A Review On The Boy with the Bookstore by Sarah Echavarre Smith

Joelle Prima has worked side by side Max Boyson for years, but after the owner of the building they both work at wants to renovate, they are forced to share a space, a bookshop owner and a baker in one tight area. But, it gets even harder when Joelle has had the biggest crush on Max since they first met. I gave The Boy with the Bookstore four stars, really

Book: The Boy with the Bookstore by Sarah Smith
Series: Standalone
Publication Date: September 6, 2022
(Thank you NetGalley for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review)
Tags: Adult, romance, bakery, bookstore, forced proximity
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository | Thrift Books | Abe Books
Read: September 4, 2022 to September 6, 2022

When a baker meets the bookshop owner of her dreams, and he turns into her nemesis, they’ll both have to read between the lines to avoid a career-ending recipe for disaster.

Max Boyson looks good…from a distance. But up close and personal, the tattooed hottie Joelle Prima has been crushing on for the past year and half has turned into the prime example of why you shouldn’t judge a book by his delectable cover.

When she first learned about the massive renovation to the building they share, Joelle imagined that temporarily combining her Filipino bakery with Max’s neighboring bookstore would be the perfect opening chapter to their happily ever after. In her fantasies they fed each other bibingka and pandesal while discussing Jane Austen and cooing over her pet hamster, Pumpkin. Reality, however…is quite different. Her gallant prince turned out to be a stubborn toad who snaps at her in front of customers, dries his sweaty gym clothes in her oven, and routinely helps himself to the yummy pastries in her display case without asking.

But beneath Max’s grumpy glares, Joelle senses a rising heat—and a softening heart. And when they discover the real reason for the renovation, they’ll have to put both their business senses and their feelings for each other to the test.

Spoiler Free Review

I gave The Boy with the Bookstore four stars, really enjoying the forced proximity of Joelle and Max having to work together. They were both really cute together and the chemistry from the start was amazing. I felt their connection from day one and since the first chapter, you can see just how funny and cute they would be together. Their relationship was fun and fast and I found myself having a lot of fun reading this.

One thing I found throughout the book was how quick it was for Joelle to switch her emotions. From one minute she’s happy and enjoying working close to Max, the next minute she’s angry and throwing out words at Max. That was something I wasn’t really a fan of when it came to Joelle as a main character. While overall she was fun and you could see her character growth from shy and somewhat timid to a more confident — but still shy — woman who stands up for the people she loves. She was a very bumpy character and it felt like a roller coaster when reading her point of view. Even Max, though he was completely lovable and I really enjoyed reading his point of view as well, it just seemed that both of them lacked communication and acted on emotions first and it felt like people had to mention how irrational they both acted and that they should have listened first. That was the one downside of reading these two together. They were great when it came to the chemistry but seemed to lack in the communications department on some occasions.

That being said, The Boy with the Bookstore was an overall great story. I have read other of Sarah Smith’s work and found myself always having a good time when reading her books. I recommend trying this out!

Thank you again to NetGalley and Berkley Romance for inviting me to read The Boy with the Bookstore and for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I hope you guys have a great day, please like and comment down below if you enjoyed this book as well or if you plan on reading it!

Loves,

Veronica Chen