Praise for BOOK LOVERS
“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 of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
“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
“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
PRAISE FOR #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR EMILY HENRY
“Henry’s writing truly sings.”
— The New York Times Book Review
“Emily Henry is my newest automatic-buy author.”
— Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wish You Were Here
“I think Emily Henry might be our generation’s answer to Nora Ephron.”
— Sophie Cousens, New York Times bestselling author of Just Haven’t Met You Yet
“What Henry is especially skilled at is writing dialogue. The banter between Poppy and Alex is so natural, quick, and witty that it would make Shonda Rhimes do a slow clap.”
— The Associated Press on People We Meet on Vacation
“That Henry can manage to both pack a fierce emotional wallop and spear literary posturing in one go is a testament to her immense skill.”
— Entertainment Weekly
“The perfect poolside companion.”
— Real Simple on People We Meet on Vacation
“The strength of People We Meet on Vacation [is] the clever observations, the dialogue (which is laugh-out-loud funny), and, most particularly, the characters. Funny and fumbling and lovable, they’re most decidedly worth the trip.”
— The Wall Street Journal
TITLES BY EMILY HENRY
Book Lovers
People We Meet on Vacation
Beach Read
BERKLEY
An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
Copyright © 2022 by Emily Henry
Readers Guide copyright © 2022 by Emily Henry
Penguin Random House supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for every reader.
BERKLEY and the BERKLEY & B colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
The Library of Congress has catalogued the Berkley hardcover edition of this book as follows:
Names: Henry, Emily, author.
Title: Book lovers / Emily Henry.
Description: New York: Berkley, [2022]
Identifiers: LCCN 2021039728 (print) | LCCN 2021039729 (ebook) | ISBN 9780593440872 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780593334843 (ebook)
Classification: LCC PS3608.E5715 B66 2022 (print) | LCC PS3608.E5715 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021039728
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021039729
Cover design and illustration by Sandra Chiu
Book design by Alison Cnockaert, adapted for ebook by Cora Wigen
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Noosha, this book isn’t for you. I already know which one will be for you, so you have to wait.
This book is for Amanda, Dache’, Danielle, Jessica, Sareer, and Taylor. This book would not exist without you. And if somehow it did, then no one would be reading it. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
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.