About The Book
Nora Stephens, a cutthroat literary agent, is not the typical heroine, but she agrees to a month-long trip to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina with her sister Libby. Libby envisions a small-town transformation for Nora, but instead of idyllic romance, Nora keeps encountering Charlie Lastra, a brooding editor from the city. Despite their un-cute history, repeated encounters with Charlie challenge Nora’s self-perceptions. Their unexpected connection might unravel the stories they’ve crafted about themselves.
Buy The Book: https://amzn.to/45D8Vy1
My Rating
This book marks my introduction to Emily Henry’s work, and I can see why she has a dedicated following. Her characters are well-crafted, and her writing style is engaging and immersive. However, I found it challenging to pinpoint the exact trope of this book—it teeters between semi-enemies-to-lovers and workplace romance. There is even a lot of focus on family and the complexity of family relationships.
First and foremost, the book is a romance, following the relationship between Nora and Charlie. The two must work together on a new book from one of Nora’s clients. As they navigate their similarities and differences, they inspire each other to become better versions of themselves and embrace who they’ve always been. Meanwhile, Nora, also a serious workaholic, finds herself whisked away on a girls’ trip to a small town in North Carolina by her younger sister, Libby.
While I enjoyed the dynamic between Nora and Libby, I found Libby’s character to be somewhat annoying at times, particularly in her tendency to belittle Nora’s lifestyle choices. Additionally, Nora’s constant sense of responsibility for Libby, stemming from their upbringing by a flighty mother, felt somewhat tiresome. I wanted to scream at Nora that you don’t have to give up your dreams for the people you love and then throw it in their faces. However, their sisterly bond does evolve throughout the story, offering a satisfying arc.
“Some books you don’t read so much as live, and finishing one of those always makes me think of ascending from a scuba dive. Like if I surface too fast I might get the bends.”
For me, the author’s writing really shined through in the first half of the book. There were moments that had me genuinely laughing out loud. However, I found as the story progressed it lost its grip on me, leading me to put it down for almost six months before picking it back up.
Overall, while I’m glad I finished it and would be open to reading more from Emily Henry, the story as a whole didn’t captivate me as much as I had hoped. But, I do think that my reading experience was much more positive than negative and there really was no reason for me to put the book down for so long. In short, it is a solid read, but didn’t strike me as anything particularly special.
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Until The Next Chapter,
Bunny
