✅️ Contemporary Romance
✅️ New Adult/YA

Introvert Izzy gets an online dating profile made for her by a family member. On there, she meets Brodie, who is also a Lord of the Rings fan (like herself). 🧙‍♂️

Cute, funny, sweet relationship. 🥰
Clean romance - few kisses 💋

*Loved all of the side characters/cousins also!

Note- Story is told through emails/texts mostly.💌

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this eARC!

I was excited to read Authentically, Izzy because of the author Pepper Basham and her history of writing humor in her romances, but finding it was written as emails made the book even a better read!
The character development of librarian Izzy and her vastly different personality cousins made the emails between them delightful monologue. The choice of conversation among them is Izzy being set up on a dating site by the no-nonsense oldest cousin and the romance that follows for her. Her love interest couldn't be better developed than Brodie, a bookshop owner from a small European Island.
I did enjoy Authentically, Izzy and recommend it as a fun romcom. My only complaint would be that I thought the story could be a little shorter and still be as delightful.
I received a complimentary copy of this book thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley, but all opinions are my own.

If you are a lover of literature and books, like I am, you’ve got to read Authentically Izzy. It took me a bit to get used to reading the epistolary style, but I’m so glad I kept reading. I absolutely loved the characters. Izzy is adorable and so smart. Brodie will sweep readers off their feet. And the cousins are a hoot. Truly, if you enjoy a story with lots of book references, this is the one for you. Plus the description gave me the desire to visit Brodie’s island. Much of the story brought smiles to my face as I followed Izzy on her dating journey. If you read and enjoyed Katherine Reay’s The Printed Letter Bookshop and Of Literature and Lattes, you’ll enjoy Pepper Basham’s latest. I received a free copy of the book with no expectations. The opinions here are mine.

The family dynamics within this story were heartwarming and make the romantic storyline all the better. I enjoy when authors take the time to develop the secondary characters. The epistolary style was fun but the excessive use of post scripts caught me off guard. It also dragged some of the plot and made it a little difficult to finish.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I love Peper Bashams books, but this one was hard for me. I don't enjoy books where it's reading emails or letters to people back and forth without any break. It seemed like almost half of the book was that and I quickly lost interest.

"Authentically, Izzy" is a young adult vibe kind of book that drawns out attention quickly and get us immersed in their narrative with delight. Altough some parts of the email conversations has got me a little bit tired, The story has flew by pretty fast and with fun. An enjoyable book!

I LOVED this book! Pepper Basham is a new author to me but she immediately made me feel cozy and at home in her storytelling world. Brodie and Izzy were intertwined in her book through this stories and blossoming love, through emails and messages and notes. Their story was alive and kicking on the page and I didn't want to put it down. A true gooey rom-com that had me swooning and laughing along, I was only sad when I reached the end. Excited to explore the world of Pepper Basham and venture into the other delicious worlds she has created.

What do you want, Isabelle?

Pepper Basham brings her love for books, earnest characters, and the Blue Ridge Mountains to Authentically, Izzy. Isabelle (Izzy) Edgewood has had some harsh breakups, and she doesn’t want to repeat the experience. She wants to find romance in a shared love of books. Except her cousin Josie has other plans, signing her up for online dating and blind dates. Izzy might change her mind when two potential matches, who also love books, come into her life.

This is an epistolary novel, with the majority written as emails and texts between Izzy, Brodie, and their respective families. It does have some narrative portions in part two of the book. It is also a New Adult book, with characters in their early 30’s. Though, the tone and writing style of the story is more suited to Young Adults. With no bad language, or references to adult content. The romance is sweet and is a slow burn, as Izzy is initially cautious with her relationships. Relying on a mutual love of books for the two introverted characters to meet, and become friends online.

Pepper Basham does a wonderful job of characterizing introverted characters, without any harsh criticism. She especially works hard to call Izzy quiet, and not label her as shy. It is also a Hallmark like book, and does compare and reference hallmark stories. Brodie even reads Shakespeare love sonnets with Izzy in front of her fireplace. The descriptions of Mount Airy North Carolina, and the fictional country Skymar are lovely and picturesque. Mentions of faith are not the forefront of conversations, but Izzy gauges her dates on their book preferences. Izzy, Brodie and their families are kind, supportive, loving, and just a little bit overprotective.

This is a very sweet story of Izzy finding courage to pursue new experiences, and begin new relationships. Brodie is just as charming, and thoughtful as any book boyfriend should be. Together, they have a lot of fun bookish conversations, and a great TBR book list.

This book was a delight! The romance was really sweet and fun, and I can't wait to see it on shelves!

Cute book for a reader interested in a youthful escape read. Really fun bookish details, sweet quotes, etc. Ultimately for me it was just a tad too youthful, but I know many readers will love it!

I picked this book up because the cover screamed "bookish" at me, and I love bookish romances, so I thought it would be a match made in heaven! And while this is a bookish romance... it was not a match made in heaven at all.

Authentically, Izzy is told mostly in an epistolary format, until about 60% of the way through where some narration is sprinkled in. I usually enjoy books told in this way, but it just didn't work for this book I don't think. It started to drag pretty quickly, especially as there were very long paragraphs written out in these emails and I just had no motivation to trawl through them. It also felt very out of touch, writing long emails as if they were letters, in a time where I don't know a single person who communicates through emails unless it's for work. Maybe that's being part of a younger generation but... these characters are only meant to be ten years older than me, so I don't think I'm way off. I was also confused as to why these cousins who live houses apart from each other, are writing so many long emails to each other. Just go and have a conversation in person.

