Book Review: “Book Lovers” by Emily Henry
Håfa adai! Welcome to my spoiler-free review of Book Lovers, by Emily Henry.
This book review consists of two parts: a brief plot summary and my thoughts of the story. There may be some lightweight spoilers—such as how characters interact with each other and the world around them—but I will not give away any major plot twists or endings. I want to share my opinion of the book and encourage you to purchase a copy of your own.
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Spoiler-Free Plot Summary
Nora Stephens’ is an assertive, high achieving, go-getter literary agent with a talent for spotting out talent. Unfortunately, while her professional life soars, her personal life remains stagnant. Nora’s meticulous checklist and high expectations means she rarely goes beyond a few months of dating, that’s if she manages to get past a second date. But that changes when her younger sister Libby tells her to throw out her usual checklist in exchange for a list of summer romance novel goals in the small town of Sunshine Falls, North Carolina. Sunshine Falls is not just a random dot on the map, but is the setting of Nora’s most successful client’s recent bestseller.
My Thoughts on Beach Read: 2.75 stars
Emily Henry’s Book Lovers follows literary agent Nora Stephens’ journey from losing faith in love to rediscovering what it could look and feel like. The Book Lovers is told from the first-person perspective of Nora Stephens. Because of this, the reader gets a front row seat to Nora’s internal dialogue and her interpretations of other peoples choices and actions. Nora was heavily parentified after the death of her mother, leaving her to take care of herself and her younger teenage sister Libby. Nora’s sense of responsibility to her sister lead her to pursue more lucrative work instead of what she dreamed about doing. She also has a deep sense of ownership over the perceived success of Libby’s personal life as a result of this responsibility. Through Nora’s personal journey—and from what the reader learns about Charlie—Book Lovers explores how the effects of loss and abandonment can shape can influence our definitions of love and relationships.
In Book Lovers, Emily Henry employs the “enemy to lovers” trope of romance storytelling. But I am not sure why Nora Stephens and Charlie are supposed to be enemies, or at least professional nemeses, to begin with? They do not work for competing agencies or are even in competition with each other at the same agency and Nora’s reason for considering him an “enemy” is based off a single not-so-great first impression. This is now the second book I have finished from Emily Henry and, like with Beach Read, the love interests starting out as professional nemeses just does not seem believable to me. Like with Beach Read, there is already enough relatable tension going on in Nora and Charlie’s respective personal lives that their so-called professional rivalry makes the characters seem unlikable at best and entitled at worse.
The level of self-awareness Emily Henry displays of her storytelling from the earliest chapters of Book Lovers and throughout the book conveys to me that perhaps the author is trying to subvert traditional expectations of romance writing. I am not a seasoned reader of the genre—so I cannot go into detail about these traditional expectations—but I can say that it feels as if Emily Henry might be working with a comfortable template or formula of story. Book Lovers goes on to repeat many of those predictable expectations that Emily Henry was calling out earlier in the story. And once I read certain scenes in the book, I was able to correctly predict exactly what would happen next. The plot twists really did not surprise me.
What did surprise me is where there was chemistry being characters and where it was lacking. Emily Henry does a great job in Book Lovers of establishing the care Nora has for her younger sister Libby. The bond between Nora and her sister is beautiful and believable and there is a feeling of stress when Nora perceives that her sister is pulling away from her emotionally. Nora’s sense of parentified responsibility is well thought out, believable, and even heart-wrenching at times, putting on full display Nora’s tendency to be self sacrificing to the point of depriving herself of certain types of happiness. But where I felt there was a lack of chemistry was between Nora and Charlie. Nora and Charlie are not inherently bad people—even though their responses to their life experiences make them entitled and unlikable—but I just do not see where they developed the bond or interest in each other to have a genuine connection. This in addition to how certain scenes of intimacy play out makes their interactions feel uncomfortable to read.
Also, as a nit-picky side note that is technically a tiny spoiler, Nora Stephens’ justification for her and her sister being years-long vegetarians is that it is too expensive to eat meat. I will not argue that meat is expensive because it truly seems that the cost of living anywhere in the United States, which is where Book Lovers takes place, is outrageously high. But to say that it is more cost effective to live exclusively as a vegetarian is (in my personal opinion and lived experience) just outright incorrect.
Even though there were things I did not particularly appreciate about Book Lovers, there were some things I enjoyed and I do not want to conclude this review without mentioning those things. First, Emily Henry is skilled at writing witty and funny banter between her characters. This provides good comedic relief to the story while making the characters seem a bit likable in some scenes. Second, the story centers individuals in the writing and publishing business. I have a soft spot for books about books and stories about storytelling, and Book Lovers speaks to that soft spot. And third, Book Lovers explores important themes related to loss and abandonment.
I give Book Lovers 2.75 out of 5 stars. In my opinion, Emily Henry does not constructively build on the tropes she uses and does not create believable romantic chemistry between the two central love interests. I did like some things about the story but, all in all, the aspects I did not appreciate about the book greatly overshadowed what I did like about it. I do not recommend Book Lovers.
Dångkulo' na' saina ma'åse'! Thank you so much for reading my review of Book Lovers by Emily Henry.
Rating Cheat Sheet
4.75 - 5.00 stars: Everyone should read this book! (If you’re into that sort of thing.)
4.00 - 4.50 stars: I appreciated many aspects of this book. I recommend it!
3.00 - 3.75 stars: I liked some aspects of this book. I won’t revisit it, but someone else might really like it.
2.00 - 2.75 stars: There were some things I appreciated about this book, but I do not recommend it.
0.25 - 1.75 stars: I do not recommend this book. I did not enjoy or appreciate the experience of it.
Post Date: 31 March 2025
Published: 3 May 2022
Publisher: Berkley
Audiobook Publisher: Penguin Audio
Performed by Julia Whelan
