Book Lovers by Emily Henry
- Alisha Eadle
- Jul 22
- 15 min read
Book Lovers
by Emily Henry
Published by Berkley
One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn't see coming....
Nora Stephens’ life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.
Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away—with visions of a small-town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.
If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.
Genre
Triggers
Pain from loss of a parent at a young age
I was really excited for Book Lovers.
Because I'm your typical book lover who wants to read books with characters that also love books.
Can't have too much of a good thing.
Yet ... it's not my favorite of Emily Henry's books.
And it all comes down to predictability, and pacing.
I love a slow burn with tension, but the overall plot of Book Lovers was ... too slow.
The setting is in a sleepy small town, and I won't lie ... it felt like it at times.
I'm not being a hater here. There were several things I truly enjoyed about Book Lovers.
I liked how Emily flipped around the trope of big city dweller comes to small town and falls in love. While, yes, technically that happens, we get two characters who do not want to live small town life. No one has to change. We get two characters that are so aligned with their interests and personalities, they are perfect for each other.
Some people need someone the complete opposite of them.
Other's don't.
And Nora, from the first of the book, knew she wanted to find someone just like Charlie - who is very much like her.
I enjoyed the characters in Book Lovers. It took a bit to warm up to Nora, but I also immediately connected with her prickly, pessimistic nature. Her banter with Libby - an exhausted extrovert who is optimistic about most things - was so much fun to read.
And not to be outdone, the banter between Charlie and Nora was just as fun to read. Their chemistry with one another was felt, rather than printed out on the page, and that is what I am looking for in a romance.
Honestly, if it wasn't for how predictably the storyline was (I clocked Libby's real reason for the trip pretty quickly), and how long it took for things to pick up in the book, I would have loved this book.
If you love Emily Henry, I'm sure you will enjoy Book Lovers. It might not be my favorite of her work, but it might be yours.
It's not intentional - I'm not trying to be cutting - when I cackle out her name. It's just that, when hilariously bad things happen, I leave my body. I watch them happen from outside myself and think, Really? This is what the universe has chosen to do? A bit on the nose, isn't it?
In this case, it's chosen to guide my boyfriend into the arms of a woman named after the ability to keep a hymen intact. I mean, it is funny.
Nora: "Do you know what's on Prince Edward Island?"
Libby: "Anne of Green Gables?"
Nora: "Anne of Green Gables would be dead by now."
Libby: "Wow. Spoiler."
In the interest of full discretion, yes, I outright inquire about fetishes up front. It's not that thirty percent of men announce their kinks twenty minutes after meeting, but that's my point. The last time my boss, Amy, went home with an un-vetted woman, she turned out to have a room that was entirely dolls. Floor-to-ceiling ceramic dolls.
How inconvenient would it be to fall in love with a person only to find out they had a doll room? The answer is "very."
Libby: "We're going to have so much fun, Sissy! And you're going to fall in love with a lumberjack."
Nora: "If there's one thing that makes me horny, it's deforestation."
Libby: "An ethical, sustainable, organic, gluten-free lumberjack."
Nora: "Ummm, what is this?"
Libby: "Go on at least two dates with locals,"
she reads, visibly excited.
Libby: "That one's not for me."
She lifts her copy of the list, on which number five is struck through."
Nora: "Well, that doesn't seem fair."
Libby: "You recall that I'm married and five trillion weeks pregnant."
Nora: "And I'm a career woman with a weekly housekeeping service, a spare bedroom I turned into a shoe closet, and a Sephora credit card. I don't imagine my dream man is a lobster hunter."
Libby: "Look, Nora, you know I love your beautiful, Dewey-decimal-organized brain, but you date like you're shopping for cars."
Nora: "Thank you."
Libby: "And it always ends badly."
Nora: "Oh, thank god."
I clutch my chest.
Nora: "I was worried that wouldn't come up soon."
Libby: "They always save a local business in small-town romances. We literally have no choice. I'm hoping for a down-on-its-luck goat farm."
