By: Cait Marie
Blurb
Don’t you just love the smell of old books in the morning?
Madeline Moore does. Books & Moore, the musty bookstore her family has owned for generations, is where she feels most herself. Nothing is going to stop her from coming back after college to take over the store from her beloved aunt.
Nothing, that is—until a chain bookstore called Prologue opens across the street and threatens to shut them down.
Madeline sets out to demolish the competition, but Jasper, the guy who works over at Prologue, seems intent on ruining her life. Not only is he taking her customers, he has the unbelievable audacity to be… extremely cute.
But that doesn’t matter. Jasper is the enemy and he will be destroyed. After all—all’s fair in love and (book) wars.
Review
I’m really killing it with picking random YA romance audiobooks this month. This one was wonderful! It was so fun and cute, but it also dealt with some pretty heavy topics on family.
Madeline works at her family’s bookstore, which is struggling now that a bigger one has opened across the street. What’s worse? The guy who has been coming in and flirting with her for weeks… turns out to be the owner’s son and he works there. Naturally, it becomes a competition full of pranks.
Meanwhile, she’s also dealing with her mother being back in town, who essentially abandoned her and her brother when they were little and has flitted in and out of their lives since. Between dealing with that drama, preparing to go to college, trying to save her family’s store, and fighting with the guy she can’t stop thinking about, Madeline has a lot going on.
I really enjoyed all the different dynamics, and having a story revolved around bookstores was great! The characters were well developed and relatable. As someone who has had a complicated blended family most of my life, I loved seeing this type of set up, even though some of it was heartbreaking. It’s rare to connect with a book in that way because it just doesn’t happen that often. The romance was great too. It’s a slow burn, but the tension build up and seeing them become reluctant friends first was absolutely worth it.
There was one thing that didn’t happen that I kept hoping for though, which left me wanting a tiny bit more closure, but it wasn’t enough to lessen my love of this book. Without spoiling too much, Madeline has been raised by her aunt, as has her brother, but he also has a father who has been around for both of them. Throughout the story, we see him step in more than once as a parental figure for her, and we see her be jealous of her brother for having had a parent stay around for him all this time. At various points through the end, she has private conversations with her mom, her aunt, and her brother individually, as they work through their issues and such. But the conversation I wanted most was with her brother’s dad. I was really hoping for that moment where he’d distinctively say he’s always there for her and always would be, or something along those lines. It kept feeling like it was leading there, but it never happened.
Again, this was a minor thing that most probably wouldn’t even consider. It did not impact my enjoyment of the book at all. I truly loved this book and would recommend it for those who enjoy upper YA romance.
Just a heads up, things do get a little steamier than I expect in YA. It wasn’t graphic by any means, but it’s clear what the characters are doing, and it’s somewhat suggestive at times. I had zero problem with it (I also read and write spicy romance), but I like to warn readers in case they do.
Functionally Fictional 