3.75 stars

Part romance, part ode to sisters and family. Hard-edged literary agent Nora Stephens has escaped to a bucolic Southern setting to spend some quality time with her beloved younger sister Libby. Libby is pregnant with her third child and badly needs some adult time and a break. Nora has been famously unsuccessful at relationships, which have dissolved around her in unfortunate circumstances very similar to some of the romance book plots she sees every day.

Nora and Libby lost their mom too young, and Nora has tried to ease Libby's way ever since. She is uber-organized, a tough negotiator, and controlling. She is also the ultimate New York City woman and is a bit twitchy away from the bustle of the city and her routines.

Libby, knowing her sister, creates a checklist for their getaway, including dating a local, wearing flannel and coming to the rescue of a village small business. Imagine everyone's surprise when Nora almost instantly runs into an acquaintance from the publishing world -- a man she once shared an antagonistic and uncomfortable lunch with.

Their screwball comedy banter is highly entertaining. A very readable tale with appealingly flawed characters. Thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I loved this so much! Definitely one of my favorite romances I've ever read. I loved the connection to the book industry, and the longing/chemistry between the love interests was off the charts. I also enjoyed how emotionally charged this one was outside of the main romance--the relationship between sisters was so well done, I definitely cried a couple of times. 10/10, will be purchasing to re-read in the near future.

This book! Oh man, I loved it the moment I saw the cover, craved it when I read the synopsis, and was an absolute goner the moment I read the prologue. There is no doubt that Emily Henry can write, but it is her presentation, the flow of her words, the characters that become more than just fiction on the page that make her books exceptional. She is truly a gifted author who gets exponentially better with every book she writes.

There is a playfulness between Nora and Charlie that showcased a genuine and heartfelt connection. Two people who live for the chaos of a big city life, enjoy the competition of their jobs, and find solace that their version of a happily ever after differs from the books they work on. While they are the antithesis of a typical romance trope, the author created a new genre that is unique to them.

I found myself holding my breath in anticipation of the next page, next sentence, next word. There was an ease and likability to not only Nora and Charlie, but to every character in this book. There’s a complexity to the story that gives it more heart and meaning than just a superficial romance. I feel that with this book, the author displays her ability to showcase her understanding and empathy with characters who struggle with emotional topics but intertwines humor and sarcasm to make the story feel linked to your heart. This book exceeded all of my expectations and has easily become one of my favorite books of 2022. And just let me know you will be pitching an alcohol water park. I’ll be first in line as an investor 😂

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley for making my dreams come true with the eARC.

I was a little hesitant to read Book Lovers. I DNFed People We Meet On Vacation. I lean towards maybe it was the back and forth thing and not the writing. I saw a friend with similar taste as me liked Book Lovers. Why not try it?! I’m glad I did read it.

For the majority of the book, I smiled and laughed out loud. It was fun. Towards the end it got a little sad and woman’s fiction-y that it kind of lost the fun. It ended in a strong, happy note. I will read more books by this author. It was written well.


I voluntarily read an early copy.

It's perfect. No notes.
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Book Lovers officially cements Emily Henry as one of my favorite authors. From Beach Read to People We Meet On Vacation and now Book Lovers, I plan to spend every May devouring whatever she publishes.

Nora Stephens is an NYC literary agent. She's the woman who gets left behind when the man falls in love with the Christmas tree farmer in small-town romance novels - it's happened to her four times. Charlie Lastra is the book editor who gets off on a page covered in red ink. When the two of them find themselves in Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for a summer while Charlie works on editing Nora's client's newest book, they can't keep avoiding each other forever as they could in the city.

This book is literally a reader's dream. It turns all the most beloved tropes on their heads and is self-aware while doing it. Charlie and Nora are an absolute dream couple. Their banter is witty and their chemistry is off the charts, but their friendship and the way they accept each other exactly as they are without any push to change is the real star. This book is also about the love between sisters and the complicated, often imperfect, way their worlds orbit around each other. As the oldest sister myself, I related to Nora and the responsibility she assumes for taking care of her sister.

Content warnings: loss of parent in the past and ongoing grief; panic attacks and insomnia

Thanks to Berkley Romance for the early copy. All opinions are my own.

THIS BOOK GETS ALL THE STARS!!! I simply devoured it and in my opinion Emily Henry can do no wrong. She has such an extraordinary way with words that just make you feel. She’s a master at developing characters you can’t help but root for and building complex, but beautiful relationships. Although this story has a romance (and an amazing one at that), at its core, it really was about the powerful bond between sisters. I adored Nora and Libby and Charlie was just beyond swoon. I laughed so much and cried all the tears. Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley for the ARC.

