Thanks to Partner NetGalley for the digital ARC of Katherine Reay's Of Literature and Lattes in exchange for an honest review. The book is available to read.

Katherine Reay's Of Literature and Lattes is a cozy comfort read. There's a warmth that infuses each page as we inhabit the small community of Winsome, Illinois, floating from character to character. I had a sense of dropping into lives in progress, of a shared history that came before and that would continue after the end of the novel.

Though the narrative moves through an array of characters’ perspectives, Reay focuses primarily on Alyssa and Jeremy. Alyssa has fled home to Winsome in disgrace after a Theranos-like scandal ended her employment at Vita XGC. Unfortunately, she's fleeing to a home she had already fled. Her relationship with her mother had always been contentious, but when Alyssa found out that her mother had been cheating, Alyssa broke off contact. Now, she's returning to divorced parents, no job prospects, utter disgrace, and horrible guilt that she was a part of a corrupt company.

Jeremy saw Winsome in the opposite light, moving there in hopes of nurturing his relationship with his young daughter, Becca. He and Becca's mom separated before Becca was born, and he wants to be a true father for her. He and his friend Ryan, a recovering addict, buy the local coffee shop, the Daily Brew, hoping that a complete overhaul can make it a success and allow each to start over.

Alyssa’s and Jeremy’s stories wind together eventually, but they also move within the larger story of the town. We come to know characters who are grieving, who are in love, who are aging. My favorite subplot is the one about Alyssa and her mom, who have to work through decades of resentment and repression to come to know each other again.

Of Literature and Lattes is a novel about redemption and forgiveness, about families born and chosen, about the ways that our communities can save us. The characters here are flawed and human, and I was absorbed in watching them come to terms with their own mistakes and misunderstandings and then working to move past them. It's not an earth shattering novel, nor is it overly plot driven. Instead, Of Literature and Lattes is a beautifully character-focused book that was, for me, a lovely and heartfelt escape.

Of Literature and Lattes is a sweet and quick read set in Winsome (a cute little town). While I enjoyed the book, it didn’t stick with me in a way some books do. I’d recommend it for an easy beach read.

Of Literature & Lattes by Katherine Reay
This book is the sequel to The Printed Letter Bookshop. I enjoyed that book and enjoyed this one, too. The author concentrates on the lives of Alyssa Harrison and Jeremy Mitchell as they intersect with the little town of Winsome, Illinois.
Characters from the previous book populate this one, too, including Alyssa’s mother and father, Janet and Seth Harrison, the Bookshop’s owner and employees, as well as some townspeople.
Reading this book gave me a sense of a Mitford novel, where many characters’ lives are open to the reader’s scrutiny. I loved how the characters, especially Janet, grew and changed.
Another aspect of this book that I really appreciated was the references to other works of literature and the impact that those works had on the characters. How can an author go wrong in quoting from Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men or mentioning Madeline L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time?
This book was a clean read, but had no mention of Jesus, God, the Bible or salvation, but led the reader to assume their inclusion in the changes that some of the characters had undergone.
The author has created a little town that I would be interested in reading more of in the future. If you are a lover of literature and small towns, women’s fiction and second chances, you will enjoy this book.

I enjoy Katherine Reay's writings because they are real to life and hold the reader's interest from beginning to end. Of Literature and Lattes takes Alyssa and Jeremy through several life-altering events, shakes them up, and turns them upside down before turning them loose.

Alyssa worked for Vita XGC, a company now under investigation by the FBI for its nefarious dealings in the health market. Her only option is to move back home, but on her way to Winsome, IL, all of her belongings are stolen from her car.

Jeremy has moved from Seattle to Winsome because his ex-wife and daughter live there. He wants to be a part of his daughter's life and to provide stability for her between his ex and himself.

Alyssa is given the chance to work with the FBI to find the evidence they need to convict the owner of Vita XGC in exchange for her not being arrested.

Jeremy has opened up a coffee house, Andante, with the help of an ex-con/recovering addict named Ryan.

Alyssa is trying to re-fit into her home town, while Jeremy is just trying to fit in and provide a nice spot for folks to hang out while drinking their coffee.

Katherine has provided angst in abundance throughout this book, but the conflicts between some of the characters move the plot along at a fairly decent clip. She works in concepts of forgiveness, grace, and mercy throughout the happenings of the book. This book is the second installment to the Printed Letter Book Shop (reviewed here). I am not sure if Katherine means this to be a series, but some of the same characters and places populate the book. It can be read as a stand-alone book without losing much in the plot lines. It is a solid four star book. I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as the other two books by her that I've read, but it does have much to recommend it.

