Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to read this! I love a small town setting and a bookstore makes it even better! I enjoyed this book! The characters were relatable. The book put me in a good mood! I like the little splash of romance! It's a very cute and quirky book! I highly recommend it!

Maggie is a really likable character and I want to live in the town that she has helped shape by the end of the book. There are plenty of predictable, warm moments and just enough tension to keep the read interesting until we reach the anticipated happily ever after. A lovely, comforting read for book lovers , food lovers, friends, and romantics at heart.

Maggie is unsure what to do with her life, so when her best friend, Rochelle, asks Maggie to help in her Bell River Cobblestone Books store. When Maggie arrives, she is stunned by the town's cult-like atmosphere around Edward Bell, an author famous for his novel "The First Dollar". She finds the bookstore is limited to books published before Edward Bell's time. As Maggie realizes, the bookstore can't survive this way. So, Maggie attempts to inject some fun and life into the bookstore and the other town businesses held by the Bell Society, but all must be done in secret.
What follows is Maggie uncovering town secrets and finding herself in the process.
Cute story.

Who doesn’t love a book about books? Love the premise of challenging the know-it-all world of readers and book people. Any insider view to an independent bookstore is welcome and this book does just that.

This was such a fun read! I don't purchase adult for the library but I will be recommending this to them!

This book was an absolute joy to read. This is a book for the book lover! All books lovers, from classic reader to romance readers, and everything in between. This book has romance, small town pride (no matter how misguided,) and of course all the bookish fun you could want in one book. This is a book that I know I will read over and over again and will wish that I could read all over again for the first time.

I loved every character, all of them. If you love books, you will love this one. Found family, sweet romance and books, books and more books, what more could you want? Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review. Top marks ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I did this both as book and audionbook - I like the set up and the cast of characters, always love a bookstore novel

I absolutely loved the concept of this book, but I could not get into it. I tried three or four times but kept stumbling through chapters. I love the concert and concept, and by the look of reviews, I’m definitely in the minority! Thanks for the chance to read!

Shauna Robinson is slowly becoming one of my favorite authors. This is the second book of hers that I've read, and she's definitely on my To-Read list from now on.

In this story of self-discovery and life changes, Maggie moves to a small town in Maryland to help her best friend Rochelle manage the local bookstore while Rochelle is on maternity leave. Maggie is trying to figure out what to do with her life, and this seems to be the perfect opportunity for her to do it. Unfortunately, Bell River is a cool tourist area that seems to be stuck in the past. The great-grandchild of the famous memorialized author and town hero Edward Bell insists on keeping the town and the bookstore stuck in 1935, so any other book published after that year is banned. While Maggie is not the biggest reader, she knows that the struggling bookstore will not make it unless the town people and tourists visiting the place have more book options. So after making friends with some of the quirky locals, Maggie ends up setting up a clandestine book club that hosts unique events and sells a wider selection of book genres that her customers enjoy. Sales are picking up, Maggie is enjoying books for the first time ever, and she even meets someone who makes her consider a relationship. But things go wrong when her boss finds out what she's been doing behind his back.

I truly adored this book and loved everything about it. I'm a big fan of books with literary themes, and this one was great in every single way. Maggie is a great character because while she is only in her thirties, she is also trying to find herself at an age when her friends are having babies and even her parents are pushing her to do more with her life. She is not flawless, and I actually enjoyed seeing how many mistakes she makes along the way, such as hiding the changes she's making in the bookstore from Rochelle, whose whole livelihood depends on the success of the store. I felt that showing this side of her makes the ending more satisfying.

The story is a fast read with a great pace. I truly enjoyed the plot and found the secondary characters truly charming. I think that the choice of making Maggie's love story a secondary plot worked perfectly with the flow, as a relationship wasn't her priority when she arrived in the town, so it developed in a more organic way. I truly enjoyed this cozy story and found it engaging from beginning to end.

The Banned.Bookshop of Maggie.Banks has a little bit of something for everyone: a strong independent Black woman as the lead character, a secret romance between two people who could easily jeopardize each other’s livelihoods, literary references, mystery / scandal and more. I enjoyed the book and the character development. The two love interests (Maggie and Malcom) realize that there’s a lot they can learn from each other. They learn the importance of knowing their strengths and having the confidence to create a life based on what THEY want - not what others or society tells them they should want.

Thank you Netgalley for the e-ARC of this title. I enjoyed reading this title. Would recommend for my library.

The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks has a fun premise of a woman discovering herself and helping a small town to flourish out from under a weirdly oppressive rule (almost like the reading version of Footloose.) However it falls apart for me because Maggie is so unlikeable. I get that she doesnt like to read but she bashed books left and right without even trying them, including any classic book and anything that the love interest likes. Their story seemed more like a convenience as potentially the only two single people around instead of true interest and growth. The writing was fine and the story was well paced, I just didnt love the character.

Unfortunately, after multiple attempts to read this, I have concluded that this is not the book for me. Which is unfortunate, because I absolutely love the cover!

Maggie Banks is offered a chance to try on a different life while her friend is on Mater leave. Little does she know working in her friends bookstore. A place so hallowed and steeped in tradition that she soon finds herself at odds with leading town members. It’s a light look into life in a town with one notable past resident. A town reluctant to grow beyond one man’s vision. A Maggie who quickly upsets and then resolves the past with the present.

