Book Lovers

easy read!

女性エディターが主人公だが、やや個人の感覚に元ずき過ぎる表現や逸話が多く、他のロマンスに比べ、引き込まれにくい。

Nora is dreaming of a book editor career. While mothering her baby sister, Libby, who makes a plan for their holidays. She attempts to organize their lives in the future. Libby edits reality. It seems that Nora becomes her baby sister's baby sister. Nora is a main character but I focus on Libby, because Libby plays the most important role.

売れない女優だけれどもニューヨークが大好きで、いつまでも夢を抱き続けたシングルマザーの母が急死してから、姉のNoraにとって妹Libbyの幸せを守ることが何よりも重要になった。Noraは本当は編集者になりたかったのだが、夢見がちで現実感覚がないLibbyの幸せを優先して、コミッションで収入が高くなる可能性が高い文芸エージェントになった。クライアントである作家の利益のためなら何でもするNoraは、感情抜きの冷酷さで業界で恐れられている。 20歳の若さで年上の男性と結婚して母親になっている妹との心理的な距離ができていることを案じていたNoraは、妊娠中の彼女から２人きりの旅を提案されて同意した。Noraのクライアントの作家が書いたベストセラーの舞台である南部ノースカロライナのSunshine fallsに行ったところ、想像とはまったく異なる場所であり、バケーションだった。そのうえ、２年前にクライアントの作品を拒絶した不機嫌な編集者がいて、妹は大きな秘密を隠しているようだ……。 これはロマンス小説なのだが、普通のロマンス小説とは根本的に異なる部分がある。ロマンス小説の風刺小説なのだ。 プロローグで文芸エージェントであるNoraのロマンス小説の分析があるのだが、そこに出てくる「Small Town Love Story」というサブジャンルの説明が卓越している。「大都会に住むビジネス優先の冷酷なヒーローが大企業の利益のために家族経営の小さなビジネス（クリスマスツリー農家やベーカリー）を潰すために田舎町に行く。ところがそのクリスマスツリー農家かベーカリーの女性に魅了されて、人格そのものが変わり、良い人物になる。大都市には彼の恋人がいるのだが、都市に戻ってその恋人の冷酷さに気づき、彼女を捨てて田舎の心優しき女性にプロポーズする」というまとめなのだが、Noraはロマンス小説のヒロインではなく、最後に捨てられる都市の冷酷な恋人役なのだ。だが、その捨てられる恋人にはヒーローやヒロインとは異なる深い内面や美徳があることを読者は想像もしないのである。ここがこの小説の鍵である。 ロマンス小説の風刺小説であることも楽しいのだが、日本の読者にとっては、日本の出版業界とは異なるアメリカの出版業界の内情が興味深いのではないかと思う。 Emily Henryは文章力が卓越している作家だ。以前はファンタジーなどを書いていたのだが、ロマンス小説に専念するようになってからは全米トップクラスのベストセラー作家になった。正しい選択だったと思っている。

Less than the average. Don’t expect too much from this one.

5 ⭐️ | 📖 book lovers if she were in a Hallmark movie, Nora would be the ex left behind while the lead goes to a small town and falls in love with a local. she knows that. it has literally happened to her. more than once. when her sister, Libby, decides that they too deserve to have their own small-town-life-altering experience, Nora finds herself spending a whole month in the city that inspired a bestselling book from the author that skyrocketed her career as an agent. what she didn’t expect was to find her nemesis, editor Charlie Lastra, running the local bookshop. while she tries to keep her distance, she realizes this might not be as easy in a small town as it’d be in NY. I went into this book not knowing much. and I thought, I truly thought, maybe I wouldn’t love it as much as Emily’s previous books. I don’t have much in common with Nora. I didn’t think I’d be able to relate to her. I went as far as to convince myself that it’d be okay if I didn’t love it. well, I should’ve known better. even if I had hated Nora, which I obviously didn’t, I’d still have loved the book. simply because of Emily’s writing. what she does with words… it feels like magic. the kind of magic people hunt grimoires down to try to replicate, but it just never comes out the same. there’s a secret recipe that belongs only to her. she has the ability to put feelings into words, and I know this sounds like a basic skill a writer should have, but that’s not what I mean. I just can’t quite explain it. like, in pwmov, when she gave the best definition of “saudade” I’ve ever come across, and she doesn’t even speak Portuguese. i’m gonna leave her own words here, because it’s the best way I can explain how reading her books feel: “This book has crushed me with its weight and dazzled me with its tiny bright spots. Some books you don’t read so much as live, and finishing one of those always makes me think of ascending from a scuba dive. Like if I surface too fast I might get the bends.” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️❤️ 🌶🌶

Super süße Geschichte. Hat sich sehr schön gelesen und hat Spaß gemacht. Die Witze sie die Autorin einbaut gefallen mir persönlich sehr gut.

Good book

This book was magic from the first sentence to the last, full of witty banter and dialogue and so much incredible understanding and emotion. I rarely cry in a book and even rarer still—happy tears, but I finished this book and sobbed. It is utter perfection, I instantly want to start again and absorb all of it again in case I missed something. (I literally hard to force myself to put this down and eat I was so engrossed) I truly loved the emphasis and depiction of the bond two sisters share and the absolute love and understanding the men in this book showed for that. Emily Henry has written such beautifully flawed and real characters that make you wish you could crawl inside the book and get to know them forever, Charlie was so real which I find rare in a romance book. So often male characters are written to perfection in such unrealistic standards, but Charlie’s characteristics are what any of us can find in a decent partner who just wants to see us thrive and love us despite the flaws we see in ourselves. I especially loved Nora and watching her grow and adjust her outlook on life whilst still staying so true to herself and who she was. This book is going straight to the top of my list of favourite books ever, there truely was not a single thing I did not like, Nora was strong and independent and such a great example of a female lead in literature, this book felt inspiring. Thank you Emily Henry for writing this, I’m happier in this world for reading it.

great