Speaking of being out of touch: they are thirty-year-olds, talking like they are 80. It was all a bit "holier than thou", a bit twee. The way every single character would write phrases like "Oh my heart!" "Squee!" etc., they didn't feel like real, modern people. It felt like they were speaking as if they were in Regency times, which would work excellently, for, you know, a book set in Regency times... if you want a Regency-era romance where they communicate through letters, then just write that!

There was also a love triangle which didn't work to begin with, but then just died off two-thirds of the way through the novel, and it was if the second guy just stopped existing. There were other side plots that were introduced and then just never picked up again - for example, the love interest's brother seemed to want to mess in their romance, but then nothing came of that; we learn early on that Izzy's parents died when she was twelve, and that it was in a plane crash so she hates flying, but then we pretty much hear nothing about it for the rest of the book and she's suddenly perfectly happy to fly here there and everywhere.

Other little things that annoyed me was Izzy being kind of misogynistic as she says that she should write/read women's fiction because of the melodrama in her life, that there was some weird diss against Miley Cyrus in favour of Kate Middleton "there is no comparison" (I just don't understand what the point of adding this in was), and countless, COUNTLESS HP references. It's 2022. Everyone knows what the author of HP is like at this point. It is completely unnecessary (and kind of telling) to include HP references in your novel in 2022. Also a lot of Christian/religious tidbits that kept throwing me off the story.

Overall, I would not recommend, and I'm really disappointed as I was expecting a fun bookish time, but instead I was bored out of my brain.

The plot sounded so good, but unfortunately, this was a DNF for me. The format was really not my favourite, and I think that is what put me off in the first place. I was expecting the texts and emails to end and the real/normal story to begin, but it didn't happen.

The character had so much potential, and usually the idea of nerds/book lovers finding themselves together makes me happy and excited to read a book, but the writing style wasn't for me.

I really tried with this book. It is cute and I thought the main characters were fun but it was unfortunately a DNF for me. I just couldn’t get into the emails back and forth. While this isn’t for me, someone else may really enjoy this book and I think everyone should give it a chance.

Unfortunately this book fell a little flat for me. Maybe it was the epistolary format? It made it seem so drawn out, as there was so much unnecessary information added in.

Kind of a shame as Izzy as a character has so much potential and I feel I could’ve related to her had I liked the format more, she’s a librarian and book lover and has anti-social tendencies.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC!

The book started off quite well and I loved the whole story being told in most emails and messages thing. But it got old really quickly. While I do think the characters individually were quite funny, especially Izzy our protagonist who is a librarian and book nerd (like many of us), but the chemistry between the characters was lacking. The families were great and the cousins were hilarious. I loved everything about them. I just think the story would have benefitted more if it didn't have as many emails/messages as it did and a bit more classic narration.

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a missed opportunity. While I typically enjoy epistolary fic, the plot was slow and the characters weren’t as endearing or developed enough. It was hard for me to get attached. I REALLY wanted to love this one but it wasn’t for me…

Authentically, Izzy is a delightfully bookish romance. I hope other avid readers will fall in love with the story the way that I did. Told primary in an epistolary fashion, the novel was full of book quotes and had bookish references galore! Izzy and Brodie were enjoyable characters with the sweetest romance. The side characters were also lovely!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are completely my own.

This book was such a fun read. I’m a HUGE fan of epistolary fiction, so that, along with the cover design, immediately drew me in. The banter was witty, heartfelt, and encouraging. I loved the sibling relationships and the lessons the characters learned along the way. There were definitely some strong themes and character arcs in this book that I sooo loved.

I’d recommend reading this book in addition to another one to enjoy it fully. Sometimes, the banter between characters in emails can feel a bit too much if you’re reading dozens of pages in one sitting. I alternated between two books and definitely enjoyed it more.

All in all, an enjoyable, clean, faith-filled read!

Favorite quotes:

“If someone loves you, she should encourage you to become the best “you” you can be and share in your dreams instead of rearranging them to her own designs.”

“Loneliness can be a scary place until we stop being afraid to be alone with ourselves.”

At first, this book was too dull for me. For approximately 60% it was written through emails, which I find interesting but I prefer to read it as an extra and not as the complete writing. But then this changed, and it was written like most books. This was bittersweet for me because it made it much easier to read and entertaining, but I also felt as if the author had exhausted herself from writing emails and decided to change everything suddenly. In any case, that allowed the story to move forward and the reader to empathize with the characters. When at first I only knew the characters through emails, they all seemed very unreal and annoying to me, I don't know anyone who speaks like them at their age and the protagonist was a little irritating for me with books (you read and you like it, we get it.) The final problem of the book, with which the love is finished reaffirming, seemed to me that it unraveled too quickly.

I usually like epistolary fiction, but this one was really hard to get into and I didn't finish. There were too many letters and texts going around without establishing who these people were... it didn't help when a lot of them had the same last name, too. The plot moved much too slowly. Through, I hate to give up on books I'm reviewing, I just couldn't continue.