Please Skip to the Good Part: A Book Review of Book Lovers by Emily Henry
How do you feel about reading the last chapter of a book first?
Monster that I may be, flipping to the end is my compulsive habit now. Sometimes I only read the last line before beginning a book, other times the entire final chapter. It’s satisfying to know where the book is headed with only limited clues of how it’ll happen. I’ve always thought of it like traveling, knowing the destination but not the journey. For Nora Stephens, heroine of Book Lovers, starting at the end of a book is the best way she can do her job as a New York literary agent.
Enemies to lovers, the unexpected small-town romance, forbidden love. Nora Stephens knows every trope in the book. And her job is to help authors sell their fictional creations in a highly-competitive market. Nora is so good at navigating a prestigious book contract that her peers and clients nicknamed her The Shark.
Romance novel Book Lovers opens with a familiar tale; Nora’s overbearing commitment to her job takes another bloody bite out of her dating life. Add another body to the list count, Nora hardly cares. She is too focused on what she is good at, fighting for those in her charge. Libby, her sister and best friend, won’t stand by and watch her sister become more sharkey with each passing year. So, Libby intervenes by planning a summer romance akin to the books she and Nora mooned over as young women. And while Libby kept the paperback collection, Nora’s critical eye is making those stories harder to believe.
Nora agrees to go only because she adores her sister, and a well-devised vacation.
Place – Sunshine Falls, North Carolina
People – Nora Stephens (really good agent) Charlie Lastra (really good editor)
Trope – professional enemies turned love interests
Book Lovers by Emily Henry has been one of my favorite books of the year. I laughed so loud, out loud, that I scared the dog a few times in the other room. I enjoyed every detail Henry incorporated into this book because it required me to really pay attention and enjoy reading. The literary references peppered in were so casual, and so appropriate. Small nods, like to Mr. Darcy and Heathcliffe, enhanced every element of the book. Nora became more interesting because of which books Henry chose for Nora to pull into conversation. The story line became more complex thanks to the subtle foreshadowing through the plot references to other notable works. And of course, I loved the banter between Nora and Charlie. These two characters beguiled me as they slung double and triple-meaning literary slanders at one another.
Nora, the protagonist, made sense to me. I connected with her as the eldest daughter, career-oriented gal, imposter syndrome-aficionado that I am. There was a particularly poignant passage toward the end that I found myself dog-earing, (I know! In a library copy, no less. Sue me.) From Henry in Book Lovers (page296):
“Mom and Libby like the love stories where everything turned out perfectly, wrapped in a bow, and I’ve always wondered why I gravitate toward something else.
I used to think it was because people like me don’t get those endings. And asking for it, hoping for it, is a way to lose something you’ve never even had.
The ones that speak to me are those whose final pages admit there is no going back. That every good think must end. That every bad things does too, that everything does.
That is what I’m looking for every time I flip to the back of a book, compulsively checking for proof that in a life where so many things have gone wrong, there can be beauty too. That there is always hope, no matter what.”
The great sell of any romance novel is the protagonist, especially one like Nora. Readers wouldn’t give a hoot about the heroine getting her happy ending if we weren’t cheering for her all along the way. Maybe that’s what makes me a Final Chapter Girl; I want to know how I can be cheering for her before we’ve even begun.
Reading Book Lovers reminded me of another romance author who specializes in lovable and relatable heroines. I had the pleasure of interviewing Brooke Burroughs before the release of her second novel, The Name Curse. If you are looking for more books like these, be sure to check out Brooke! I’ve linked the original interview here:
Whether you start on the first page, or the last, I hope you check out Book Lovers today. Happy reading!