The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman

“Being with you is as good as being alone.”

– Abbi Waxman

Specifics:

Book: The Bookish Life of Nina Hill

Author: Abbi Waxman

Published: 9th July’2019

Genre: Humour, Romance novel, Humorous Fiction, Domestic Fiction

Publisher: Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House

Pages: 333

My rating: 4.5/5

Blurb:

Meet Nina hill!

A young woman supremely confident in her own… shell.

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.

“Nina had looked around and realized she would never run out of things to read, and that certainty filled her with peace and satisfaction. It didn’t matter what hit the fan; as long as there were unread books in the world, she would be fine.”

– Abbi Waxman

Review:

I picked up the book as a part of the monthly read-along with the @bibliophilereadingclub hosted by my amazing Sana @ofkitiesandbooks. I wanted to read the book from so long but stalled due to reasons that do not matter now that I have finished reading it. (Clearly because I’m writing a review!)

I had a lot of thoughts about the book after reading the title and seeing the cover. I thought that the lead would be a clichéd book nerd who does nothing but read and may be ends up exploring a new part of her or the opposite of that. I thought it would revolve around books and nothing more. (My imagination is obviously limited!)

Boy! Has the author proved me wrong! And she has done it so cheerfully. The book was nothing like I judged it to be. I’m glad I read it.

The Bookish Life of Nina hill is the story of an introverted trivia geek Nina who loves reading so much that she works at a bookstore and spends a lot of time organising several book clubs to encourage reading. She has a cat, Phil, who she occasionally talks to and a mom who travels a lot. But she isn’t a clichéd book-nerd. Infact, she’s nothing like it.

She has a fairly good life with good friends from work and trivia nights. She also seems to have a liking for wine. In her well ordered life, she suddenly gets a call that forces her to alter her well-organsied life.

She has an entire family. The family is so big that they have to draw a family tree to explain it to her. Such a huge change to her simple life!

I don’t wanna give out spoilers so I’m gonna stop at that here. But I can totally promise you that you will thoroughly enjoy what happens next.

The writing style is very friendly. It’s a very easy read and you will end up finishing the book without knowing it. The narration has just the right amount of a sarcastic tone to it and you will laugh your guts out at certain chapters. The chapters have an interesting twist to it. In the beginning of each chapter, you get a jist of the chapter. It’s something I’ve never seen before and I have grown a liking to it.

The characters are very well written and brought to life with the magic of Abbi Waxman. She has given a complete personality to each one of those characters and made them seem real and relatable.

The plot is good and has a smooth pace to it. If you want to read a book that makes you feel good and give you really good vibes, go with this one. It’s ending is happy and beautiful too. Just what you would need to cheer yourself up!!

I would definitely recommend this book to everyone. I rate it 4.5/5.

“f you’re not scared, you’re not brave.”

– Abbi Waxman

Spoiler alert:

Now that we’re here, let’s talk about the story. I loved the little changes that happened and I loved that the author always did something I couldn’t have imagined. I love it when the story is unpredictable.

My favourite part was obviously the call form the lawyer. It was made more interesting with the enthusiastic Nephew and Brother with such similarities to Nina. The best chapter was the will reading and the part where she gets her father’s favourite car.

Nina discovers a lot about her father through so many different minds and as it turns out, he actually cared enough to creepily watch her go to school. She gets to learn driving stick (basically a car with gears) from her father’s friend which made me highly emotional.

The letters in the car were such a sweet addition to the story. I love how the letters give Nina a chance to get close to Lydia, her niece who is very angry that Nina gets a part in the will. The fight between the boomers and zoomers was hilarious.

I was so hurt when Tom and Nina broke up. But the way they get back together on the finale of the quiz competition was mind-blowing. I love their pair. Also, Tom makes bookshelves! That was so unexpected but fresh and lovely.

Shout-out to their amazing friends for getting them together. That was great too.

The book ended with – ‘They lived happily ever after’. It’s been so long that I’ve read a book with that ending and as they say, it was something I didn’t need but now that I have it, I don’t wanna let go of it.

Now that I’ve used the words ‘loved’, ‘amazing’ and all the synonyms for the word ‘funny’ to the fullest, I’ll sum it up by stating that it was a fun and a feel-good read.

“She enjoyed people—she really did—she just needed to take them in homeopathic doses; a little of the poison was the cure.”

– Abbi Waxman

Coming to some of the characters:

Nina Hill: The best example for a book nerd that I can give out to the whole wide world! She is one of the cutest characters I’ve ever read. Firstly, she isn’t the clichéd bookworm who does nothing but read because honestly do they even exist? She has a life, just like all the other bookworms that walk the planet and in that life, her priority is books. She works at a bookstore which again is goals (I don’t know how much that pays but she had a decent home with a cat so I’m guessing it’s enough), a planner nerd and she is a trivia geek. She is also very kind and loves and supports her friends. Just like everyone in the book blogging community. I’m gonna nominate her to be Queen of the Book World! All hail Queen Nina Hill! It is also very sweet how she tries to give her sister a good reading club even though she just met her. She was so full of love that she never had to bat an eye before sharing it.

Tom: The cutest boyfriend award goes to Mr Tom. He’s introduced as a member of a fellow trivia team and their friends happen to predict that they’re going to be an item soon. He is very shy yet caring and doesn’t come across as a control freak. Meaning that, he cares enough to let go. His feelings are hurt when Nina breaks up with him but they get back stronger and live happily ever after. Him, making book cases and she filling them with her books. A perfect love story!

Archie: If only they knew about each other, they would have grown up together. Archie is so much like Nina and he suffers from anxiety. He has a kid and another on the way and opens up about all the trouble he’s going through to her. It feels so candid and nice. They are like long lost twins separated at birth and it was very heart warming.

Peter: Can I get myself a nephew like him? He’s older to Nina and is kind enough to explain her about the N number of siblings and nieces and nephews that are a part of her newly found family. He is always supportive and never once flinched at the thought of a new aunt.

Lydia: I hated that Lydia didn’t wanna give Nina a chance. I was so upset that she was upsetting Nina. But turns out, she was the most like Nina and they actually get along really well and make an amazing team. I love how Lydia pressures Nina to pursue her man and encourages her to live her life to the fullest.

“Some people take energy; some people give energy . . . Occasionally, you get lucky and find someone whose energy balances your own and brings you into neutral.”

– Abbi Waxman

Reasons to read:

1. Smooth writing (can bring you out of a reading slump)
2. Very relatable (no cliché atleast not too much cliché)
3. Feels real
4. Addresses anxiety
5. Lgbtq plus
6. The lead and most of the other characters are book nerds
7. The lead works in a book store
8. A bunch of good surprises
9. A feel good book
10. Gives us a little trivia here and there as a part of the story
11. Has a bomb planner template

Cons:

I honestly cannot find any cons but I haven’t rated the book 5/5 because I didn’t go through a range of emotions and that is important for me in a book. But if I had to read the book again, I totally would.

“It also meant she thought of books as medication and sanctuary and the source of all good things. Nothing yet had proven her wrong.”

– Abbi Waxman