And everyone ends up happy. Well, everyone except for the ex. The woman (or man) left behind in the city, whose entire role is usually to call the lead character and bark at them over the phone, remind them that they went to Smalltown, USA for business—to conduct a mass layoff, or to crush the local toy emporium so Big Toy can open its 667th location in the heart of the town, while maybe bulldozing a gazebo or two on the way.
She is an obstacle to the real love story, the meant to be relationship. Or she’s a foil to the local sweetheart, there primarily to show how much better the other woman understands the lead. Or she’s the not-evil-just-out-of-touch little devil on his shoulder, trying to lead him astray from this new, better life.
Again, it has to be said, I love these movies, and plenty don’t play out exactly like this, but enough do that I found myself asking, Who is this woman?
Where does her story go from here?
Does she go on to have her own small-town life-changing experience?
Does every uptight city person have to leave the city and fall in love with a carpenter to get their happy ending?
Or does her happy ending even look like her ex’s does? What does she crave?
And, possibly most exciting to me of all: why does she so badly want her boyfriend to take care of business and do his job to begin with?
Those were the questions that created Book Lovers, a book whose working title was, in fact, City Person.
It wasn’t just an homage to all those fish-out-of-water stories I love so much, but also to the women who feel like fish out of water, the ones who aren’t sure whether they’re cued up for a happy ending.
The Devil Wears Prada’s Miranda Priestly.
The Parent Trap’s Meredith Blake.
You’ve Got Mail’s Patricia Eden.
The designer-wearing, stiletto-donning, red-pen-wielding, treadmill-using, salad-eating women with very little time for, or interest in, baking, camping, or watching sunrises.
This was my exploration of who those women really are, and what a happy ending might look like for them. Not a perfect ending, but an apt one. A happily ever after that’s as messy, complicated, and ultimately irresistible as I find Book Lovers’ city-dwelling, designer-wearing, Peloton-riding, red-pen-wielding lead characters.
So whether you’re a small-town sweetheart, an ambitious careerperson, or a different kind of character entirely, I hope you love Charlie and Nora. And I hope their story reminds you there is no one right way to be, no one-size-fits-all happy ending, and no one else on earth who can be exactly who you are.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Nora sees herself almost as the villainess in someone else’s love story. Who are some of your favorite villainesses—whom you either outright love or love to hate?
Nora reads the last page of a book first. Libby likes to go in knowing as little as possible. How do you prefer to read?
What was the book that made you fall in love (or fall in love again) with reading?
Would you rather spend a month in Sunshine Falls, or in Nora’s New York life? Why?
Have you ever felt like different places brought out different parts of you?
As Libby and Nora grow, they have to accept that life is carrying them in different directions. Have you ever been through something like that with a friend or family member?
Nora and Libby grew up together, and yet they experienced their childhoods very differently. Why do you think that is? Have you ever had this happen with a family member or friend?
Charlie initially set out to write and wound up editing. Nora wanted to edit and became an agent instead. Have you ever pursued something that led you in a different direction?
As children, Nora and Libby would change the endings of stories if they didn’t like them. If you could change the ending of one book, what would it be and how would you change it?
All of Nora’s exes have ended up with partners who were seemingly totally different than them. Nora and Charlie, however, are peas in a pod. Do your favorite fictional couples tend to fall in one category or the other? Do you feel the same about real-life relationships?
One of Nora’s biggest struggles is finding the balance of how much to compromise in her life for those she loves. What role do you think compromise plays in love? What, to you, is uncompromisable?
What is your idea of a happy ending?
NORA AND LIBBY’S ULTIMATE READING LIST
Incense and Sensibility by Sonali Dev
The Roughest Draft by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka
Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn
Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala
A Special Place for Women by Laura Hankin
A Thorn in the Saddle by Rebekah Weatherspoon
Just Last Night by Mhairi McFarlane
An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole
The Editor by Steven Rowley
The Siren by Katherine St. John
A Lot Like Adiós by Alexis Daria
Verity by Colleen Hoover
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
Portrait of a Scotsman by Evie Dunmore
The Fastest Way to Fall by Denise Williams
So We Meet Again by Suzanne Park
By the Book by Jasmine Guillory
Payback’s A Witch by Lana Harper
A Week to Be Wicked by Tessa Dare
Photo by Devyn Glista/St. Blanc Studios
EMILY HENRY is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of People We Meet on Vacation and Beach Read. She studied creative writing at Hope College, and now spends most of her time in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the part of Kentucky just beneath it.
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