Absolutely not.
Bad writing, cringey dialogue, an immature 32 year old pushover and a massive fucking asshole does not a romance make.

Now, just to be clear, am I a hater? I absolutely am, but I tend to not be one when it comes to reading because, after all, these books are people's life's work, but whenever I come across a book as genuinely bad as this one, my hater tendencies kick in and I just have to vent.

I did ask for this book on Netgalley, before even looking it up on Goodreads, which was a very bad move on my part.
Had I seen the average rating, which wow, I wouldn't have requested it because I wouldn't have wanted to get stuck with it, but I did and reading it was a necessary sacrifice in order to get it off of my Netgalley.

I'd like to do an honorable mention of the VERY few things I enjoyed about this book:
. Our main character is a woman of color, which is something that I always appreciate and tend to enjoy in romance books.
. The concept of a baker and bookshop owner romance is very cute. Mind you, I said concept, not execution, because again, just wow.
. I really appreciated Joelle's dedication to her family, which was heavily shown throughout the book.

That's it, yep.
Moving on to the drama:
. Max, said bookshop owner, second main character and love interest, was truly atrociously written.
Throughout this book, he was consistenly written as a major, and I mean Major with a capital M, asshole, dick, and generally unlikeable person.
He did fucking mistreat Joelle, at least verbally, for half of this book, and then it got worse when they got together and he couldn't control his temper.
Max is 100% someone who could easily become an abuser, and that is not something you want to see in a love interest and main character.
Yes, he had his struggles, but you do not treat people that way, especially someone you claim to be in love with.
. Joelle, albeit nice and a dedicated family oriented person, who's supposedly 32, seemed very immature throughout the book, a pushover and just someone who's got no spine.
. The writing itself was just not good. Very amature, clunky, with some of the worst dialogue I've ever seen and I do believe I won't be picking up another one of this author's book.
. The sex scenes, which should've been the saving grace of this book, were also badly written, although they did manage to turn me on so at least there's that.
. As I mentioned beforehand, Joelle and Max's relationship was very much tense for half of the book, as their interactions were just fights, not cute banter, which was very unappealing to me.
. Shit got even worse when the third act conflict kicked in, as Max insulted, berated and verbally abused Joelle, who did end up fighting back, albeit in a way that left her on the same level as Max, so I ended up disliking both of them even more than I already did.
. The ending didn't do anything for me, as I would never take someone back when said someone berated and insulted me to my face and then proceeded to ghost me for weeks afterwards, and it shows a lack of good judgment on the part of Whitney to be a willing participant in Joelle and Max getting back together.

I know that this review comes across as very harsh, and I truly don't mean to insult the author by doing so, but when a book is this bad, and contains a character like Max who's just not a great person, it really surprises me that it got published, and by Berkley out of all the publishing houses, and I can't help but need to vent and get all of this off my chest.
Not recommended, like at all.

This was a super cute book that I fully enjoyed! It was a quick read and the characters were written in a very relatable way. They both definitely had their faults, but that just made them more real. My only dislike was I hated the communication-or lack thereof between them. I just wanted them to talk!

I wanted to love this one, but unfortunately it was a DNF for me. Sarah's writing hasn't been working for me for her last couple of books, and I just really didn't like either of the main characters in this one.

THE BOY WITH THE BOOKSTORE is a cute read. It has its swoon-worthy moments. The pace of the story was good and all-in-all enjoyable.

Thank you to Berkley Romance and NetGalley for access to this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book gave me whiplash. Where we friends? Where we enemies? Did we love each other? There was so much miscommunication. I get that Max had a lot of family issues but they were not handled well and he was just plain mean at times. I would almost say he is the definition of a red flag to me. Joelle was so incredibly immature. And no, a hamster in a bakery is a health code violation.

I have a weird relationship with this book, I didn't totally hate it but at the same time I didn't love it. It was a fun and nice read but I couldn't connect with the story or the characters. It's not a bad book, I actually enjoyed Sarah's writing and the character's evolution, just couldn't connect with them. I would totally recommend this book to others! It just wasn't for me for some reason :(

i wanted to like this book - bakery! bookstore! what's not to love - but i couldn't shake the feeling that these two characters just didn't like each other very much. not exactly conducive to a romance. beyond that, i felt their do-gooding and other people's actions felt unrealistic and kind of cartoonish. in short, this one just didn't work for me!

