Book Smart Kate

Book: 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 Audiobook: 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 Spice: 🌶️🌶️

by Jenn McKinlay (May 14, 2024) – Many thanks to @berkleyromance and @prhaudio for the gifted digital and audio copies of this follow-up to 2023’s Summer Reading. Below is my honest review!

Emily Allen left her job as a librarian on Martha’s Vineyard to live out a book lover’s dream. She’ll spend the next year in Ireland as the assistant to her favorite author, Siobhan Riordan. Siobhan hasn’t written in 10 years, and her fans worldwide are clamoring for the final novel in her wildly popular series. When not assisting Siobhan, she will be working in the bookshop owned by Siobhan’s son. That son, Kieran Murphy, absolutely does not want Emily working with his mom or in the bookshop. As they challenge each other with obscure book quotes, Kieran’s gruffness softens, and he realizes that Emily is a like-minded book lover, not just a rabid fan of his mom’s work. But when Siobhan’s health begins to decline, Emily is caught between her growing attraction to Kier and her loyalty to the author she deeply admires.

The begrudging mutual attraction and witty book banter are top-notch, but this book is much more complex than the cover portrays. It is a sweet love story but also a powerful, emotional story about adult children and their mothers. I loved Emily’s journey with both her mother and Siobhan. I recommend reading Summer Reading first, as that book lays the groundwork for Emily’s relationship with her mother and her anxiety issues. It is also just a great book, and Sam & Ben make multiple cameos here. 

The audiobook was narrated by Brittany Pressley, who must be a magician because I could have sworn that this was a dual narration with an Irish man voicing Kieran. 

Content Warning: without giving away spoilers, if you are tender in any way about your relationship with your mom, there are a lot of hard mom themes here.