Nora: "Ooh. Maybe we can get the ritualistic sacrifice community to band together in dramatic fashion to save the goats. For now, I mean. Eventually, they'll have to die on the altar."
Libby: "Well, of course."
Libby takes a swig of tomato juice.
Libby: "That's the biz, baby."
Charlie: Says the woman they call the Shark.
I scoff. No one calls me that. I don't think.
Nora: Says the man they call the Storm Cloud.
Charlie: Do they?
Nora: Sometimes. Of course, I would never. I'm far too polite.
Charlie: Of course. That's what Sharks are known for: manners.
Charlie: I was trying to figure out if I could catch a flight.
Nora: Did you make it?
Charlie: No. Got distracted by two gin martinis and a platinum blond shark who wanted me dead.
Nora: Not dead. Lightly mauled maybe, but I would've stayed away from your face.
Charlie: Didn't realize you were a fan.
Nora: "If you offer to lend me your Crocs again, I'm going to sue you for emotional damages."
She balks.
Libby: "After that comment, you don't deserve my Crocs."
Libby hasn't gotten bitten once. She bats her lashes.
Libby: "I must be too sweet for them."
Nora: "Or maybe you're pregnant with the Antichrist and they recognize you as their queen."
She nods thoughtfully.
Libby: "I could use the excitement, I guess."
Nora: "What are you known for, with regard to food?"
I clarify.
Bartender: "To be known isn't necessarily to be admired."
Libby: "What do you recommend other than Coors?"
Bartender: "Fries are good. Burger's okay."
Nora: "Veggie burger?"
She purses her lips.
Bartender: 'It won't kill you."
Nora: "Sounds perfect. I'll have one of those, and some fries."
Libby: "Same."
Despite her insistence that the burger won't kill us, the bartender's shrug reads, Your funeral, bitches!
Nora: "I'm on vacation!"
His confusion deepens.
Nora: "I just ... I'm not stalking you."
His eyebrows furrow.
Charlie: "Okay?"
Nora: "I'm not."
He releases my forearms.
Charlie: "More convincing every time you say it."
Nora: "My sister wanted to take a trip here, because she loves Once in a Lifetime."
Something flutters behind his eyes. He snorts.
I cross my arms.
Nora: "One has to wonder why you'd be here."
Charlie: "Oh,"
he says dryly,
Charlie: "I'm stalking you."
At my eye bulge, he says,
Charlie: "I'm from here, Stephens."
Nora: "You are from Sunshine Falls, North Carolina. A place with one gas station and a restaurant named Poppa Squat."
Charlie: "Yes."
My brain skips over several more relevant questions to:
Nora: "Is Poppa Squat a person?"
Charlie laughs, a surprised sound so rough I feel it as a scrape against my rib cage.
Charlie: "No?"
Nora: "What, then, is a Poppa Squat?"
The corner of his mouth ticks downward.
Charlie: "I don't know - a state of mind?"
Nora: "And what's wrong with the Greek salad here?"
Charlie: "You tried to order a salad? Did the townspeople circle you with pitchforks?"
Nora: "Not an answer."
Charlie: "It's shredded iceberg lettuce with nothing else on it. Except when the cook is drunk and covers the whole thing in cubed ham."
Nora: "Why?"
Charlie: "I imagine he's unhappy at home,"
Charlie replies, deadpan.
Charlie: "What did this phone do to you?"
Nora: "It's not the phone so much as the sociopathic super-bitch who lives inside it."
Charlie: "Most people just call her Siri."
Nora: "You don't strike me as a Coors guy."
Charlie: "I'm not, but I find the merciless mockery from the bartender here dampens my enjoyment of a Manhattan."
Charlie: "You seem pretty pleased with yourself, for a woman who just found out she was the inspiration for Cruella de Vil."
I scowl at him. Charlie rolls his eyes.
Charlie: "Come one. I'll buy you a martini. Or a puppy coat."
