Reviews

Nora thought her editorial assistant position would be the first step on the way to her dream job in publishing. But after five years of boring administrative tasks, she’s overworked, underpaid, and her career has stagnated – not that it ever really got off the ground. When a pay cut leaves her unable to make ends meet, she takes a secret side gig with a rival publisher. At the same time, her day job has her working closely with one of their bestselling authors, Andrew Santos – who is more than a little bit dreamy.

Nora is quite likeable, even as she makes bad decisions right and left. She appears to be battling depression, whether she knows it or not, and many of her bad decisions are driven by desperation, or the indecision and despair that can come with that kind of mental struggle. I’ve had those kinds of struggles, in part because of the same kind of dead-end jobs, so I felt Nora’s dread and anxiety really viscerally. The romance is cute – not enthralling or “swoonworthy,” but cute. At most times the book is less focused on their relationship than it is on Nora’s existential crisis, which I feel places this book more solidly in the “fiction with a side of romance” section rather than the straight-up “romance novel” section, but Andrew is the catalyst that brings her out of her funk and spurs her to change her life. The book ends on a hopeful note, both for Nora’s career and for her relationship with Andrew.

Representation: POC as main characters (MC is half Black, love interest is Filipino)

CW: suicidal ideation

I received an ARC of this ebook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

brandece1's review

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3.5

3.5 Book club pick

Must Love Books has been on my TBR for such a long time, but I kept putting it off so I decided to make it my pick for book club. When I picked this one up it was in the romance section so I was hoping for a true love story. While there was a romance in it, I would not say it was the central point of the story and there was no true HEA. While this one did not really check the boxes I was expecting, I will say that I did really enjoy the relationship between Nora and Andrew. I related so much to Nora. From losing her work bestie (to another company), to being the only person of color in a room at any given time, to her social anxiety and not being where she thought she would be in her life. With all of that said I will say that while I enjoyed the premise of this one, and loved that it was set in the bookish world at about 50% in, this one did take a bit of dark turn (trigger warning for suicidal thoughts, and depression). While I felt like the subject was handled with care, I was not expecting it. This was the first book I've read by this author, and I am really looking forward to Then Banned Bookshop by her.