The Boy with the Bookstore

By: Sarah Echavarre Smith

Narrated by: Donnabella Mortel, Dane Anderson

When a baker meets the bookshop owner of her dreams, and he turns into her nemesis, they’ll both have to read between the lines to avoid a career-ending recipe for disaster.

Max Boyson looks good...from a distance. But up close and personal, the tattooed hottie Joelle Prima has been crushing on for the past year and half has turned into the prime example of why you shouldn’t judge a book by his delectable cover.

When she first learned about the massive renovation to the building they share, Joelle imagined that temporarily combining her Filipino bakery with Max’s neighboring bookstore would be the perfect opening chapter to their happily ever after. In her fantasies, they fed each other bibingka and pandesal while discussing Jane Austen and cooing over her pet hamster, Pumpkin. Reality, however...is quite different. Her gallant prince turned out to be a stubborn toad who snaps at her in front of customers, dries his wet clothes in her oven, and helps himself to the yummy pastries in her display case without asking.

But beneath Max’s grumpy glares, Joelle senses a rising heat—and a softening heart. And when they discover the real reason for the renovation, they’ll have to put both their business senses and their feelings for each other to the test.

©2022 Sarah Echavarre Smith (P)2022 Penguin Audio

My favorite things

Sarah knows the way to my reading heart - sweet multicultural romance, close Filipino family, tight female friendship, books, and food. I loved Joelle and her family. Max was a mess but turned it around in the end.

Kind of meh, but not bad... 3 stars

3 / 5 ⭐⭐⭐
3 / 5 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Spicy chapters: 3, 14, 16, 17, 18

Max (MMC) and Joelle (FMC)

This book was an ok read. Not bad, not great, but something in between.

I like the FMC, but it was hard to complete like the MMC, for the following reasons:
By chapter 7, Max has already proven that he's immature and childishly moody, like a little spoilt brat. Joelle likes him physically, but I don't think that he gets a pass to be a jerk just because of it. 😤😩🤬

Max is at times so mean... it's infuriating. At one point, Joelle's pet hamster (called pumpkin 🎃 ) escapes from its cage and accidentally ruins some of Max's valuable books. He becomes very annoyed with her, with a condescending attitude, claiming that it's unprofessional to bring her pet to work (which is not wrong), but the way he says it is super rude.

Frankly, Max's behavior when he's mad reminds me of an abusive, gaslighting, dismissive psicopath husband who not only doesn't recognize his mistakes (I.e. brushing off the fact that he could've burnt the building down by putting his tshirt in Joelle's oven so that it'll dry), but manipulates the situation into making Joelle believe that she's in the wrong and it's somehow her fault 😩🤦🏼‍♀️😩🤦🏼‍♀️.

Not sure why Joelle trusts and forgives Max when he proves again and again that he's kind of bipolar and has terrible mood swings. Perhaps she also has a savior complex, but it's not logical that she'd continue to pursue him after he pretty much left and ghosted her for over a week after their argument. And he didn't even have to grovel!!! Yhe third act breakup was lame at best... 😓

To say something positive, the spicy 🌶️ scenes are well written and entertaining to read, but not very adventurous, FYI.

Happy reading! 📚

I was floored

when I first started to listen I was caught off guard with the bone marrow scene. Honestly second hand embarrassment. When I picked it up again I couldn't put it down. loved it !

Books and Croissants

What's not to love about love, books and baked goods?! The idea was good. The narrators were fantastic. Loved the supporting cast. However, the main characters were very off putting at times. The saucy scenes were done perfectly (good spice and not too graphic).

Books and Sweets!

This was a really fun Rom Com for your earbuds. Joelle owns a bakery and runs it with the help of her family. Next door to Max has his bookstore and they have struck up a friendship over their first year with their businesses. Their flirty encounters amp up and are even steamier. And THEN their story really begins with lots of twists and turns, and past trauma that affects them both as they try this new relationship. The writing is fun and quick, and the characters are real, and don't always do or say the right things as so many of us do. The narration duo of Donnabella Mortel and Dane Anderson really did a fantastic job bringing these characters to life. It was a great listen. It was a good read, but listening was better.