You know, I do try to remind myself to check logic at the door - or rather the front cover - of a cozy mystery or - - what's Netgalley's category for this? A piece of "Women's fiction" (i.e., Chick Lit). I try. I usually fail. I failed with this book, which is why I sat through it saying "But ... But wait ..." Because there is no way on this green and warming earth that a bookshop could survive on selling only books by, about, or written at the time of one 1940's (if I recall correctly) author. None. I doubt the concept would work with an author in the league of Tolkien, much less one more in the bracket this Bell person apparently occupies. It's impractical; it's more than improbable; it's a flat out stupid idea. And yet here is not only a bookshop run on that basis, but an entire town of tourist-y shops, all with a laser-tight focus on this one author. I was going to compare Bell to Dickens, but Dickens wrote prolifically and with a ton of character - I could see Dickens's home town (which is, I find, Portsea Island (Portsmouth), Hampshire) becoming the focal point of everything Victorian. (Which it does not seem to have done.) But this? Even the illiterate lout who serves as the main character has probably heard of Dickens, but she never has heard of Edward Bell. And yet enough tourists flood this town every year to keep the whole place solvent? I don't buy it.

For the trustees who have control over the bookshop to actively ban the sales of books people literally walk in and ask for - in other words, opportunities for revenue - is the height of stupidity.

(Just to belabor the point, I have worked in three bookshops. The only one which could afford actual paid employees was Barnes & Noble; the other two, independent shops which each lasted less than two years, paid me under the table and/or in books. So on this sort of point I really do need there to be at least a tiny bit of logic.)

Oops, I let my opinion of Maggie Banks slip up there, didn't I? "When was the last time I picked up a book? Except for the books you've sent me, which I have totally read". This one bit of dialogue formed the basis of my lack of enthusiasm for her, and nothing else in the book did anything to change it. This economically tells the reader that a) Maggie Banks doesn't read, and in fact kind of thinks it's pointless - not a great attitude for someone about to start work in a book store (I am ethically required to use her full name, as my grandmother was named Maggie and this character doesn't deserve to share the name); and b) that she lies readily, even to her best friend. Sure, lying about having read a book the friend cared enough about to send her could be considered a white lie, to spare the friend's feelings ... but it's a really dumb lie. I don't require the people I read about to all be sweet and virtuous bookworms, but it is kind of nice to actually be able to <I>like</i> the main character I'm expected to spend several hours reading about. I liked Maggie Banks less and less as the book went on. To the point that I was actually dismayed at the possibility of romance between her and the one eligible young man who crosses her path. He deserved much, much better. Maggie Banks is the sort of person who - well, the sort of person cozy mysteries and chick lit are built on. She knows better than everyone else, and none of the rules apply to her. She will lie to everyone and about everything to force things to go her way, up to and including misappropriation of funds from the store and what I believe she called "creative bookkeeping". Whether the lies (and creative bookkeeping) are sustainable doesn't matter; it's obvious from the jump that it's all going to blow up - but she doesn't plan to be around all that long, so what does she care what kind of quagmire she leaves behind her?

I mean, "it's all going to blow up eventually" is kind of a trope of chick lit (and cozy mysteries). Usually, though, it's more along the lines of heroine-is-keeping-things-from-others-to-avoid-hurting-them or something like that, not heroine-can't-be-bothered-to-follow-instruction-and-so-builds-a-house-of-lies. It takes an engaging main character to make it work. When she is, instead, actively off-putting ... yeah. Not for me. It gets two stars because it was well-written, even though I didn't much enjoy what it was that was written.

The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review.

Books about books. There isn´t much not to love abou it. This story is about Maggie who starts to work in a bookshop that is based around a historic figure. Thus the bookshop only sells historic books, which isn´t much to Maggies liking. She starts to secretly sell other books too, starting with romance and some mystery books. She also starts to organice readings, in which she invites authors and they mix their own genre with a classic.
I really loved the setting and the plot of the story. someone who newly found the love of reading deciding to secretly sell books. The romance was also really cute and lovely to read about.
The beginning was a bit streched and i didn´t really enjoy how the plot of historic person panned out, but i still really liked it. 3,75 stars

Such a good romance! The characters were likable and believable. The story was great and the steam was perfect!

I really wish I had better things to say about it. I’m definitely all for BIPOC authors and I try to read diverse perspectives. But this just fell flat. The romance was not interesting. There was no spark and I was just left feeling meh about it. I did really love the concept of the bookstore and the questionable backstory of the founder though. I would say check it out if you’re looking for a lighthearted quick read! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of the book!

Maggie is a woman who swoops into Bell River to help her friend run a bookstore…..a hopelessly encumbered bookstore with ridiculous rules dictated by the Bell Society; the society built to promote local author and legend.
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Free spirit Maggie finds companionship with the Bell Society narc and, after income-gaining inventory is removed from friend Rachel’s store, starts running a book speakeasy.

But the Bell Society isn’t as squeaky clean as they’d like to appear…can Maggie get them to loosen their rules and help the town become unencumbered?

I love reading about bookshops and this one was no exception. Thank you to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Landmark for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.