Book Review: The Pumpkin Spice Café

This was a really cute read. Basically a Hallmark movie with sex. You know the Hallmark movies I mean? The ones that involve small towns where everyone knows everyone and everybody’s business because small-town life is very insular and there is nothing better to do? Yup, THAT one! Here is the thing: we all love a small town, in theory. In reality, I think I would personally hate it. I do not want people knowing everything that I have going on… bit I tense that. So what is happening within this week’s book? Well, like any small-town-style Hallmark film, we have a girl who has moved to the small town from the big city after working her super-stressy corporate job and being thoroughly burnt out (or in this case, finding her boss dead at his desk) and taking over her aunt’s coffee shop while said aunt goes off and travels. In walks big, strong, silent type, very good-looking farmer with a heart of gold and a loathing for gossip and small-town life. Tadahhh! We have our romance novel for the week!

Here is the thing: it doesn’t take a genius to know what will happen in this book. It really doesn’t. We know there will be a happy ending; we know there will be some steamy scenes, and we are all here for it. What I like to discuss is whether it was worth reading. It is part of a whole mini-universe set inside the same small town of Dream Harbour (I mean, can you get even more Hallmark-y than that?!) Now this is only the first book in the series and it ticked a lot of boxes. A very charming heroine, a very, very lovely muscly hero and a quaint setting. It was a quick and easy read and one that was much needed after I deep-dived into The Year of Magical Thinking, which was about grief. And it was heavy. It was exactly what the doctor ordered.

But let’s also talk about the characters, Jeanie and Logan. They’re… fine. A little bit one-dimensional in places. I didn’t think there was much beyond the surface of Jeanie; I like my heroines fleshed out so I can fully picture them in my head. She was very much a ‘what you see is what you get’ type of person. Perfectly friendly and upbeat: the perfect personality type for a quaint small town. But I wanted more. Logan, he is also fine; he at least has his storyline and character fleshed out more. He has a full backstory that isn’t vague, and it has you rooting for him. Thank god.

The verdict is that this was a fun read; will I read the rest in the series? I’m not sure. Is it one of my favourite fun reads of the year? Ehhh, no. It was fine; it was exactly what I expected it to be. Sometimes that’s a good thing, and sometimes that’s just super boring. For a fun and cute romance novel, I really need to feel it in my bones; I need to have it on my mind for weeks still afterwards; it needs to really sing. This felt more like the backing vocals in a church choir. Nice, necessary, but is anyone paying attention? No.