Bookish People

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader as part of a Quick Takes Catch-up post, emphasizing pithiness, not thoroughness.

---

Coll tried so hard—you could feel the effort on every page. There were some truly amusing moments, and even a little sweetness here. But every storyline was entirely predictable—and not in the way that can be comfy and reassuring, but in a disappointing way. The madcap/slapstick moments felt disorganized and chaotic. The earnest parts felt like a Hallmark card.

The parts of the book that were about the ups and downs, travails and semi-triumphs, of a small bookstore made me like this enough not to resent the experience. But that's about the best thing I can say.

I liked the characters and the author's writing. The story itself was ok. Part of the storyline is around one of the bookshop employees. She is determined to have a controversial poet at the store because she believes it is her father. But when it got to that point there was a brief encounter with her mom and the poet, but it quickly ended. The storylines of the main characters in the story felt this way. Over just as quick as it began. At times it felt like there was too much going on. 

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Muse for the opportunity to read and review this book.