Book Lovers is about Nora, a literary agent. We see her try to fix the relationship with her sister, Libby, which has been strained since their mom passed when they were young adults. They decide to take a month-long vacation to a town that is the setting of Libby's favorite romance book. While there, Nora bumps into her literary nemesis, Charlie, a book editor.

You don't have to have read all the classic romances to understand the literacy references that Emily Henry works into the book. You should be a fan of books and romance to get the full effect of this novel, though. If you've ever read a book and felt the anticipatory dread of the final pages, you'll feel right at home reading this.

Emily Henry did a great job of making all of the characters feel real. They had real problems, fights, and struggles.

Highly recommend it to lovers of romance novels and enemies-to-lovers tropes.

If your looking for witty repartee, you've come to the right place. Henry excels at writing great verbal battles, filled with innuendos and clever comebacks. What I loved about this book was that the two main characters, Nora and Charlie act like adults! They are honest and open with each other and it makes the story all the more enjoyable. Henry herself does a wonderful job of poking fun at literary tropes while so successfully using them herself, now that's a good writer. Very enjoyable read! Her best to-date!

Thanks for the free book, Penguin Random House.

Book Lovers is the third novel by Emily Henry, author with whom I’ve had a complicated relationship: her first two novels didn’t make me fall in love, I dare say I actually didn’t like her second much. So, I had decided that if the same thing happened with this book, I would not read her anymore. After reading the synopsis though, I thought this novel could actually be right up my alley and I was right: Book Lovers is by far my favourite Henry novel.

Both main characters are nice and likeable, even if at first glance it might not look like that; the author plays with some of the typical tropes of romantic comedies through them and creates a good enemies/rivals-to-lovers dynamic. I sympathised with both characters and I liked them as a couple, you could feel the chemistry in their dialogues and bickering, and the attraction between them was palpable.
The secondary character is well-written and gives Henry the chance to touch on themes such as family, sisterhood, and to explore the protagonist’s past and future, addressing the prejudices career women have to deal with.

Both leads are well-enough fleshed out, each with their own doubts and insecurities, affected and held back by personal circumstances related to their families.
Serious scenes are alternated with lighter ones, some lines managed to make me smile or even get a laugh out of me.

As always, I appreciated Henry’s typical ending, in which the couple doesn’t just “live happily ever after”, but promise to do their best to make the relationship work and to face life, with its inevitable ups and downs, together.

The flaws I noticed are mainly based on my personal preference and don’t particularly affect my final opinion on the novel.

The third time was indeed the charm.

⭐ 4~4+/5

Can I give this book more than 5-stars? Because...oh, my heart! I 𝘓𝘐𝘒𝘌𝘋 Beach Read, 𝘙𝘌𝘈𝘓𝘓𝘠 𝘓𝘐𝘒𝘌𝘋 liked People We Meet On Vacation, but I absolutely obsessively 𝘓𝘖𝘝𝘌𝘋 𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗦.
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Emily Henry has perfectly written this small town, enemies-to-lovers, all the feels, beautiful story! I feel like I know each and every character in this book, no matter how small.

Nora is such a wonderfully complex character. She is tough and smart. Rigid and hard-working. Loyal and driven. The relationship between her and her younger sister is EVERYTHING. Their communication had me snort-laughing more than once and their sibling relationship was beautiful and complicated.

Charlie and Nora have pitch perfect hate-banter at the beginning of this story and achingly swoony moments towards the end. Charlie is so solid and straight-laced and wonderful.

𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗦 has everything I want in a book. Complexity, humor, sweetness, character growth, grief, healing, steam (ahem!), and a happily-ever-after that left me contentedly sighing and grinning.
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The beauty of this story, for me, is the realness of the writing. Nothing is glossed over and tied neatly into a bow. Real life, with all of its mess, is woven into this every page. That is my favorite kind of book. I want to read a story in which there is no clear path forward, no black-and-white solution to every conflict. There is just life's truth shining through the fiction.

Do yourself a favor and just one-click purchase 𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗦 and then prepare yourself to devour it in one sitting. You can thank me later!

Beach Read. The People We Meet on Vacation…and now this. Emily Henry is 3 for 3! I love the witty dialogue and fun banter in all of her books.
When a book makes you giggle out loud, it’s a winner!
Nora Stephens' life is books and she has earned the nickname “Th Shark” because of her competitive, no nonsense personality. Her soft spot is her sister, Libby, who convinces her to visit Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for a sisters’ trip away. Nora sees Charlie Lastra, a cut throat, fellow shark from back in the city. New York City, that is.
Sparks fly and fun ensues. Small town charm and a lovable cast of characters make this one a hit! Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

"Fresh tears sting my eyes. He just barely smiles. "I honestly think you're perfect, Nora Stephens."

