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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
A warm hug of a book that came to me at the right time! Nina Hill is a peculiar protagonist, but she's also charming and relatable; I found Abbi Waxman's portrayal of Nina's anxiety spot-on. This was a sweet and quirky story with just enough rom com cheese and enough original characters and plot points to keep me rapidly turning the pages. I also enjoyed the literary references and particularly the Pride and Prejudice send-up woven throughout the book. This was a cozy and cathartic read.
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
4.5 There is something irresistible about a book about a book nerd who works in a bookstore. Sucked me in and kept me there.
lighthearted
fast-paced
This was really cute! I loved all the book references throughout and it's total wish fulfillment with the bookstore. I wasn't sold on the portrayal of anxiety but overall it was sweet and delightful!
I felt at moments this was a charming read, especially since I identified with many aspects of Nina's personality (aspects outside the obvious book lover traits). I also felt at moments that this book was boring, and not amusing. Moments when I felt the book thought it was funnier than it actually was. Though, there were moments that I don't think were meant to be amusing at which I chuckled. So I guess it's just the trickiness of humor. The major pull of this read for me, and which kept me turning the pages (not at a rapid pace, because I was able to put the book down and forget about it a few times) was the characters. Nina's family, her friends, acquaintances she works with, and a few precocious kids made this experience a significantly more positive experience than negative one. Nina as well, even though at times she felt a bit like a caricature.
I wanted to love this book. The characters were all so well drawn and engaging, other than Nina's love interest, Tom. That's where the book fell apart for me. I really liked Nina, and I wanted more building of the relationship with her new family, OR conversely, more focus on her relationship with Tom, but neither felt fully formed, or at least I never felt like the stakes were particularly high for either working out. That said, it was a fun vacation read that I enjoyed because I liked Nina a lot. I just kind of wish there was more there there as far as the actual plot.
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
An utter delight to read, helped enormously by the endearing, smart, slightly anxious Nina Hill, employee of an independent bookstore, whose favourite activity is, without a doubt, reading. Oh, that is when she is not agonising over the minutiae of her daily life, ensuring that her daily wall planner is exact in its detail, or when she is engaging with her character-filled cat Phil. But don't get the idea that only child Nina is some sort of bookish, nerdy, introvert who cannot connect with others. Not at all. Nina has a wide group of friends, is a trivia pub quiz queen, and sounds absolutely adorable.
She seems to come across as a slightly unusual person, a little bit quirky and whacky, but I loved her, because I could see parts of myself in her, as I am sure most readers will also. Of course we love characters we can relate to. And for how many people would their dream job be to work in a bookshop, even if you do have to be nice to everyone all the time. Hardly surprising you would need the solitude.
Anyway, the main thing is that Nina is happy, she loves her life, she sees no reason for it to change, for her to do other things with her life, to travel, to have a boyfriend, to have huge adventures. Another reason to love her - she is happy and content with her life. Adorable.
Then one day she receives a letter from a solicitor. It turns out she is not an only child after all. Her absent and unknown father (her mother's choice) had always known about her. Nina is required to be at the will reading following his recent death. Who wouldn't be thrown into a tail spin by this alarming and completely unexpected piece of news? So now Nina finds she is having some chaos in her life - her new and surprising family, the contents of the will, and to top it off the difficult-to-avoid attentions of a rival trivia expert. How is Nina going to cope and manage with all this conflict and unresolved issues going on. Will she find a wall planner clever enough to cope with all these new people, new events, new decisions? For once, Nina is being challenged - how will she deal with this?
The author is a fabulous writer - funny, witty, combines words in a most charming and hilarious way, adores her character creation, all together just too cute for words.
She seems to come across as a slightly unusual person, a little bit quirky and whacky, but I loved her, because I could see parts of myself in her, as I am sure most readers will also. Of course we love characters we can relate to. And for how many people would their dream job be to work in a bookshop, even if you do have to be nice to everyone all the time. Hardly surprising you would need the solitude.
Anyway, the main thing is that Nina is happy, she loves her life, she sees no reason for it to change, for her to do other things with her life, to travel, to have a boyfriend, to have huge adventures. Another reason to love her - she is happy and content with her life. Adorable.
Then one day she receives a letter from a solicitor. It turns out she is not an only child after all. Her absent and unknown father (her mother's choice) had always known about her. Nina is required to be at the will reading following his recent death. Who wouldn't be thrown into a tail spin by this alarming and completely unexpected piece of news? So now Nina finds she is having some chaos in her life - her new and surprising family, the contents of the will, and to top it off the difficult-to-avoid attentions of a rival trivia expert. How is Nina going to cope and manage with all this conflict and unresolved issues going on. Will she find a wall planner clever enough to cope with all these new people, new events, new decisions? For once, Nina is being challenged - how will she deal with this?
The author is a fabulous writer - funny, witty, combines words in a most charming and hilarious way, adores her character creation, all together just too cute for words.
This is one of my favorite books this year! The only problem was that I wanted to savor it slowly, but there is a long list of people waiting for it at the library and I couldn't renew it. This may be one of the rare books that I re-read in the future though. I related a lot to Nina. She's an only child (at least at first), loves books and cats, needs time alone, has social anxiety and obsesses a lot about what she just said. This book is so funny! I found myself laughing out loud quite a few times, which I don't do when I'm reading unless it's really funny. I loved Nina's new romance and also seeing how she got to meet and interact with the family she never knew until now. Great book and I look forward to reading more by Abbi Waxman!