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A review by mel_reads_too_much
Pumpkin Spice by Tagan Shepard
4.0
Thank you to Netgalley, publisher Bold Strokes Books, Inc, and author Tagan Shepard for providing an ARC in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.
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One thing to know about me: I freakin' love pumpkin spice. The last week of August each year will find me perusing the grocery store aisles, searching for the early appearances of my favorite seasonal treat. Apple cider is great, peppermint is good too, but nothing compares to pumpkin spice. So when I found this book that's titled after every white girl's weakness, and is a sapphic romance, and is a small town romance, and is a country-girl romance, and is a slow burn romance... I was freakin' sold.
This was a cute, easy, and fun read. At times, the main character, Nicki, got on my nerves. She's very quirky and clumsy and even ends up cracking her head open and possibly concussing herself at one point. It felt very Bella Swan and 50% of her accidents could have been removed from the novel and the story wouldn't have suffered for it. I do appreciate, and maybe this is just me reading too far into things, that she seemed to be possibly ADHD-coded. Clumsiness, forgetful, having a strong need for routine but a difficulty adhering to routine, being impulsive at the worst possible times... all felt very ADHD to me, and I liked seeing that in a character. I just wish she'd been less of a walking danger zone. The number of trips, falls, dropping of items, spilling of beverages felt like overkill.
Carter, the love interest, was positively dreamy. That's it, no notes. She's not perfect or a Mary Sue, but she does her best while wearing her Carhartt jacket and chopping wood and selling pumpkins. It was sweet how she showed patience and grace to Nicki, even while Nicki was trying to self-sabotage the relationship before it even started. We could all be so lucky to have someone be that gentle with us.
This one was a 3.5 star rounded up. The prevented this from being a four star book for me, because I'm not a fan of that trope at all; I expect that trick out of my heterosexual romances, I have higher hopes for the LGBTQ ones.
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One thing to know about me: I freakin' love pumpkin spice. The last week of August each year will find me perusing the grocery store aisles, searching for the early appearances of my favorite seasonal treat. Apple cider is great, peppermint is good too, but nothing compares to pumpkin spice. So when I found this book that's titled after every white girl's weakness, and is a sapphic romance, and is a small town romance, and is a country-girl romance, and is a slow burn romance... I was freakin' sold.
This was a cute, easy, and fun read. At times, the main character, Nicki, got on my nerves. She's very quirky and clumsy and even ends up cracking her head open and possibly concussing herself at one point. It felt very Bella Swan and 50% of her accidents could have been removed from the novel and the story wouldn't have suffered for it. I do appreciate, and maybe this is just me reading too far into things, that she seemed to be possibly ADHD-coded. Clumsiness, forgetful, having a strong need for routine but a difficulty adhering to routine, being impulsive at the worst possible times... all felt very ADHD to me, and I liked seeing that in a character. I just wish she'd been less of a walking danger zone. The number of trips, falls, dropping of items, spilling of beverages felt like overkill.
Carter, the love interest, was positively dreamy. That's it, no notes. She's not perfect or a Mary Sue, but she does her best while wearing her Carhartt jacket and chopping wood and selling pumpkins. It was sweet how she showed patience and grace to Nicki, even while Nicki was trying to self-sabotage the relationship before it even started. We could all be so lucky to have someone be that gentle with us.
This one was a 3.5 star rounded up. The