I honestly think YOU'RE perfect, Emily Henry.


Me, when I get my preorder of Book Lovers.

I adore this book! ADORE! Charlie and Nora had such tender moments. There's vulnerability, grief, anger, fear, anxiety. The feeling of not being enough. There is so much longing and heart and love in this story! And of course, the banter!

I need that physical copy!

BOOK LOVERS Recommend Emily Henry! (IYKYK)

P.S.

must read to find out! But you'll fall out of your chair, it's so funny!

THINGS and STUFF:
-loathe to love
-small town romance stories
-NYC
-publishing & agenting
-sister stories
-making lists
-peloton
-piggyback rides
-red race car bed
-Hepburn night
-two opposing magnets
-#IsThisAKissingBook: open door. "Stomach-flipping kiss".

Thanks a million Berkley Romance for an advanced copy.

Song: Carolina in My Mind by James Taylor.

While this is not my overall favorite EH book, it is definitely a book for book lovers and especially those that closely follow or are in publishing. The romance was so lovely and Emily truly does know how to write love as well as heartache, but there is also this love of books all throughout the book that just felt like a warm hug.

Nora is the ice queen, “city girlfriend”, arch villainess from every Hallmark movie… or in this case, small town romance novel. She doesn’t cry, lives by her Peloton class schedule, and allows her “life” to revolve around her job at a literary agency. Nora has a checklist for everything and loves New York City in a way that only writers can truly capture. The only thing Nora loves more than her city and her routine is her little sister Libby. Which is why she agrees on a sister trip to the setting of Libby’s favorite book, “Once in a Lifetime”. A book which was not so coincidentally written by Nora’s favorite client… and which also happens to be a title that was rejected by Nora’s professional “nemesis”, Charlie Lastra.

On this sister trip in Sunshine Falls, North Carolina, Nora and Libby find themselves in foreign territory, both literally and figuratively. Nora can’t sleep because the town lacks the hustle and bustle she’s so accustomed to but also because she’s kept awake worrying about Libby and the suddenly shaky ground she feels their relationship is in. The two have been close their entire lives, but their dynamic shifted dramatically over a decade earlier when their free spirited single mother suddenly passed away. In the aftermath, Nora became much more than an older sister to then-16-year-old Libby. Ever since, the two have shared almost everything and Nora’s every decision has revolved around protecting her sister; but now Libby is married with a third child on the way and Nora can feel her keeping secrets. How can she protect her sister if she doesn’t know what’s wrong?

In an attempt to bridge this mysterious gap, Nora agrees to follow a checklist that Libby made for them. A “summer bucket list” full of tropes from small town romances full of items that ice queen Nora would never do. But for Libby, she tries. Of course, along the way, Charlie Lastra appears out of nowhere and keeps popping up everywhere. We find that his original issue with “Once in a Lifetime” was the setting… he rejected the book because Sunshine Falls was the hometown he fled from in favor of NYC. But he’s back, and like Nora, Charlie is a “city person” through and through. Stuck together, Nora and Charlie find themselves working together on a new book, and maybe end up checking off a few bucket list items for Libby along the way.

This book is full of banter, quick wit, and literary references. It is trope-y in the best possible way. It’s for book lovers, but it’s also for workaholics, siblings, those who believe in the magnetism of New York City, people who romanticize small towns, people who have actually been to or escaped from small towns, and anyone who understands what it means to feel lonely when you’re surrounded by people. This book is about familial love just as much as it is romantic, and how both can be so beautiful and so complicated at the same time. Emily Henry has a unique way of taking a romantic comedy and transforming it into something more. Something that makes the reader feel seen, even though they have never experienced anything quite like the events on the page.

Also: If you’ve read Henry’s previous works and loved Gus Everett’s way with words and his depth or Alex Nilsen’s patience and sense of self then you will love Charlie Lastra. Even if you’ve never heard of Gus or Alex, you’ll love Charlie Lastra.

Thanks to NetGalley for the arc! I loved this book! Absolutely my favorite of Emily Henry’s books! It allowed me to immediately get settled in and cozy with the characters, town, and the overall vibe of the book. I know I will be re-reading this book in the future!

