Not Every Heroine Needs a Small Town

When I was in the hospital last year, I found myself watching the Hallmark Channel to keep my mind off the pain and my declining health. One of the things that I liked was the predictability of everything. A person goes to a small town for a variety of reasons (vacation, work, family, etc). They not only slowly fall in love with the place, but also in love with a person exhibiting the charming qualities of small-town life. Even though they know this person for a short amount of time, they decide to leave their city life and their cold/work oriented girlfriend/boyfriend for the small-town boy/girl of their dreams and live happily ever after. 

However, have you ever wondered what happens to the person the protagonist leaves in the dust for their new small-town love? Nora in Book Lovers doesn’t have to guess. She is currently living it. Heavily driven in her career and in city life, she notices the last several relationships ended the same: boyfriend goes to a small town for work or other reasons, falls in love with the locals and their new true love, and dumps Nora, claiming that she is cold and only cares about work. However, when Nora’s younger sister begs her to go on vacation to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina, for a month, she begins to wonder not only if her former boyfriends were right about small town living, but if their perception of her being cold and work-focused is true.

This book shot up to the best romance novel that I read this year. It wasn’t because of steamy sex scenes or hijinks between characters. I loved that it challenged our thoughts of what true romance looks like. In a lot of romance movies, we are supposed to believe that the protagonist’s current lover isn’t right for them because they are heartless and career-focused. Sometimes, there are brief hints, and other times we don’t see the terrible qualities at all. We just take the protagonist’s word for it. 

However, with Nora, we see that she has lots of layers. She fights for her clients and makes herself easily available to them so they can produce their best work. She also makes time for her sister and nieces by taking them to a variety of fun places and FaceTiming them. She is not cold, but reserved. Nora had witnessed every time her mother broke down after a relationship ended, and Nora had to pick up the pieces. She doesn’t want to experience relationships the way her mother did, so Nora tended to stay guarded while dating. We get nuances with Nora’s character, whereas in most romance books or other media, we get a one-dimensional character. It is a good representation of real life because a lot of things make us who we are. We can’t just be broken down into a stereotype. 

The stereotypes keep coming when Nora’s sister, Libby, makes a list of all the typical small town things to do while they are in Sunshine Falls. The one that Libby focuses on is finding Nora a charming small town guy. Nora meets one. He is handsome, polite, strong, and helps out with his family. However, Nora meets someone who is the exact opposite: career-driven and a city lover like herself. It makes her wonder whether being with the small-town guy is really for her. I found it enlightening that the book explored that direction because in real life, the person that we want to spend our life with isn’t going to be the same for everyone. Some people may want the small town guy/gal, but that isn’t the only option available. We shouldn’t worry if the person meets the quality of a stereotype. You want to fall in love with a person who is just for you. 

I also love that this story is about sisterhood. Nora and Libby love each other tremendously, but their relationship is complicated. Nora was pushed into the role of parent before their mother died and has made sure to maintain that role even though Libby is married with children. Things come to a head when an emergency happens that forces Nora to realize that she can’t keep parenting Libby and sacrificing her own wants in the process. She learns to let go and be the sister that Libby needs, and follows her own passions for once. 

The book is enlightening because it shatters stereotypes the media feeds us about romance. What is perfect for you may not be perfect for someone else. I also liked that it showed Nora growing as a character by putting her needs first and letting go of the reins over her sister and focusing on their sisterhood instead. Learning to take a back seat and letting the person you love live their life is hard, but necessary if you want to see them flourish. In the spirit of the book, I ask the following question: Do you believe that there is a standard list of qualities that we should desire in a relationship, or is it something that varies from person to person?