Unfortunately this book was not for me. It felt like reading two very wordy, repetitive, teenagers’ diaries at all times. The dialogue felt completely unrealistic and the characters’ behaviour was very immature considering their supposed ages. The entire book felt very cringey and like it needed a complete overhaul. For every one line of dialogue there was an additional paragraph of the character’s thoughts and feelings. It was very “telling not showing” - and sometimes things were repeated over and over. I don’t know how many times it was mentioned that Reggie was a part timer Max hired, as though this hadn’t already been made clear multiple times. And it seemed to be a pattern through the book of providing extended details about things that already happened in the book, as though the reader might forget what they just read a chapter ago. It also all seemed so unrealistic. There was always something that just happened to pop up to either create conflict or improve things. A contractor mistakenly taking out an entire wall between two shops? Whoops, just ripped out an entire wall during this months long renovation and I guess we’ll leave it that way! It made the whole story seem chaotic, because at any time the author could just throw in some random unrealistic event to try to make things more dramatic or interesting, and it ended up having the opposite effect because I lost interest very fast.

Sarah never fails to make me fall in love with a new couple. I loved the premise of next door business owners falling in love and honestly this story made me crave all things ube. The hamster moments had me laughing and I was so proud of the lead when she put her foot down when being mistreated. I think a lot of people think that just because people can be kind and some exude sunshine energy, they assume they can treat them however they want. Truly enjoyed this one!

Thank you PRH International for this gifted copy!

The Boy With the Bookstore was a similarly amusing read. It tells the story of Joelle, an aspiring baker who owns the bakery cafe next door to Max, the hot, tattooed bookstore owner. Max and Joelle have been working next door to each other for a year and a half and have had crushes on each other without knowing. They've been having minor flirting until, after a couple of whiskies, they share their feelings for each other with steamy scenes. When their landlord informs them that they must vacate their spaces for renovation work, Fate steps in, and he arranges for them to share space behind the building. When they work closely together, things get interesting.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was an adorable read with a bit of depth, in my opinion. Throughout the story, I was a big fan of how the grumpy/sunshine trope was handled. Other tropes that appeared that I enjoyed were forced proximity and miscommunication. It was also much steamier than I had anticipated. It also had a lot of family dynamics. It was wonderful to see such a loving and caring family. Joelle's family spoke to me a lot because I grew up in the same culture, in a typical Filipino family that values relationships despite how toxic they can be at times. It has shared each family member's perseverance in the face of challenges. This book had some great elements, but it also had some that disappointed me. I enjoyed reading about them and watching them grow as individuals. I enjoy books about coffee, baked goods, and, of course, books.

This was just okay for me. I didn't connect with the story or the characters. I know others loved it. It just didn't work and wasn't for me.

I really enjoyed the whole opposite attract vibe going on here. I like how Prima is a good girl who does a lot for her family and Max is well... the exact opposite. It takes someone like Prima to get him to see how to change is good in his life.

Advanced Review Copy | I loved the cute pets, Joelle's family, and the bookstore and bakery combination.

However, like others have said, Joelle and Max's relationship felt a bit like whiplash and was one too many on-again, off-again scenarios - with not a lot of substance in between.

More so for me, while the characters are in their 30s, everything read as quite immature, and minus the sex scenes, I would have thought this was a YA story.

I enjoyed On Location and Simmer Down so much more, but The Boy With the Bookstore was still an endearing and quick read.

Thank you to NetGalley & Berkley for a free advanced copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.


Find our full review on The Uncorked Librarian here: https://www.theuncorkedlibrarian.com/upcoming-new-book-releases-2022/

This was very middle of the road for me. There were aspects where I was like this could be the hallmark movie of my dreams, but that unfortunately fell flat for me because at times they were just frustratingly immature and standoffish which made it not so fun to read at times. I think that as a whole this is good for readers who sort of like the rollercoaster or like to loathe to like to love, but for me I wanted a bit more.

I am loving the trend of all these romances that take place in a bookstore or a library and this book fits perfectly in the genre! Sarah Echavarre Smith developed a great little romcom!

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

I always like a book about books -- and baking? I'm in. This is super swoonworthy, cheesy in a way I found really fun.

This book was kinda hard for me to enjoy. I thought the forced proximity seemed just TOO unrealistic, the characters weren’t very likable and their attraction didn’t seem believable either. Overall a miss for me.

This book had a lot of things going for it. A bookstore, a cafe, forced proximity, enemies to lovers (or friends to enemies to friends to enemies to lovers?), and a diverse cast. I was instead left reading about the immature ramblings of the female main character and the emotionally abusive whiplash from the male main character. I stopped reading at 30% after the MMC was an asshole and the FMC did everything to make him not mad at her.

I really couldn't get into this romance. Max is a jerk and Joelle is a martyr. I wanted her to stand up for herself and punch him in the face, not kiss him. Hard to root for characters you don't like.

I really enjoyed this book! It was cute and as a first gen it hit home on a lot of fronts in terms of being their family but also trying to be there for yourself. It's hard to balance what you want versus what you know your family needs/deserves. Also I'm a sucker for a grump and books that involve food.