Review #267

I love when books are set in my state of North Carolina. This standalone romance got a 4.8/5 stars from me. 

Here are my notes while reading: In the prologue we meet Nora who lays out all the tropes she’s used to reading as a book agent & pegs herself as the stiff, heartless city woman who gets dumped by her boyfriend for a sweet small town girl. So, in romcoms when we usually watch or read the other couple fall in love on some farm, Nora is going to show us what happens to the uptight career driven woman who is forgotten on screen.  

I’m so jealous how Emily Henry makes the narrative and prose flow so smoothly. I wish I could do that. 

Chapter one starts off two years after the prologue. We get a sense of Nora’s relationship with her sister and a potential mild probable that she’s already trying to fix which will definitely become a larger issue later. 

After chapter 4 this seems to be much more of a sister book than a romance novel. We shall see.

This author is great at creating such cute quirks for characters and towns. Like Poppa Squats and their banter about bangs. It’s adorable and witty and one of a kind. 

Halfway through I’m thoroughly enjoying how Nora is trying to convince herself to NOT think of Charlie which is super effective.  

So I flew through the second half because of how invested I felt and barely took any notes. The steam was probably a 3/5 spice level? Does anyone disagree? I  wish I was more attracted to Charlie, but I still rooted for them the whole time 

I feel like the giant “oh no!” moment was relevant to Nora’s fears but just didn’t feel as dramatic and life-ending emotionally compared to other options. It worked here, but a part of me was thinking, “girl, people deal with this situation all the time, it’s not earth shattering…” but I also felt for her. 

Anyways, I adored Emily’s writing with how well she does unique comedy that makes her stories more memorable than others. I don’t like buying romcoms because they blend together for me, but this is a purchase I’m glad I made.

Here are some book blurb question:

How do you feel about long distance relationships? Have any worked out for you?

What is your relationship like with your siblings?

Have you ever sacrificed what you want for someone you love? What was it?

In what ways have you felt you didn’t belong in your place of origin, whether it be family or hometown?

What’s your dream job and what would you do to get it?

Would you rather live in NY or NC and why?

Thanks for reading my blog. If you’d like to see 260 other book reviews please check them out on my website. As always, I’d love your support to preorder my romantasy trilogy coming out in March 3, 2023.