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Emily Henry

Start date: August 1, 2022

Finish date: August 31, 2022

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Books of the Month

* The Names by Florence Knapp - Sep 25 Adult / Non-Fiction BOM (starts 16 Sep)
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last updated Sep 15, 2025 10:56PM

* The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese - Sep 25 Theme BOM - South and South East Asia (Starts 5 September)
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What Members Thought

Dec 17, 2022 Bonnie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: romcom, 2022-books

I was very underwhelmed by Henry's Beach Read and so had no interest in picking up this book at all. But then review after glowing review came out. I have never been so happy to be swept up by the tide of popularity before.

I adore the premise of giving the Bit City Career Woman Antagonist of every romcom (you know the one - the girlfriend/fiance holding back the Hot, Rich Big City Man from fulfilling his destiny of being with the Cute Small Town Sweetheart romantic heroine) being given her own r I was very underwhelmed by Henry's Beach Read and so had no interest in picking up this book at all. But then review after glowing review came out. I have never been so happy to be swept up by the tide of popularity before.

I adore the premise of giving the Bit City Career Woman Antagonist of every romcom (you know the one - the girlfriend/fiance holding back the Hot, Rich Big City Man from fulfilling his destiny of being with the Cute Small Town Sweetheart romantic heroine) being given her own romcom. Nora Stephens is a cutthroat literary agent who feels no shame in prioritizing her work. Henry does a remarkable job with Nora's characterization - why she is so driven - and her relationship with her sister. That was a lot of the heart of the book. My only complaints with Nora were two-fold: one, I don't think this book leaned in enough with Nora's Big City Career Woman layers. Nora feels like a very normal character - even (gasp!) a very normal romcom character. She is not the antagonist point of a love triangle. Instead, she's the typical Big City Career Woman Who Learns To Prioritize Other Parts of Her Life After Going to a Small Town. The heroine of The Simple Wild - a book with that City Girl Goes Country heroine storyline - was far more the shallow and materialistic antagonist type than Nora.

The second thing I didn't like about Nora was that she was initially mean to Charlie Lastra - the brooding book editor who just so happens to end up in the same small North Carolina town at the same time as Nora - for no real reason. Nora and Charlie are enemies-to-lovers almost entirely because Nora was an asshole. Nora was like the cat who reaches out and scratches your ankle for no apparent reason when you walk by, other than you happened to be in its vicinity and it decided you were suddenly its mortal enemy. I spent a good chunk of the book being like I like Nora generally, but Charlie is too good for her, why is she such a dick to him?. Because I love Charlie.

But overall, I was a huge fan of this book and I am now looking forward to my next Henry book. ...more

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