This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I liked the premise of the story more than the actual book. It was slow going and at times I was a little bored. I’m sure this will be a favorite for some but it wasn’t the book for me.

𝘈𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺, 𝘐𝘻𝘻𝘺 follows Izzy - a shy but observing bibliophile - who is coerced by her cousin to create a dating profile where she meets Brodie and she's convinced that her cousin is playing a prank on her because there is no way someone as charismatic and freakishly well suited to 𝘩𝘦𝘳 is real. But lo and behold...

- ~ -

First things first, I will say that it is a very clever book and involves a well developed plot.
The writing style is perfect, though, a little too formal but I didn't mind.

And one most important point is that it's an epistolary novel which here means that while it's a relatively short book as most of it was written through messages and texts, I found some of the conversations to be excessively dragging.

Most characters introduced were well meaning and formed a special bond throughout the length of the story but one in particular - Josephine was frustrating, however, she redeemed herself in the end.

And lastly, Brodie and Izzy's romance was the perfect kind reserved for shy booklovers but also a bit underwhelming, atleast in my opinion.

- ~ -

3.53 / 5✩

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘴 𝘕𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘰𝘯--𝘍𝘐𝘊𝘛𝘐𝘖𝘕 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬, 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘐 𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 & 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘦𝘥. 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯.

While I ended up deciding to DNF this book, I'm still going to give it 3 stars for a few reasons:
1. I like that it has mentions of religion and didn't shy away from discussing God and attending church.
2. The idea of writing the entire book in letter, text, and e-mail format was unique and intriguing.
3. I love the You've Got Mail vibes from the messages between Izzy and Brody.
I personally couldn't get invested in the writing overall, but I think others will still enjoy this book.

Izzy was quite the introvert who learned a good deal about herself when one of her cousins signed her up on a dating site. This book consists mostly of letters and emails which I found annoying. Characters were quirky and funny but this isn't a format that I enjoy.

Authentically Izzy by Pepper Basham is absolutely one of the greatest reads of my year. Izzy is a librarian in her small town and surrounded by a family who loves her. Brodie lives in the beautiful country of Skymar and his family owns a bookshop. They meet online and in the story we get to enjoy their correspondence.

I love stories that are told through letters. This one was delightful and was filled with texts and emails from Brodie, Izzy and her cousins. I enjoyed the witty banter, bookish references, and humor woven throughout the story. It was a joy to bookishly travel to the Blue Ridge Mountains and Skymar to enjoy the delightful people and scenery. The bookish references were amazing and made this a great story for all who love books.

With themes of learning to trust, not letting the past dictate your future, and becoming who you were meant to be woven in, this is a thoughtful and pleasurable read. I loved the humor, format and deeper themes. I highly recommend Authentically Izzy.

I was given a copy by the publisher and not required to write a positive review.

In Authentically Izzy, Pepper Basham brings to life a quirky epistolary novel about owning your gifts and finding love along the way. This book was fun and creative, though the pacing was a bit slow for me at first. However, the more I read the more I loved Izzy with her book quotes and love of literature. I loved watching Izzy grow with the help of an incredibly supportive, if mildly smothering, family, a sweet love interest, and a faith in God.

*Thank you Pepper Basham, JustReads, and Thomas Nelson for an e-arc. All opinions are my own.

This author has a knack for trying something different and running with it. The first chapter had me wondering about all the back and forth texts, but then it grabs hold and won’t let go. Fun story, with a very interesting delivery. Izzy is the cousin of Josephine, Luke and Penelope, with whom most of the texts go back and forth between. Josephine has been trying to play matchmaker with Izzy for far too long and always trying to get Izzy to settle into who Josephine thinks would be just perfect. She signs Izzy up on a dating site called Heart to Heart and the story takes off from there. Love the main characters! Aside from Izzy, Josephine, Luke, and Penelope, we meet Eli, Aunt Louisa, Brodie, Ellen, Brynna, Fiona and Anders. Skymar sounds like an amazing place and I can’t wait to see what is in store for Penelope and Luke, assuming he’ll be the 3rd book.
A complimentary copy was provided by Thomas Nelson via NetGalley. A review was not required and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

AMOST MISSED THE FOREST FOR THE TREES!

