora and Andrew or Nora and her friends and coworkers, the overall feeling of the book is a heavy fog of depression and deep anxiety. What may be a testament to Robinson creating a character that one can empathize with turns into a book that I needed breaks from because it was making me feel almost as bad as Nora.
In the end, even knowing that Nora ends up finding a way out of her sad situation didn't leave me with much love for this book. I'm positive it's just that my world, and the world in general, are not in the ideal place at the moment for such an introspective book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the thought-provoking early read!

This book solidifies my new rule that I don’t want to read any more books about writers, editors, people who professionally read or work with authors because… too close, man. too close.

This book was heavy on the detail about the world of publishing, which I am sure some readers find interesting. I, quite honestly was uninterested throughout most of it and found myself skipping through until something looked like the story was moving.

There was a smattering of a romance which… I cringed. I couldn’t get over how it unfolded, the trajectory of said relationship and the development between these characters. Her resolution on how to fix her life was… meh. There’s so much I don’t see happening and if I can’t get myself to buy into the story, it doesn’t have much hope.

This book features a main character who has some dark feelings (this book really need a trigger warning for suicidal ideation) and then we make the steps with the MC in working through that. She makes some idiotic choices, and we watch those choices play out. I think I am simply too…. Seasoned… to be entertained by these characters and their situations.

It was OK. Not terrible, but I am not shouting from the rooftops about ut.

Must Love Books was quite unexpected. I think I’m some ways I really loved it, but my issues with the book overpowered everything and there were so many times when I wanted to DNF it. However, I persevered, mostly in hopes of discovering a happy ending.

It’s hard for me to write negatively about Nora, because much of what I disliked about her stemmed from her struggling with depression. Unfortunately, I was unable to connect with her and most of the time, really disliked her. Besides her unwillingness to actually do something about her unhappiness, her ethics really rubbed me wrong. Now obviously, I am not an expert in the publishing field. However, her actions were most definitely unethical, if not illegal. Additionally, she constantly lied to everyone who cared even a little about her.

Andrew and Beth were the two characters that redeemed this story for me. Beth gave her companionship and help when Nora refused to ask. And Andrew? He was the catalyst to Nora actually taking control of her life. I really appreciated all that he did for her and the many ways he tried to empower her.

“I was giving a ARC by Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark to provide an honest review. “


4.5 🌟

Our protagonist Nora Hughes has worked in the publishing industry for five years. Still, lately, she hates working with ungrateful bosses and authors while being underpaid and overworked. She feel that she needs a change in her career but the only thing that she knows for sure it’s that she wants to keep working with books.

This book feels like a love letter for all the young people out there, that are feeling lost. Sometimes you don't have everything figured out, and you need to keep living while trying to find your path of happiness, even when it can be seen as not a traditional way of living. I saw myself in Nora's shoes entirely because I feel lost and don’t know what to do with my life sometimes.

And don’t even get me started with Daddy Andrew Santos. He was lovely and wholesome; I loved him entirely because he was a complete gentleman. He was living his life but respectfully trying to help Nora in any way he could.

I will recommend this book to anyone that I
I know because it was so good. It was more of a character driving book, and I love it.