Hey ForeverBookers,
How are you all today? I hope you’re well!
A few days ago, I finished “The Pumpkin Spice Café” by Laurie Gilmore and I really enjoyed it. This review is a little late because I’ve been busy! Anyway, the book was cosy and cute! It didn’t really have any spoopy parts to it, like I thought it might as it’s set around Halloween, although there is a costume contest, which I found funny.
I read “The Pumpkin Spice Café” for Reading Rivalry - As Long As Your Mine - there’s a central romance in “The Pumpkin Spice Café,” which I had a few issues with which go into below.
“The Pumpkin Spice Café” tells the story of Jeanie, a twenty-eight year old young woman who moves into her aunty Dot’s Pumpkin Spice Café to look after it while her aunt goes on a trip to the Caribbean. She gets a little more than she bargained for while at this café, like a mystery to solve as well as a hunky, sexy farmer, Logan, and a couple of best friends. I found the mystery aspect of the story intriguing. It wasn’t anything ground-breaking or anything but it was interesting seeing both Jeanie and Logan try to work out what was happening. I thought some of Jeanie’s theories were really funny, if a little unbelievable. The story takes place over the autumnal/fall time period. I believe that each book in this series will cover a season, much like the Katherine Arden “Small Spaces” series of books. This series is more for the adult market though. They’re certainly not for the middle grade market as Katherine Arden’s series is, due to sex scenes and bad language.
Spoilers Below
“She hadn’t slept in three nights. Not since moving into the apartment above her aunt’s café. Well, her cafe, technically. Jeanie was officially the new owner of the Pumpkin Spice Café, her Aunt Dot’s pride and joy until exactly two weeks ago, when the older woman announced she was retiring - and taking off for the Caribbean for a few weeks to work on her tan. Apparently Dot could think of no one better to take over her beloved café than her favorite - and only, as Jeanie pointed out - niece.”
Jeanie hasn’t slept for three nights because of noises from outside the Pumpkin Spice Café, the main setting of “The Pumpkin Spice Café.” She’s too agitated. It’s only when Logan, the main male character comes into the story later in chapter 1 that she starts to feel a little safer. He comes in as the guy delivering pumpkins, because he lives on a farm so he delivered food and whatnot to Dot, previously before Jeanie came. Jeanie notices his vivid blue eyes instantly.
“Who are you?” she asked, keeping one hand on the door in case she had to slam it in the mysterious pumpkin man’s face.
His dark eyebrows rose as fraction of an inch as though he was surprised by her question. “Logan Anders,” he said as though that would clear things up for her. It didn’t.
“And what are you doing in my back alley, Logan Anders?” she asked.
He blew out a frustrated-sounding breath and shifted the crate in his arms.”
Jeanie is suspicious of Logan first before she really gets to know him. She doesn’t trust easily anyway because her job before working at the Pumpkin Spice Café was really stressful working for a conglomerate that died at computer. Jeanie didn’t want to end up like that, which is why she took over her aunt Dot’s café in Dream Harbor.
The rest of the story is focused on Jeanie’s relationship with Logan as well as a few more of the Dream Harbor residents. I enjoyed this because I like when the lead female of a novel is new to place and learning about it with her love interest’s help. I think that’s why I enjoy “A Discovery Of Witches” by Deborah Harkness so much too because it follows the same pattern of the female learning about her new surroundings with the help of her love interest. Although, that’s paranormal when this is contemporary. The only slight complaint I have about “The Pumpkin Spice Cafe” is the sloooooooow build to the romance. Whereas in “A Discovery Of Witches” and other books I’ve read that follow this pattern, of the girl learning about her new surroundings and friends, there’s more plot so it was easier to fall into the other aspects of the book, like the magic, paranormal/fantasy elements. In “The Pumpkin Spice Cafe,” it’s just a contemporary so some of it was quite boring to read through. There was a happy ending though.
The best part of “The Pumpkin Spice Café,” other than the romance when it got started after half way through for me was the funny costume contest as I said above.
“You and Jeanie must be talking about how much you want to judge the costume contest, since that’s what we’re discussing right now.” Pete’s cheerful tone covered up the sheer evil of his words.
“I … we … that’s not…”
“Sounds fun.” Jeanie, sweet innocent Jeanie, did not know what she was saying. The costume contest was not fun. It was a cut-throat competition filled with die-hard Halloween fans and no one was ever happy with the outcome. Logan had seen fights break out over the results. He usually gave the costume contest a very wide berth, preferring to drop off the pumpkins to the decorating tables early, and then get suckered into trying fall-themed beers with Noah (they were always disgusting, but anything was better than breaking up a fight between Big Bird and Luke Skywalker).
“Wonderful!” Mayor Kelly beamed, and Logan felt his soul wither inside him. This was bound to be a disaster.”
Pete is the mayor of Dream Harbor. He wants Jeanie and Logan to judge the costume contest, which Logan really DOES NOT want to do. Jeanie, of course thinks it will be fun! However, Logan knows just how complicated it can get trying to be nice while harsh at the same time. Mayor Kelly doesn’t care about Logan’s worries though! This was funny! I think Mayor Kelly, honestly has his head in the clouds in every scene he’s in in “The Pumpkin Spice Cafe.”
I’ll just mention the sex scenes, briefly. There were only two. I’d have liked more to be honest, as they were written well. They happen after the costume contest and then later again in the story. I get that some of the audience reading don’t like sex scenes but I eat them up! If the romance hadn’t been so slow-build, we could have maybe had more sex and less chat. The chat got a little tedious and boring after a while.
Overall then, I really enjoyed “The Pumpkin Spice Café!” It had a few, little things that held me back from absolutely loving it, like the really slow burn romance. I wish the romance had been a little quicker and that we got a few more sexy scenes between Jeanie and Logan, but other than that one gripe, the book was good. I look forward to reading the “Cinnamon Bun Book Shop” soon, which I believe is based around one of the friends Jeanie makes in “The Pumpkin Spice Café,” Hazel, who owns the Dream Harbor town bookshop and her romance with Noah, a character that also briefly appears in “The Pumpkin Spice Café.”
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