Book Lovers by Emily Henry

Narrated by Julia Whelan

It’s no secret that Julia Whelan is one of my favourite narrators.  If she narrated more romance titles I’d be a very happy camper. In fact, the main reason I picked up last year’s Emily Henry release, People We Meet on Vacation was because Julia Whelan was narrating. This year’s offering, Book Lovers was on my radar because I enjoyed People We Meet On Vacation so much.  (I’m saving Beach Read for when I need a pick-me-up.)

While People We Meet on Vacation and Book Lovers are very different books, they have the same vibe to them and the same glorious witty banter so I’m confident those who enjoyed last year’s book will enjoy this year’s too. And the narration is stellar so there’s also that.

Nora Stephens is a literary agent in New York. Her father walked out on her mother when she was still pregnant with Nora’s younger sister, Libby and it was just the three of them for a long time. When Nora was 20 and Libby was 16, their mother died suddenly and Nora was Libby’s guardian. Nora is fierce generally but when it comes to Libby she will do anything to make her sister happy and ensure her safety and well-being, including putting her own dreams on hold or passing on them completely.

Nora’s star client is a temperamental, high maintenance woman by the name of Dusty Fielding. When the story begins, Nora  has just been dumped by her boyfriend who has decided to move to a small town where he’s met someone else (this is a thing that keeps happening to Nora) and she’s late for a lunch with editor Charlie Lastra. She’s trying to interest Wharton House books in Dusty’s latest novel but the pair do not get off to a good start.

Fast forward two years and the book Charlie passed on is a runaway bestseller and about to be a movie. Nora and Charlie have had nothing to do with one another since then but they bump into each other (repeatedly) when Nora and Libby go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for a month-long holiday. Sunshine Falls is where Dusty’s famous book is set and Libby is a mega-fan.  In the past few months, Nora and Libby’s connection has stuttered and something is clearly wrong. Libby is five months pregnant with her third child and Nora is worried there might be trouble in paradise and/or something wrong with Libby’s health. Libby wants to get away before the baby is born and have a rest away from her two young daughters (aged four and two respectively) and begs Nora to go with her for the summer. Nora, desperate to reconnect with Libby and fix whatever is wrong, agrees.

As it happens, Charlie was born in Sunshine Falls and he’s there helping out his family after his dad became ill.

Dusty has written a new book and Nora is horrified to find that she, Nora that is, seems to be the inspiration for the main character – an acting agent with a reputation of being a shark who lacks emotion and heart. Stung, Nora decides to let loose a little and agrees to participate in Libby’s “list” of small town things to do when she is in Sunshine Falls. It’s a ridiculous list which includes things like “pet a horse” or “go skinny dipping” and “save a small business” but Nora will do anything to make Libby happy.  The other problem is that the new book is fantastic – Dusty’s best yet. And for reasons, Charlie takes over the editing so Nora and Charlie begin working together on it over the summer.

Charlie has his own troubles with his family and not quite fitting into the Sunshine Falls aesthetic.

Whatever is going on with Libby causes Nora no end of angst as she schemes to identify the problem and fix it, just like she’s always done.

There are nods to common small town romance tropes which I heard as fond, including a very handsome horse farmer Libby encourages Nora to date.

But it is always Charlie Nora keeps going back to. They’re like magnets, always attracted to one another no matter what. After an unexpected kiss, Charlie tells Nora that it “can’t happen” between them and they skirt around each other for a little while but are inevitably drawn back together.

They have a delightful connection. They aren’t really enemies in my view but I suppose some might classify this as an enemies to lovers story. They aren’t ever truly mean to one another but they do a lot of sarcastic sniping – it never crossed the line for me. There was always an underlying attraction and chemistry which was obvious and a genuine care that shone through. Charlie agrees Nora is a bit of a shark but he loves that about her. He doesn’t want to change a thing.  Nora, for her part, comes to realise that Charlie keeps things very close to his chest but once she gains a little insight she reads him like a book and realises there’s much more to him than she first thought.  They have the best banter – flirty, funny, witty and smart and I was completely there for it.

The narration only highlighted all the good things in the text. I’m sure I enjoyed it more on audio than I would have in print simply because Julia Whelan’s narration is just that good.  (On her Instagram feed there’s a sample of her doing Charlie’s voice and it is fire.) Charlie’s tones were husky and rich; like honey with just a touch of gravel in my ear (apologies for the mixed metaphor). The humour throughout the book is enhanced by Ms. Whelan’s excellent comedic timing and the emotion that breaks and reforms Nora was embedded in the performance too. There’s one particular scene where Nora’s voice has a hitch in it when she’s talking about something difficult and it was perfectly portrayed.

I always like lots of the love interests together in a romance and I got that in Book Lovers – Charlie and Nora spend a lot of time together and there’s plenty of evidence of just how much they belong together and how good for each other they could be if only they can find their way to a HEA.

There was a little too much bait-and-switch in the Libby subplot which I don’t think worked quite as well as the rest of the book but the romance was fantastic and the narration excellent. Definitely recommend.

Kaetrin

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