Nora has been working in a publishing house in San Francisco (the author acknowledges this setting was used out of laziness as she was writing what she knew, but it's interesting to have a non-London/New York set book about publishing) and she's never seemed to progress, certainly in terms of income, and also in terms of getting any editorial input. She's a glorified admin, turned to for sandwiches and drinks, yet as the staff have been hollowed out through cuts and people leaving, she finds herself with more and more to do.

Her best work friend leaves, and then she's given a pay cut which leaves her short on her rent. Now, what would most people do in that situation? Remember their contracts and get a second job in a bar or delivering stuff. Not Nora - she takes up an offer to be a freelance editorial assistant for a rival firm, promising them she's left her current role and not telling her current role. Of course this gives tension to the book as we know it's all going to come out, but it's also just such a foolish thing to do that I lost respect for Nora, however desperate and depressed she is, which made it harder to engage with the book. She also messes around with one of their authors, getting into a tizzy between liking him for him and knowing it could benefit either job if she could get him to sign up to publish his new book with either of her employers. Again, disloyal and immoral, and put me off (I am not put off by reading about massive villains but these poor choices are annoying).

There are some good scenes, but also once we get into helping Nora help herself with her mental health and her career, it starts to read like a how-to book rather than a straight novel. Again, I don't mind a bit of didacticism, or I wouldn't read Barbara Kingsolver, but when the love interest brandished a copy of "What Colour is Your Parachute" and she asked for an intervention from some barely known co-workers, it reminded me most of a book called "The Phoenix Project" which was a novelised toolkit for Dev Ops people and clunked its way through my husband's officemates. Again, the author does say at the end that she wrote what she would have found useful when stuck in her career and mental health herself, and there is useful stuff here if you know nothing about helping your way out of these ruts, but it didn't make it necessarily wholly work as a novel.

There is a lot of detail about how nonfiction publishing works, which I enjoyed, and commentary on Black representation in publishing which I appreciated having without the magical realism of "The Other Black Girl", and there were some funny scenes and good friendships, but this is not the best book I read this month

I was invited to read Must Love Books and I accepted to take part in the read-along. I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't keep up with the activities - I'd never taken part in a read-along before- and then got sick. But I'm very thankful for the opportunity to read the book and I'm reviewing it now.

In Must Love Books we meet Nora Hughes, the overworked, underpaid editorial assistant stuck in her dream job, wondering how to make ends meet when her salary is reduced.
To me, Norah embodies the struggles of young -and not-so-young- professionals in the workforce. She's qualified, and she's got the dream job, but she's stuck because the job isn't what she hoped for and her financial commitments mean she can't leave.

The book tackles important issues that many face in our world today, like the high cost of education, which means that many young professionals are straddled with debt; the fear of losing a job, even an unfulfilling and underpaid job, or the pressure to find one's "dream job". For this reason, I believe many readers will find Norah's struggles relatable. Must Love Books is not escapism reading but rather meditative, inspiring, and uplifting.

I recommend this one to readers, young and not so young, who enjoy stories that invite them to think about life.

I'm thankful to the author, Shauna Robinson, for the inspiring story, and to One More Chapter and Netgalley for the ARC.

Something about the main character, Nora Hughes, made me drag out reading this book much longer than I needed. It was easy to empathize with the doom and gloom of an underpaid, under appreciated job and stuck-in-a-rut lifestyle she found herself living. I loved Nora and didn't want to give her up.

The pace of the story was just right. Nothing felt rushed or unexplained. You saw the rapid decline of Nora's employer and how her list of responsibilities grew as more and more employees left for other jobs.

My new favorite interview question is, "Would you recommend the job to a friend?" While simple, it's a profound question and would tell me everything I need to know about the job I'm interviewing for - genius!

I also loved Andrew Santos - total swoon! 🥰 He was an easy character to love with how he doted over Nora and was always happy to see her. His reactions to her sarcasm and the banter between them were everything.

❗️Warning Content: depression, suicidal thoughts

This story really resonated with me. While there were some dark moments, Nora talking about a constant battle with a creature lurking in her thoughts, the story was authentic and painfully realistic.

Thank you Shauna Robinson, HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter, and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

When Nora realises that her dream job is not so dreamy she must make changes. Unfortunately, a promising opportunity means she must work two jobs until she has proved her worth. Nora is not that likeable and this spoilt the book for me. Some interesting issues are tackled in the book but Nora spoilt it for me.

First off, I just want to say a huge thank you to One More Chapter and Shauna Robinson for this copy and also for, not only a spot of this amazing readalong but for introducing me to this novel! Now onto my thoughts about this book!

Wow. 

