2023 book 19

 Shauna Robinson's The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks

So, this was cute. This is the sort of book I’d recommend to certain members of my book club who like cute books. It’s about twenty-something Maggie, who's at loose ends in life, who drives cross country to work in her college best friend's bookstore while her friend is on maternity leave. But the bookstore is in a small town where everything is about their one famous author, and the bookstore isn’t allowed to sell books that were published after the author died in the 1960s. Plus, Maggie hates reading, especially boring classics! At least until she meets a local romance author and discovers that some books are fun! Soon she’s secretly selling modern books and hosting secret silly book events and trying to hide it from the Society who runs all the town's businesses—including her new love interest. All very cute. Buttttttt a lot of things in this book don’t 100 percent make sense—lots of suspension of disbelief required. And I lost interest in the second half when I was ready for it to just come to its inevitable conclusion already (it does pick back up toward the end). A pleasant enough diversion for me, but I think ppl who like cute books and contemporary romances would be into it. B/B+.