Book Lovers by Emily Henry

I got this recommendation from The Week, and the topic was "summer beach reads" and this definitely fits that bill. I had just been on vacation, a kind of 1-2 books a day vacation, so I was ready for something a little lighter than the Booker Prize shortlist, and this fit that bill. It is very much on task in the formula romance novel arena, but better written than most and with both sides of the romance being in the publishing business, so a bookish focused plot. The story goes like this. Nora and Charlie are highly successful people professionally who have damaged pasts that interfere with their social functioning. Nora, describes herself as the type of woman that decidedly does not get the guy in romantic comedies — a steely-eyed, bleached blonde, workaholic literary agent who’s referred to as a “Shark” by others in the industry. Thanks to her younger sister Libby, she gets talked into taking a month-long trip to the small town of Sunshine Falls, North Carolina. There, she repeatedly has run-ins with Charlie, a book editor she knows from New York, who is also in town. As their chemistry starts to grow, so does their anxiety about whether they can make an actual relationship work. As this is labeled "Romance" you know where this is going, but it is a pleasant ride to get there.