“Abbi Waxman is both irreverent and thoughtful.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Giffin
“Meet our bookish millennial heroine—a modern-day Elizabeth Bennet, if you will… Waxman’s wit and wry humor stand out. She is funny and imaginative, and “Bookish” lands a step above run-of-the-mill romantic comedy fare.”—The Washington Post
“Abbi Waxman offers up a quirky, eccentric romance that will charm any bookworm…. For anyone who’s ever wondered if their greatest romance might come between the pages of books they read, Waxman offers a heartwarming tribute to that possibility.”--Entertainment Weekly
The author of Other People’s Houses and The Garden of Small Beginnings delivers a quirky and charming novel chronicling the life of confirmed introvert Nina Hill as she does her best to fly under everyone's radar. Meet Nina Hill: A young woman supremely confident in her own...shell.
The only child of a single mother, Nina has her life just as she wants it: a job in a bookstore, a kick-butt trivia team, a world-class planner and a cat named Phil. If she sometimes suspects there might be more to life than reading, she just shrugs and picks up a new book.
When the father Nina never knew existed suddenly dies, leaving behind innumerable sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews, Nina is horrified. They all live close by! They're all—or mostly all—excited to meet her! She'll have to Speak. To. Strangers. It's a disaster! And as if that wasn't enough, Tom, her trivia nemesis, has turned out to be cute, funny, and deeply interested in getting to know her. Doesn't he realize what a terrible idea that is?
Nina considers her options.
1. Completely change her name and appearance. (Too drastic, plus she likes her hair.)
2. Flee to a deserted island. (Hard pass, see: coffee).
3. Hide in a corner of her apartment and rock back and forth. (Already doing it.)
It's time for Nina to come out of her comfortable shell, but she isn't convinced real life could ever live up to fiction. It's going to take a brand-new family, a persistent suitor, and the combined effects of ice cream and trivia to make her turn her own fresh page.
I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Nina has the perfectly planned life until an unexpected death leaves her with more than she ever imagined.
With a fun cover and interesting synopsis, this book should have blown me out of the water. It didn’t. I wanted to love it so much so perhaps my expectations were a little too high going into this novel. That’s not to say it’s a bad story. With delightful interactions between characters and a focus on relationships (romance, friendships, family), it reminded me a lot of Pride and Prejudice. It’s very much a slice of life story set in a charming suburb of Los Angeles.
My biggest issue with The Bookish Life of Nina Hill is the point-of-view. Written in third person omniscience, it did a poor job connecting genuine emotion and personal drive to the characters. I knew most of the character’s inner thoughts, but their personal journeys never came close to engaging me. Not connecting to any of the characters, including the titular Nina, meant I never really connected to the story.
tl;dr A shallow slice-of-life story with not enough emotional impact to keep me truly entertained.