Charlie: "I'm surprised this is such a problem for you."
Nora: "And I'm shocked your artificial intelligence chip allows you to feel surprise."
I really don't like the idea of her hiking up those steps alone. I snatch my phone back up and text her,
Nora: LET ME KNOW THE SECOND YOU MAKE IT UP TO THE COTTAGE OR ELSE!!!!
Libby: Let me know the second you make it to third base with Mr. Hottman.
Over my shoulder, Charlie snorts. I turn my phone away, squaring my shoulders.
Nora: "That was my sister, Libby. Ignore everything she says. She's always horny when she's pregnant. Which is always."
His (truly miraculous) eyebrows lift, his heavy-lidded gaze homing in.
Charlie: "There is ... so much to unpack in that sentence."
Nora: "And so little time."
Nora: "So tell me about this place. What's interesting here?"
Charlie: "Do you like grass?"
Nora: "Big fan."
Charlie: "We got lots."
Charlie's head tilts, his lids heavy.
Charlie: "Do you know you do that?"
Nora: "Do what?"
His fingers brush the right corner of my mouth.
Charlie: "Get a divot here, when you lie."
I slap his hand out of the air, but not before all the blood in my body rushes to meet his fingertips.
Nora: "That's not my Lying Divot."
I lie.
Nora: "It's my Annoyed Divot."
Nora: "You're going to teach me, right?"
I'm trying to look innocent, to look like Libby batting her eyelashes.
Charlie stares at me.
Charlie: "I really wonder what you think your face is doing right now, Stephens."
Nora: "I could have a perfectly nice time on a date with a pig farmer. And you know what? Maybe it's a good idea. It's not like I've had any luck with New Yorkers. Maybe I have been fishing in the wrong pond. Or, like, the wrong stream of nuclear waste runoff."
Charlie: "You are so much weirder than I thought."
Nora: "Well, for what it's worth, before tonight, I assumed you went into a broom closet and entered power saving mode whenever you weren't at work, so I guess we're both surprised."
Charlie: "Now you're being ridiculous. When I'm not at work, I'm in my coffin in the basement of an old Victoria mansion."
Nora: "Straight men love bangs. They make women approachable."
Charlie: "Nothing more intimidating than a forehead."
Charlie: "Goode Books isn't so much as a local business as it is a financial sinkhole, but I'm sure the tunnel inside the earth appreciates your money."
Nora: "Excuse me, did you just say this place is called Goode Books? As in your mother's last name, but also good book?"
Charlie: "City people,"
he tuts.
Charlie: "Never stop to smell the roses, or look up to see the very prominently displayed signs over local businesses."
I wave a hand.
Nora: "Oh, I have the time. It's just that the Botox in my neck makes it hard to get my chin that high."
Charlie: "Is she going to buy any of those, Charlie drawls, tipping his chin towards Libby's tower of books,
Charlie: "Or just get coffee all over them?"
Nora: "Has anyone told you you're a natural at customer service?"
Charlie: "No."
Nora: "Good. I know how you feel about liars."
Nora: "Don't look so victorious. She's asked me to be involved every step of the way. Your edits go through me."
Charlie: "Is that supposed to scare me?"
Nora: "It should. I'm scary."
He pitches forward over the desk, biceps tightening, mouth in a sultry pout.
Charlie: "Not with those bangs. You're extremely approachable."
Charlie: "Could you keep that down? Every time you gasp like that, you almost give me a heart attack."
Libby: "Well, your cafe chairs are giving me hemorrhoids, so I'd say we're even."
A minute later, Charlie appears and thrusts two velvet throw pillows at us.
Charlie: "Your majesties,"
he says, scowl/pouting before returning to his post.
Libby's eyes light up and she leans over to stage-whisper to me.
Libby: "Did he just bring us butt pillows?" Nora: "I believe he did,"
I agree.
Libby: "Count von Lastra has a beating heart."
Charlie: "I can hear you,"
he calls.
