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A review by v_larr
Book Lovers by Emily Henry
5.0
Wow! I really enjoyed this book. I thought I'd get another super tropey romcom on my hands but this was incredibly nuanced and really nicely done. I heard some back and forth about Emily Henry and I had taken out one of her books only to never read it so I wasn't sure what to expect.
There was one thing I knew for sure: just from the name alone I knew I'd resonate with these characters a lot.
Fun fact: in the eighth grade I had to take some quizzes as part of some careers project to determine what kind of job I'd be best suited for. My top results were Critic and Acupuncturist. Five years later and only one of those continues to be accurate. Although I'm studying STEM, as you can tell I truly enjoy writing book reviews like this.
All this to say, I respect the hell out of people in the book industry that aren't just writers. Like I know writing is a huge pain with getting published and rejected and such but imagine being an editor or a publisher or an agent...I can't imagine the workload.
Which is why it's a great profession to give a workaholic character. Not only that, but I love how Nora is so invested in her work and life in New York because she adores it. Like yes, she's got this deep reason for it that I'll get into later, but a chunk of it is just that she loves the city and being busy and by the end of the book it's not like she's convinced against that, rather she's encouraged to pursue her passion. Like yes, let the hardworking woman be hardworking by the end of the book! Fuck settling down! Get on that grindset!
Like I'm glad she never burns out or anything too. She just ends up getting an even better job that she's allowed to take without pressure to help Libby.
Like UGH Libby. I love how that was her name considering that's the app I was reading this book on. Support your local library and get Libby! It's 100000000x better than Audible and it's FREE!!!!
Anyways Libby! I think she was very interesting, I strongly disliked how she kept that secret from Nora but when I remember Nora's reaction I was like yeah no Libby had a point.
When I say this book was very nuanced I mean relating to Nora and Libby's relationship. I mean you spend the whole book reading about how Nora needs to fix everything and how she needs to be there for Libby and how she can't sleep well and how everything has to be perfect and organized and she has to be readily available for others at any given moment and you're like...Girl. You're not doing okay.
But it feels like an almost blink and you miss it moment. Because she says it in a way that's like "It sucks but that's how it has to be" and it's like you're almost convinced. And I personally was this close to getting Mad at Libby before realizing, "hold on, it seems to me like Nora is the codependent one, not Libby." And once it's revealed what happened with the mom and with Jakob it's like oh.....It clicks now. This girl's not doing alright, she's quite traumatized.
SO THEN THERE'S THAT ONE PARAGRAPH AT THE END WHERE SHE'S LIKE "So I booked an appointment with a therapist" and I was like yEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH
Anyways I think...that's enough about Nora.
TIME TO TALK ABOUT THE ROMANCE. OHHHHHHHHHHMYGODDDDDDDDD
See in this book they made a strong distinction between thinking someone is goodlooking (Shepherd) and someone who's ATTRACTIVE (Charlie). Like jesus the chemistry was on fire I was going absolutely insane at every interaction. Like they'd just be talking about books or contracts or some random crap but just the body language alone was enough to be like oHHHHHH GODDDDD
I fully believe they should've screwed on the library table.
And there's a scene where they're texting about the ending of the book they're editing and I'm like "WHEN IS IT MY TURN TO BE HAPPY OHHHH MY GOD." Sometimes love is just reading with your SO and live reacting together.
I mean the ending was quite predictable though. I was glad they didn't make her stay and they didn't try long distance but also once they chose that I was like "Oh he's gonna find a way to come back isn't he." And then bam. Also the fact that they fell in love after like three weeks makes no sense sorry romcom gods.
I like how they made fun of romcoms too. Like considering that's all I've been reading really, I do make fun of them and I liked how relatable it all was in terms of books read and the feeling of reading and all that jazz. So that was quite fun.
Charlie I am free Friday night are you free Friday night to go out Friday night when I am free.
Okay am I forgetting something.
Oh yeah, one big issue: there's a moment where she said her nipples pinched in response to something he said. That was a big Woman Written by a Man moment considering the author is a woman. Like WHAT DOES THAT MEAN????
