Book Lovers - by Emily Henry

I had high hopes for this book when I read the prologue. In it the narrator tells us that she is "the uptight, manicured literary agent, reading manuscripts from atop her Peloton", the jilted love interest in the rom com when the boyfriend gets sent to Small Town, USA and meets someone who is trying to save her family business. She's the one "you can tell [is] evil because her hair is an unnatural blond, slicked back à la Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct, and also she hates Christmas decorations." 

I must admit I often think about this character when watching Hallmark movies. Always such an unsympathetic character, but the audience never really knows her. I always try to think of her as a multi-dimensional person and wonder what becomes of her. And I bet she ends up having a great life.

I picked this out to read on August 9 because that was National Book Lovers Day, so really I had no choice. 

The story takes place in the fictitious town of Sunshine Falls, North Carolina ("just a little ways outside Asheville") which also the location of Once in a Lifetime, novelist Dusty Fielding's surprise hit. Literary agent Nora (who has "a beautiful Dewey-decimal organized brain"), and her sister Libby decide to take a vacation there, where, of course there is a lending library, just like the book says (although apparently Dusty has never visited Sunshine Falls herself). The library is set to get Wi-Fi in the fall. It is a "hulking" three story building "of pink brick and gabled peaks". 

Nora and Libby attend the local community theater production of Once in a Lifetime in which a thirteen year old boy plays "Old Man Whittaker" opposite a grandmother playing Mrs. Wilder - the owner of the lending library.

A surprise awaits Nora in Sunshine Falls. Her nemesis Charlie (an editor) happens to be there as well. Romance ensues.

Charlie and Nora agree to meet at the library to discuss Dusty's new book. He tells her he'll reserve a room for them. "At my expression, he laughs. At the library Stephens. A study room. Get your mind out of the gutter.

Apparently Nora has read The Seal's Rebel Librarian and therefore understands the true purpose of a study room. They end up making good use of the study room, but stop short of going all the way.

When we finally do this, Nora", [Charlie] says, straightening away from me, his hands slipping my buttons back into buttonholes as easily as he undid them, "it's not going to be on a library table, and it's not going to be on a time crunch."...."We're going to do this right. No shortcuts."

Nora is surprised to learn that Charlie was held back in school. She tells him that "you put off this... academic vibe. I would've expected you to be, like, a Rhodes scholar, with a tattoo of the Bodleian Library on your ass." He tells Nora that he "spent half of middle school in the library and the other half in the principal's office for getting into fights...the only two places [he] felt like [he] had any control...

In the end, this book was just another rom com. It just had the pieces put together differently. And, yes, a family business does get saved in Small Town, USA (a bookstore, no less).

Sighting: In the wonderfully enchanting Netflix series Heartstopper bookworm Isaac (Tobie Donovan) is seen reading this work.