Emily Henry is the author of the butterfly-inducing romantic comedies Beach Read and You & Me on Vacation, both of which were New York Times bestsellers. She studied creative writing at Hope College and now lives and writes in the American Midwest. She has featured in Prima, Elle, Woman & Home, The Independent (among others) and Jodi Picoult calls her ‘my newest automatic-buy author.’ Book Lovers is her third novel.
Today, Emily Henry is on the blog to answer a few of our questions about Book Lovers! Read on …
Emily Henry
Please tell us about your book, Book Lovers!
EH: Book Lovers is about uptight literary agent Nora Stephens, who keeps getting dumped for women who are her polar opposite. On the heels of one such breakup, her younger sister convinces Nora that she needs to get away and have her own small-town, transformative love story like all Nora’s exes have had, so the two women rent a house in the mountains of North Carolina for a month. Only once she’s there, Nora keeps running into her nemesis from back in the city, a sardonic editor named Charlie Lastra.
Nora is the quintessential romance anti-heroine – the workaholic city gal that men date and dump when they find their happy-ever-after girl. Where did Nora come from and what was your favourite thing about bringing her to life?
EH: Nora came directly from my love of Hallmark Christmas movies. There’s a very common formula in those movies in which, either the quintessential workaholic city guy or girl goes to a small town and learns the meaning of life, all while falling in love with a person who’s very of a piece with the small-town setting. And like you said, sometimes the hero or heroine has a significant other who sort of represents everything that’s “wrong” with the life they’ve been leading.
Like I said, I love these movies, and I’m generally averse to interpreting any one story as a statement on what’s right or good. There are plenty of people, in real life, who leave big-city life behind and find something fulfilling elsewhere, and I enjoy watching those kinds of stories! But I also found myself wondering about that other woman, the one who’s not right for the lead, and what her happily ever after would look like—would it be the same as her exes’ or would it be something totally different?
I loved bringing Nora to life so much, but I especially loved taking all these little reductive details we’re taught to use to judge characters and looking for the why behind them: why does Nora love makeup? Why does she love her Peloton and impractical shoes and a good salad? And most importantly, how did she become the cutthroat career woman she is today?
Fearsome (and handsome) book editor Charlie is Nora’s foil in more ways than one. What do you think makes a good leading man in a romantic comedy?
EH: I sort of think it’s all those little inconsistencies or surprises that move a character from feeling like an archetype to becoming a real person that you could know. We’re all more than just one thing, and I really fall in love with characters’ quirks, the things that make them feel so incredibly specific. In real life, those are always the things that are most exciting about people to me too!
‘It’s so fun to read (and write) about two people who argue really well, who just have fun trading barbs. I think I’m somewhat picky with the trope as a reader but when I love it, I really love it.’
The other central relationship in this book is the one shared by Nora and her sister Libby. When did you realise that their story had to be as big a part of the book as it is?
EH: Not until a second draft, actually! In the book’s first incarnation, Nora actually took the trip alone, and then Libby showed up to surprise her. But my editor pushed me to look more closely at the characters’ motivations and I realised there was no way Nora would take the trip unless she actually got that one-on-one time with Libby as the reward, rather than just doing something her sister asked of her. I also always find it easier to understand my main characters when I feel like I know their families well, so Libby’s story really came to the forefront the more I dug into Nora.
This is a classic enemies-to-lovers tale. What do you love about stories that use this trope (and can you recommend your favourites)?
EH: I love the innate tension! It’s so fun to read (and write) about two people who argue really well, who just have fun trading barbs. I think I’m somewhat picky with the trope as a reader but when I love it, I really love it. Sally Thorne’s The Hating Game of course comes to mind, as does Pride & Prejudice. Other favourites include Talia Hibbert’s Get A Life, Chloe Brown, Mhairi McFarlane’s If I Never Met You, Nisha Sharma’s Dating Dr. Dil, and Suzanne Park’s So We Meet Again.
Can you tell us a little bit about your journey towards becoming a writer?
EH: I’ve always been a reader, and throughout childhood I’d go on occasional writing kicks. Pretty much as soon as I realised someone was writing the books I was reading, I decided that would be my job someday, though that feeling would come and go. I went to college to study dance, but on a partial creative writing scholarship that required me to take some classes each year, and while I was there, I fell in love with writing novels. After I graduated, I got a full-time writing job and would wake up an hour earlier than I needed to so I could get some writing time in, and eventually I started querying agents. It took a few rounds of queries before I landed the perfect agent for me. We worked together on several books before she left agenting, at which point, I showed a draft of Beach Read to my current agent, and we decided to work together!
Who do you most admire in the writing world?
EH: Oh, this is so hard. I admire and envy writers like Stephen King, who can just do a little bit of everything and do it all quite well. Those people who seem to have boundless imagination and energy. Beyond that, I have huge amounts of admiration for the writers who don’t fit neatly into any box, and generally, the ones publishers have a hard time figuring out how to sell. Even though I’m currently publishing very commercial novels, I really, really love stumbling on books that are so strange and surprising and unfamiliar that you almost can’t be sure if they’re “good.” I love books with polarizing twists, and books that move fluidly between genres, and I admire any artist who takes these kinds of risks. One of my favourites along these lines is the young adult novelist Parker Peevyhouse. I hugely admire her.
What is the last book you read and loved?
EH: Katherine Center’s The Bodyguard was the most fun I’d had in ages.
What do you hope readers will discover in Book Lovers?
EH: I hope they see parts of themselves, and are reminded that there is no one right way to be.
And finally, what’s up next for you?
EH: More! I can’t talk publicly about it yet, but I am definitely working on another book in the same vein as my last three!
Thanks Emily!
EH: Thank you for the amazing questions!
—Book Lovers by Emily Henry (Penguin Books Australia) is out now.
Book Lovers
Nora is a cut-throat literary agent at the top of her game. Her whole life is books. Charlie is an editor with a gift for creating bestsellers. And he's Nora's work nemesis.
Nora has been through enough break-ups to know she's the woman men date before they find their happy-ever-after. That's why Nora's sister has persuaded her to swap her desk in the city for a month's holiday in Sunshine Falls, North Carolina. It's a small town straight out of a romance novel, but instead of meeting sexy lumberjacks, handsome doctors or cute bartenders, Nora keeps bumping into...Charlie.
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