Anyways now I'm done bye bye. I can't wait to talk about this during book club.
There was one thing I knew for sure: just from the name alone I knew I'd resonate with these characters a lot.
Fun fact: in the eighth grade I had to take some quizzes as part of some careers project to determine what kind of job I'd be best suited for. My top results were Critic and Acupuncturist. Five years later and only one of those continues to be accurate. Although I'm studying STEM, as you can tell I truly enjoy writing book reviews like this.
All this to say, I respect the hell out of people in the book industry that aren't just writers. Like I know writing is a huge pain with getting published and rejected and such but imagine being an editor or a publisher or an agent...I can't imagine the workload.
Which is why it's a great profession to give a workaholic character. Not only that, but I love how Nora is so invested in her work and life in New York because she adores it. Like yes, she's got this deep reason for it that I'll get into later, but a chunk of it is just that she loves the city and being busy and by the end of the book it's not like she's convinced against that, rather she's encouraged to pursue her passion. Like yes, let the hardworking woman be hardworking by the end of the book! Fuck settling down! Get on that grindset!
Like I'm glad she never burns out or anything too. She just ends up getting an even better job that she's allowed to take without pressure to help Libby.
Like UGH Libby. I love how that was her name considering that's the app I was reading this book on. Support your local library and get Libby! It's 100000000x better than Audible and it's FREE!!!!
Anyways Libby! I think she was very interesting, I strongly disliked how she kept that secret from Nora but when I remember Nora's reaction I was like yeah no Libby had a point.
When I say this book was very nuanced I mean relating to Nora and Libby's relationship. I mean you spend the whole book reading about how Nora needs to fix everything and how she needs to be there for Libby and how she can't sleep well and how everything has to be perfect and organized and she has to be readily available for others at any given moment and you're like...Girl. You're not doing okay.
But it feels like an almost blink and you miss it moment. Because she says it in a way that's like "It sucks but that's how it has to be" and it's like you're almost convinced. And I personally was this close to getting Mad at Libby before realizing, "hold on, it seems to me like Nora is the codependent one, not Libby." And once it's revealed what happened with the mom and with Jakob it's like oh.....It clicks now. This girl's not doing alright, she's quite traumatized.
SO THEN THERE'S THAT ONE PARAGRAPH AT THE END WHERE SHE'S LIKE "So I booked an appointment with a therapist" and I was like yEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH
Anyways I think...that's enough about Nora.
TIME TO TALK ABOUT THE ROMANCE. OHHHHHHHHHHMYGODDDDDDDDD
See in this book they made a strong distinction between thinking someone is goodlooking (Shepherd) and someone who's ATTRACTIVE (Charlie). Like jesus the chemistry was on fire I was going absolutely insane at every interaction. Like they'd just be talking about books or contracts or some random crap but just the body language alone was enough to be like oHHHHHH GODDDDD
I fully believe they should've screwed on the library table.
And there's a scene where they're texting about the ending of the book they're editing and I'm like "WHEN IS IT MY TURN TO BE HAPPY OHHHH MY GOD." Sometimes love is just reading with your SO and live reacting together.
I mean the ending was quite predictable though. I was glad they didn't make her stay and they didn't try long distance but also once they chose that I was like "Oh he's gonna find a way to come back isn't he." And then bam. Also the fact that they fell in love after like three weeks makes no sense sorry romcom gods.
I like how they made fun of romcoms too. Like considering that's all I've been reading really, I do make fun of them and I liked how relatable it all was in terms of books read and the feeling of reading and all that jazz. So that was quite fun.
Charlie I am free Friday night are you free Friday night to go out Friday night when I am free.
Okay am I forgetting something.
Oh yeah, one big issue: there's a moment where she said her nipples pinched in response to something he said. That was a big Woman Written by a Man moment considering the author is a woman. Like WHAT DOES THAT MEAN????
Anyways now I'm done bye bye. I can't wait to talk about this during book club.