Romance – Jenn V. Reads

by Emily Henry

Maybe love shouldn’t be built on a foundation of compromises, but maybe it can’t exist without them either.
Book Lovers, by Emily Henry

Summary

Nora Stephens always sees herself as the person who gets left in the Hallmark Christmas movies. The ones where the city guy goes to east podunk to buy out a hotel, falls in love with the beautiful daughter of the owner, and decides to leave his fiancee and everything he knows behind in order to save the hotel and marry the small-town girl. Nora knows this to be true because it hasn’t just happened to her twice, but FOUR TIMES. But that’s OK because she is a phenomenal literary agent, and represents her clients extremely well.

So when her sister, Libby, drags Nora to Sunshine Falls which is the setting of a book by Libby’s favorite author (and Nora’s client), Nora finds herself in a situation she never dreamed she’d be in. Libby and Nora create a bucket list-type agreement on the airplane that they were going to do these crazy things like throw a party in the town and save a small business just like all of the Hallmark Movies.

But now, Nora is stuck in a town that’s nothing like the book described it to be, with the one person she does not want to be anywhere near, while her sister is obviously hiding something. Nora begins trying to complete these goals without losing her mind.

My Thoughts

Plot

I find myself liking these romantic comedy-type books more and more as I read them. Are they predictable? Absolutely. But are they entertaining? Also absolutely! I found Nora and Charlie’s characters very engaging. I liked the theme that played out throughout the book of things not always being like they seemed. I liked that Nora didn’t always know everything. I liked the tension between Nora and Charlie. I liked the banter throughout.

One thing that I don’t always see in this type of book, but did here, is true character growth and development. Nora starts as a fairly unlikable character due to the fact that she is so rigid in everything she does. But throughout, she grows as a character to see how this isn’t always the most healthy of behaviors. The same with Charlie-though his character development is more along the lines of him being willing to open himself up more.

Even though the plot was predictable, I still found myself completely engaged-wondering how the author was going to get from point a to point b. I liked that the story didn’t really go back and forth to New York, and all of Nora’s interaction outside of Sunshine Falls is through phone and e-mail. It really did remind me almost of a hallmark type movie.

Format

I read a physical copy of this book in just a few hours. I definitely think that was the right decision. I think that I would have gotten frustrated with the characters in an audiobook setting, because in books with a lot of witty banter, timing is everything. That being said, I really shouldn’t compare, since I have not looked into if an audiobook even exists.

Writing

This book is extremely witty, which I absolutely loved. I thought that the writing style was engaging and creative. The descriptions were done extremely well. Even the smuttier scenes didn’t feel super crazy, which I appreciated. I thought that even though it was written in the first person, each character still had a distinct voice that was recognizable throughout the story.

One thing that I’m not so sure about is that this story is billed as a rivals to lovers type, which is always fun. But I wouldn’t call this book a rivals to lovers book. Nora and Charlie had one interaction where they didn’t get along, but I would never call them rivals. They never competed in any way professionally. You could make a better argument for the enemies to lovers trope, but I wouldn’t call them enemies either. More just people who don’t like each other who learn to like each other.

Characters

Nora

I get that Nora was the main character, so we were supposed to love her. But I’m glad that I didn’t adore her right away. It actually took a lot for me to warm up to her. I felt like for a lot of the book she was stubborn and pigheaded and refused to get out of her own way. But this is what actual people are like sometimes. Nora didn’t compromise herself or her ideals just for the sake of the plot. She was a difficult person who had trouble with her emotions, but that difficultness was important to show how her character was able to develop.

Libby

I am surprised at how much I related to Libby. Pregnant with another child, she has always been close (both physically and emotionally) to her sister, but she also needs to take that step to be independent. She’s so afraid of losing or disappointing Nora that she comes up with this elaborate plan to make that transition easier. I totally get how it feels to know that something is the right decision but still have to find a way to break that decision to loved ones.

I wish that Libby didn’t have to be quite so secretive though. Bringing up the fact that her doctor said that a vegetarian diet was not healthy for her or her baby at that point in time would not have been an end-of-the-world discussion, and could have helped avoid a bunch of unnecessary drama.

Charlie

Charlie, Charlie, Charlie…I loved Charlie so much. I know you weren’t supposed to, but I absolutely adored him. I appreciated that he was guarded about what was important to him. I appreciated his dedication to his family. I appreciated how devoted he was to what he believed in.

