I’m actually halfway through Emily Henry’s rom-com Book Lovers, but don’t know when I’ll finish it. Sandie Herron told me, though, that she had finished listening to the audio and had a review if I wanted to use it. Since I’m driving to my sister’s today, and we’re heading to New York tomorrow, I took Sandie up on it. I will say we have an early afternoon flight on Thursday, so I’ll be around in the morning to welcome you to “What Are You Reading?”

In the meantime, thanks, Sandie, for sharing your review.

Book Lovers
Written by Emily Henry
Narrated by Julia Whelan
Unabridged Audiobook
Penguin Audio (May 3, 2022)
Listening Length: 11 hours, 23 minutes
ASIN:  B09BWT8PQJ

Nora Stephens’s life revolves around books.  Ever since she was a little girl growing up with her younger sister Libby and her mother living over a bookstore, she’d been immersed in them.  It was her mother’s obsession with romance novels that got her started, but it was business that kept her going.  She was a literary book agent and sometimes editor, nudging her clients into writing their best, cajoling them into award-winning contracts, holding their hands and answering their e-mails at all hours.  She has little social life outside of work.  She was dumped last in a four-minute conversation before meeting Charlie Lastra who was equally intense in his editor’s job.

It’s two years later and Libby is pregnant and wants to get away for Nora’s supposedly slow month of August for a sisters retreat to a small town where they can accomplish those things the heroines of romances did in small towns, like meeting and falling in love with someone new and saving a failing business.  They even come up with a list that includes skinny-dipping and sleeping under the stars.  All the while Nora is holding the hand of a nervous writer whose book was to be edited by yet another pregnant woman who has her baby early, leaving the job open.  The first few pages of the novel appear on Nora’s phone, and she is shocked to be reading what seems to be her own biography!  Her character portrayal as a shark suits her, though she only secretly admits it.

She is in downtown Sunshine Falls in search of a wifi connection when the pages come in.  As she scopes out the local coffee shop, she sees a familiar man, none other than Charlie Lastra!  Could it really be him?  Even Nora’s life couldn’t be so cruel.  Yet there he is, in his home town, handling his family’s failing business, and working at editing books remotely when he tells Nora he wants to edit her writer’s new book.

The sparks fly between the two even as they throw barbs at each other.  It is impossible for them to not see each other in this small town.  The tropes fly as the novel speeds onward.  This book is not to be taken as literally as Nora or Libby might and certainly Charlie would edit so much out.  The beginning of the book was rooted in New York City slowly switching gears to Sunshine Falls where Nora and Libby were vacationing.  As the focus shifted, emotions became more real as well.  The sisters finally began to break down the invisible divide between them.  Nora and Charlie slowed down on the barbs and started to get to know each other. Charlie’s family became three dimensional.

Most of all I loved how descriptive the author was.  Her narrative was full of adjectives that gave depth and meaning and dimension to what she was saying. For example, her descriptions of how one feels when overcome with emotions was uncanny and satisfying and made this book so much fuller and more meaningful.

Julia Whelan as narrator was exceptionally good. Her voice was clear and distinct so I could understand every individual word. She created unique voices for each character. She portrayed the wide range of emotions very realistically both creating tension and respite as appropriate.

Anyone who would enjoy a modern-day romance centered in the business and pleasure of books would enjoy this delightfully dynamic novel.