The Cozy Nook Bookshop by Jeannie Chin

Hello readers! If you can’t tell by the title of this blog post, I’m still in my cozy small town romance kick. And it’s really a great time for me to be on this kick, because there are so many Fall romance novels coming out right now. For today’s blog post, we’re going to be discussing The Cozy Nook Bookshop by Jeannie Chin.

While I did find this book to be cute at times, it ultimately wasn’t for me. I just wasn’t that interested in the characters and the story felt slow at sometimes, rushed at others.

But we’ll get into that, so keep reading for my full book review.

What is The Cozy Nook Bookshop by Jeannie Chin About?

A small-town bookseller finds that fate has taken to writing romance in this delightfully cozy love story about making your own happy ending—perfect for fans of Laurie Gilmore and grumpy/sunshine love stories!

Emma Rogers-Li is having her worst chapter yet. She’s lost her friends, her apartment in Manhattan, and a jerk of an ex. When a job opens to run a bookshop in the quirky small town of Heart’s Hope Crossing, Vermont, Emma jumps at the chance to start over. For the first time in years, she feels like she’s finally calling the shots in her own life … until she runs smack into Hunter Hall.

According to town legend, it’s fate—couples who meet (or collide) at that corner are meant to be. And while Emma doesn’t believe the town gossips now convinced she and Hunter are meant for each other, something about the tall, gruff forest ranger sends her completely off-balance. Falling in love with Heart’s Hope Crossing might be the best thing to happen to Emma. (from Amazon.com)

The Plot

I really liked the idea of this story. A city girl flees to a small town after her ex fiance disappears on her. She’s looking for a fresh start, and finds an exciting new life in the small town of Heart’s Hope Crossing. The town has a cute history where they believe that anyone who meets upon the intersection of Heart St and Hope St is soulmates.

And Emma just happens to run into Hunter, a local park ranger who is NOT looking for a relationship. Can she convince him that giving love a chance isn’t so bad? Only time will tell.

What I Liked:

Although it wasn’t my favorite book in the world, I did really enjoy the set up. Emma comes from New York City, where she worked at a publishing company with her ex fiance. But after he gets in trouble for stealing money, he runs away and abandons both Emma and the company. That leaves her to pick up the pieces and figure out what comes next on her own.

That’s a pretty interesting set up, isn’t it? But the author just kind of drops it immediately after Emma moves to Heart’s Hope Crossing. And then proceeds with a super slow moving romance where the main characters don’t seem to have a lot of chemistry, in my opinion.

I enjoyed that Hunter works as a park ranger. The scenes where he took Emma on hikes were really cute. I love how they were able to go hiking to higher places and get a great look at the town.

I also loved the cover! I think it’s really cute and the title and cover were what first attracted me to read this book.

What I Didn’t Like

I found it weird how throughout the story every time someone was introduced, their race would be announced. Like the author would be like, “Hunter, a white man”. I’m assuming they did that so that readers would understand that Heart’s Hope Crossing is a small town with diversity but it just felt weird to me. What do you guys think?
For a book called The Cozy Nook Book Shop, there was not enough discussion about the book store. Granny Smith hardly explained Emma’s job before setting her loose in the shop. I also found it hard to believe that a small town book shop would have so many employees.
Personally, I wanted more description of the town. I wanted more description of the town’s people. A few characters were introduced that took Emma under their wing and befriended her, but we knew nothing about them.
The relationship between Emma and Hunter went from 0-100 real quick. Which is something that happens in romance novels. But I would have liked more lead up. Hunter went from yelling at Emma on a street corner to wanting to date her so fast. Which is funny because he was the one who was so anti-relationship to begin with.

Would I Recommend This Book?

I’m not sure. It is a cute book and I’m sure a lot of readers will enjoy it. But I think it could have used more. I would have liked more description of the book shop and more development of the characters. The Cozy Nook Bookshop is a great title and I think readers will pick it up because of that. But I don’t know if I would personally recommend it.

In Conclusion

Thank you for checking out today’s book review of The Cozy Nook Bookshop by Jeannie Chin. This is a new to me author, so I’m glad I had the chance to check this out. While the book didn’t work for me completely, the story did give me cozy fall vibes. I’m writing this post in August, but September is just around the corner. So I had fun reading about Emma decorating the bookshop for fall.