I always enjoy books written by Pepper Basham. They are loaded with wonderful characters that draw you into her story. Her plots are interesting and hold your attention from beginning to end. Her love stories are clever and have you happily anticipating the couples getting together.

The premise behind her latest release, Authentically Izzy, is sound. It is based on the life of a young woman who is searching for love but doing so rather reluctantly. Why? Izzy has three cousins she is as close to as her siblings. Izzy lost her family years ago and they have stepped in to take care of Izzy. One is happily married and pregnant and thinks they all need to join her in marital bliss. She secretly signs Izzy up on an online dating site because she knows it is something she would never do herself.

chose to write this book using a series of emails back and forth between the cousins and then between Izzy and her potential suitors. I did not mind this technique. What I did mind was that it took up almost 2/3 of the book to get to the real story between Izzy and her potential true love, Brodie, who lives on the other side of the world! I “almost missed the forest for the trees” as I felt that it made this wonderful story drag too much in the beginning before I got to the meat of the story. If I had not believed in this author so much, I would have listed it as DNF and then missed out on a wonderful story.

I was provided a complimentary copy of this book by Thomas Nelson. The opinions expressed here are completely my own and without influence.

I liked the idea of this story very much, and even the story itself, but I must be the only reader who did not enjoy the primary storytelling taking place in texts and emails. It’s all telling, no showing. I was so grateful when the action moved to in person interactions with the characters inner monologues finally arriving. The writing style is a cute gimmick, but I found it very difficult to read, and very easy to skim.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

Insanely good and addictive❤️
This book is an Epistolary novel I.e it's written in the shape of letters or emails until the last few chapters we get to see parts written in the way we are used to.
However, that's we made the book all the more unique and special because of the correspondence between the characters the author was able to convey more of their feelings, and thoughts. Also, the power of the word was shown a lot better through the use of quotes from worldwide known and famous books by famous authors books we all love and cherish, and there were references to amazing movies such as You've Got
Mail and the one and only Lord Of The Rings which had an amazing impact on the story's progress.

Our story is about Izzy who represents every one of us, a bookish girl that finds her passion and dreams in reading and who dreams of a man similar to the men in books and of someone who understands the power of books and their magic. Therefore, her love life is not that perfect that's until her cousin, Josephine decides to meddle and sign her on a dating website. What started as a silly idea was the way to meet our beloved and amazing Brodie who lives far away from the USA but to Izzy, he is everything that she dreamt of. Could he be real? Could love blossom between them? Could their relationship survive distance and all of Izzy's insecurities not to mention her fear of flying?
You have to read this amazing book to find out and trust me it's worth every min.
It's a gem of a book and a beautiful gift for every book lover out there that speak to us and about us.

This love story is told mainly through texts and emails as Izzy Edgewood’s matchmaking cousin, Josephine, takes matters into her own hands and creates an account for Izzy on a dating website. I loved the story told in this type of format since it is very different from what I read.

Izzy’s cousins, Luke and Penelope, provide the humor for the story as they tease her on one hand, and encourage her on the other hand. Luke is like her brother and gives sound advise and some prodding. I liked Luke’s insights that he shares with Izzy and he gets her. I hope that he will have his own story in the future. Penelope is funny because she is a theater major with a penchant for musicals and she sees things through that lens.

There are plenty of references to The Lord of the Rings and quotes from other movies and books. This was fun because I understood the background of the references to the comments, but it certainly is fine if you haven’t read the books nor have seen the movies. It doesn’t detract from the story at all.

Lizzy had the perfect job of being a librarian (in my opinion) and it only made sense that she would be drawn to a man who was a bibliophile too. It was a bonus that he also was part owner of his family’s bookstore chain. It’s no wonder they were attracted to each other as he tells Izzy, “How could I have known you’d not only be smart and kind and ridiculously creative, but also beautiful and funny and as much in love with stories as I am. Maybe even more so.”

But the path to love can be bumpy and Izzy’s doubts about her self worth and past woundings are the cause. How will she let go of things and be her authentic self? You will want to read this book to see how her story works out.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions are my own.

