Emily Henry’s Book Lovers is good for a romance novel. I understand why she’s popular. The genre of feel-good rom-coms is just not my favorite for books. I prefer it in films. I’ve yet to read a feel-good, non-literary fiction romance novel that I couldn’t find faults with and didn’t get annoyed by. I wish I could say that this book is perfect for those times that I just feel like reading something I don’t need to think about—and I would say it’s almost there—but ultimately, I get too hung up on the faults. Maybe I would have been less harsh if Henry wasn’t so hyped and my expectations lower.
The one thing I did love absolutely was the banter. That’s my favorite part of rom-coms, so if I read one, that has to be included. And Emily Henry is really good at writing banter. Honestly, that alone redeems the book in my eyes, and I do think the book is worth reading just for that. However, almost every other aspect of the novel was either annoying or just okay.
I think Emily Henry was trying to subvert tropes by addressing and acknowledging them constantly. The two protagonists work in the publishing industry, so they would say or think, this is the trope. How do I or don’t I fit into it. Regardless, it was still annoyingly formulaic. And it played into too many stereotypes, like the small town, the misunderstood brooding love interest, the orphaned older sibling taking care of the other, the career-minded protagonist surprised by love, etc. The solve for the protagonists to get their happy-ever-after ending (is it a spoiler that this book has a happy ending?) was extraordinarily obvious and very predictable, so the tears, despair, and anticipation were wasted on me.
I think I could have forgiven the predictability a bit more if the characterization made sense. I never got ice cold shark from the protagonist at all, even though that’s apparently supposed to be her archetype. By the time the author told us this was how other people perceived her, I had to pause and say, really? Her? Was I supposed to gather that from the narrative? As for the other characters, I couldn’t say Libby had much of a personality other than what the author told us through Nora’s inner thoughts. I actually didn’t mind Charlie.
I was dreading the threatened love triangle trope, and it actually didn’t even almost come to fruition until almost halfway through, and I didn’t really want to pick up the book after. But good news, I was so happy when it didn’t even last for more than 10 pages, and didn’t become a love triangle at all. So that is one thing I do appreciate.
Maybe I’ll try one more Emily Henry? Maybe Funny Story? That one has the highest rating on Goodreads of her more popular works.
