[Book Lovers] is multilayered and the characters' familial challenges are complex. By both playing to and overtly subverting romance tropes and archetypes like the high-powered big city woman who neglects her family and the life-affirming power of small-town life, this novel delivers an insightful comedic meditation on love, family and going your own way."?NPR “If Emily Henry makes herself laugh at the character's dialogue in her own books, it's understandable. She is a master at witty repartee….It's a safe bet that viewers would enjoy seeing Henry's characters come to life on screen."?Associated Press “Book Lovers is a treat from start to finish, flipping the conventional small-town love story trope on its head…This enemies-to-lovers novel is a quick and satisfying binge-read.”?USA Today “One of my favorite authors.” ?Colleen Hoover, #1 New York Times bestselling author “Book Lovers is a rom-com lover's dream of a book. It is razor-sharp and modern, featuring a fierce heroine who does not apologize for her ambition and heartfelt discussions of grief. Readers know that Emily Henry never fails to deliver great banter and a romance to swoon over but this may just be her best yet. A breath of fresh air.” ?Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Malibu Rising “I would follow Emily Henry anywhere. A small town, a literary enterprise, a bookstore to rescue, and sex in moonlit streams? Yes, please! Book Lovers is sexy, funny, and smart. Another perfectly satisfying read from the unstoppable Emily Henry.” ?Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author of All Adults Here "Emily Henry's books are a gift, the perfect balance between steamy and sweet. The prose is effortless, the characters charming. The only downside is reaching the end." ?V.E. Schwab, New York Times bestselling author The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue "Charming, earnest, and clever, Book Lovers is Schitt's Creek for book nerds. A total delight for anyone who's ever secretly rooted for the career girl in a Hallmark movie. Nobody does it quite like Emily Henry.” ?Casey McQuiston, New York Times bestselling author of One Last Stop "You KNOW I love a book?and a writer?when I bust out my trusty ballpoint and absolutely maul the pages...and that's exactly what I just did to the divine Emily Henry. I could not devour Book Lovers fast enough. Emily Henry is pure delight. I’m utterly enchanted by her wry, self-aware sense of humor, the relish that she brings to every cleverly crafted sentence, and her irrepressible love for love.” ?Katherine Center,New York Times bestselling author of Things You Save in a Fire and How to Walk Away “Emily Henry writes romantic comedy with such sass and humour, she has that gift for making you laugh and cry within the space of a few sentences. Not to mention the sizzling chemistry! Her characters fizz like good champagne, they leap off the page and into your heart." ?Josie Silver,New York Times bestselling author of One Night on the Island “Magical, delightful, and utterly one of a kind: Emily Henry's writing is a gift to the world. I've loved every single one of her books more than the previous, to the point that I cannot wait to see what her next title will do to me!" ?Ali Hazelwood, New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis “Book Lovers is the perfect title for this utterly romantic read featuring two book industry insiders with crackling chemistry. Heartfelt, funny, and full of joy, Emily Henry’s latest is packed with surprising twists and turns that keep you rooting for Nora and Charlie, every step of the way. (Also, three cheers for Nora’s super-relatable bangs journey!)” ?Tia Williams,New York Times bestselling author of Seven Days in June “When I read an Emily Henry novel I always feel a particularly undignified kind of jealousy, because I wish I'd written it. Book Lovers is no different: I loved every page, every line. It's so smart, so funny and so sexy. Nora and Charlie have sizzling chemistry?they even make discussing a contract hot. Readers are going to fall head over heels for these two.” ? Beth O’Leary, International bestselling author of The No-Show "[P]erfect-for-summer rom com."?Parade “Brimming with swoon-worthy moments, hilarious banter, and lovable characters…”?Women's World “[A] fun and flirty romance”?Cosmo “Book Lovers uses classic romance tropes with purpose and intention, offering readers a satisfying romance unto itself, while also reflecting on why romance novels are so enticing to begin with…a smart, charming and dazzling book.”?Shelf Awareness

PROLOGUE When books are your life?­or in my case, your job? ­you get pretty good at guessing where a story is going. The tropes, the archetypes, the common plot twists all start to organize themselves into a catalogue inside your brain, divided by category and genre. The husband is the killer. The nerd gets a makeover, and without her glasses, she’s smoking hot. The guy gets the girl?­or the other girl does. Someone explains a complicated scientific concept, and someone else says, “Um, in English, please?” The details may change from book to book, but there’s nothing truly new under the sun. Take, for example, the small-­town love story. The kind where a cynical hotshot from New York or Los Angeles gets shipped off to Smalltown, USA?­to, like, run a family-­owned Christmas tree farm out of business to make room for a soulless corporation. But while said City Person is in town, things don’t go to plan. Because, of course, the Christmas tree farm?­or bakery, or whatever the hero’s been sent to destroy?