The Bookshop on the Corner - Review

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Cheesy and cliché with good intentions.
#romance #bookshop #novella

2 stars
Series: Book 1; The Bookshop
Characters: Sarah and Ridge
Setting: small town Ashford

Recommendation: If you're looking for a light, romantic, quick read this may be one to pick up. If you're looking for a complex and earth shattering love then perhaps you should pass right by the Bookshop on the Corner.

​The Bookshop on the Corner is a short novella by Rebecca Raisin that I picked up a few weeks back and read on a long flight home from family. [goodreads review]

​Sarah is a small town bookshop owner who spends more time with her nose in her books than anything else. Ridge is a fancy reporter from New York writing an article about Ashford. When the two of them meet sparks instantly fly and Sarah may have found her fairytale man.

I am a self admitted all things book lover and when I find a book about books... I'm so in. I had high hopes for this novella and sadly it fell flat. Sarah was a weak main character, wishy washy and awkward. She could barely hold a conversation with Ridge for most of the story and when she did say something clever it felt fake and completely out of character for her. Ridge was a suave and knock a woman off her feet smooth, too smooth. He wasn't some fairytale man, he was creepy. Talking to Sarah's friends for help setting up a date after only speaking with Sarah for five minutes, picnics in the wilderness (where Sarah even admitted she wasn't sure if the date was a romance or a horror novel), and after only one date Ridge was professing his love and life changing devotion. I understand novellas being short and instant love in contemporary romance being a common trope, but this was so far fetched it wasn’t enjoyable.

The highlight of the story was the town. Sarah has some amazing and funny girlfriends even if they set her up on creepy dates. The town was described well and with the right attention to detail to make me want more information about each of the shops and to entice me to read more in the series. The bookshop was dusty and packed to the brim with Sarah's love for it palpable and the way it was described make the shop the third main character.

I really wish this hadn't been so... easy. It was an easy story, and easy love, and even the secondary characters had it easy. What little conflict there was between characters was quickly squelched and moved past. Such a shame, there was real potential.