Review: The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman

The author of Other People’s Houses and The Garden of Small Beginnings delivers a quirky and charming novel chronicling the life of confirmed introvert Nina Hill as she does her best to fly under everyone's radar.

THE BOOKISH LIFE OF NINA HILL by ABBI WAXMAN

Series: Standalone

Publication date: July 9, 2019

Published by: Berkley

Genre: women's fiction

 

SYNOPSIS

The only child of a single mother, Nina has her life just as she wants it: a job in a bookstore, a kick-butt trivia team, a world-class planner and a cat named Phil. If she sometimes suspects there might be more to life than reading, she just shrugs and picks up a new book. 

When the father Nina never knew existed suddenly dies, leaving behind innumerable sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews, Nina is horrified. They all live close by! They're all—or mostly all—excited to meet her! She'll have to Speak. To. Strangers. It's a disaster! And as if that wasn't enough, Tom, her trivia nemesis, has turned out to be cute, funny, and deeply interested in getting to know her. Doesn't he realize what a terrible idea that is?

Nina considers her options.

1. Completely change her name and appearance. (Too drastic, plus she likes her hair.) 

2. Flee to a deserted island. (Hard pass, see: coffee.) 

3. Hide in a corner of her apartment and rock back and forth. (Already doing it.)

It's time for Nina to come out of her comfortable shell, but she isn't convinced real life could ever live up to fiction. It's going to take a brand-new family, a persistent suitor, and the combined effects of ice cream and trivia to make her turn her own fresh page.

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Praise for The Bookish Life of Nina Hill:

“Move over on the settee, Jane Austen. You’ve met your modern-day match in Abbi Waxman. Bitingly funny, relatable and intelligent, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill is a must for anyone who loves to read.”—Kristan Higgins, New York Times bestselling author of Good Luck With That 

“In this love letter to book nerds, Waxman introduces the extraordinary introvert Nina Hill…. With witty dialogue and a running sarcastic inner monologue, Waxman brings Nina to vibrant life as she upends her introverted routine and becomes part of the family. Fans of Jojo Moyes will love this.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Waxman has created a thoroughly engaging character in this bookish, contemplative, set-in-her ways woman. Be prepared to chuckle.”—Kirkus Review starred review

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hi there. I'm a chocolate loving, dog loving writer living in Los Angeles. I sit down if I can, and lie down whenever possible. If you enjoy my book and would like a personalized, signed bookplate to go in it, email me your name and address and I'll send you one! abbi@amplecat.com

You can find her on:

Goodreads | Website |



REVIEW

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars







I was giddy when I saw the synopsis for this book. There were so many things that appealed to me that I absolutely HAD to read it.

She's an introvert.
She's a book lover. (Particularly Pride and Prejudice which is my favorite classic novel.)
She works in a bookstore.
Did I say she's an introvert?
She sounded delightfully brainy/nerdy.
The cover is so cute I can't take it.

With so many things that I love, I figured this character is going to be unbelievably relatable. When it comes to Nina, any book nerd will find plenty of things to fall in love with. I can promise you that. What I wasn't expecting was the author's level of humor that charmed me at first glance. That was an added bonus that brought the story up to a whole new level. Nina's brain is a highly entertaining thing to explore. A little neurotic and a whole lot lovable. Her dry sarcasm paired with a blunt tongue were unexpected when you first meet her. Because of her unassuming appearance, people would often underestimate her only to find out she's as sharp as a tack and quite formidable.

Nina is on the verge of moving into her 30s and though there's nothing wrong with feeling a need for solitude, her head is a bit of a mess. Okay, more than a bit. She has anxiety, her mind races all of the time, and she uses a rigid schedule and activities to keep herself feeling in control of everything. For me, I didn't feel that her feelings and actions always matched up. Her constant, daily social groups contradicted what an introvert would genuinely want to do. On top of that, we were told that she could only take social interaction in small doses. Yet we never really see her have any anxiety in any of her clubs/groups and I felt we should have seen some signs in order to be consistent.

    People were… exhausting. They made her anxious. Leaving her apartment every morning was the turning over of a giant hourglass, the mental energy she’d stored up overnight eroding grain by grain. She refueled during the day by grabbing moments of solitude and sometimes felt her life was a long-distance swim between islands of silence.

Finding out that the father she never knew has passed away came as a huge shock. But what turned her world entirely upside down was learning that she has a long list of blood relatives who are alive and well. Even worse? Now she's going to have to meet them all. Family is a tough area for Nina because she grew up with an absent mother and no father. She had a wonderful nanny who raised her, but her mother's selfishness and disinterest took its toll on her. Nina isn't feeling sure about letting new people in her life who could shatter the security she's built around herself. I really enjoyed seeing her relationship grow with Peter and seeing her grow more confident with her new family. I was so disgusted by her mother for taking away Nina's choice to know her father. Yes, he was far from perfect, but that doesn't excuse what she did.

    She’d never experienced a relative before, apart from her mom, and Candice had never really warmed to the role. Presumably, if she and Peter had hated each other on sight it would have sucked, but she knew already that they were going to be connected forever.

Now to the romance. Tom was a wonderful guy and I loved him right from the first scene. I thought it was adorable how they met through opposing trivia quiz teams. He was impressed and maybe even a little intimidated by her vast knowledge and it was cute to see them get nudged together by their friends. However, their relationship isn't a strong part of the story. It's quite slow burn between them but I didn't feel as if I was missing anything because the heart of he story is really about Nina finding herself. Her internal dialogue and self-exploration was so intelligently done that the romance doesn't even feel necessary. Not to say that I didn't care about them together, but it wasn't the main focus. What I enjoyed most about Tom as her love interest was his acceptance of her as she was learning and growing. The only thing he demanded was that she made him a priority, which is as it should be.

    He tugged her closer and kissed her. “I want to be with you the way you are, the way you’re going to be, and the way you end up. Every way you are is beautiful to me.”

I really loved this author's writing, and without a doubt will be reading more from her in the future. I recommend this to any bookworm looking for a character that they can identify with. It's the kind of light read filled with laugh-out-loud moments to put a huge smile on your face.

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