Review: The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks by Shauna Robinson

 

This book was such an enjoyable read for me. I loved the cozy vibes of the town and the idea of rebelling against classic books. 

This book follows Maggie Banks who is in her late twenties and has gone through life unsure of what she wants. She's worked lots of different jobs but never found joy in them. Her friend Rochelle owns a bookstore in a small town. She asks Maggie to take over for her while on maternity leave. Maggies is not a reader. She's not interested in any of the books Rochelle has sent her over the years, so she's out of her element in a bookstore. Especailly because this bookstore is a historic bookstore where the author Edward Bell worked and wrote his first book. The other catch is that the bookstore only sells books that Edward Bell would've been able to read meaning there are only classics in the bookstore. 

Right away, Maggie gets off on the wrong foot with the store's co-owner, Ralph, the grandson of Edward Bell.  He feels that she is not properly equipped to care for the store. This is made worse when one of his employees Malcolm comes to check on Maggie in the store and she's being silly with Rochelle's son. Rochelle ends up going on maternity leave early leaving Maggie alone in the store. Maggie ends up saying something Ralph doesn't like and he removes the bestselling Edward Bell books leaving the bookstore to decline financially. Maggie is forced to come up with a plan to keep her friend from losing all her business, but it's a plan she must do in secret. She's going to bring in books that are not allowed in the bookshop and attempt to sell them. 

The part I liked most about this book was watching as Maggie learned to love reading. She started with romance books (a personal favorite of mine) and branched out. I also really enjoyed the relationships and connections she made with people. She had a lot of self-doubts but she was an awesome person/character. I was never a big classics fan so I liked how Maggie worked with them in this book. For me, this was a really feel-good book despite there being bumps. I can't wait to read more Shauna Robinson books. 

I'm not sure if there are many content warnings for this book, but I will still say check StoryGraph. 

As always, happy reading!