Having read and finished this about 2 weeks ago, I can say that I liked and enjoyed this book. However, I was very confused at the beginning and thought that Fox was partially not human because the description of him as a guy who lives in the woods due to the trauma he suffered in the military was purposefully ambiguous, I think. The whole concept wasn't extremely original but I liked the payoff and the conclusion. I would probably give this a 3.5, enjoyed it as a whole but had some minor issues with a few parts of the book.

Any book that is set in a bookstore has my immediate attention and my heart. There's something about reading a book that is set in a bookstore that is super cosy.

Candace "Cady" Bloomquist works at Nevermore Bookstore located in Townsend Harbour after inheriting the store after her aunt passes away. Suddenly her life is full of way more responsibility.
But when Cady starts getting phone calls weekly from a mysterious man named 'Fox', things finally start to get interesting. For the first time in awhile, Cady is excited for her weekly calls with the mysterious man.

This book was super interesting. There was a cosy mystery element to it which made it fun to read. Who is this mysterious Fox? Why is he calling? What is this situationship they have?

I loved Cady as a character. She had so much depth to her and I felt like she'd be a great person to be around. Fox on the other hand was super standoffish and almost gave *stalker* vibes, but there was something about him that was charming (as all stalkers seem to be I guess).

Contrary to other opinions of this book which I've read here on Goodreads, I actually loved this book. It was entertaining and I read it super fast (especially for an eBook version; it normally takes me ages to finish them).
I would 100% recommend!

I tried to like this book. I think Faekes gave me some serious creepy vibes. Lives in the forest? Has a sattelite phone. In love with s bookshop owner as he creeps on her. I dunno. Wasn't for me. He kept calling himself a monster.

I did, however, love the female representation, and the friendship cady had cultivated. The friendships would be what kept me going because Fawkes was..... not it.

Nevermore bookstore, well from where should I begin When I see this book I wanted to read it so bad because of the title truly I like the idea of having a bookstore😍💕 I mean who doesn't right?
Oh, and a mysterious person who orders books from your shop every Thursday via phone and his voice🔥😍❤️🤌🏻 is sexy, deep and orgasmic( pardon my language but I couldn't help it)🤣😅😂

I liked the book The Way Fox(ml) or Fawkes can you believe the name😍❤️ care about Cady(fl) but Fox is a broken soldier and another hand Cady was broken too.
The telephonic conversation between them🔥🥵💕🤌🏻, Tension and that 3am toes curling romance that every reader want😍🥰❤️(if you know you know).

But I don't get Fox, this book could be better but the Fox part was a bit off, the connection between Fox and the book and his background was a blur.
If it's not like that I think it'll get much easier to understand Fox which I don't.

As I am always eager to find a book about books, Nevermore Bookstore caught my attention for more than one reason. I must say, my only regret was reading it so fast.

Kerrigan & Cynthia have created a narrative that embraces the average sized woman, the quirks of our personalities and the suffering of our souls. They addressed chronic illness, CPTSD, POW and mental illness whilst keeping a charming and humorous undercurrent that caused me to literally LOL a few times.

The FMC Cady was a sweet, honest and sometimes too trusting bookstore owner who suffered from a chronic and debilitating illness. This led to the Authors incorporating how this affected Cady in her day to day life. She was a perfect lead character who was down to earth and was always trying to make the best experiences of her life regardless of her condition. Fox is an enigma that is confusing, bizarre and absolutely amazing. Living as a recluse due to his chronic PTSD from the military, Fox contacts the bookshop to have books sent to him to help him get through his night terrors and a fun, sexy and romantic situation starts to emerge.

The way the main characters support each other's chronic illnesses and conditions is beautiful and inspiring. It warmed my heart to see the understanding they had for each other’s situations and how it helped them grow. Their relationship had strong chemistry and a good amount of spice without taking away from the plot. The additional members of the community are quirky and amusing, establishing the personalities and situations for the next instalments of the series.

This narrative was written in duel POV, one by one author and one by the other. The authors incorporated a clever mystery into the storyline which added to the dynamics between the characters and added to the fact that I couldn’t put it down. Highly Recommended.

Happy Reading,

Alie

Rating: 💜💜💜💜💜
Aesthetic: 📚💊🌳🦌🌊⛰🌲🏕📖💜🌶
Spice: 🌶🌶

I honestly don't really know what I read here. I am a huge fan of Kerrigan Byrne books, but this one really felt different.

I think what really turned me off was the teenage like humor or sentences throughout the story. It just started hurting my brain to read it, and extremely took me out of the story.