How could I resist a book set around books? Of course I couldn't and this romance novel hits all the right notes for me.
Nora Stephens leads a busy life as a literary agent, seldom taking time off, and determined to do the best for the authors she represents. Since their mother died unexpectedly, Nora has also tried to do her best for her younger sister Libby. Even now that Libby is married and a mother, she is involved in her life, not only spending time with the family, but also doing what she can to make Libby's life easier. So when Libby says she needs to get away, just the two of them, Nora finds that she can't refuse her. Her sister is pregnant and it is August, the slowest time in Nora's business, so she agrees to take the month with Libby. While Nora is expecting some spa-like vacation, Libby has chosen a small town in North Carolina, Sunshine Falls, the setting for one of Libby's favourite romance series, written by an author that Nora represents.
When, soon after arriving at their destination, Nora spots a man she's worked with, and had a very uncomfortable first meeting with about that same author, she can't believe it. To ensure that he's really that man, Charlie Lastra, hotshot editor, she texts him, and sees him responding. Things only get crazier from there as elements of Libby's plans for their month away keep Nora and Charlie running into each other.
I loved Nora as a character, intelligent, with a quick response to every comment; a woman driven by love, but also disappointed in love. She has high standards, and doesn't put up with crap.
Libby wasn't as well developed here, but was still a nice character, obviously caring for her sister, but also determined to make her own choices. Charlie was also an interesting character, and his relationship to his family is what really fills in the missing elements to make him both flawed and interesting.
A definite feel-good book that made me laugh and kept me turning those pages.

Book Lovers

4.5⭐️

Emily Henry seriously somehow writes such perfect romcoms. Book Lovers has the city girl headed to the country, but the twist in the trope happens when she falls for a city guy.


At first, Book Lovers started out a little slow and felt almost a little mainstream but halfway through the characters started to have real depth.

I usually don’t love just one point of view but Charlie still had such a personality shown from Nora’s perspective. If you’re looking for a romcom with real people, always pick up an Emily Henry book!

Thanks to @netgalley and @berkleypub @berkleyromance for this eARC!

Absolute perfection. I laughed. I cried. I cannot put into words how much I loved this book. Emily Henry is so funny and so smart and I want to be best friends with her. These characters are so gorgeously complex and I just fell in love with them. The banter in this book is truly the best I’ve ever read. I was dying laughing and reread passages multiple times to make sure I didn’t miss a quip. I can’t wait for this book to be published so I can talk about it with EVERYONE!

Thank you Berkley for my copy of Book Lovers. All thoughts are my own.

Hyped up books and well loved books are always tricky. We can read books at the wrong time and not like them. We can read them at the right time and they change our lives. One of the most hyped authors in the last few years has definitely been Emily Henry. I interviewed her last year on Read It Or List It and became obsessed with Emily the person. She doesn’t take herself too seriously and at the same time, she is utterly brilliant. She is smart and generous and fun.

But her previous two adult novels didn’t quite work for me. I didn’t fall into the camp that adored Beach Read. And while I liked People We Meet On Vacation, there was still something missing from it for me. But with Book Lovers, I am all in. I think it’s her best yet and it just worked.

What I Liked:

The Characters—Nora and Charlie have my heart. There were so many parts of both the characters I could relate to, in the best ways. Charlie is going to go up there on my book boyfriends list. I loved how dynamic of a love interest he was!

The Concept—The concept of “what happens the girl the Hallmark guy leaves behind for small town life” felt so original and unique. Seriously, what happens to all those “cold” women?! Cause Hallmark makes them so one dimensional but Nora shows us that it’s okay to be determined and successful, that city life doesn’t mean you value material things more.

The Writing—Emily Henry has always intoxicated me with her writing. I’m glad that this time I was able to attach to the characters and plot as well.

The Love for New York City—So many tiny moments that made me nostalgic and proud to have called NYC home for six years. I miss it every day.

What Didn’t Work:

Not much, maybe one too many side plots but this was a solid read for me!

Content Warnings:

Grief, loss of a parent

Character Authenticity: 4/5 Steam Rating: 1.5/5 Overall Rating: 4.75/5

Emily Henry has just solidified herself as one of my favourite authors with this book! This is now her third adult book that I've given 5 stars, that's how much I love her writing. I love that her characters have depth and deep backstories, and she gets you invested in those characters right away. I also really enjoy the wit and banter her characters have. The hate-to-love was done very well, and I really enjoyed the dynamic between Nora and Charlie. It was so fun to watch how their relationship develops. I also enjoyed the sisterly relationship between Nora and Libby. I'm an older sister myself who is very close with my younger sister. I fully understand that need to want to take care of my younger sister and have to come to terms with the fact that she's an adult who can take care of herself.

Such a fantastic read! I love every second of it. I already know that I'm going to be staff picking this at my store on release day, and can't wait to talk with customers about this book!