The Boy with the Bookstore

By: Sarah Echavarre Smith

Narrated by: Donnabella Mortel, Dane Anderson

Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

When a baker meets the bookshop owner of her dreams, and he turns into her nemesis, they’ll both have to read between the lines to avoid a career-ending recipe for disaster.

Max Boyson looks good...from a distance. But up close and personal, the tattooed hottie Joelle Prima has been crushing on for the past year and half has turned into the prime example of why you shouldn’t judge a book by his delectable cover.

When she first learned about the massive renovation to the building they share, Joelle imagined that temporarily combining her Filipino bakery with Max’s neighboring bookstore would be the perfect opening chapter to their happily ever after. In her fantasies, they fed each other bibingka and pandesal while discussing Jane Austen and cooing over her pet hamster, Pumpkin. Reality, however...is quite different. Her gallant prince turned out to be a stubborn toad who snaps at her in front of customers, dries his wet clothes in her oven, and helps himself to the yummy pastries in her display case without asking.

But beneath Max’s grumpy glares, Joelle senses a rising heat—and a softening heart. And when they discover the real reason for the renovation, they’ll have to put both their business senses and their feelings for each other to the test.

©2022 Sarah Echavarre Smith (P)2022 Penguin Audio

My favorite things

Sarah knows the way to my reading heart - sweet multicultural romance, close Filipino family, tight female friendship, books, and food. I loved Joelle and her family. Max was a mess but turned it around in the end.

I was floored

when I first started to listen I was caught off guard with the bone marrow scene. Honestly second hand embarrassment. When I picked it up again I couldn't put it down. loved it !

Books and Sweets!

This was a really fun Rom Com for your earbuds. Joelle owns a bakery and runs it with the help of her family. Next door to Max has his bookstore and they have struck up a friendship over their first year with their businesses. Their flirty encounters amp up and are even steamier. And THEN their story really begins with lots of twists and turns, and past trauma that affects them both as they try this new relationship. The writing is fun and quick, and the characters are real, and don't always do or say the right things as so many of us do. The narration duo of Donnabella Mortel and Dane Anderson really did a fantastic job bringing these characters to life. It was a great listen. It was a good read, but listening was better.