While I don’t read a lot of romance, I enjoy Emily Henry. I find her romance tends to be less sappy and have less manufactured drama than is the norm in this genre. So when I saw she had written a new book, I put a hold on it at my library. And earlier this spring when the hold came in, I read it.
It is a woman telling her story of trying to get the job of writing the biography of a famous but reclusive woman. She spends months just trying to find her. When she does, she pitches her idea of writing her biography directly to this woman. The woman expresses interest but with a twist. There is another writer interested. They will both spend a month talking with her. At the end of that month they will both present their book proposal to her, and the woman will decide who gets to write the book. Her competitor turns out to be a Pulitzer Prize winning writer of biography. Naturally, she starts to have feelings for this man. As their relationship deepens and they each start to learn more about their subject, they learn some things that the woman had hoped to keep hidden.
While this is not my favorite Emily Henry novel, it does show people struggling in ways I find to be approachable and not overly dramatic. I can see how people might realistically behave the way these characters do. There are many heartfelt twists in both the romantic relationship and that of the writers with the subject of the book they both hope to write. But something about this book just didn’t land with me the way her others have. And I just can’t seem to put my finger on why. Still, I enjoyed this book and look forward to her next novel.
My rating: 4/5
