Emily Henry is a really polpuar author of romance novels, although they’re not for everyone. Beach Read, People We Meet on Vacation, Book Lovers and her latest release Happy Place are all great successes. However, I have mixed experiences with her books. I highly enjoyed Beach Read, but couldn’t connect to People We Meet on Vacation at all. So, I was a little hesitant picking up Book Lovers, even though I pre-ordered it back in 2022. It has been sitting on my Kindle app since its release in that same year. That was also the year I’ve read Henry’s previous book and was left disappointed. Well, now it was finally time to give this author another chance. Was I as invested as with Beach Read or did it all go downhill from there?

About the book

Book Lovers by Emily Henry
Published by Berkley on May 3, 2022
Pages: 377
ISBN: 9780593334836
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

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.

My review

Let’s start with my quite unpopular opinion straight away, but this book was… not what I’d expected. I’d expected a lot more than what I got. I was bored the entire time and this all has to do with characters and storyline. I absolutely don’t get the hype for this book.

Main character Nora is the most boring main character I’ve ever encountered. Yes, she loves books and she even has a job in publishing. She is protrayed as a stony personality which was actually written well. However, this makes her insufferable. There is going to be some growth though, but this is at the end of the book and feels completely rushed. I just couldn’t connect to her as a fellow book lover. She’s obsessed with control, order, checklists and on top of all that, she’s submerged in her work. She thinks she cares about her sister Libby, but this doesn’t show at all. It actually feels likes Nora is suffocating her isntead. Speaking of Libby, she’s insufferable as well. She is acting so immature, I can’t deal with it. Furthermore, of course Nora has a love interest, Charlie. He is a nicer character, but uninteresting either. He dealt with a lot in the past which has been written well, but still he is boring. I think the supposed meet cutes with Nora aren’t cute at all, they fall completely flat. Also they turn from enemies to lovers real quick. No, none of the characters in this book are interesting. Therefore, I didn’t feel any chemistry at all regarding the predictable romance.

The writing is okay. Not too difficult, not too easy. However, it didn’t suck me in. I zoned out a lot and therefore missed several parts of the story. Unfortunately I was not interested enough to rewind my audiobook (performed really well by Julia Whelan by the way) to catch up. That sucks, but it is what it is.

Do you notice something when reading the synopsis for this book and compare it to Beach Read? Yes? Good, because I notice it too. The similarities are a lot, it even feels like both books are copied from one another. It feels like Henry uses a formula to create her books. It has proven to be successful a few times now, but I wish she would try something different. All books are about people taking a trip somewhere else and falling in love. No, I can’t take it anymore. Although the plot is so similar to other books by this author, it’s there to support the characters and it succeeds there. However, I have been bored out of my mind the entire time and that’s because the combination of plot and characters is not working at all.

As you might have guessed, Book Lovers by Emily Henry is a book I didn’t enjoy in the slightest. I was bored from start to finish. The characters are insufferable, the plot is way too similar to other books by this author. I regret not DNFing this, it felt like I could have read so many other books in the time I’ve spent on reading this one. I still have the audiobook for Happy Place and I’m unfortunately not able to return it, so I will try that one. If I don’t like it either, I think this author’s books are just not for me.