Thomas Nelson and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

This is the follow up to The Printed Bookshop. This book can be read as a stand alone. Alyssa Harrison returns home with no job, no money, and FBI wanting time talk to her about her old job. She left years ago because of her mom Janet who cheated on her dad Seth. Jeremy Mitchell Moves to Winsome to be close to his daughter and buys a coffee shop. The book has some slow parts. You want Alyssa to grow up and stop whining. I did enjoy the book except for Alyssa’s whining. This book touches on community, forgiveness and relationships. Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson for the E-ARC. This is my own opinion.

What started out as confusing and slightly annoying to me, turned into a novel that I couldn't put down until it was done. And then, when it was done, I didn't want to leave. Of Literature and Lattes by Katherine Reay starts with telling the story through all the different character's perspectives one at a time which seemed confusing to me. But I kept reading, and pretty soon, I felt as if i were in the town of Winsome with the characters and then the perspective shifts made sense and I actually enjoyed them. The ending seemed abrupt and I'm hoping there will be another book to follow up on the ending. If you are looking for romance, this book has it. Or would you rather read about a mother and daughter relationship? It has that too. Maybe you just want to read about a small town with loveable characters? This book will meet that desire. It has so many different stories about the different town people that whatever you are looking for in a book, Of Literature and Lattes will provide. I definitely recommend this book!
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

This was a very enjoyable read. The story flowed towards a cute end and alluded to an ending that would be able to carry on into the next book without the feeling of unfinished business for the main characters in their own plot lines. While I enjoyed the book, the story had a feeling of being overly busy in each story that was included. The style of jumping back and forth between character point of views was a bit much in terms of stylistic choices. Overall I would recommend to my friends as book club pick.

This is a very readable story of families, communication, success, failure, books, and lattes. Taking place in the small fictional town of Winsome, Reay's characters are both believable and realistic, like people you know and possibly even from your own family. It was easy to get involved in the various personal stories - long-time friction between mother and daughter, a father who wants to be an important part of his young daughter's life, a young man with a second chance to start over after rehab. Using love, books, coffee and yummy treats, the book weaves together several plot threads resulting in a sweet, feel-good novel. This is the second time Reay tells the story of the town of Winsome with some of the same characters, but it's not a sequel. If you like this one, you should also read "The Printed Letter Bookshop."

Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for a digital advance reader's copy. All comments and opinions are my own.

☕️𝗢𝗳 𝗟𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 & 𝗟𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝘀☕️
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Thank you to @netgalley for the advanced reader copy!
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“ 𝑰 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒎𝒚𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏. 𝑴𝒚 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏.”
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Synopsis 📖⠀
After fleeing her hometown three years earlier, Alyssa Harrison never planned to return to Winsome. Then when the start-up she worked for collapsed, she found herself under FBI investigation and back home. Yet, as everyone welcomes her back home, she begins to see a place for herself in this small community. Then, she meets Jeremy, the coffee shop owner and the future they both desire is not at all what they receive.
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Review✨
This book is the follow-up to The Printed Letter Bookshop (which I loved!) I absolutely loved how this book had a completely different storyline that was simple and sweet, but also how it tied in the characters and bookstore from the first book. This book is charming and delightful.
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There were lots of relationship dynamics throughout the entire book that had me rooting for them. It was like tiny, little stories woven into a big story and I loved it. This is a perfect summer read: sweet, charming, and lovely. And makes me want literature and lattes 😉

If you enjoyed The Printed Letter Bookshop, you'll be thrilled to know Of Literature and Lattes takes us back to the town of Winsome and gives us a chance to reconnect with many familiar characters while also embracing new ones.

Alyssa is heading back to Winsome with hardly more than the clothes on her back. Her job imploded in corporate scandal and she's waiting for an appointment with the FBI agents investigating the case. She hopes her dad will let her stay with him, because she definitely doesn't want to stay with her mom Janet, no matter what she's heard about Janet's recent life changes.

There's a new owner at the coffee shop. Jeremy is fresh from Seattle and longs to transform The Daily Brew into something that could be found in any downtown in America. But will his big city ideas fit with Winsome?

This book is a minefield of family relationship issues. It's relatable but not light. Sometimes it even felt like a punch in the gut. One thing I appreciated was that it pulled me in right away, and I liked that it focused so much on Janet's family and getting to see what happened with her after the end of The Printed Letter Bookshop. The stylistic choice of shifting point of view characters within scenes was odd but not terribly off-putting once I got used to it.

I would certainly recommend reading The Printed Letter Bookshop before this one, and based on the way this ended, I would expect a third book set in Winsome to come next.

I received my copy of the book from the publisher. All thoughts in this review are my own.

