Breakaway Books

Authored by Laurie Gilmore; Published August 2024; Romance

⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️🏖️🏖️

If you fell in love with the quaint small town of Dream Harbor from The Pumpkin Spice Cafe of TikTok fame, The Cinnamon Bun Bookstore will send you straight back. It doesn’t have quite the same cozy vibes, but it made a dreamy summer feel possible.

In The Cinnamon Bun Bookstore, Hazel is about to turn 30, and she is feeling her age. She wants a taste of adventure before she leaves her 20s, the decade supposedly filled with partying—which she has spent working at a bookstore. Enter Noah, the town’s hot fishing tour guide, who has a bit of a reputation as a ladies’ man. He’s doing everything he possibly can to spend more time with Hazel, and when she starts discovering clues for fun outings in the romance novels in her store, he offers to escort her. But he just wants a carefree summer fling… right?

At moments, I felt like I was the ideal audience for this book: Like Hazel, summer holds little appeal for me. I hate when everything gets sandy, I burn as soon as I step into the sun, and mosquitoes consider me to be a great feast. But the scavenger hunt that Hazel is sent on (in the best possible way—through books) does make summer a little more appealing, at least in the fantasy land of Dream Harbor. I deeply connected with Hazel’s fervent desire not to be the butt of a joke perpetrated by the whole town, even if it is a prank intended to get her to enjoy the summer before her birthday. Following anonymous clues *does* hold a certain mysterious appeal, though, and it all appeared to be in good fun. But, to be fully transparent, I enjoyed the cozy fall vibes of The Pumpkin Spice Cafe more than the summer revelry of this one. 

Be warned: the spice level of this novel is quite high. I blushed listening to it on audio. But the book has depth, and I especially appreciated the way it dealt with Noah and his struggle to recognize his own strengths. I’ve read several novels where women work to break down the negative self-talk playing on loop in their own minds, but this may be the first where I’ve seen a man do the same. It was heartening to watch him become more accepting of his desires for his life and finally be comfortable spending time with his family again. His own individual journey made (frankly) more sense to me than his romance with Hazel, but I’ll take any romantic relationship that has a strong foundation in books. 

The Cinnamon Bun Bookstore is a good rendition of a lighthearted summer romance—just as long as you’re not looking for anything too serious.