I’ll be honest, this book is not what I was expecting at all. I think from the outside, it appears to be a book about a 20-something year old woman struggling at a dead-end job in a publishing house when a mysterious and handsome author enters the picture. We can assume where this is going to go, right? Well, I was proven wrong, and I’m so glad that I was! This book was great and it spoke to me on a lot of levels. 

When I finished this book, I sat there for quite a while processing it all. Must Love Books deals with being a little lost. It deals with not knowing what you want to do with your life. It deals with mental health, with beautiful accuracy. It deals with putting yourself first when you need to. I could go on but honestly, I feel there will be a lot of people picking this up and relating to it in some way. I came away feeling reassured, and oddly motivated. It felt like a big hug, letting me know that everything will be ok. 

All this aside, I really enjoyed the characters and the story! I loved Nora and seeing her journey.

If you’re thinking about picking this up, please do so because you won’t be disappointed!

* Please research any trigger warnings before reading *

Wow amazing eye opening debut!
I love reading and always fancied working in publishing and loved the series Younger which reminds me of this book.
Meet Nora who works as an editorial assistant but isn’t as fulfilled as she thought she would be almost 5 years in and after job cuts and her wages are decreased she takes on a freelance role with a rival publisher to make ends meet. Add into the mix very attractive author, Andrew Santos, which complicates matters a lot!
Will Nora be able to keep all the balls in the air?
This deals sympathetically with mental health issues and acknowledges it’s ok to not know what you want in life we keep trying and changing until we find our fit!
A welcome heartwarming honest read, I can’t wait for Shauna Robinson’s next book!

Must Love Books follows Nora, an editorial assistant at a publishing house who has just about had enough! When a pay cut leads Nora to taking on a second (secret) job, her life starts to spiral out of control. Her life also becomes a lot more complicated when author Andrew becomes part of it, will she tell him the truth of keep her secret for her own gain?

Although she was a bit of a mess, I adored Nora as a character and was rooting for her until the very end.

This book is not the light hearted fluffy romcom it first appeared, it can get quite dark and sad in parts but overall it’s uplifting and the perfect book for that time in your life when you just don’t have a clue what’s going on - which is pretty much my life right now!

Love loved this book , fell in love with main character, such an easy and warm read
The plot was brilliant as well as it was based around a publishing house .
This is a book I will be picking up agin when I need something easy to read .

Thanks so much to Shauna Robinson, NetGalley and One Chapter HC for the eARC, all opinions expressed are my own.

Nora has been working in publishing for a while. Whilst she has seen a lack of progression, she’s also seen pay cuts and decides to take a freelance role at a competing publisher at the same time. Whilst she struggles to finds reason to say, she builds a budding friendship and romance with author, Andrew Santos.

This book didn’t quite hit the spot. Whilst Nora’s career struggle definitely resonated with me, and see the way the author articulates Nora’s struggles with her mental health was incredibly moving, especially dwelling on where she felt on the happiness scale. This was so well done and I loved seeing the way Andrew helped her to articulate her feelings and learn the best way to move herself up the scale.

But I felt the story was too caught up in Nora as a character rather than the plot. I felt like the plot was lacking and found Nora’s treatment of Andrew far from ideal. I loved Andrew’s character and I liked the efforts he went to, to get Nora to feel like herself again, the genuine care he had and the way they interacted was super cute.

Whilst Nora found her mark at the end of the book, I felt like it was very brief and would have loved to have seen Nora settle into her new phase in life.

Really sorry I got the dates for the readalong mixed up, missed the readalong and the book archived before I got the chance to read it

This was an eye-opening and quick read that I ended up reading ahead of schedule. Nora is an incredibly relatable character who struggles with finding happiness whether that be in her professional or personal life (but mainly the former). She gets herself caught up in a situation that doesn't just affect her life but the life of someone she comes to care about. ⁣
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Suffering from depression myself and constant doubts about my career, it was easy for me to connect with Nora and her struggles. This book is real life and deals with problems a lot of people can relate to, especially now with cost of living rising and people putting their dreams on the back burner. ⁣
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I look forward to seeing what Shauna writes next!

This is chick lit with a very human side. Nora is an editorial assistant with Parsons Publishing in San Francisco. The company are making cut after cut and from barely making her rent, Nora begins to really struggle. She takes another job on the side and panics constantly that she will be found out. She strikes up a friendly relationship with business author Andrew Santos, but isn't completely honest with him, and so continues her web of deception. Nora has always been haunted by thoughts of suicide and this stops her enjoying the growing relationship. There are lovely moments in this, and you will Nora to let happiness in. #netgalley #MustLoveBooks

Have you ever realised that the person you are advising is in fact, erm, a fictional character from a book you are currently reading? Well, this is precisely the situation I found myself in several times this weekend while reading “Must Love Books” by Shauna Robinson. And the person I was advising? Nora, our protagonist, a book lover, editorial assistant and disillusioned young woman.

