I was happy to read Emily Henry's "Book Lovers" because I enjoyed her previous works. Her main characters tend to be similar if you have read all of her contemporary romances, but that does not mean they are not enjoyable. As the title says, it is about book lovers and will be a perfect read for book lovers!

Really enjoyed it! Nora was good protagonist and I liked her development. Her sister Libby needed a bit more development, but she was alright. I enjoyed Charlie as the love interest. He wasn't aggressive or controlling or alpa male-ish (which is such a low bar I know). I really enjoyed reading about a female protagonist who doesn't want kids, isn't judged for it, and also doesn't hate kids.

Charlie and Nora editing her client's book together made me missing the writing workshops I did in university and critiquing the work of others. Maybe I should find another one.

The location was pretty much the Stars Hollow vibes that every bookish girl wants to live in. I finished this book with an overwhelming need to rewatch Gilmore Girls. Overall, this is my favourite Emily Henry I've read and I think I will read it again many times!

I enjoyed reading this! This was my first romcom by Emily Henry, but I was completely captured by it. Can’t wait to read the next ones!
I especially enjoyed the publishing world setting, very intriguing, and I love the trope!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

A brilliant read and one I really enjoyed. The characters are loveable and varied, the plot is one that is engaging and medium paced. I found myself completely drawn into the story and enjoyed the writing style.

I absolutely fell in love with this romance!

I love the realistic characters, the mockery of fiction tropes, the details about editing life. There is loads of witty banter, some genuinely emotional moments and some scorching hot almost-sex scenes… it really has everything I’ve ever wanted in a romance novel.

And to top it off, I laughed out loud on more than one occasion – loud barks of laughter that startled sleeping children and disturbed the dog – and cried actual streams of tears in places too – to the point that my pillow was wet!

I couldn’t stop reading from the moment I picked the book up until I had turned the last page.

This is the ideal romantic escape read for a book lover and is firmly in my top spot for romance reads in 2023.

Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog

this is one of the best romances i've read in a long while. grump meets grump in this workplace rivals to reluctant lovers to falling head over heels soulmates. i fell in love with the main characters and their stories and they engulfed me into the story and i was rooting for them the whole time. the writing also flowed so well and it was easy to digest and it painted a very picturesque imagine in my head of all the settings in the story.
ive been a fan of emily henry from the start and i love how she mixed in romance with raw realness of life and how it is never easy and simple like in most fluffy romance movies. this is what draws me into her stories and i will never fail to recommend her books!

If you enjoyed Beach Read, you are going to love this book. Very similar in concept - two people who have tangled professionally meet again outside of their usual habitat. Both are dealing with their own issues.

For fear of giving anything further away - this is a very enjoyable read, and all characters are likeable. Excellent to find an author who is consistently good.

I started Book Lovers with mixed expectations after having loved and hated other books by this same author, but I'm glad to say it's as wonderful as everyone says it is. The hype IS real.

Emily Henry wrote a story of complex family dynamics beautifully and it's impossible not to feel pulled into this story and the MC Nora's head instantly and relate to her experiences, regardless of the differences between us.

I've been having trouble writing long reviews so for now I'll just keep it short and simple: It made me cry a lot, which is how I know I loved it, one of my favorite books of the year for sure.

Emily Henry has quickly become an auto buy author for me and as soon as I see she has something new I can’t wait to get my hands on it and Book Lovers did not disappoint.

Nora Stephens is a New York based literacy agent. When she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls in North Carolina with her sister Libby she was picturing all the small town romantic things like picnics and meeting hot country doctors but instead she keeps running into Charlie, a brooding editor that she knows from the city.

Once again Emily Henry has delivered with this easy to read, light hearted and fun novel that had me laughing out loud at times. I absolutely loved the banter between Charlie and Nora and watching their relationship develop.

I want to thank Netgalley and Penguin General UK - Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Viking, Penguin Life, Penguin Business for generously providing me with this book in exchange for an honest review.

I didn’t enjoy the first half of this book and did almost dnf it however I carried on with it and the second half was much better than the first half. I enjoyed how both of the main characters had a love for books and I enjoyed the sister relationship in the book. The relationship between the two main characters was a little bit predictable and it took most of the book for me to warm to either of them but all in all it was an enjoyable enough read, I’m not sure that it lived up to its hype but I’ll be reading another book by this author to see it either of her other reads impress me a bit more.

4.5* rounded down

I found Book Lovers quite difficult to review and I'm not sure why.

I first read this in March/April 2022 when I had Covid and I couldn't remember enough specifics to actually write a review. As a result I ended up re-reading most of it to make sense of the notes I'd jotted down!

There was a lot to like about Book Lovers. I loved the bookish (and small town) setting, and I enjoyed the fact that Nora and Charlie began as rivals and knew each other out of the small town. I thought that their relationship developed well and I liked that it wasn't instantaneous. I also liked how they were both quite grumpy, and I thought that Henry played on some of the classic tropes well. The other plot within the book surrounds Nora and her sister Libby, and for the most part I enjoyed seeing their relationship and the exploration of grief.

