Book 40, 2024

[chez_jae]

The Crazy Bookshop by E. Broom

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



It took forever, but I finally finished reading The Crazy Bookshop by E Broom. It's the first in the "Cadenbury Town" series. Main character is Ernest Turnbull.

Ernest is fired from his job after tossing a latte in his boss' face. Now out of work, he applies for a job at a bookstore in Cadenbury. Ernest is offered the job immediately, which delights him, but he can't help but feel things in Cadenbury are a bit off. There's a woman who looks like a crone and always has an animal with her, his new boss Alfred reminds Ernest of an exuberant puppy, and the mayor, Adhan Stone, broods and growls a lot. Soon Ernest learns that the crone, Mollyanne, is an actual witch, and that Alfred and Adhan (his father) are wolf shifters. Even more bizarre, Ernest learns that he's a witch, too. It seems he's arrived in town just in time. Various townspeople are being targeted by harmful spells. Ernest, with his fresh outlook on all things magical, comes up with a plan to not only protect the town, but to roust their enemies once and for all.

This book had everything I like: bookstore, shifters, witches, magic, male/male romance, but...I didn't much like it. The writing was rife with grammatical errors, and it was (mostly) written in present tense, which always seems odd to me. The plot wasn't very cohesive. The "romance" was insta (fated mates), and the conflict was low key and rather easily dealt with. It was like reading a Disney movie.

Favorite lines:
♦ "No harm ever came from opening a book."
♦ "What do you call throwing a latte in someone's face?" // "Passive aggressive violence?"
♦ "People actually use wands?" I ask, because what is this? Harry Potter?

Interesting premise, disappointing execution. Three stars, and that's being generous.