I really enjoyed the premise of this book. A 'Haunted' bookshop, and a main character with an autoimmune disorder piqued my interest. I love the character of Cady and her confidence in her body and intelligence. She's strong and capable and mentions her issues with no qualms. It's so hard to find disability rep that allows the character to express how their body makes them feel. I can completely appreciate that.
I love the exploration of PTSD and how it manifests in Fox. I think he's a complicated character and would have liked to hear more of his backstory and how he came to be in the woods.

I was enthralled and needing to know more, up until Cady compared her pubic hairs to Colin Kaepernick in a headlock. After that, it was hard for me to focus on anything but the inky feeling I got from that comparison. I'm sure this book is published by now, but I would consider taking that out, and doing some other comparison if you need to. Cady, who is very progressive, would have realized the implications of that 'joke' and not said it. It was very out of character.

My Star rating is for everything up to that point in the book.

As for the cover and synopsis I expected more of a cozy, rom-com, book loving vibe, but unfortunately the book didn't provide what I was expect (more of a me not the authors). Don’t get me wrong, there were definitely parts that I enjoyed, but the book as a whole wasn’t able to keep me hooked.

This is the first I have read of Kerrigan Byrne and Cynthia St. Aubin but it will definitely not be my last. I enjoyed the writing and the character development so I will be trying out the next book when it comes out.

I want to thank NetGalley, Kerrigan Byrne and Cynthia St. Aubin and Oliver Heber Books for the e-ARC of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are honest, my own and left voluntarily.

** spoiler alert ** Thank you to NetGalley and Xpresso Book Tours for allowing me to receive a copy of this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

*This review contains some (sort of) spoilers.

I wish I could say a ton of great things about this book, but the truth is, my favorite part is the title. I thought it would be a great bookshop romance, but in reality, the bookshop barely exists in the second part of the novel. I also love a good Poe reference, but for the most part, that reference is in the title alone.

The main character Cady comes off as whiny and weak, while "Fox" comes across as creepy and obsessive. Like literally watching her in her window, creepy. Cady is also the quirky, not like the other girls, girl. The author does do a decent job of portraying PTSD in Fox and Cady's Ankylosing spondylitis. The language is nuanced and has so many clichés that I could barely pay attention to the content. One line was even about Fox turning away from the fire so he could prevent a "weenie roast"...sigh. There were countless others that made me stop and say "huh?"

It read as the writer trying to hard. I felt like the base plot could have been SO good, but just wasn't executed the way it should have been. I haven't read any of the author's other writings, but I've seen where this is not her usual genre. She did set it up nicely for a follow up romance with her friend Gemma and ex boyfriend so I assume she will continue the series. I love small town romances, but this one just didn't do it for me.

When I looked at the cover I thought this book was going to be a cute 3 stuff fluffy comfort story. Then I read the summary, and I don't know why I was under the impression that this book was going to be a paranormal story? I honestly thought this was going to be a Halloween themed book. And I was wrong on all fronts. The story follows Cady who has inherited a bookstore after the passing of a family member. Since inheriting the store, she's been taking weekly book orders on the phone from a man named Fox. What started off as purchases great for business, ended up being conversations that are the highlight of her week. When someone breaks into the store while she's on the phone with Fox, Fox has no choice but to go see for himself that she's okay. Which turns into something more.
This book was not at all for me. The characters were stiff, and I just felt like the story didn't flow in a way that felt natural. While this book had the redeeming qualities of talking about military PTSD, and physical debilitating illnesses, it still couldn't fix the story. I was not a fan of this at all 2 stars.

I very much enjoyed this bookish romance. There were a few times where the swears and insults felt a bit overdone and took me out of the story, but I thoroughly enjoyed the character development and plot.

This was a super cute fun read definitely something I would recommend and was a nice fun book thanks for approving me netgalley

Oh this book was swoony. The beginning was a bit confusing for me, but I was sucked right into the storyline and devoured this in just a few hours!

I didn't find any of the characters to be very like-able, which made it difficult to get very invested in the story. I liked the plot and enjoyed the book more as the story progressed, but it just fell a little flat for me.

This story was a bit different then what I expected going into it. It caught me off guard as the synopsis and title lead you to expect that it’s a silly romcom, but it’s definitely got some deeper elements to it. Once I routed my brain from light and fluffy to heavy and fluffy I was on board. I loved the main character Cady and the author’s portrayal of her. It’s very easy to have the silly and lighthearted FMC be “overly” these traits which turns into an annoying character. Cady was very likable and charming who wore her heart on her sleeve. Also, amazingly, she owns and works at a bookstore.

