Must Love Books by Shauna Robinson

Welcome Back, Booklovers! Do you know what it feels like to get to your mid to late 20s and realize you're not where you want to be in life? That the job who've had for the past five years feels stagnant with no room to grow?  That's where I was for most of 2021, which was part of the reason I decided to pick up Must Love Books. I received an arc from Sourcebooks for review. 

Nora has spent five years in publishing as an editorial assistant at Parsons Press. Her love of books led her to the job but Parsons doesn't publish the kind of books she loves. They publish repetitive business books usually from long time authors who have published with them for years. Right now they are focusing all their energy on acquiring the manuscript of a young breakout author, Andrew Santos.

After receiving a pay cut that has her barely able to pay her bills, Nora decides she needs another job. So she lies to her former manager, Lynn about leaving Parsons and takes a freelance job at publishing company Weber. Weber sees Parsons as direct competition so there's definitely conflict of interest there. Nora just has to do a good job for the next six months and keep the arrangement a secret until Weber offers her a full time position. In the meantime Parsons puts a promotion on the table if Nora can convince Andrew to sign the contract for his next book. Nora does start to develop a closer relationship with Andrew but feels conflicted over steering him towards one publisher over another based on what's best for her interests.

It was a little slow as we go through the day to day in Nora's office. And as the conversations all center around work it can become a little repetitive but it was the relatability that kept me reading. Once Nora's coworkers who she's close with start to leave it makes it even harder for her. As someone who has been in that situation it's so relatable. It's easier to suffer through a bad job when you have people surrounding you who make the job better. A popular saying is that people don't leave the job they leave the manager. Nora was very close with her old manager Lynn but doesn't have the same relationship with her new manager Rita. 

Nora's mental health has all taken a toll the longer she's been working at the job and she at times has suicidal thoughts. While some readers may be disappointed that she doesn't go down the path to therapy I appreciate that she does actual that her mental health is important and that she needs to find a job that's better for her. It's okay to not be completely in love with the job you went to school for or to stick with your first job or field forever. 

This book really takes away the glamour of publishing showing it as a job much like any other job. Publishing is a business first and foremost and her company conducts itself like every other big business. They make decisions without factoring their employees mental health into the equation, there's plans for growth that leave one person doing the job of several, and the lowest level employees are experiencing pay cuts.