Maggie Banks is unsure of her direction in life. Others her age are getting married and having kids or careers, and she feels like a letdown to her parents. When her friend Rochelle asks her to take over a bookstore in a small town to cover a maternity leave, Maggie jumps on the opportunity. Little does she know that this bookshop only sells certain old school books and has a strict owner. Maggie decides to spruce things up in this bookshop, but can she do it without being caught?

I really enjoyed this book! Since I have read Must Love Books by this author, I had high hopes and they were met. It was a heartfelt book about self discovery, addressing racism and other important issues, while at the same time it is an ode to book lovers and has some laugh out loud funny parts. Think Gilmore Girls small town bookshop vibes but more diverse. I highly recommend it!

Thanks to NetGalley and Source Books Landmark for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

“I want us to have open minds and come away feeling excited about books we might never have appreciated. How does that sound?”

There are some author books that catch you completely by surprise. The ones you were not expecting to love but upon completion come to realise just how refreshing it was. Shauna Robinson (take note of this author’s name - I think we will be hearing a lot more from her) is reportedly a young introverted woman with a charming writing style mostly concerned with … books! I read and loved her, Must Love Books (HERE) and eagerly anticipated her latest offering, The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks. It was great! The more I read, the more I fell in love with it - especially the lead character, Maggie.

“I’m not a big people person, I guess you could say.” ... “Why?” “I prefer to be left to my own devices.” “You mean books?” “Books are my primary devices, yes.”

All up this is a quick and fun read. It was just delightful to watch Maggie turn into a reader and pursue what she felt deep down to be her calling in life. If you love small-town dynamics with quirky characters, laughter and a sweet romance then this is the book for you. I loved all the friendships that were formed in the book, especially Maggie's friendship with Vernon - their interactions brought a smile to my face. I loved Maggie and Malcolm’s relationship - a romance that did not dominate the story and the challenges they set each other were terrific. There is just loads more to love about this book - the discussions about the romance genre; culturally relevant and silenced voices in literature; the secret book club meetings and, not feeling bad about no set plan for life. You don’t have to have it all together from the start.

‘No wistful nostalgia for century-old books. No assumption that one type of book mattered more than another. Only excitement about new stories waiting to be discovered.’

There is just so much to love about The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks! If you love books about books, small town dynamics, the plight of small town communities (I especially loved Maggie’s book events where famed authors presented a twist of a classic tale) and a cast of relatable and lovable characters (yes! That’s you Vernon!) then I recommend to all lovers of romantic comedy Shauna’s latest offering. Can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

‘I’d just been supposed to work quietly at the bookstore for a few months, enjoy a reprieve from living with my parents, and use the time to figure out my next steps. Instead, I’d founded a secret community, incited a rebellion, and gotten people fired.’









This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

This was a cute book that I couldn’t put down. Loved the story and will definitely be recommending this one!

I really liked this sweet and uplifting book.. It’s not just another story about a woman who is lost and finds herself. First of all, it takes place in a bookstore plus there’s a non-tradional book club. I liked the back story of an author who is revered, but may be more complicated than it first appears. Maggie also meets some fun quirky characters and not only finds herself, but finds a whole group of friends. Second, the hate to love romance in this with the book tie-inand stretching yourself is really cute. I didn’t think the romance was as developed as it could’ve been, but I still liked it.

This book really put a smile on my face and I am going to love sharing this with other people.

4/5 stars

Thanks to NetGalley and SourcebooksLandmark for the audioARC of this book.

I love Maggie Banks and her perseverance!. She fights back and slowly wins new friends and saves the town while exposing a long held secret.

Contemporary Fiction | Adult
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The bare-bones blurb on this new book hooked me at the outset – out of work and tired of living at her parents, rudderless 28-year-old Maggie takes a short-term job managing a bookshop for her best friend Rochelle, who is about to have a baby. Maggie is NOT a reader, but she’s eager to escape her life. At first, she is charmed by Bell River, named after its most famous author, Edward Bell. But she’s flummoxed when she learns Rochelle’s silent partner Ralph has a controlling hand, limiting the store’s stock to Bell’s work and his contemporaries, and refusing to let the store sell anything published after 1935. When Maggie messes up and Ralph pulls Bell’s stock, she’s too ashamed to tell Rochelle. Determined not to fail, Maggie develops a plan to sell modern books on the sly, and even hosts secret book parties that skewer the very classics she’s supposed to be selling. You can guess just how long the subterfuge lasts. This is a delightful read for a gloomy weekend – this character will instantly lift your spirits. She is a bit of a loose cannon, sure, accidentally jeopardising the economic future of all the new friends she makes, but this irrepressible Black heroine is charming and winsome to the core. I also really liked her sense of self – a mix of doubt, acceptance, and throw-your-shoulders-back confidence that rings so true. With her penchant for streaming both Schitt’s Creek and Kim’s Convenience, I wondered if she might be a secret Canadian! The plotline is a lot of fun, too. There’s a minor romance angle, and a bit of a mystery around Edward Bell’s past, but Maggie’s antics are the star of this tale packed with heartwarming characters, lots of humour, and a lively passion for books and community. I enjoyed it more than I expected, and I’m looking forward to more from this author. My thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark for the digital reading copy provided through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Grand Forks (B.C.) & District Public Library has a copy on order for its adult fiction collection.
More discussion and reviews of this novel: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60305890

Loved this book. Sweet, entertaining, I loved the characters and their development. Hope to see a sequel to continue to follow these characters

Just so freaking good. 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.

