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A review by louisekf
Battle of the Bookstores by Ali Brady

emotional funny hopeful informative lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I don’t give out a ton of 5-star ratings but I absolutely loved this book! It’s a romance, certainly. It’s also a love letter to bookstores, especially indie bookstores. The plot brought back memories of that terrific movie, You’ve Got Mail. Be prepared to fall in love with these characters. 
 
Josie is the manager of a bookstore that focuses on literary fiction, Tabula Inscripta. Beans is the coffee shop next door, and beyond that is ANOTHER bookstore, this one featuring romance books, called Happy Endings, which is managed by Ryan. Their personalities are polar opposites and their stores reflect their personalities. Josie’s store is super-organized and neat. Ryan’s store is a bit more chaotic, but also organized, just in a different way. (I personally LOVED the way Ryan chose to organize his books, so creative and encouraging of making discoveries.) Anyway … Josie and Ryan don’t really have anything in common other than they love books, or so they think. Josie doesn’t even know Ryan’s name! The owner of their building decides he wants to merge the two stores and include Beans as an in-store cafe. So he pits the two of them against each other, both vying for the future single manager position. 
 
As in You’ve Got Mail, the two of them actually have a relationship already but they don’t know it. They are online buddies in a bookstore-oriented app/website and they are ever so compatible there. Each of them, Josie and Ryan, have really interesting backstories; both have had very different childhood/family experiences. 
 
The Battle of the Bookstores features a number of tropes: obviously an enemies-to-friends-to-lovers story, but also opposites attract. I loved how diversity of all sorts was just matter-of-factly featured in the book: dyslexia, disability due to an accident, LGBTQ and Jewish rep, and more. Much is made of Ryan’s being particularly tall; it’s almost a running joke. Another thing I loved was the dual POV; some chapters were from Josie’s POV and some from Ryan’s. The side characters were all interesting and not cookie-cutter stereotypes. The authors (Ali Brady is a writing duo) dig deep into why romance books are so popular and their writing will make a convert out of many a skeptic. 
 
Warning: there are a couple of very explicit scenes later in the story. Also there’s a history of abandonment trauma, so be advised. 
 
Thank you to the authors, Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book. (Normally I tend to read closer to the publication date but I just couldn’t wait on this one!) All opinions are my own. 
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