Book Lovers

The best of both worlds

And the contemporary master class in this specific trope is Book Lovers by Emily Henry.

It takes that public feud dynamic and places it squarely inside the ruthless, high-stakes world of the literary publishing industry

So meta

Usually, the career-driven city woman goes to a small town, realizes her ambition is toxic, and gives up her career for a lumberjack

We've all seen that movie 100 times

Book Lovers takes that expectation and shatters it.

The banter between the two leads is professionally lethal, but it becomes personally addictive

Booksmart is a podcast for readers who grow absolutely feral for women's stories.

Book lovers with never-ending TBR stacks and a crippling fear of falling behind in their annual Goodreads challenge.

If you want deliciously bookish discourse that's as silly as it is academic, then welcome.

This is the podcast for you.

We're both diehard M-Hen girls.

She's the person who got me into M-Hen, like, you know, owe my life to Sunny.

But her favorite is Book Lovers.

My favorite is probably Beach Read.

I'm halfway through.

I, Funny Story and Book Lovers are my two, like, top, top Emily Henry.

I love them.

Oh, I have Book Lovers and it's lost.

[laughs] I don't know where it went.

Well, you'll find it.

Yes.

Yes.

So, my next author that I love, adore, and admire so, so much is Emily Henry because I love her character depth.

i love character depth if you couldn't tell already i just love when characters really acknowledge real world stuff and they really and they feel relatable and they don't feel like this like perfect version of somebody or a stereotypical character And I love book lovers so much, which is one of Emily Henry's books that really is the complete opposite of stereotypical characters in the sense that there's, you know, and it's also kind of like reverse Grumpy Egg Sunshine, which I love so much.

And it's just so, it's so beautiful.

It's very well organized and planned.

and and what i love about her book so much aside there's oh there's always that that cliffhanger on the end if these two characters are finally gonna get together because we've already acknowledged that they're in love with each other but there's always something that pulls them apart last minute and you know we don't know if they end up getting together and so then you read to find out and then that's pretty much the ending of the book so i loved book lovers so much because the female main character was kind of i guess stereotyped as this like mean grumpy unlikable person who was just mean for absolutely no reason And that's not what she's like at all, but that's, I guess, how she comes across.

And she just genuinely just likes to get her work done.

And, you know, she...

And then she's also, like, this workaholic, you know, that... a lot of people say like have given her that reputation but i mean but then it's just so like fulfilling seeing her actual character and and and then when you get to know her it's like that's not her at all you know what i mean and it's just it's so beautiful especially when the male main character comes in and just loves her despite of it it's just it's so beautiful and yeah i will never stop recommending emily henry because her characters and their love stories are just always so so spectacular And I have actually audiobooked pretty much all of the books that I have read by her.

She is so good.

So the first one I read was, um, Happy Place, and then the second one I read was, um, Book Lovers, and now I've just started Funny Story.

So I'm really on a roll here, and then I'm going on holiday for a few days, and I'm taking Beach Read and Great Big Beautiful Life are the two with me.

So hopefully by the end of August I have completed Emily Henry.

That brings us to the next chronological release in Emily Henry's catalog, which represents this completely fascinating anomaly in the overall business strategy.

Let's talk about the mystery surrounding book lovers.

What is the premise of this one?

Book Lovers was released on May 3, 2022.

It was Henry's third adult romance novel following the massive, you know, compounding successes of her previous work.

And once again, the plot deliberately plays with established expectations, specifically dissecting the tropes we see in countless cable TV holiday movies.

Oh, that's a perfect fit for Nora.

It really is.

But...

Other examples of romances include Emily Henry's Book Lovers, Morning Glory Milking Farm, and the Brown Sisters trilogy by Talia Hibbert.

So what makes a romance erotic or what distinguishes a romance from an erotic romance? In a romance, if you remove the sex, the relationship continues to exist.

Sex may support the relationship development, but it's not integral to the plot or character development.

They brought in Sarah Heward, and according to the source, her resume is incredibly specific to this exact genre.

First, she recently completed the scripts for the film adaptation of Emily Henry Yo's Book Lovers for Tango Entertainment.

Oh, wow!

Yeah.

I'm going to read.

And we read Emily Henry's Book Lovers, which was a very cute, very cute book that has a child-free storyline.

Love that.

And the other way that I will say that I jinxed myself in the same vein is that You know, inclusivity matters to us in this book club.

Every two weeks, we will discuss a new book, either selected by Caitlin and me, or voted on by the Bookish members of our community.

Whether it's listening to our podcast or chatting with us on our community pages, Bookish is a home where book lovers can connect, fangirl, and discuss their mutual obsessions.

So kick up your feet, grab a good book, and join the club.

[upbeat music]

We just are covering Beach Read today.

Mm-hmm.

We did Book Lovers, we've done Funny Story.

We did Great Big Beautiful Life.