Nora Hughes has been at her editorial assistant job for five years and has become frustrated with her lack of upward mobility and her measly salary. All of her favorite colleagues and mentors have moved on to other positions, and Nora has become disillusioned with the publishing industry, which is unfortunate, as books have always been her FAVORITE thing. When Nora receives a pay cut, she chooses to take on some freelance work for a competing publishing house and her web of lies and deceit begins to take its toll. Eventually, everything comes crashing down and Nora is forced to take a good hard look at herself and begin to figure out what she truly wants to do with her life.

I think most of us can identify with the feeling of being a young adult and not quite knowing what career path you want to take in life. I know I certainly can. I started as an elementary school teacher and ended up deciding it wasn’t for me, went to law school and now practice law. The feeling of hopelessness as you’re floundering around trying to figure things out is all too familiar. The author did a wonderful job of capturing that feeling of despair and the panicked feeling one feels when half-truths (or full-on lies) explode in your face. I thought this would be a light-hearted read, but for me it turned out to be a novel that really made me consider, even now, what additional things I might want to do with my own life. There were points in the book where I literally broke a sweat and bit my nails as I empathized with Nora and her plight. There were also some dark points where I wasn’t sure where this book was going to end up. This was a poignant, realistic story that I truly enjoyed.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I will publish this review to my book blog, Goodreads and Amazon closer to the publication date.

I totally expected a cheese-fest in this book, but instead got sweet and a lot of heart.
Nora is an editorial assistant at Parson's publishing in San Francisco. She's always wanted to work with books, but didn't imagine she would still be in this role five years after she started. Budget cuts and redundancies in the company means Norma's job is hanging by a thread, and it forces her to reevaluate what she wants to do with her life, with some very awkward encounters on the way!
This book isn't perfect; it took me a while to warm to Nora as a character, but once I saw a more real side to her that helped. By the end I was very much invested in what was going to happen to her! Overall though, an enjoyable and easy read.

I've been looking forward to this book since the author pitched it on Twitter! A book set in the world of publishing? Yes please! The premise drew me in and I was not disappointed with the finished product.

Nora is such a relatable protagonist and I really felt for her as circumstances with her editorial assistant job took a turn for the worst and kept turning. And I understood why she made the decisions she did even if they were misguided. Her struggles felt so real and I was saddened by unhappy she was with her life. I admired the steps she took to try to increase her happiness level. Finally, the love interest was dreamy - sensitive and caring but with a backbone. This book had its sad moments, specifically related to thoughts of suicide, but there was enough humor and witty dialogue to keep it generally light. I look forward to reading what Shauna Robinson has next for us.

I did not finish this book. I was so excited by the blurb, but I just felt bored while reading it. I couldn't connect to it at all.

Thanks to NetGalley for this preview!

This book was cute but a little slow and I liked the characters but also felt like there were lots of side characters that were tricky to keep track of. Nora's mental illness comments and depression really should have been addressed by a medical professional but it seemed like everyone she reached out to glossed over the issues. I knew that Nora's double job plan would explode at some point but the climax was very interesting and well written. The romance aspect for me was just fine.

This is a book made for book lovers and for those of us who got our "dream" job, which didn't turn out to be everything we thought it would be. As someone in my mid 20's who is currently living my 13 year old self's dream but not actually enjoying it, this book came into my life at the perfect time. I really enjoyed it and learned a hard lesson along with our main character, Nora.

1⭐️ - DNF at 20%

I wanted to enjoy this book because I love books about publishing/writers/bookish things but this book did not do it for me. At least the 20% that I read didn’t.

Firstly, I think the synopsis and the blurb are a bit misleading. I thought this would be more of a cute romance but it’s mostly women’s fiction I would say.

Secondly, this had such a slow start that I was struggling to stay focused while reading it. Nothing about Nora was making me want to continue reading even without the romance aspect of it.