As a book lover and someone who has dreamed of working in publishing, I found myself instantly sympathising with Nora and also wanting to support her.

After five years in her current role, Nora has reached a sense of futility and is struggling financially. She wants to chase after her dream but is unsure of how to do so (and this is where my advice came in!) The arrival of a young and charismatic author, named Andrew Santos, provides Nora with a chance to rethink her options and make some sudden decisions.

With brief references to mental health, racism and learning to chase your dreams, “Must Love Books” is an entertaining, light-hearted and very relatable read and needs to be on your TBR list.

I’ll be looking out for other books from Shauna Robinson!

I read this book as part of a readalong over on Instagram - we had a great Whatsapp group chat going too.
A book about books - what is there not to like?
Felt for Nora - depressed and feeling her life is not going anywhere at the start but by the end she was much more positive.
There is a bit of romance but this is secondary to Nora discovering what is important and what she wants to do with her life.
A feel good story.

Reread: 2/17/2023

I don't usually reread books, but I got offered a review copy by One More Chapter/Harper Collins UK and I remembered how much I wanted to enjoy this one the first time around so I jumped at the chance. It's also kind of funny that it would be almost exactly one year after the first time I read it. Enough time for things my perspective to have changed.

Unfortunately, the most I could give is an extra half-star for a final 3.5-star rating.

It's the same problem as before. Robinson's writing is so good that you fall into Nora's depression right along with her, and even the incredibly sweet romance between her and Andrew is not enough to make this reader forget that the leading lady is borderline suicidal. The lows are more powerful than the highs and it dragged me down right along with Nora.
Nora is stuck in a job she hates because she has slowly fallen into a horrible cycle of apathy that she just can't bring herself to get out of. She meets the handsome, witty, and super-sweet Andrew, and interacting with him gives her a distraction from everything that is going horribly wrong with her life. It takes everything failing for Nora to realize that the only one who can do anything to change her situation is her, and she does eventually find a way to get out of the horrible cycle she's stuck in.
There are some very sweet moments in the romance angle and some great messaging and tips for those who find themselves without a path in life, I'm just not a big fan of books that drag me into their character's depression.

Many thanks to NetGalley, HarperCollins UK, and One More Chapter for the excuse to give this one a second reading!


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Original review: 1/17/2022

Booklover Nora Hughes is having quite a midlife crisis at 26 when she finds herself unable to escape the sinking ship that is her first job in publishing. She's an editorial assistant at Parsons Press. This business-oriented publisher is dead set on publishing only the tried-and-true business books of old and on increasing profits to the point of laying off most of the high-ranking employees and dropping the work of three people onto poor Nora. She's falling deeper and deeper into depression with no end in sight and no escape from Parsons Press when she meets bestselling author Andrew Santos and warm friendship blossoms into more.
This sounds like it would make a great rom-com, right? Well, it doesn't. Robinson goes deep into the feelings of inadequacy and hopelessness that Nora is mired in. Even with fun and cute moments between Nora and Andrew or Nora and her friends and coworkers, the overall feeling of the book is a heavy fog of depression and deep anxiety. What may be a testament to Robinson creating a character that one can empathize with turns into a book that I needed breaks from because it was making me feel almost as bad as Nora.
In the end, even knowing that Nora ends up finding a way out of her sad situation didn't leave me with much love for this book. I'm positive it's just that my world, and the world in general, are not in the ideal place at the moment for such an introspective book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the thought-provoking early read!

An excellent debut book by Shauna Robinson. The story is well written and absorbing. I hope she goes on the write more books.

I really enjoyed this book, it's almost a warning about having a singular focus in your life and what happens when that starts to crumble.

When we meet Nora she seems to have only one thing in her life, her work. She needs to keep her bills paid and that's causing her some distress after recent restructuring. She seems to have little time or inclination to include anything else in her life and has even lost her passion for reading.

She's then forced into situations which make her look at her life, career and social, trying to figure out what it is she wants from both.

Seeing Nora finding her way gives a message of hope to readers, this is a great feel good story!

A title I think we can all agree with. I’ve loved being part of the One More Chapter readalong for this book - seeing everyone’s posts and stories and chatting on WhatsApp has made for a wonderful reading experience. Thanks to Chloe at OMC for organising.
This is an interesting read - I must admit it was different to what I expected but in a good way. It’s a fascinating insight into the world of publishing but told us so much more about the characters involved.
I really enjoyed seeing Nora’s voyage of self discovery and appreciated its honesty about self doubt and impact on mental health. She is a very relatable character- we’ve all had doubts about where we’re going in life and her struggles with depression are handled sensitively and with care.
Her relationship with Andrew was wonderful to read - their everyday interactions were heart warming and I’m sure enabled Nora to move on with the difficult decisions in her life.