In all honesty, this is probably my least favourite book by Henry and I think that was because the plot with Libby seemed to be the central plot, rather than the relationship between Nora and Charlie which for me detracted from the romance. Although I have said this, I did still love Book Lovers a lot and I cannot wait to read Happy Place!

CW: grief/death of a parent

This is my first book by Emily Henry. I quite enjoyed it despite some minor niggles here and there.

I really liked the premise of book agent / editor getting together. What stood out for me the most is how self-aware the story is of the romance tropes and the way it plays with them. Some tropes are realised straightforwardly, others are quietly subverted.

Starting as enemies to lovers, we get two MCs who are both the grumps of the grumpy/sunshine dynamic and they only get to be a bit of a sunshine when they are together.

The story is told from the heroine's POV and there is a strong women's fiction element in the sense that we get deeper in the her world, her personal and professional relationships than in the hero's world. Speaking of this, I am not fully sold on the relationship between the two sisters. Libby came as immature to me, could that Nora saw her that way but a lot of Libby's actions/reactions felt childish to me.

I don't mine epilogues and perfect HEA for all but I rarely found them fitting to the stories. And this was very much the case here. It was OK but I don't think this story need every lose end tied up with a perfect shiny bow. I much prefer the ending to leave some room for growth, change.

Overall, I liked the book and would love to read more of this author.

CW: death of a parent (in the past), single parent, strained family relations, some pregnancy complications

Absolutely loved this one. The best of all her books, in my opinion. Five stars. More please, Emily!

I adored this, it was such a love letter to the creation and appreciation of books. Plus it was very funny (I cried laughing on multiple occasions) but also heartfelt and really tipped those typically romance tropes on their heads!

It's 1938, and Cadi is chosen to be Rose Queen in the annual Rose Fete. She is thrilled to be treated like royalty for the day. But deep down she is desperate to leave the Welsh mining community where she grew up.

When war is declared, Cadi and her best friend Poppy see a chance to escape. Cadi leaves behind her parents and local boy Aled, whom she is meant to marry, for Liverpool.

But city life doesn't bring the opportunities they'd hoped for. Unable to join the forces, the girls are left looking for work in poverty-stricken Vauxhall Ward.

They secure jobs in a local pub, and Cadi's blossoming relationship with a handsome dock worker deepens after he rescues her from a terrifying encounter.

But when Aled unexpectedly appears dressed in RAF uniform Cadi finds her worlds colliding again. Now the Rose Queen must decide: who will become her King

This was such a heartwarming story to read. I think the ending was fairly predictable from early on in the read, but the journey was just magical with so many special moments. I thought the developing relationship between Nora and Charlie was fabulous and developed so gradually and carefully to make it a compelling read.

Nora's back story is slowly revealed and was realistic and understandable - I think her sister, Libby, was very lucky to have Nora in her life. Sunshine falls: I want to visit. I can understand the attraction even to live there.

Brilliantly funny and a wonderful read throughout. I was rooting for Nora and delighted with the outcome of Libby's 'secret' - don't miss this comforting read. It was all I expected, having read Emily Henry before, and so much more!

Having been a fan of Emily Henry’s last romance books I was looking forward to this one. It did not disappoint. The romance between Nora and Charlie was a slow burn and I loved it. I also loved the setting of Sunshine Falls. It had some great humour in it and I found I was genuinely laughing at several points.

Not only have I been terrible at reviewing the Booker longlist as I read my way through, I’ve realised I’ve only not reviewed or posted about half of the books that made it to my favourites of the year list!

Some of them I read while I didn’t really have the energy for bookstagram posts, or I just couldn’t find the right words to describe them and how reading them made me feel.

Book Lovers is definitely the latter for me; it was published during one of the busiest parts of my masters this year, and while it was a perfect escape and restorative read, I couldn’t really articulate that while I was still in the busyness itself.

I won’t list out the plot for you here, mostly because everyone else has read it already, but I will say that Nora and Charlie as characters were *perfect* and I loved getting to read their story.

Emily Henry got me back into reading romance novels after I hadn’t picked one up for nearly a decade, and I’m so glad that I’ve been able to read I over the genre (and change my opinion on it too, if we’re being honest!) - having books like these as escapism has been one of the best things for my mental health recently.

It’s also an impressive feat to have three books that are all of the same quality and are all well done - some of my other auto-buy authors this year had books that I just didn’t love as much, and thankfully that was not the case with Book Lovers!

As we start our slow and gentle move into spring time over the next few months, this is high on my re-reading list to help bring some sunshine. I recommend it for your list too!

An absolute SMASH HIT that everyone is talking about. This is definitely one that is worth they hype - highly recommend!

Every time I finish an Emily Henry romance, I want to go back and experience it for the first time all over again. She's so good at writing heartthrobs that you can't help but fall in love with - even with all their problems and bad attitudes attached. Book Lovers is aptly named as it is the perfect read for all romance-loving book lovers. A slow burn with lots of tension. I highly recommend!