Harper Reed owns the coziest bookshop in Willowbrook. The Book Nook is her sanctuary. Floor-to-ceiling shelves. Reading nooks with fairy lights. A cat named Darcy who judges customers. And absolutely no corporate chains or pretentious book critics allowed.So when famous literary critic Alexander Stone walks into her shop, Harper is less than welcoming. Alex represents everything she hates about the book world. Elitism. Judgment. Cold analysis that sucks the joy out of reading.Alex is in Willowbrook to write his new book. Away from the city. Away from deadlines. He chose the town because it's quiet. Peaceful. The perfect place to focus.He didn't expect the bookshop owner to hate him on sight. Or to be so beautiful. Or to challenge every pretentious opinion he's ever had about literature.Harper refuses to stock his books. Says they're too cold. Too analytical. That he's forgotten what it's like to read for pleasure instead of criticism.Alex argues that literary standards matter. That not all books deserve praise. That someone needs to maintain quality in publishing.They're opposites. Oil and water. Romance readers versus literary snobs.But Willowbrook is small. The bookshop is the only one for fifty miles. And Alex keeps coming back. For coffee. For books. For the way Harper's eyes light up when she talks about her favorite stories.Harper starts recommending books to Alex. Not his usual literary fiction. Romance novels. Fantasy. Cozy mysteries. Books with happy endings and hope and joy.Alex starts reading them. Starts understanding why people love stories that make them feel good. Starts remembering why he fell in love with books in the first place?before criticism became his career.They argue less. Talk more. Share their favorite passages. Debate plot twists. Recommend books to each other.Late nights in the bookshop turn into something more. Conversations become confessions. Professional respect becomes personal connection. And somewhere in the pages of all those books, they fall in love.But Alex's deadline is approaching. His editor wants him back in the city. His career is there. His life.Harper's life is here. The bookshop. The community. Everything she's built. She can't leave. Won't leave.So they have to choose: love or ambition. The bookshop or the big city. A life together or the lives they've always known.LOVE BY THE BOOK is a heartwarming bookshop romance about opposites who attract, finding joy in unexpected places, learning to see beyond first impressions, books that bring people together, small town charm, and discovering that the best stories are the ones we write ourselves.Perfect for fans of bookshop settings, enemies to lovers, grumpy/sunshine dynamics, book discussions and literary banter, small town romance, forced proximity, and happily ever afters that prove love is the greatest story ever written.