Authentically Izzy by Pepper Basham is a unique romantic novel written in epistolary form. I loved the premise of this book but I found it really hard to get into due to the format. I wonder if it would work better as young adult fiction. Ms Basham is a phenomenal writer and I will continue to read all of her books. This one was not my favorite but many of her other books are favorites. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher with no obligations. These opinions are entirely my own.

A beautiful, heartwarming and funny love and life story. Izzy’s life is quiet and more in her fictional world with her passion for books than in the real world. When pushed by her cousin to join a dating app little does she knows that she will find herself, her dreams and the love of her life in another bookish weird foreigner. He is her soul mate but she must fight her insecurities and her demons and be brave to follow her heart.

Every so often something wonderful occurs, and I find that all of my favorite bookish tropes combine in one delightful story. When that happens, I end up feeling like the book was written especially with me in mind, and that my friends is exactly what happened when I picked up this amazing literary masterpiece from masterful storyteller Pepper D. Basham. I can pretty much tell you straight up that whatever I say in this review is never going to do her wonderful story justice, but I'm definitely going to do my best to try.

Izzy Edgewood may just be my new favorite protagonist of all time. She's an introvert, she's struggling to find the place she truly belongs, she's fierce hearted, and she has a wonderful love of all things literature that quite often spills over into her everyday life. I found myself instantly being able to relate to her love of all things bookish, and the social anxiety she struggles to have anyone else understand. The first part of this story is told in epistolary style (which I personally always love!!), and the reader is treated to hilarious and witty emails and text messages between Izzy and the three cousins that she ended up growing up with after her parent's tragically passed away when she was a teenager. The oldest cousin and her mother are constantly trying to find Izzy a potential husband, and they end up signing her up for an online dating service. Izzy has no interest in having anything to do with it, but she never planned on Brodie. He's from a small European nation, his mannerisms seem like he's from another time period, and he even understands all the bookisms she throws his way that no one ever knows what she's talking about. As the two grow closer, their friendship slowly changes into something more, but can they move past all the obstacles to find their way forward to a future together?

As I worked my way through this one and never wanted to put it down, I felt like I was right there with Izzy experiencing everything with Brodie and her cousins, and I love how atmospheric Pepper D. Basham's writing style is. This book was an absolute delight for any bookworms like myself, and very rarely has a book ever left me grinning and outright laughing the way this one did. I also appreciated that the deeper context of the story was handled authentically and gracefully, and added an extra depth to the story.

I literally loved every single thing about this one, and I never wanted to see it come to an end.

It's one of my favorites of all of the titles I've read by this author, and I can't personally recommend it enough.

Final Rating: 5/5.

Thanks so much to Thomas Nelson for allowing me to advance read and review this one!

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary advance reader copy of this novel from the publisher (Thomas Nelson) via NetGalley. I was not required to give a positive review. All thoughts and opinions are my own, and this is my honest review.

I absolutely loved this book!! It was such a quick read full of goodness on every page. Highly recommend this one 🤍

Cute and lighthearted but I found the modern epistolary format distracting. I often found myself skimming passages rather than getting lost in the pages.

Authentically, Izzy was such cute and light hearted read! It was a little slow in parts, but otherwise no complaints!

Super cute! A quick read that help me get out of a reading slump :) the relationship of the characters were so adorable - like when will I find a man like that? I also found Izzy extremely relatable to me. I feel I saw a little of myself in her or it could be that I wish I was her??? In any case this book made me laugh, cry, smile and all the emotions in between

This is my first go at epistolary fiction. Not sure it will be a favorite of mine as it by nature made the story feel a little choppy. I love Pepper Basham’s historical fiction works. This story has her same witty writing and lovable characters. I rarely ever read just a straight romance book, historical fiction is my first love so I missed that “more meaty” addition to storytelling. I enjoyed the characters, the lighthearted and fun banter, and all the bookish details. One of my favorite parts of the story was the sweet interaction between Izzy and her family, even Josephine :) The story was a nice change of pace but I think I’ll stick with historical fiction.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read for honest review.