[NOVEL] Book Lovers by Emily Henry

    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.

If Funny Story made me want to read Emily Henry, then Book Lovers made me reconsider this eagerness.

I'd say the book started very promising, interesting premise, almost curse-like situation of being dumped for those small town ladies that are somehow so better and able to transform people, that Nora's men choose to leave the city life and move to chase love. And there is also Charlie Lastra, the infamous editor she had a deal with, but it fell through and the moment they had left a special taste of mutual irritation (alost like I admit you're hot as hell, but you're irritating you know).

We skip to two years later, the curse of being dumped continues, but above all else Nora will choose her career and herself for a reason. And that is something to do with her sister Libby and their past.

Note: I think it was wrong to choose the word 'Sissy' for Libby to use as address for her sister, it sounds bad and also sounds same as deragotory term to describe feminine men.

Nora, it feels, almost has a sister complex and also as if her life revolves around her sister instead of her own. Ironically, she doesn't want to let other men in and control her life, but Libby basically controls hers in a roundabout way. And the moment I saw it I thought it's not going to end good, because such thing is ruinous for oneself emotionally.

I thought they were young, but Nora is 32 and Libby is a mother of two (third on the way) and it would be logical for her to let Libby live her own life. But it felt like both haven't grown up much and their way of thinking is kind of stuck on the past. Especially Nora. I thought that time made them loose a bit, but with Nora it almost felt opposite.

This is why even if Nora has work to do even during the most uneventful publishing month of August, she agrees to her sister's plan for a trip. Basically "we feel like we're drifting apart, I want to have a chance to fix it" and "everything to make her happy". And this is why they travel to the small town out of the book with a checklist to do.

And although here is where we meet Charlie Lastra for some reason. And they make you laugh with their banter on the verge of flirting. But from her things started to get tedious for me.

Especially the situation and revelation. Some of the "problems" that are described feel like they were maxed out to feel critical. And also the situation at the end felt like author describes it almost as the world is coming to an end.

Nora's situation is real, although it's a bad example. 

So here's the backstory with spoilers.

Their mother came to NY to be an actress, but when she was pregnant with Libby her "boyfriend" who was not ready for kids left her. All her next boyfriends didn't share the responsibility but their mom was a hopeless romantic. So she brought up the two herself no matter how hard it was. It made Nora cherish her mom, Libby and their world of wonders in NY she loves so much.

But then she fell in love for the first time and the moment she was "needed" she wasn't there for her family. To be precise the day her mother died and her sister was calling her, she was too occupied in happinness and her phone was off. When she find out you can imagine the amount of shock and guilt that built up after that. Her first love left after a while for a small town where he found "someone". But Nora was left with her sister and life of uncertainty. This is why she has all those small habits, phone always charged, always on max volume when she falls asleep. Her life of constant worry and the fact that Libby was smaller but also a mess which didn't help, but added to her worries and growing paranoia.

Yes, this is paranoia, fear of losing someone close to you when you're not there for them, but the cruel truth is it may happen, you can't control it even if you want to.

Partially this is why I think she allowed Libby to be more free-wheeling, although for two young girls it's hard for one to drag them both along.

Money, stability. Those were the aspirations.

Although it did hit me that Libby and her husband, despite deep love for each other, were too young. Nora could describe her sister as wonderful as she wanted, she didn't strike me as such anyway. And Libby despite becoming a mother did strike me as a tad bit irresponsible. Maybe she felt that her sister is always behind her. But job hopping and getting more kids despite a strainous financial situation. Everybody lives their life as they want, but just think things through sometimes.

Maybe this is why I had a bit of a negative way towards her, especially knowing her reason behind the travel Libby (which was a pure selfish move imo). Maybe she feels that her sister is the best and she loves her sister a lot, but it just felt wrong. Libby's talk as "you sacrificed so much for me" etc. feels like talk and nothing more. Through tears and snot she will still choose her life, because that's her life. It just felt weird, like she knows her sister for sure and knows her character, but somehow managed to add so much stress to her for a month before revealing that from now on they will live in two different places. And the trip was mostly to woo her sister to come along. This is why I say it's a selfish move. It's contradicting like she doesn't want her sister to accomodate and mom her, but at the same time tries to woo her into this small town.

On top of that Libby managed to be a disposable background character that has nothing to her except being a mom, living like the best girl in Nora's head and sometimes do the Puss in Boots starry eyes.

This paranoia and inability to communicate was hanging between the two for entirety of the trip, made Nora to think all types of plots and nothing made her feel better, I think she felt like a nervous wreck.

But this feeling of paranoia and being trapped and unable to do anything and the cycle of her memories of herself, Libby and their mother were like on repeat and this is why I say it felt tedious. because it felt like running in circle, but for too long. I didn't find the need to stretch it to almost 400 pages for this.

Next thing is the relationship with Charlie Lastra. While Nora is the literally agent, he is an editor. Both are known in their circle. After rekindeling their communication their chat almost felt like flirting, banter was good, but also felt like it's fast for the two. Although they feel like they're not for each other and nothing good will come out of it and all that jazz, but at the same time no one feels as right.

This trip allows them to be in the proximity of each other and slowly find more about they truly are.

Charlie shares a bit of a tragic backstory, but honestly it felt flat. Because Nora was always in her stress it was easy to feel for her, but because Charlie's life was described quite plainly and shortly I felt like he deserved a bit more as MMC.

But because Charlie was very much like Nora in spirit it was easy to portray him and he also was the only person who appreciated her as her true self. He was the right person for her.

Note: The only thing I felt weird about is the use of 'fucking' (adj.). Like "you're fucking amazing" or "you're fucking deserve it" something along those lines. I don't wait too much from an editor, but he didn't strike me as such a person from description. I honestly felt that no sky won't fall down if no one will cuss. This honestly threw me off not once in their dialogues.

And as for the conflict. Again, description-wise it felt like the world was ending. But in general Nora was heading back home, while Libby, who wanted to woo Nora to live here was staying. She couldn't bring herself to talk about future and plans earlier. Honestly, I couldn't get it, why not talk. Why not say - sis, the life is getting hard and we think of moving to a place that will be easier for us (after all NY is an expensive city to live in), so our plans are as follows. There would be tears and separations, but it would be a big stretch to ask one person to live for another.

Same with Charlie. Charlie stays because of his father's condition and Nora leaves because she is teh city person, she wants her dream job and needs life for herself. So it felt heartbreaking, but in the back of your hand you knew, give the a couple of months and they'll be together, because someone will say the right thing. Charlie's situation wasn't a big deal to me, like his mother's bookstore was declining, father had a stroke, he could come, wait for the right time and arrange everything when things will go right and his parents might accept it. Good thing that the ending ruled out even better, making Libby look after the bookstore as part of the family and Charlie being able to leave to be with the woman he loves since his parents told him "we are the parents", not him.

From one side the book was good. The style is easy, so I read it almost in one sitting. The idea of them being like this as a setting. Some problems in life to solve. But from another side I was sitting and thinking - when will this end?

Some may prefer this, I preferred Funny Story because it was breezier.

It makes me believe that contemporray romance, the modern one, does not exist without FMCs and MMCs who have no problems. When sometimes I just want things to be romancing. I don't want to get too sad or too depressed when certain topics are brought up in the book.

RATE: 3,5/5.