I absolutely loved this book! Such a super fun read. Shauna Robinson made me fall in love with the characters and setting of this book. This was a perfect read to get me out of a reading slump.

The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks sucked me right in and wouldn’t let go. There were times when I laughed out loud or felt myself thinking hard about what this book means to me. Friendship, love yourself, trust yourself and your friends…a serious message really.
Shauna Robinson’s writing flows nicely. I enjoyed reading this book very much.
I highly recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy.

Maggie Banks volunteers to help her best friend manage a book shop. But the thing is Maggie is not a reader. Also this book shop comes with restrictions, weird rules along with a unusual cast of characters preventing her from truly being the help this quaint shop needs.

The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks is a story of community, the past and stepping out of one’s comfort zone. There is history here, bookish name dropping, and friendship in unlikely places.

This was a fun read, I enjoyed the story, the journey of self discovery, the author's writing style and even this odd bunch. There was mystery, scandal, secret meetings and romance. Just what this reader needed.

This is my first time reading Shauna Robinson. I will be back for more.

My thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark for a digital copy (via Netgalley) in exchange for a honest review.

The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks was about a woman who didn't know what she wanted to do with her life, so decided to help a pregnant friend by taking over her role in a bookstore while on maternity leave. Maggie is in for a shock when she finds out that this bookstore only sells books that are labeled as classics from the time frame that the town's famous local author was alive.

While Maggie is trying to figure out what to do with her life, she decides to start selling contemporary books under the table and creating a book club.

Shauna Robinson talks about a variety of topics, like racism in historic figures, that bring awareness to what is happening in this world. I thoroughly enjoyed the quirky characters and the interesting story!

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for a review.

The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks was a really cute book. I loved the underground book club, the secret selling of best sellers and more recent books rsaher than classics, and of course all of the characters.

Shauna Robinson's rom-com is a clever take on finding yourself and love.

Maggie and Malcolm are appealing characters, and if Maggie's in her head a lot, well, that's part of her age and universal appeal. As is the small town with one big tourist draw setting - it felt very natural, though the world building isn't quite as strong as the characters. (Vernon the grump is almost more appealing than Malcom, if not as sexy.)

Maggie's journey to loving herself and finding her path feels true to life, while being complicated by funny, believable obstacles. Who wouldn't;t want to attend Maggie's genre-mashup author events? Booksellers, take note.

This one's for bookstore, small town, and opposites attract fans.

THE BANNED BOOKSHOP OF MAGGIE BANKS by Shauna Robinson is a light, undemanding read that is a LibraryReads Selection for November. The title character is a young woman trying to find her true purpose (quite a bit of angst about this). She takes over managing a bookstore for a friend on maternity leave and there are some fun references to book titles, characters, and varying genres. The tension comes from absurd rules about what types of books can be sold and Maggie's efforts to circumvent those restrictions. Sadly, the costs associated with running a bookstore are not very realistic and this tends to spoil a cute story with an uplifting vibe about forming new friendships and "the sense of community a bookstore can create." Fans of Robinson and of playful romance may be more than willing to overlook the business details and many readers are likely to enjoy the bookstore setting.

I really enjoyed this one and flew through it. I enjoyed the characters that Robinson created and the quirky little town of Bell River. The romance aspect was nice, but it was more of a bonus for me, and I felt like the story was good without it. I love the idea of an underground book club, and all of the friendships that she formed because of it. I love that Maggie broke the rules and sold “banned” books because banning books is just crazy to me and who only wants to read a limited amount of classic books!? (No hate to the classics, but variety is the spice of life!)

Thanks, Sourcebooks, Robinson, and Netgalley, for the ARC copy!

I really loved Maggie. She was a force and she just needed something she was passionate about to find her way. The cast of characters is great and of course you can never go wrong with a bookstore/small town setting.

A delightful story of what happens when a creative, unemployed friend agrees to take over the running of a bookshop operating under unreasonable content restrictions. I loved the characters and the very slow romance but mostly I loved the feeling of what a properly run bookshop can offer. A book loving community can feel like family and this comes through clearly in The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks.
Thank you to Net Galley for an advanced reading copy.

This was a really fun read. I enjoyed the portrayal of the town, the characters, and especially of the special events Maggie organizes. I'll be recommending it widely!

Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read it in advance of publication.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this new novel.

This was a sweet story but for me it fell flat because Maggie felt so non-real. I know this is fiction but when everything goes the protagonist way, it's not fun to read. Even though she messed up she all of the sudden had become best friends with everybody in town. I want more friction and obstacles than this :)