This is a follow-up to The Printed Letter Bookshop. I find Katherine Reay's titles to be uneven as to how fully they draw me in, but I do continue to seek them out as comfort reads. In this instance, I moved this book to the top of my reading pile, neglecting others set to publish ahead of it, at the start of quarantine. I found reading nearly impossible, although I could find pleasure in audiobooks. However, this was able to start returning me to printed pages, even as my mind was racing with the uncertainties and anxieties present when experiencing a worldwide pandemic.

In Of Literature and Lattes, Alyssa finds herself unemployed and returning to her hometown in shame after having worked several years for someone who fleeced investors. Jeremy is trying to transform a coffee shop in a community that is skeptical of the improvements. 

We see the complexity of family relationships, of how fraught they can be but how through commitment and dialogue, healing and a new normal can be found.

(I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

I have never lived in a small town but found this book to be just what I would imagine.

Of Literature and Lattes by Katherine Reay is a sweet story.Alyssa, having lost her job in a scandal type shake down, finds herself moving back to Winsome IL. She tries to build a relationship with her mother, Janet, after burning bridges. The mother daughter relationship is a complex part of the story.

Jeremy moves to Winsome to be near his daughter, Becca. He buys the coffee shop and totally remodels it. To the dismay of the once steady customers. With not much business, he is constantly losing money. As he struggles to make a go of the shop, his ex-wife continues to give him grief. With the ending is a little bit of a surprise.

There were several secondary characters that added interest and complexity to the story line.

I received a complimentary ebook copy from the publisher, through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Printed Letter Bookshop (TPLBS) and so I was nice to step back into the world with familiar characters along with some added new ones. Although this wasn’t listed as a series, I would actually strongly suggest reading TPLBS first in this case. If not, I can see it being very difficult to keep track of all the characters. Also, I think Alyssa’s backstory is too important to skip.

While I liked stepping back into Winsome, I have to admit I enjoyed TPLBS more. I was able to feel for Alyssa in the very beginning when the legal trouble with her job was described, but aside from that I wasn’t able to make myself like her. My favorite characters were Jeremy and his daughter Becca (and no, it’s not just because of the shared name haha). Jeremy seemed more genuine and he was much easier to root for.

There were parts of the story that I found engaging and others that seemed to lull. It’s hard to love a story when you can’t connect with the main characters though. I still highly recommend TPLBS and if you enjoy(ed) that one then it’s still worth it to give this one a go.

*I received a copy of this book through JustRead Tours and NetGalley. Thoughts and opinions expressed are mine alone.

I thought that this book was going to be everything that I like. Small town, romance, book, and coffee. What I got was characters I couldn't relate to, fights between ex's, teenage angst, and cheap christianity. I was not aware that this book is christian fiction and I would have avoided it like the plague but alas, here we are.

Alyssa has moved back to her hometown after her company is raided by the FBI. She has to live with her estranged mom. They get into these weird angsty fights because Alyssa's mom cheated a few years ago and her parents ended up getting a divorce. I understand being upset that your parent cheated but why all the angst? Parents are adults and you don't know what happened during the marriage. I wasn't prepared for the constant fights and was over them fast. Jeremy moved to the small town to be closer to his daughter but just ends up fighting with his ex.

The book has these weird transitions that follow anyone and anything so we can keep up with the small town. One transition follows the town stray cat which was weird but I wasn't mad at it. I was mad that I had to keep up with all the residents of the town.

I fell in love with the cozy small-town of Winsome after reading The Printed Letter Bookshop so I was so thrilled to pickup Of Literature and Lattes and fall right back into that wonderful setting.

While also being set in the same town, Of Literature and Lattes could truly be read as a standalone novel. There are some familiar characters that appear but this novel introduces new individuals to the town. The book primarily focuses on Jeremy Mitchell who has just moved to Winsome and taken over ownership of the local coffee shop and Alyssa Harrison, a Winsome local that is returning from Silicon Valley after a workplace scandal. Both of these characters seem to be running from their past, and perhaps into each other's future.

The author does an amazing job creating the town of Winsome and the cast of beloved characters. Each character seems so realistic that that truly come to life off the page. I think most readers would find many, if not all, of the characters relatable. I very much hope that she will continue to explore the lives of the residents of Winsome, because I'm just not ready to let any of them go. I just want to stroll the streets and visit The Printed Letter Bookshop, the coffee shop Andante, and the other quaint shops I envision there.

I received this book courtesy of Thomas Nelson Fiction through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

“Of Literature and Lattes” is a sweet, sweet follow-up to Reay’s “The Printed Letter Bookshop.” Readers could certainly pick this up and enjoy without having read PLB, but I think they’ll get more out of it if they’ve read PLB first.

