The Pumpkin Spice Café: Read the viral TikTok sensation romcom series, for fans of cozy and spicy romance in 2025! (Dream Harbor) (Book 1)

I LIVED for this book!Every once in a while I need a little break from fantasies, world building, magic systems, and political conflict. Enter contemporary romance!With the seasons changing, or my longing for them to change🙏, I was really in the mood for something sweet and cozy. The Pumpkin Spice Cafe did NOT disappoint! I sometimes struggle with contemporaries holding my attention but I could not put this one down and devoured it in two days!If you have a secret obsession with holiday Hallmark movies like me, this is a book you are going to want to pick up this fall! All the cliche moments we love in a good holiday romcom are so perfectly gift wrapped and tied with a bow, it quite literally couldn’t be any cuter 🥹If you love…🍁 Fall festival, farmers market, haunted house☕️ Cozy cafe mystery🍁 Small town☕️ Book club🍁 She’s making a new life☕️ He’s still healing from heartbreak🍁 Tasteful spice☕️ He named his farm animals after pop stars🍁 Found family…then this is a book for you!This can be read as a standalone but I will definitely be picking up the second book in the Dream Harbor series, The Cinnamon Bun Book Store because I have to know how things unfold with our bookstore owner Hazel and fisherman Noah who keeps ordering random books just for an excuse to interact! We see you Noah 👀

I was disappointed in this story because the two MCs were juvenile-like. The relationship was high school behavior to say the least. For example, I'm not sure if she likes me or jumping to conclusions about their actions, and the dialogue between the MCs was lackluster. The one thing that saved it for me was the interesting characters in Dream Harbor. They reminded me of Gilmore Girl's Stars Hollow townspeople, quirky, eccentric, and authentic.I should have read this book within a week or no more than 10 days but it took me over a month or so to finish it. I was looking forward to it but it left me no longer excited. I would not recommend it to an adult but it is for YA. I gave it a 3 stars because it lacked excitement and engagement but I did enjoy the supporting characters.

Loved this book it had been on my reading list for a while now and I kept seeing it at target! Then my niece gave it to me for Mother’s Day and I decided to read it. Definitely reminds me of The Gilmore Girls and I love the small town vibes! Definitely reading book two next! This is a cute book to read especially in the summer when you’re just dying and waiting for the fall.

Cute short 250-page romance. I loved the main female characters' inner monologue. The town Dream Harbor and the feelings that the writer is able to envoke was nothing less than a warm cup of your favorite beverage on a cold, blustery day. The townspeople and their nuances gave the town depth, definitely adding to my overall enjoyment. The main male character is kind of a caricature for the perfect guy . His viewpoints were explored, but I definitely had more fun with Jeanie and his best friends Annie and Hazel. A solid 3.5 for what it does well.

Of course, like everyone else I was influenced to buy this from TikTok.It would have been a decent book, however, the EDITOR really dropped the ball.Not to be mean, but this is probably one of the WORST edited books I have ever read.The editing is so bad, it was distracting and made the book hard to get through.First: Traditional editing typically allows for a paragraph break in between dialogue.However, you won’t find that in this book.Instead, you will read a lot of run-on paragraphs.Throughout the book one “paragraph” often contains multiple quotations from multiple characters. It makes me wonder if the editor had a page number “cap” on this book.Second: The editor also chose not to use quotation marks. This made it very confusing to know whether the character was speaking out loud or having an internal thought. It also made it very confusing at times to know which character was speaking.And honestly, it’s just lazy! If you are an editor, finish the book by using correct parenthetical punctuation!Third: It seems like the editor either rushed this to print, or really didn’t care about their job.There are multiple sections of the book that don’t make any sense. Characters pop up into conversations randomly when they were never there to begin with.Summary: The book was OK.At multiple points it was a little too “on the nose” when comparing it to a famous television franchise. So much so that I wonder if they will face copyright infringement.I’m not saying that the storyline is bad, because I did enjoy it. Although at times it was like reading a Hallmark movie. Cheeeessssyyyyyyy. (But I like hallmark cheesy.)But, bottom line, whoever the editor is needs to be FIRED! They did such an injustice to this author!I’m not sure if the editor was just lazy, or rushed the editing to meet a deadline… But they clearly have missed their calling and need to find a different job.Laurie Gilmore, if you are reading this, PLEASE have your book re-edited before you do your next reprint!Your book could be so much better with proper editing! I’m not blaming you at all, because it was clearly your editor who dropped the ball!

This story does bring out all of the emotions in one book. A pumpkin spice cafe is the perfect place to be when you need to get settled for good coffee, tea, and baked goodies. Of course, a good pumpkin spice romance is a good bonus for a good read. I would recommend it with a pumpkin spice latte and a banana bread loaf.