TheKaitlynBlog

Emily Henry

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

In reading Book Lovers, I related to Nora Stephens a LOT.

My education and career has always come first; I’m the pickiest dater you’ll ever meet (9/10 times will cancel and 10/10 times won’t go on second dates); I’m sarcastic 100% of the time; I’m occasionally accused of feeling nothing; I work hard for my life to “be” together and don’t know how to ask for help when it’s not; I want to be spontaneous and let loose, but I’m the girl who needs a plan and has a million mental boxes she sorts through before making a decision; I compartmentalize everything; I don’t know how to fit love into my life; etc. etc. etc.

Nora Stephens might as well have been me, in the worst and most vulnerable ways possible, all on a page. but I loved it. I loved feeling like there was someone out there like me, even if she was fictional. because I know she’s not. This novel was like looking in a mirror in all ways possible.

(We do differ on the small towns vibe though because I think New York would swallow me whole).

I especially loved her love for books and stories. When she said, “life is unpredictable, but the bookstore was a constant,” and, “that’s what made me fall in love with reading – the dissolution of real-world problems, every worry suddenly safely on the other side of some metaphysical surface,” I LOVED. I feel it could not be more true. As someone working in the journalism field now and having had books to turn to in really shitty times in my life, I see the absolute need in words and stories, because that’s the escape; that’s where constant worry and struggle float away. And I love that it was articulated in this novel because it hit me right in the gut.

I just loved this book — and I didn’t even mention the rom-com part (which was also SO GOOD). Nora and Charlie were the perfect match; the perfect fit. I loved their dialogue, I loved their dynamic, I loved their struggle and reality, and I stan their happy ending.

But I really, really loved this book purely for Nora. She represented me.

She made me feel like I’m not the wrong kind of woman, and that maybe, somewhere, someday, I’ll have everything I want.

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