Multiple POVs continue in this read, and I loved seeing familiar characters and finding out what’s happened in their lives while meeting new faces.

I absolutely adore Jeremy as a character and father; he really shines in this book.

While OLAL didn’t have quite the same depth as PLB, it’s a worthy sequel, prompting me to think about legacy, community, impact, and family ties that go beyond blood.

I received a copy of the book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This is sort of a continuation of the Printed letter Bookshop, but it can definately stand alone. I thought both Alyssa and Jeremy were interesting characters with interesting back stories, and tthey also had interesting secondary characters that moved around them that spiced up the story. The reader got to see Janet in a different light and could understand her better--I wonder if Reay's next book will spotlight Claire from the bookshop a little more?? This book seemed to have a little more religion than the preious book, but the reader can absorb it or skp over it, whatever their preference. So now that I have read two of her books, I believe I will triy to read more.

I have been a fan of Katherine Reay since high school as she often writes Jane Austen retellings set in modern times. With this said, I was still wary to read as I haven’t read a modern-era book in a while, but I am so glad I did! It was refreshing and a good splash of reality!

When the beloved company Alyssa Harrison works for falls under FBI investigation and she is out of work and money, she is forced to return to her hometown and all her painful memories of the past. Jeremy Mitchell moved from Seattle to Winsome to be near his daughter and to open the coffee shop he’s been dreaming of for years. Problem is, the business is bleeding money—and he’s not quite sure why. Life in Winsome, Illinois is not all that it seems and the past even more so!

Of Literature and Lattes is uniquely written in that Katherine Reay provides the reader with special insights into each of the characters; their inner thoughts, desires, fears, sadness. I often felt like I was on a ride at Disneyland where the riders slowly move through various scenes being played out before them. Although the book is primarily about Alyssa and Jeremy, there are others you have a vested interest in. This style of writing is more true to life. In our own minds, the world revolves around us. By nature we are ego-centric as we are only given our own perspective. BUT there are others in our “world” that are experiencing their own versions of life. Everyone is at their own stage. Some are young and enjoying the joys of childhood. Others are older and experiencing the pain of losing a beloved one. This is all apart of life and Katherine Reay writes it beautifully.

I am not one to typically enjoy a “real life” story, whether in a book or on the screen as I often like to escape my own problems in the joys of a book. However, the way in which this book is presented is not to sadden the reader or to force them into the pit of despair, but rather to provide healing, understanding, and courage.

And true to life, there is no true villain. As much as we may see one as pure evil, it simply isn’t true. Same as with the fact that there is no perfect person. Thus the need for Jesus, the only perfect person. As much as Alyssa may dislike and resent her mother, it is not as easy nor true to say the sole blame lays at her mother’s feet.

On the romance side, I did enjoy Alyssa and Jeremy’s relationship. Both are at a unique stage of life in their own way, with their own fears and doubts, but through their budding friendship, they find peace and courage. They are low drama and more real to life characters. They support one another while also remaining true to each other. As I am a lover of romance novels, I wish there had been more written and not just implied. Meaning, the book although focused on Alyssa and Jeremy, it was not on their romance but on the hardships of their current predicament. So at times, the book would say something along the lines of, they went to the park together with Jeremy’s daughter and then it would move on to the next day.

Of Literature and Lattes could be read as a standalone, but does contain characters from the first book, The Printed Letter. There were a few stories left unanswered and I hope more from the little town of Winsome in the future!

I was given a free copy of the book, but the opinions in this review are completely my own.

The Red Review: ❤️❤️❤️❤️
*** 4 Stars: Compelling Characters, Well-Written, Interesting Storyline, Unable to Stop

Of Literature and Lattes by Katherine Reay

Alyssa Harrison is back to her hometown, Winsome. She is broke and is wary because of a shaky relationship with her mom. She is willing to work any job and also help out those in need. Alyssa is great with numbers and believes they will tell you a story.

This is a sweet small town story. Gossip runs fast but there will always be a sense of community. It also tells about family love and friendships. There are so many characters though, that it confuses me at times. I am not a fan of Alyssa. She is hung up on many things in her life. I do like her willingness to share her talent for numbers that eventually helped them to understand their business. Lexi and Alyssa’s friendship is amazing. Jeremy learned that being chosen is enough, especially to a child. I like how his character developed in the story. I am surprised at how engaging Ryan is when he talks about his favorite book, Of Mice and Men. The idea of Literature and Lattes book club is a great idea that builds friendship and businesses. 3 stars

Thank you #netgalley and Thomas Nelson--FICTION for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is the second book in a series I can't get enough of! I am loving the town of Winsome. I adored Alyssa and Jeremy and can't wait to read more from Katherine Reay.