Published: May 12th 2022
Publisher: Penguin UK
Genre: Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance
Format: Paperback, Kindle, Audiobook
Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for this magnificent contemporary romance. Thank you to Ellie at Penguin UK for the invitation to take part and the gifted copy of the book.
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SYNOPSIS:
One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn’t see coming…
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Nora is a cut-throat literary agent at the top of her game. Her whole life is books.
Charlie is an editor with a gift for creating bestsellers. And he’s Nora’s work nemesis.
Nora has been through enough break-ups to know she’s the one men date before finding their happy-ever-after. To prevent another dating dud, Nora’s sister has persuaded her to swap her city desk for a month’s holiday in Sunshine Falls.
It’s a small town straight out of a romance novel, but instead of meeting sexy lumberjacks, handsome doctors or cute bartenders, Nora keeps bumping into…Charlie.
She’s no heroine. He’s no hero. So can they take a page out of an entirely different book?
Binge-read The Hating Game and now looking to escape into another suitably steamy love story? Look no further… Set over one sizzling August, BOOK LOVERS is the new chemistry-filled ‘rivals to lovers’ romcom from New York Times #1 bestseller Emily Henry
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MY REVIEW:
“Sometimes, even when you start with the last page and you think you know everything, a book finds a way to surprise you.”
Book Lovers is a bibliophile’s dream romance novel. Heartwarming, emotional, funny and uplifting, this was an utter delight from beginning to end. I finished it with a smile on my face, warmth in my heart and tears in my eyes.
Workaholic Nora is a successful, cut-throat literary agent with little time in her life for anything else. Her sister Libby is a burnt out, heavily pregnant mum-of-two who needs an escape. Together the sisters head to Sunshine Falls, the setting that inspired the bestselling book by one of Nora’s clients, for a month-long vacation armed with a checklist Libby has created to ensure they get the full small town experience. But Sunshine Falls has something in store neither of them foresee: Charlie Lastra, Nora’s professional rival who is also in town. What follows is a compelling and immersive enemies to lovers story with a fabulous literary twist.
This was my second time reading one of Emily Henry’s books and has secured her place on my list of auto-buy romance authors. Well-written, nuanced and believable, she knows how to pull you in and make you root for her characters even when they themselves don’t. Romance novels can be cliched, tired and predictable, but while Book Lovers is filled with the usual tropes and clichés, it draws attention to them, makes fun of them and surprises you by not always taking the route you expect. I especially liked how it flips the familiar trope on its head and offers a refreshing twist on the usual romance heroine by putting the ambitious city girl who enjoys her life and has no desire to change it at the heart of the book.
“Because that’s my life. The trope that governs my days. The archetype over which my details are superimposed.
I’m the city person. Not the one who meets the hot farmer. The other one.
The uptight, manicured literary agent.. I’m the one who gets dumped.”
Nora, Charlie and Libby were great characters that I found easy to root for. The bond between the sisters was beautiful and Charlie and Nora make a believable couple with funny, authentic banter and chemistry that sizzles from the pages. I liked that the author also explores their pasts to help us understand them better, allowing us to see why they made decisions we might not have otherwise understood. But what I loved most of all was how the author wrote Nora as someone who lives and breathes books. In her job she’s passionate, dedicated and cut-throat, nicknamed ‘the shark’ by her colleagues, and her literary love spills over into every facet of her life, he sees people as the character they would be in a story, thinks in plots and views life through the lens of the tropes she knows so well. She even applies this thinning to herself, accepting that in a romance novel she would be the girl the hero dates before meeting the love of his life in the small town. It made her one of my favourite heroines to date and we all know a book about books makes any book lover extra happy.
An enthralling contemporary romance with depth, warmth, heart and humour, Book Lovers is a truly uplifting enemies to lovers story that will make you believe in the power of true love. And books.
Rating: ✮✮✮✮.5
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
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MEET THE AUTHOR:
Emily Henry writes stories about love and family for both teens and adults. She studied creative writing at Hope College and the now-defunct New York Center for Art & Media Studies, and now spends most of her time in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the part of Kentucky just beneath it.
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BUY THE BOOK:
Waterstones* | Amazon* | Bookshop.org*
*These are affiliate links
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Thanks for reading Bibliophiles 😊 Emma xxxx
Please check out the reviews from the other bloggers taking part in the tour.
Emma's Biblio Treasures 
One reply on “BLOG TOUR: Book Lovers by Emily Henry”
Great review. I loved this book and you capture it perfectly.
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