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📚❤ Book Lovers by Emily Henry

Not a Book Report

I enjoy reflecting on the movies, TV, books and other media that I consume. I’m notoriously sentimental. This series documents the books that I read. These aren’t reviews or recommendations. Just a list. For me. Mostly so that I can page through what I read, where I was, and when.

Why did I read it?

My wife has been speed-reading Emily Henry books in the last few weeks and she let me steal this one. I get it - these books are a blast and they play with some tropes of the genre while still being flirty. Helps that our first date was in a book store and that I adore rom-coms.

What is it?

Category Value
Title Book Lovers
Author Emily Henry
Year Published 2022
Format Paperback
Pages 373
ISBN 978-0-241-99534-1

Book Lovers

How did I read it?

Category Value
Date Started March 14, 2023
Date Finished March 27, 2023
Places Read Sydney
Emirates flights
Lisbon
Sintra

Notes - No Spoilers

  • The mental image of Charlie Lastra that I carried in my head was the character Trent Crimm from Ted Lasso, British accent and all. I don’t know why.
  • I expected more criticism of rom-com tropes. Not saying I’m disappointed, I had fun when I realized this was more of a fun spin on the genre.
  • I visited my best friend when he was attending Middlebury in Vermont during Hurricane Sandy and wound up stuck there for a couple weeks. The description of Sunshine Falls reminded me a lot of how Middlebury felt. That or Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls - this idea of an idyllic small town world where all difficulties are manageable and true social ills mostly absent, which is one of the tropes that the author wants to winkingly play up but not interrogate.
  • The book spent a lot of time dwelling on the girls’ relationship with their mother which I didn’t quite understand early in the novel but it made sense with the (inevitable) surprise at the end.
  • I’d pay good money to read a “ten years later” update covering Nora and Charlie.
  • This indulges the very accurate take that book stores are romantic. I am married because of one. What happens to that? Scrolling Kindle together just lacks sex appeal. We should be more worried about this.

Published Mar 28, 2023

Austinite in Lisbon. VP of Product at Cloudflare.