2. Book Lovers by Emily Henry

listened on Libby

2022
377 pgs.
Adult romance, 2 or 3 steamy bits, but NOT the entire book
Finished 1/7/2023 
Goodreads rating: 4.23
My rating: 4.5
Setting: contemporary, small community outside Asheville, NC

My comments: Pros:  Great banter between the two protagonists, clever writing.  Interesting premise, a tiny bit different than most of the romance tropes out there.  Admitting you love living in the city and really don't want to attempt living anywhere else.

Cons:  Too long.  A sister relationship that's just too over-the-top - for me, at least.

Epilogue:  I always groan when I hear them add this when I don't think it's needed at all.  And usually they aren't.  But this one had a couple of treasures that made it a perfect touch.

Goodreads synopsis:  One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn't see coming....

Nora Stephens’ life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.

Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away—with visions of a small-town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.

If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.