This title is an entry for my reading challenge for the year. It takes the first spot for the Alliterative Title pick.

Synopsis

Maggie Banks doesn’t really feel she has a purpose. There’s nothing she really wants to do, and her family is starting to think this life of jumping around from job to job makes up the core of her existence. It’s this need for something to pay her bills that brings her to Bell River for a temporary job managing her friend’s small-town bookstore while said friend is on maternity leave. There is one problem, however. The bookstore is already struggling, and Maggie can’t sell any books published in this century. You read that right. Per some weird town rule in place by the descendant of the town’s most famous resident, Edward Bell, the bookstore can’t sell anything published after ole’ Eddie was gracing the town with his presence. Seeing the need for more modern fare, Maggie decides to covertly defy the town’s stupid rules and bring in some romances and thrillers to shake things up a bit. Will she save the bookstore or drive in the last nail in the coffin with her risky maneuvers?

Review

I’ll be completely honest. I have some real issues with this book that are almost completely tied up in its main character. On the surface, this is a unique and intriguing premise. Weird town society pigeonholes business owners into only peddling one dead guy’s junk causing our plucky heroine to challenge the established authority and give the townspeople a voice? I like it. I just don’t really like the execution. First of all, Maggie is a total book snob. She’s a book snob who doesn’t even read, which is both unrealistic and so much worse than a well-read one.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that publishing a book in which your main theme is that classic literature is boring is a bit risky. I am a bit torn on it, because I’ve wondered if it’s not a tongue-in-cheek critique of how literature snobs often snub their noses at genre fiction without giving readers the respect they deserve. If so, well played. The problem is that there are a lot of us who like a little bit of everything. My roots are in the classics, but I love a good mystery/thriller. I’m not a huge fan of romance, but that’s my own personal taste and I understand why some people like it. Some books challenge us and some provide us an escape. There’s nothing wrong with either avenue, and there’s nothing wrong with liking a mixture of both depending on our mood.

Robinson could have played this out and shown how Maggie develops an appreciation of ye old-timey boring crap, but she really doesn’t. Here’s where I’ll bring in Malcolm. I LOVED Malcolm. He’s nuanced, quirky, and awkwardly introverted in a way many of us can relate. He’s the opposite of Maggie. He likes and appreciates the classics and isn’t too enthused about schmaltzy romance novels, though he loves a good sci-fi. He’s the prime example of the awkward kid who stumbles upon their holy grail of a book that fills a void in an otherwise confusing existence. Now as a grown man he still treasures this one read that helped him become the person he is. So how does Robinson treat Malcolm? She has Maggie endlessly tease him, and there’s even an incredibly uncomfortable scene in which Maggie and the women in his family all gang up on him to ramp up the teasing. Malcolm starts to come around and develop a bit more of an appreciation for fiction outside his comfort zone, but Maggie remains the slightly pretentious anti-classics anti-hero we all know and don’t really love.

I struggle to see this book as the romance it’s supposed to be, because I feel there’s something toxic about Maggie and Malcolm’s relationship that will eventually cause them to implode. He’s her punching bag, and eventually he’ll get tired of being teased merely for being himself, quirks and all. I feel like we’re supposed to be rooting for Maggie, but I just think she’s a jerk.

While the book is decently well-written and well-paced, the plot is just kind of infuriating. I couldn’t believe so many of these small business owners in Bell River sold their livelihoods over to this meddlesome buffoon and allowed him to cripple their businesses. No owner of a bookstore would allow the kind of restrictions to what they can sell that were present in this book. It’s simply not a sustainable business model. Small independent book sellers already have enough trouble staying relevant in today’s digital world. In this case, it’s convenient to the plot by introducing the conflict that spurs Maggie to action, but it just seems utterly stupid when I sit back and really think it through. Don’t even get me started on the fact that Maggie so casually and easily gambled her best friend’s livelihood and the livelihood of her growing family without even clueing her in. Not ok, Maggie. Not ok.

Essentially, this is a promising premise that wound up falling flat for me. The good kind of gets overshadowed by the irritating and unlikeable main character. Sadly, this one is a 2 star for me.

Published November 1, 2022 by OrangeSky Audio. ISBN 9781667074108. Runtime 9 hrs 18 mins. Narrated by Imani Jade Powers.