diff --git a/src/calibre/library/comments.py b/src/calibre/library/comments.py
index 9fc14d9c0d..fe3853d656 100644
--- a/src/calibre/library/comments.py
+++ b/src/calibre/library/comments.py
@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ def merge_comments(one, two):
 
 def sanitize_comments_html(html):
     from calibre.ebooks.markdown import Markdown
-    text = html2text(html)
+    text = html2text(html, single_line_break=False)
     md = Markdown()
     html = md.convert(text)
     return html
diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/html2text.py b/src/calibre/utils/html2text.py
index e7a6d1dd13..82abab99e8 100644
--- a/src/calibre/utils/html2text.py
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/html2text.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 # License: GPLv3 Copyright: 2019, Kovid Goyal <kovid at kovidgoyal.net>
 
 
-def html2text(html):
+def html2text(html, single_line_break=True):
     from html2text import HTML2Text
     import re
     if isinstance(html, bytes):
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ def html2text(html):
     h2t = HTML2Text()
     h2t.default_image_alt = _('Unnamed image')
     h2t.body_width = 0
-    h2t.single_line_break = True
+    h2t.single_line_break = single_line_break
     h2t.emphasis_mark = '*'
     return h2t.handle(html)