liv ❁'s Reviews > Book Lovers

Book Lovers is a bit of an odd lower rating for me in that I really did love Charlie and I thought the romance was… pretty solid, but I had so many issues with so many other aspects of the story that it all fell flat. A huge part of the reason that Happy Place fell flat for me was because I am so aggressively a “to be loved is to be known” person, so when two people who have “loved” each other so intimately for so long fundamentally do not understand the other person or cannot communicate with each other, I get a bit annoyed at all parties and tend to wonder how these people can claim to care so much about each other when they refuse to see anything from the other’s side. While this wasn’t the case with the romance, it was the case with the sister relationship, which I feel like took up the majority of the book but it’s possible that I hated it so much that it felt much bigger than it was. It was quite frustrating for me to read about two sisters that allegedly love and look after each other and have for DECADES fundamentally misunderstand the other so badly (literally it’s on both of them). I would’ve understood if they weren’t close, but they are apparently best friends or something and take care of the other often, so it’s just baffling to me that it took this long for them to realize that they are two separate people with different needs who have different values in life. Like please talk to each other and also observe what makes the other people happy. I know it was mainly for the sake of the plot, but oh my god it made me as mad as Wyn and Harriet did (which was very mad). This aspect kind of tainted the whole book for me as I was seeing red anytime an interaction between them happened. But, the ending, as always, was very sweet and happy and almost made up for it. I just can’t get over the fact that they lived for thirty years like that. (I’m kind of a confrontational person)

Now, my feelings towards the rest of the book can be described as “fine.” The small town vibes were great, not in the Hallmark movie way, but actually in a small town way. The people were as expected. Charlie is one of my favorite Emily Henry love interests (Miles might still be ahead of him), and I really do have to give Emily Henry credit for always writing male love interests that I really do like, if not love. I’m very picky with my male love interests, and Emily Henry always seems to hit the mark with them. Charlie’s backstory and the banter between him and Nora was my favorite part of the book, but I do wish that their relationship was a bit more fleshed out. I also really wish we got at least one other scene of both of them in New York being high-strung hardworking, kind of bitchy people because they were genuinely just… nice people in Sunshine Falls. Which is fine in theory, but I want proof that they’re cutthroat which I didn’t feel like we got. They were both just nice, hardworking people that are honestly just a bit socially awkward.

This book has unfortunately made me start thinking that maybe I don’t really love Emily Henry books and maybe People We Meet on Vacation was a fluke. Naturally, I’ll still probably read every other book she comes out with, but that’s mainly because so many of my friends love her and I want to be included. Despite my complaints, Emily Henry does always stick the landing with her endings, and the last chapter wrapped everything up quite sweetly.

2.5/5