My heart hurts. I went into this book thinking it was going to be a light-hearted romcom, and while I found myself laughing out loud at the deadpan, dry humor throughout the book, I did not expect the grief to float from the pages and into my heart.

Nora Stephens’ is all about books, organization, and living life expectedly. Changes, surprises, spontaneity – they aren’t her thing. But when her sister needs to get away, Nora indulges on all of life’s unexpected turns in order to be what her sister needs. However, the last thing she expects is to run into her arch-enemy of a colleague. When forced to work together (while on vacation, I might add), it’s hard to resist the connection Nora and Charlie have with one another.

But Nora has fallen victim far too many times to the small-town trope where the man moves to a new town, meets a small-town girl, and uproots his life to settle down. After having been dumped four times to this trope, she doesn’t truly let herself feel much for anyone anymore – anyone outside of her family and her book collection, that is. But even she can’t truly resist Charlie, even if she can’t bring herself to admit it.

Despite thinking that she was cold-hearted and unable to feel anything (something she’d been told by nearly everyone), she doesn’t expect the twists that come into her life and begin to unravel everything she viewed as safe. But who can she turn to when she feels abandoned and alone?

Like I said, this book broke my heart. It was one of the few books I paused before the last chapter, questioning if I was ready for it to end. And I wasn’t. But I had to see it through, just like Nora does. And Charlie. Waiting for another book from Emily Henry might kill me, though.