Antonia Bernardin

The 62nd book I read this year was Book Lovers by Emily Henry. This was a great little holiday read and my second Emily Henry that I’ve read so far.

A summary attempt

Nora is the anti-heroine of every romance book, she is the high powered city girl in fancy shoes who the male love interest leaves for the girl from the charming small town he goes to visit and ends up staying forever. In fact, this has happened to her, three times. Ahead of the birth of her sisters third child, Nora is convinced by her baby sister to take a vacation in the small town featured in one of the author’s Nora represents novels. Libby has a check list of small town romance novels things they must do while on holiday, including setting her sister up with a rugged local man. When they arrive, Nora finds that the only place with good wifi happens to be the bookstore, where she discovers one of her nemesis’s from the literary world is working to help out his family while his dad is sick. Libby is charmed by small town life but Nora can’t wait to leave, she senses her sister is hiding something as they make their way through the checklist, meanwhile, Nora finds herself drawn to the equally cut-throat, equally city loving and literary rival, Charlie.

My thoughts

This was such an enjoyable read and one of the things I loved most about it is that she is still a career-orientated, child free by choice, city dweller at the end. Her character development is all about moving on from her mother’s death and her relationship with the baby sister she helped raise changing and growing. I loved all the ways this book breaks the fourth wall about traditional tropes in the romance genre to show a romance with the kind of woman we don’t usually see in these novels.

Basically, Emily Henry has become an auto-buy author for me now.