When Nora Hughes landed a job in publishing straight out of college, she was looking forward to her career taking off, but after five years stuck in a lowly role as editorial assistant at Parson Press, she is beginning to think that this might not be her dream job after all.

Parson Press is being reorganised, and many of the old faces that Nora worked alongside have been casualties of the bottom line. When her best friend Beth, who started at Parson Press on the same day as she did, finally jumps ship too, Nora's mood hits rock bottom. It does not help that her work load has risen enormously as jobs have been cut and employees not replaced, and now she has been asked to take a pay-cut too.

The only glimmer of light at Parson Press has been her meeting with the very attractive business author Andrew Santos, who they are desperate to woo to their list for his new book. Nora and Andrew have become friends, with the promise of more, but she does not see how she can remain in this job and still pay her bills.

She hits on a plan to take some freelance work for a rival publisher, without telling them she is still working for Parson Press, and although this appears to be the solution at first, things get complicated very quickly. The pressure of trying to make ends meet, juggling the priorities of two publishers, and navigating the conflict of interest that rears its head in respect of Andrew's forthcoming book, affects Nora's mental health badly - so much that she begins to think suicide might be the only solution to her problems.

When matters come to a head and Nora's life comes crashing down, the budding relationship between her and Andrew seems to be over too, but out of the ashes of this disaster Nora is forced to reflect on the direction her life has taken, and she realises that it might be time for some real changes.

Must Love Books is part publishing drama, part rom-com, and part self-help book, which is an unusual combination. Using her own experience in the publishing industry, Shauna Robinson spins a tale that is all about appreciating that the idea of the 'dream job' is in fact a fallacy. As Nora works through her problems, battles against her own demons, and comes to terms with the fact that her career path might be rather different to the one she anticipated it would be, Robinson uses the story to show that the route to happiness in the world of work is a meandering path - and to stress that it is not only okay to take a few side-turns, but that it can be be a valuable thing to do in your search for a career that is right for you.

There is so much about being aware of the things that impact your mental health, and coming to terms with who you are in a wider sense in this book, and Robinson touches on a host of themes, including taking a few side-swipes at publishing. The nature of the writing and its intent does mean that you feel a bit less connected to the characters, and, for me, the intensity of feeling that you need to be convinced they are living breathing people somehow gets lost in the telling. However, as someone who has taken a very twisty career path over the course of many years, I can see that this book actually has a lot of merit as a fable for those starting out in the world of work - especially if they are consumed with the idea of the 'dream job'. It also has a few really interesting lessons about how easy it is to become isolated and depressed when the people who make a job enjoyable fall away.

I think it is one that will affect you very differently depending on your age, and the stage you are in your career. It is an intriguing story, and makes a good book club choice, because there is a lot to talk about here - particularly about career paths, mental health, how mood affects reading, and how working in publishing affects your appreciation of books as vehicles for enjoyment.

The following review was posted on my blog today, on Thursday, February 16th, the day of publication. It was shared on Instagram twice today, and has already been posted on Goodreads. The blog post includes links to order the books and to its Goodreads page, so readers can add it to their to-be-read books.





“There’s more to you than just your book.”

Genre: Fiction, Women’s Fiction
Actual Rating: 5 stars
Spicy Meter: 1 fire emoji
Content Warnings: Discusses racism, suicide, and suicidal ideation.

You know the feeling when all the things that could go wrong, actually go wrong? Well, that's exactly how Nora Hughes is feeling after she finds herself stuck in a job that's underpaying her and that's in her dream field, but not even remotely close to her dream job-she's an assistant editor at a publisher.....that only publishes business books written by middle-aged white men for middle-aged white men. She dreamed of editing the next big American novel, but that couldn't be further from her reality. So when they cut her salary even further, making it so she can't even afford rent anymore, she will have to resort to some slightly unethical practices to survive.

The publisher does not classify this as a romance book, and they're right at that. "Must Love Books" is not a romance per se, even though there are some romantic scenes and sexual tension here and there. It, in fact, does not bang (like, they do bang but we don't get to see any of that).

This was a great read, especially if you're looking for a book that isn't romance-centric or a book about the world of book publishing. I mean, what reader doesn't love a book about books? The characters were charming and the story engaging at all times. I wouldn't change a thing about Nora's story.

I would recommend this book to readers who've enjoyed books by Sally Thorne and Emily Henry. I mean, to be honest, I will probably be recommending this book all year round. It's that good- but only if you're looking for a closed door romance and are open to different happily ever afters.

If you click here, you’ll be redirected to Goodreads, so you can add the book to your TBR list.

Or you could click here, and be redirected to Amazon, so you can order the book.

ARC provided by NetGalley and One More Chapter in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: February 16, 2023