Review: The Cinnamon Bun Book Store

The Cinnamon Bun Book Store by Laurie Gilmore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

She’d recruited the sexy, town fisherman to help her have an adventurous end of summer/end of her twenties and she was suddenly feeling as though she was in way over her head. 

Hazel has worked at the same bookstore since the end of her sophomore year of highschool, about to turn thirty she's suddenly realizing that she's never done anything wild and crazy. When books start popping up in her bookstore, dog-eared (the horror!) and highlighted lines such as ‘Come with me, lass, if you want an adventure.’, she decides it's time to be a little reckless and follow the clues for a sort of scavenger hunt of adventure. Add in Noah, the new cute fisherman in town, who agrees to help her on the hunt and Hazel's about to have the summer of her life. 

He was looking at her like he knew that she had taken that book home and read it cover to cover and that the pirate she was picturing looked nothing like the one on the cover... 

The Cinnamon Bun Book Store was a cute small-town read about two people who thought they weren't good enough, only to discover they're perfect for each other. Hazel has lived in Dream Harbor all her life and feels boring, as she's the stay at home snuggle with a book over going to a party kind of gal and Noah never finished highschool and feels like his boat tours isn't successful enough compared to his family's seafood company empire. They're both attracted to each other, but Noah doesn't feel good enough for Hazel and Hazel thinks the younger by five years Noah is too hot and cool for her. As they spend time together with the clues leading them to getting tipsy in a blueberry patch, kissing on a Ferris wheel, and getting caught up on a boat in a storm, they realize they actually have things in common and genuinely like each other. 

The cutest guy in town had given her his sweatshirt and she could barely stand it. 

Everything is kept pretty light vibes in this, Hazel and Noah's self-confidence are their main hurdle, coming to terms her path in life is perfect for her and someone as good-looking as Noah would be attracted to her and Noah realizing he is smart and responsible enough to hold his head up around his family and friends. This had a little bit of a Jill Shalivs feel to it, with the big friend group and series baiting characters, cute moments, and plenty of bedroom scenes. I thought the second half started to feel slower as their self-esteem issues seemed to get dragged out for more page count. The ending had three scenes where I was like “Ok, this is the end. Oh, wait there's more”, and it kind of killed some of those finalized HEA moments, but maybe others will enjoy the more than one HEA. 

Maybe she hadn’t needed to change her life, maybe she’d just needed to change how she saw her life. How she saw herself. 

Overall, this was an enjoyable read, I just think it needed to be wrapped up a bit quicker. If you're looking for sweet, sexy, and a small-town ripe with singles that have potential future book hook-ups written all over them, this would be a great pick-up.

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