Nora: "The undead have famously heightened senses,"
I tell Libby.
Charlie: Why is my mother texting me about how hot you are?
This can only be one person.
Nora: Weird. Think it has anything to do with the fact that I just went to the bookstore in nothing but a patent leather trench coat?
Nora: She told me you would bring wood over to the cottage for me.
Charlie: Please swear to me you didn't make a "too late for that" joke.
Charlie: The ship of her disappointment in me set sail a long time ago. I'd have to do something WAY sluttier to let her down now.
Nora: When she finds your stash of Bigfoot erotica under your race car bed, maybe the ship will circle back.
Nora: "What are you drinking? Alcohol? Alcohol sounds good."
The waitress approaches, and before she can get a word out, I say,
Nora: "Two very large gin martinis please."
She must see the familiar sighs of first-date misery on me, because she ships her welcome speech, nods, and virtually sprints to put in our order.
Blake: "I don't drink."
Nora: "No worries, I'll drink yours."
Charlie: "Would you like to have dinner with me, Nora?"
He heads off my response with,
Charlie: "As colleagues. Ones who can't fulfill each other's checklists."
Nora: "I wasn't aware you had a checklist."
Charlie: "Of course I have a checklist."
His eyes glint in the dark.
Charlie: "What am I, an animal?"
Nora: "You just put off this ... academic vibe. I would've expected you to be, like, a Rhodes scholar, with a tattoo of the Bodleian Library on your ass."
Charlie: "Then where would my Garfield the cat tattoo go?"
he asks so dryly that I have to spit my wine back into the glass.
Charlie: "He's a sweet guy,"
Charlie says quietly.
Charlie: "Anyway, he let the car stuff go and started picking up paperbacks for me every time he stopped by a garage sale, or a new donation box came into Mom's shop. He has no idea how much erotica he's given me."
Nora: "And you actually read it."
Charlie turns his wineglass one hundred and eighty degrees, eyes boring into me.
Charlie: "I wanted to understand how things worked, remember?"
I arch a brow.
Nora: "How'd that turn out for you?"
He sits forward.
Charlie: "I was slightly disappointed when my first serious girlfriend didn't have three consecutive orgasms, but otherwise okay."
Charlie: "And just so you know, those bangs do not make you more approachable. You just look like a hot assassin in an expensive wig."
Nora: "All I heard is hot and expensive."
Charlie: "If I showed you a Rorschach blot, you'd find hot and expensive somewhere in there."
Charlie: "In high school, things weren't as bad, and then eventually ..."
Nora: "You got hot,"
I say somberly.
His laugh grates over my skin.
Charlie: "I was going to say 'I moved to New York.'"
We've stopped moving. Heat corkscrews through my rib cage, coiling tighter with each spiral.
I clear my throat enough to joke,
Nora: "And then you got hot."
Charlie: "Actually, that only happened four or five weeks ago. There was this big meteor shower, and I made a wish and ..."
Charlie holds his arms out as he drifts closer.
Charlie: Where did Julie Andrews go?
Nora: Back to the nunnery. She gave up. She couldn't help you.
Charlie: I have that effect.
Nora: "Careful, Charlie. That sounds like jealousy."
Charlie: "It's relief. I expected you to show up here today in Daisy Dukes and pigtails, maybe a Ford tattoo on your tailbone."
I slide my forearms onto the desk and lean forward in such a way that I really might as well have brought a silver platter out and presented my cleavage to him that way. The lack of sleep is really getting to me. I feel haunted by him, and I'm determined to haunt him right back.
Nora: "I would be:"
-I drop my voice-
Nora: "adorable in Daisy Dukes and pigtails."
His eyes snack back to my face, flashing; his mouth twitches through that grimacing pout, a pair as reliable as thunder and lightning.
Charlie: "Not the word I'd use."
Awareness sizzles down my backbone. I lean closer.
Nora: "Charming?"
His eyes stay on my face.
Charlie: "Not that either."
