The bookstore diaries

by Susan Mallery

Description: Jax has a slight issue with control—as in, she needs it. Always. Too bad she has power only over the Painted Lady Bookstore, the Victorian mansion turned bookshop she inherited. No one else listens to a word she says. Her ex gets engaged for questionable reasons. Her beloved sister, Ryleigh, wants to move away to find a husband. And the handsome contractor Jax has chosen to convince Ryleigh to stay is only interested in Jax. 

Still, she’s living the bookworm dream—until an unhappy accident erases the names from the bookshop lockboxes where the town keeps their diaries. Which means the only way to find a diary’s owner is…to read it. 

As secrets spill and scandals surface, life at the Painted Lady Bookstore gets a lot more colorful and chaotic. But for a woman who’s always had to take charge, Jax will see that losing control—especially with the right wrong guy—can set you free.

I expected so much more from the premise... Chaos and scandals are where exactly?

I couldn’t get through this with a more natural flow. The story is full of dialogue by the characters, but it's not very shocking at all. There are many repetitions, and all communication is heavy with the right things to say. Reading this, to me felt like going to a psychologist that knows all the right things to say and do. How to teach your children to express their emotions, how to talk to other people… Nothing really surprised me, where I wanted a bit of a mystery about the diaries or maybe a little unpredictable twist... No, you know quickly who’ll end up with whom and who’s right or wrong. Not my kind of book or writing sadly.

Luckily there was Ramon, the parrot who is introduced on page 1, with his funny remarks. I was a little weirded out in the beginning, but he managed to grow on me.

A great bookstore (I wish I could own), cats and small town family dynamics, there's not much else to take away from this.

With many thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins' Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing me with a DRC of the novel in exchange for a review.