So, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill feels like two books pushed into one. There’s the plot thread of found family, which is wonderfully cute and fantastic, and then there’s the romance thread… which I kind of wish would’ve just be cut out. Which is something I never thought would come out of my mouth! Cut the romance! Good lord no! 😲 But also, yes.

I really liked the clever, voicey narrative, but I think my main issue was that I found Nina a little inconsistent. Where she was extremely anxious and all-planned with the love interest, she seemed to be fine rolling with the obstacles her new, huge, dramatic family threw her way. And I think it was this inconsistency that made me not like her so her so much… or maybe feel like she just wasn’t that into the love interest? Either way, their chemistry really didn’t work for me.

There’s also another plot point that’s hard to describe without giving it away, but I honestly was a little surprised because it was something they worried about for most of the book (or more weirdly… didn’t worry about) and they ended up using the most obvious solution in the end. 😕

But I still loved listening to the witty narrative (the narrator was great in the audiobook), loved meeting her rich, drama-fest family, and there were many instances where, as a introverted bookworm, I got where Nina was coming from. I’d still recommend this to anyone just looking for a fun found-family type of book… but just probably not a romance.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ½  

Told from The Bookish Life of Hayley (minus a mysterious billionaire dad.)

Thanks for reading!