Nora: "Sweet."
Charlie: "No."
Nora: "Comely?"
I guess.
Charlie: "Comely? What year is it, Stephens?"
Nora: "A real girl next door,"
I parry.
He snorts.
Charlie: "Which door?"
I straighten.
Nora: "It'll come to me."
Charlie: "I doubt it,"
he says under his breath.
Nora: "Shit."
Charlie: "What?"
Nora: "You're right."
Charlie: "My condolences. This has clearly been very hard on you."
Charlie: "So you're trying to get this out of your system?"
Nora: "Maybe,"
I admit.
Nora: "But maybe I also just want something that's easy for once."
His brow lifts, teasing.
Charlie: "Now I'm easy?"
Yes, I think, to me, you are the easiest person in the world. But I say,
Nora: "God, I hope."
Charlie catches me studying myself and teases,
Charlie: "Thinking about how 'hot and expensive' you look?"
Nora: "Actually ..."
I grab the receipt.
Nora: "I'm daydreaming about how hard I'm about to work you."
His eyes spark.
Charlie: "I can take it."
The next day, he send me a blurry shot of the bickering geriatric couple from town hall caught in a passionate embrace outside the new Dunkin' Donuts.
Charlie: Love conquers all, I guess.
Nora: Or she's found a discreet way to suffocate him.
Charlie: What a beautiful, twisted brain you have, Nora.
Libby: "I've decided I like you, Charlie."
Charlie: "I'm honored."
Nora: "Don't be. She likes everyone."
Libby: "We're going to Poppa Squat's."
Nora: "Maybe you've heard of it. It was on a very exclusive Buzzfeed list."
Slow nod. Dark, gut-melting eyes. Holding his gaze feels like public indecency.
Charlie: "'Places That Sound Like They'll Definitely Give You Diarrhea While Really They Only Just Might Give You Diarrhea.'"
Nora: "That's the one."
Charlie: "Libby makes Libby's decisions. Imagine how you'd react if someone tried to stop you from doing what you want, Stephens."
A hint of a smile tugs at his pout.
Charlie: "Actually, don't imagine it. It's inappropriate to get turned on in a hospital."
Libby: "There's something else you should know."
Here it is, I think, what she's been keeping from me.
She takes a deep breath.
Libby: "I eat meat."
My instant reaction is to jump off the bed like she's just told me she personally slaughtered a baby cow here moments ago and drank blood straight from its veins.
Libby: "I know!"
she cries through her hands.
Libby: "It started when I was pregnant with Tala! Because of the anemia. And, frankly, this bizarre and constant craving for Whoppers."
Nora: "Ew!"
Libby: "I stopped as soon as she was born! But then I started again when I found out about Number Three, and I didn't think a couple of weeks off would make a difference for my levels, but I wasn't being conscientious enough about filling in the gaps. So. Whoops! Or ... whops?"
Nora: "I can't believe you tricked me into being a vegetarian, for a decade, then caved for a Whopper!"
Libby: "How dare you. Whoppers are amazing."
Nora: "A week ago I liked you so much I would have wanted to try to make this work."
I swallow a jagged, fist-sized lump, but still my voice has to scrape by to get out.
Nora: "But now I think I might love you too much for that."
I'm surprised to hear myself say it. Not because I was unaware of how I felt - but because I've never been the first person to say the L-word. Not even with Jakob.
Nora: "You don't have to say anything,"
I hurry to add.
His jaw flexes against my temple.
Charlie: "Of course I love you, Nora. If I loved you any less, I'd be trying to convince you that you could be happy here. You have no idea how badly I wish I could be enough."
Nora: "Charlie -"
Charlie: "I'm not being self-deprecating,"
he promises softly against my ear.
Charlie: "I just don't think that's how it works in real life."
Nora: "If anyone could be enough, I think it might be you."
#beta #fishoutofwater #friendswithbenefits #new #rivalstolovers #slowburn #smalltown #vacation #workplace