From other reviews I have read, there is a bit of romance in this but by 20% our heroine only interacted with the hero twice. And both times were short, work related and pretty meaningless.

I think this is more down to a personal preference, I thought this book was a romance and it’s not so unfortunately I will not continue reading this.

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

Nora finds herself 5 years into the same job overworked, underpaid, and unsure of her direction in life. She has friends who are moving up in careers, a client that will make or break a promotion, and a lot of secrets.

Shauna Robinson had me hooked from the beginning with romance, character relatability, and a great pace to finish this book reading for the next.

I ran the gamut of emotions from "FUCK THIS IS MY LIFE HOW DOES SHE KNOW" to "OOOOH I LOVE A GOOD ROMANCE" to "Holy shit this book just got deep" to "Too deep? Kinda scary." To "Omggg I love everyone right now."

It made me want to 1. Figure my life out and get a new job ASAP and then
2. Grab random people and demand they read it so we can talk.

I love it when that happens.

This is a VERY slow read! Painstakingly slow!

I enjoyed parts of this story. I liked the main character Nora and the struggle she went through. It was candid and real and could be anyone.

The story was too slow for my taste. I like a slow burn but this novel took it to a whole other level. I also didn’t feel attached to any of the characters.

If you want a woman’s fiction that pits a woman’s will to provide for herself against getting the dream job she wants and a slow burn then give this a go.

I received an ARC from netgalley for my honest opinion

I expected this to be a light hearted rom-com title. Though there is romance, it’s much more about finding your way forward in life, not getting trapped, finding your passions and what is fulfilling. Throw in some romance and friendships, a good read.

There’s been a recent wave of books about publishing (very meta, I know), but I always find myself interested in all of them. The premise of this book piqued my interest, so I added it immediately. Must Love Books navigates the difficulty of realizing your dream job is not as great as it initially seemed and subsequently finding a new dream.

When Nora Hughes landed an editorial assistant position at Parsons, she was overjoyed to be working with books. Now, years later, she’s burned out after juggling duties of multiple jobs after multiple waves of cuts. When her pay is cut, she decides to freelance at another publisher secretly, figuring she’s already handling multiple duties so what’s a couple more? Then she’s tasked with getting Andrew Santos, a bestselling Parsons author, to resign and she suddenly finds herself enjoying her job. But between her two jobs and now Andrew, she finds her loyalty torn.

I should begin this review by stating that while this book has a romance, the romance is not the main part and also (spoiler! sorry) does not technically end with them together. Thus, by definition, this book isn’t in the romance genre. I still enjoyed this book, but I feel like people should know this going in.

The romance was cute though! Nora finds herself more open with Andrew, able to joke with and tease him when she can’t find joy anywhere else. He’s also very supportive of Nora throughout the story, helping her begin her journey towards happiness. Beth, Nora’s friend and former co-worker, also helps Nora throughout the story a lot as well.

Must Love Books mainly focuses, however, on Nora’s character growth. A joking conversation with Andrew leads her to realize that she’s not happy but doesn’t quite know how to break out of it. She’s struggling with her two jobs, partially because both are so open-ended about her future, and completely unsure about where to start to get out of what has become a persistent depression. Nora always thought that being an editor was her dream job, but now she’s stuck in her role as an editorial assistant, she doesn’t know what she wants out of life anymore.

As you might have seen in the content warnings I list for this book, there are some thoughts of suicide. These are mostly abstract thoughts, and not anything Nora acts upon, but seeing the depth of her unhappiness emphasized her eventual road to happiness. I was glad to see her finally reach out to other people, namely Andrew and Beth, who help her begin to find what makes her happy. This book really emphasized that happiness is not something you have to accomplish, something that once you have, you will always hold onto. I really liked part of the author’s conversation at the end of the book on happiness and working towards it.

