Title: The Bookshop of Forgotten Dreams
Author: Emily Blaine
Publisher: One More Chapter
Publication date: June 18th, 2021
352 pages
4/5 stars
Goodreads Synopsis
Sarah and Max should never have met. She’s a shy bookworm who’s barely ever left her little village; he’s a bad boy actor with the world at his feet. But when Max crosses one line too many, he’s faced with community service in Sarah’s bookshop. With an unruly theatre group to run and a gorgeous, tattooed stranger under her roof, Sarah’s about to discover that real life is more complicated than anything she’s ever read in her beloved books.
Review
Max is a famous actor in France, who solves problems with his fists and just assumes his agent will cover him. But when he gets into one fight too many, he gets sentenced to community service in the countryside, at a small bookshop run by Sarah. Sarah is shy and loves her books, but the shop isn’t doing well financially and need repairs. This is where Max comes in. Can the sunshine heroine melt the icy exterior of the grumpy hero?
I will forever swoon over the grumpy/sunshine trope, no shame. Also, I think this is the first book I’ve read set in France, which was a cool change up for me. I loved the characters, the setting, the writing, and the fact that it is dual POV!! It was well done as you see Max fall for Sarah, even as he tries not to.
There isn’t much I can say about this book as a critique, outside of wanting more information about the side characters. They had an important part of Sarah’s life but you didn’t really learn anything about them. Same on Max’s side. So I would have preferred more of that.
Thank you to One More Chapter and Netgalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.
Happy reading, folks!
Baltimore Bibliophile 