One of the things that I really liked about Charlie was his attempt to set boundaries in order to protect Nora. He knew that they were both totally into each other, but he didn’t want to hurt her when he knew he wasn’t going to be returning to New York City. I mean, the boundaries didn’t work, but for me, it’s the thought that counts in this situation.

Final Thoughts

You know, I’ve said multiple times that I am pleasantly surprised at how much I am loving this type of romantic fiction style book. This is no exception. I do have a number of other Emily Henry books on my TBR list, and I am more excited to read them after this. Was it a perfect book? No. But it was genuinely entertaining.

By Sarah E. Ladd

Summary

In regency era England, orphan Cassandra Hale receives a letter informing her that a gentleman there has information about her origins and family history. However, when she arrives at Briarton Park looking for this man, she comes to find that he had passed away more than two years earlier

Determined to find out more about her past, Cassandra decides to stay in the local town of Anston, and continue digging. On her journey of self discovery, she meets with many people-not all of whom she can trust.

My Thoughts

Plot

While this book is somewhat a mystery, it’s really a slow burn regency romance-and I’m all for that! Having read many books set in this time period, The Letter from Briarton Park is a great example of how to do regency romance well. I was engaged through the entire story, even though it was obvious how the romance would end. I still wanted to know who the bad guy was, and there was never enough information to figure it out ahead of time, so I was often just as lost as the characters, and I LOVED it. I also loved the concept of a strong female character in regency England who understood her power as a woman while also understanding how society at the time worked.

Format

While I listened to this as an Audiobook, I’m pretty sure I would have enjoyed this just as much as a physical book. The narrator was fantastic, and the pacing was great.

Writing

Sarah E. Ladd is just a super engaging writer. She seems to have this ability to know exactly what to say next to keep the reader on their toes-or else she just has an awesome editor…Regardless, I thought the writing was great. The only thing that felt a bit awkward to me was how often she had the same people using the same descriptions of the same people. Like Mr. Warrington kept describing the curve of Cassandra’s nose in the same way, and it got a bit stale. The next thing that I wasn’t fond of is that I didn’t really get the understanding of distance. Briarton Park is obviously not in the town proper, but I never could get a good feel for how far away it was. That could also just be because I’m American and distance between places is normal. I don’t know. Third, I think the book got lost somewhere between mystery and romance. The mystery was well done, but for a lot of the book I was thinking ‘just kiss him/her already!’

Characters

Cassandra Hale: Unfortunately, Cassandra was probably my least favorite character in this book. I don’t think that that had anything to do with the writing or development, I just think that women of that time period had very little agency afforded to them. She kept telling herself to trust nobody, but would then give excuses as to why she would trust x or y person. I think she was well written, I just couldn’t like her.

Mr. Warrington: I liked Mr. Warrington a lot. I just struggled with how difficult it was for him to stand up to his mother-in-law. I mean, it was obvious that he liked Cassandra. He had his girls best interests at heart. Why couldn’t he just tell the bat to get over herself? That being said, he was an incredibly sensitive character, which I think is often lacking in male leads

Rachel: I loved this girl. She was so fun and spunky. She had had so much loss in her life, and now was looking for anyone to give her attention. It just took some gentle guidance to put her back onto the right path. She is the stereotypical teenager, and yet based in a period where society is totally different. It made her very relatable

Mr. North: I thought North was superbly written. It was very obvious from the beginning that he had a motive, but nobody really knew what that motive was. I thought that his interactions with the other characters were done in such a way that it was always very hard to get a read on him-which made him all the more intriguing.

Betsy: Since so many of the characters in this book are upper class, I am super excited about Betsy. She is a character who has seen both sides of money, so understands the ins and outs of high society, but is not currently wealthy. She was a great addition to the entire story.

Mother-In-Law: Oh my goodness was this woman a bitch. I mean, I get it, but she was a total PITA. She was so concerned with trying to control Mr. Warrington that she made everyone around her miserable-including herself! I think she was a great addition to this cast of characters, because she showed the readers way more about familial structures, and acceptable propriety in the time period. She was also just a great foil.

Final Thoughts

All in all, I really enjoyed this book. Does it have flaws? Yes. But it was definitely an entertaining read. Rounding down to 3.5 stars.