This book also depicts publishing in a way I haven’t really seen before. Part of Nora’s love-hate relationship with publishing was how everything was centered around how much money a book would bring in, in addition to the constant job cuts, forcing multiple roles on her with less money and leading to her burnout. We also see her and Andrew bond over being people of color (half-Black and Filipino-American, respectively) in a white-dominated industry.

While not the romance I expected, Must Love Books was still a heartfelt book, navigating the truth of dreams and the happiness they bring with them. I enjoyed the romance and particularly loved the character arc throughout the story. If you enjoy Suzanne Park’s books and/or Honey Girl, you should check out Must Love Books!

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was so excited to read this debut by Shauna Robinson - a book about books and the publishing industry! It was a cute story, though it went deep periodically, especially around the main character's struggle with mental health. I appreciated reading about a younger person in publishing trying to figure out her career desires while working in a mostly thankless position at a publisher whose books she does not love. It was fun "insider baseball" about publishing, but I felt like it was overdone and dragged the pacing of the story down a bit. Little things bugged me - she was so worried about not having enough money for rent with the financial cuts at work, but she kept eating out and buying books even while complaining. I struggled with many of her choices, but I still wanted to finish the book and see what she decided to do. A fun book, though not amazing.

This book is really relatable! With the main character in a low paying job that she hates and also suffering depression which is so damn common in this day and age. I think it’s a wonderful story that a lot of readers will be able to relate to and enjoy. I’ve very grateful for being granted an advanced reading copy of this title and will definitely be recommending it to customers at my store.

After the initial pages, I found myself not connecting with the story or characters, so I decided to pass on this book. Did not finish

I was kind of expecting this to be more of a lighthearted romance based on the cover and description. This definitely hit a lot harder than expected. It deals with a lot of difficult topics, like depression and anxiety and being a woman of color in a predominately white industry (#publishingsowhite). I found that interesting and definitely get where Nora's coming from as far as trying to function while dealing with mental illness and the stigma around mental illness, but I found myself having a hard time empathizing with her as she continued to weaver her web of lies. I found it a bit slow and was kind of unsatisfied with the ending. I absolutely loved Andrew, though.

I loved The Bookish Life of Nina Hill and when I saw this pop up on NetGalley, I knew this was a book I was going to love. I was thrilled when Sourcebooks approved my request.

I can relate to Nora on so many levels, between her love of books, being an only child, and her education in English, and I connected with her nearly immediately. The story is fabulous and one I think every young person can relate to, whether you're male or female or in publishing or not, it's truly about finding the life that you want to lead and not the one you think you should be in.

I hope Shauna Robinson has more books in her because after reading Must Love Books, she has become an auto-buy author for me.

Buy this book. You will love it.
4.5/5 stars

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for providing me with the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I've never had a book speak to me like this before. I saw myself in Nora so clearly it was a bit scary.  I've also dealt with a similar situation at a work place that affected my well-being to the point that leaving was my only option. My mental health never went to such a dark place as Nora's but I'm sure it was very close. Like Nora, I also believed in the myth of a "dream job". It took me a long time and a lot of disappointment to finally realize that it doesn't exist. Although, I expected a light romance set in a publishing house when I picked up this book, I'm glad I got something different.  Looking at other reviews, I notice others were also confused with the book. It's funny that the protagonist makes this exact point when she discusses how publishers trick readers with the covers they choose for certain genres. I hope they rethink their blurbs before the publish date.

I loved the title and cover of this book. That is what initially drew me in. I did learn a lot of things about the publishing world that I didn't know before reading this book, and it was cool to get that peek behind the curtain so to speak. This book took me a little longer to read as I found it slow in the beginning, and therefore it was hard to keep interested in. The romance aspect was predictable, but cute.

This book made me feel a little TOO much. I really identified with Nora's mental health struggles, as well as her struggles with finding her little corner of the world. Nora and Andrew's relationship throughout the novel is such a heartwarming one, and I love the optimistic tone that the story ends on. Such a great read!!