Book Lovers: The Sunday Times bestselling enemies to lovers, laugh-out-loud rom com about two publishing rivals

Four and a half stars. I love, love, loved the start of this book. Nora is the other woman in every Hallmark movie, she's the high-powered, cut-throat executive in a thousand dollar suit who probably skewers puppies with her four inch stiletto heels. She doesn't want kids, or to leave New York, or a dog, or anything with a white picket fence. She's the villain that the hero dates until he falls in love with someone with a cutesy name like Daisy in a small town. You just know that Daisy is wholesome, never wears make-up and looks so dargone cute you could barf. Nora knows this because she's been dumped three times (and about to be four) by carefully chosen boyfriends who have all left New York and fallen for some small-town girl. Oh, and everyone calls Nora 'The Shark' behind her back and her boss refers to her agent approach as "smiling with knives". Charlie Lastra is a brilliant editor, Nora's equivalent in his all-black designer outfits, and her nemesis when he refuses to edit Dusty Fielding's (her biggest client) latest book about a small-town called Sunshine Falls in North Carolina. Despite Charlie's distain, the book becomes a bestseller, selling over 500,000 copies. Nora may put her career first in everything, but there is someone she would willingly die for, her younger sister Libby. Libby is the yin to Nora's yang, soft and gentle, a real homebody who married young and has two small children with a third on the way. So when Libby comes to see Nora, heavily pregnant and desperate to get away on a sister's road trip she doesn't hesitate. Libby has booked flights to North Carolina, she loves Dusty Fielding's book and wants the two of them to spend a month mooching around the town taking in the sights and living the small-town life. Nora can tell that there is something amiss between her and Libby and she'll do anything to fix it, just like she's always fixed everything for Libby ever since their mother died, so when Libby brings up a ten point To Do list of small-town romance for them to complete Nora barely protests (think buy a plaid shirt, pet a horse). But Libby's attempts to win Nora a small-town romance are thwarted when Nora's nemesis turns out to also be visiting town. This book doesn't hesitate to bring in every small-town cliché, but against all that are Nora and Charlie, surely the biggest fishes out of water ever. It was funny, sexy, sweet and a great read from cover to cover. One minor gripe. (view spoiler) I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I missed all the furore over the earlier books so when this one came up I thought I'd get in early and see what all the fuss was about. I love finding new to me authors, especially when they have a back catalogue I can then go and pillage! Nora is a book agent, she'll do anything for her authors. She treats them like siblings essentially, making sure they get the best deal she can wangle. She is also a helicopter sister. Her client Dusty latest book is a small-town romance and it gets bypassed by Charlie, the latest hotshot Editor. But a few years later the book is on bestseller lists everywhere and it's now becoming a movie. With the movie set in Sunshine Falls, Nora's younger sister wants a girls trip. One with no babies to care for and a chance to recharge her batteries. Nora and Libby are direct opposites when it comes to loving books - Nora needs to know there is a HEA and Libby doesn't even want to know the tropes - she just dives in! Charlie is also in town but will he and Nora have a meet-cute, trope-filled romance or will they end up in the reject pile? An entertaining mix of sibling love, book love and finding love in unexpected places. For all Nora and Charlie have in common, they are such different characters. Their chemistry was good and I enjoyed all the bookisms they shared. I loved watching their ice melt! I'll definitely go back and read the other books now.

Really loved all the interaction between Nora and Charlie but super bored with the back story and other side stories with the sister 😏 spent a fair time skipping lots of those sections sadly. But the 3 stars go to the love I had for Charlie and their relationship developing. This wasn't as gripping as beach read.