­is owned and operated by someone ridiculously attractive and suitably available for wooing. Back in the city, the lead has a romantic partner. Someone ruthless who encourages him to do what he’s set out to do and ruin some lives in exchange for that big promotion. He fields calls from her, during which she interrupts him, barking heartless advice from the seat of her Peloton bike. You can tell she’s evil because her hair is an unnatural blond, slicked back ? la Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct, and also, she hates Christmas decorations. As the hero spends more time with the charming baker/seamstress/tree farm . . . person, things change for him. He learns the true meaning of life! He returns home, transformed by the love of a good woman. There he asks his ice-­queen girlfriend to take a walk with him. She gapes, says something like, In these Manolos? It will be fun, he tells her. On the walk, he might ask her to look up at the stars. She snaps, You know I can’t look up right now! I just got Botox! And then he realizes: he can’t go back to his old life. He doesn’t want to! He ends his cold, unsatisfying relationship and proposes to his new sweetheart. (Who needs dating?) At this point, you find yourself screaming at the book, You don’t even know her! What’s her middle name, bitch? From across the room, your sister, Libby, hushes you, throws popcorn at your head without lifting her gaze from her own crinkly-­covered library book. And that’s why I’m running late to this lunch meeting. Because that’s my life. The trope that governs my days. The archetype over which my details are superimposed. I’m the city person. Not the one who meets the hot farmer. The other one. The uptight, manicured literary agent, reading manuscripts from atop her Peloton while a serene beach scene screen saver drifts, unnoticed, across her computer screen. I’m the one who gets dumped. I’ve read this story, and lived it, enough to know it’s happening again right now, as I’m weaving through late-­afternoon foot traffic in Midtown, my phone clutched to my ear. He hasn’t said it yet, but the hairs on the back of my neck are rising, the pit opening in my stomach as he maneuvers the conversation toward a cartoon-­style drop off a cliff. Grant was only supposed to be in Texas for two weeks, just long enough to help close a deal between his company and the boutique hotel they were trying to acquire outside San Antonio. Having already experienced two post?­work trip breakups, I reacted to the news of his trip as if he’d announced he’d joined the navy and was shipping out in the morning. Libby tried to convince me I was overreacting, but I wasn’t surprised when Grant missed our nightly phone call three times in a row, or when he cut two others short. I knew how this ended. And then, three days ago, hours before his return flight, it happened. A force majeure intervened to keep him in San Antonio longer than planned. His appendix burst. Theoretically, I could’ve booked a flight right then, met him at the hospital. But I was in the middle of a huge sale and needed to be glued to my phone with stable Wi-­Fi access. My client was counting on me. This was a life-­changing chance for her. And besides, Grant pointed out that an appendectomy was a routine procedure. His exact words were “no big deal.” So I stayed, and deep down, I knew I was releasing Grant to the small-­town-­romance-­novel gods to do with what they do best. Now, three days later, as I’m practically sprinting to lunch in my Good Luck heels, my knuckles white against my phone, the reverberation of the nail in my relationship’s coffin rattles through me in the form of Grant’s voice. “Say that again.” I mean to say it as a question. It comes out as an order. Grant sighs. “I’m not coming back, Nora. Things have changed for me this past week.” He chuckles. “I’ve changed.” A thud goes through my cold, city-­person heart. “Is she a baker?” I ask. He’s silent for a beat. “What?” “Is she a baker?” I say, like that’s a perfectly reasonable first question to ask when your boyfriend dumps you over the phone. “The woman you’re leaving me for.” After a brief silence, he gives in: “She’s the daughter of the couple who own the hotel. They’ve decided not to sell. I’m going to stay on, help them run it.” I can’t help it: I laugh. That’s always been my reaction to bad news. It’s probably how I won the role of Evil Villainess in my own life, but what else am I supposed to do? Melt into a crying puddle on this packed sidewalk? What good would that do? I stop outside the restaurant and gently knead at my eyes. “So, to be clear,” I say, “you’re giving up your amazing job, your amazing apartment, and me, and you’re moving to Texas. To be with someone whose career can best be described as the daughter of the couple who own the hotel?” “There’s more important things in life than money and a fancy career, Nora,” he spits. I laugh again. “I can’t tell if you think you’re being serious.” Grant is the son of a billionaire hotel mogul. “Raised with a silver spoon” doesn’t even begin to cover it. He probably had gold-­leaf toilet paper. For Grant, college was a formality. Internships were a formality. Hell, wearing pants was a formality! He got his job through sheer nepotism. Which is precisely what makes his last comment so rich, both figuratively and literally. I must say this last part aloud, because he demands, “What’s that supposed to mean?” I peer through the window of the restaurant, then check the time on my phone. I’m late?­I’m never late. Not the first impression I was aiming for. “Grant, you’re a thirty-­four-­year-­old heir. For most of us, our jobs are tied directly to our ability to eat.” “See?” he says. “This is the kind of worldview I’m done with. You can be so cold sometimes, Nora. Chastity and I want to?­” It’s not intentional?­I’m not trying to be cutting?­when I cackle out her name. It’s just that, when hilariously bad things happen, I leave my body. I watch them happen from outside myself and think, Really? This is what the universe has chosen to do? A bit on the nose, isn’t it? In this case, it’s chosen to guide my boyfriend into the arms of a woman named after the ability to keep a hymen intact. I mean, it is funny. He huffs on the other end of the line. “These people are good people, Nora. They’re salt of the earth. That’s the kind of person I want to be. Look, Nora, don’t act upset?­” “Who’s acting?” “You’ve never needed me?­” “Of course I don’t!” I’ve worked hard to build a life that’s my own, that no one else could pull a plug on to send me swirling down a cosmic drain. “You’ve never even stayed over at my place?­” he says. “My mattress is objectively better!” I researched it for nine and a half months before buying it. Of course, that’s also