She’s talking to a man, Faux, who she’s never met who calls once a week to place a book order. An unfortunate accident brings him to town so he can keep an eye on Cady. His chapters were very quirky, and his internal monologue almost didn’t match his bruting exterior but it somehow worked. It def caused me to giggle and swoon a bit. He’s lost himself, and battling his own inner demons. There were some chapters where you could go down the path of stalkerish with him… but he means well?

What I really enjoyed is that the authors did a great job of creating witty dialogue and flirtations with the characters:
"I should probably ask because… Well, people will ask me if I checked… But you’re not a serial killer, right?”
He shrugged. “More of an oatmeal guy.”

I loved the town vibes as well, and her friends she interacted with. They didn’t overshadow the story with their roles or get lost/muddled in the plot, they just added extra flare and humor to our MC life.

Read if you like:
Dual POV
Open door romance
Small town vibes
Plus size rep/body positive
Sunshine/Grump trope

Thank you to the authors, publisher, and NetGalley for this e-arc in exchange for my review.

This story was middle of the road for me. The premise was stronger than what I read. Still a good read.

This book. My god, this book. Obsessed is an understatement. I think I highlighted about 75% of the book because the quotes just hit something so deep within me. The story is cute and fun with sexy thrown into the mix. The bookclub reminds me of my own, so much so I sent the mantra to my club saying we should adopt it! The town sounds like the type from a movie that you wish you grew up in. The bookstore is the kind you dream about owning. Her relationship with Fox/Bob are the type of relationships I’m so envious of because they start out as great friends first and foremost that lead to the type of bond that can’t be easily broken. The characters are so well written that even the ones you know you aren’t suppose to like, you still can’t wait to see them pop up on the page. This book was the perfect combination of great characters, great story, great writing and great world building.

The only thing that threw me was wording in the very beginning surrounding Fox that lead me to believe it would be a supernatural story. I’m not mad it wasn’t, but the weird phrasing did throw the story for a loop a couple of times. Not sure if that was intentional.

Thanks to NetGalley for the arc of this book. I gave it 2.5/5 stars.

First of all, I think the cover doesn't really match the contents and the vibes of this book, i thought it would be a cozy and funny romance with some mistery and it did have some of this characteristics but just not delivered in the right way.

The first chapter seemed nice and interesting but as soon as i read the second one, Fox's POV, it seemed like a completely different story and it was also written in a very confusing way. His backstory was not at all what I was expecting.
At first it seemed like he was on the run because somebody was looking for him or something like that, while in the end there was no reason for that much secrecy with his name and his complete isolation.. why living in the mountains like that? And why were Cady and the bookstore his only contact with the world?
I felt like his story was initially written like a mistery, with something that was supposed to be extremely dangerous and complicated and then it was nothing like that, the ending seemed too simple.

Cady's story with the bookstore and the building was a bit more interesting, although predictable, but her character was at the same time too naïve and too old for her age.

The things I appreciated were some of the interactions between the main characters, but most of all the scenes with the side characters, like Myrtle, Vee and Gemma, those were really funny.
And i also liked the way they talked about chronic illnesses like ankylosing spondylitis and about ptsd.

NEVERMORE BOOKSTORE - Kerrigan Byrne

#1 in the Townsend Harbor romance series

GREAT CHARACTERS! - 4 stars

Plot - 4 stars - This is what drew me to this book originally. Cady, a small bookshop owner, has only talked to her best customer over the phone. But she wants to meet him because of his sexy voice and their flirtatious conversations. But "Fox" is hiding plenty of secrets.

Writing - 3 stars - These authors seem like they're trying way too hard to be entertaining and funny. I've read Kerrigan Byrne before, and I found her stories to be well-written and enjoyable. But, of course, these previous books don't stress humor, and that's where this book falters for me. There are plenty of jokes, but they feel forced and overdone. I often find this in first-in-series books and, if I persevere, then the series usually gets better.

Characters - 4.5 stars - This is where the story shone for me. I particularly like these characters, partly because they're not your usual ordinary romantic hero and heroine. But they are attractive and caught my attention (and wouldn't let go). Cady is a self-deprecating bookstore owner with a chronic painful disease. So she keeps to herself quite a bit. But she is clever and thoughtful and perceptive. Fox is also a loner, incredibly attracted to Cady but not feeling as though he's good enough for her. He's dedicated to her safety, and his attraction is overcoming his ability to stay aloof.

Title - 3.5 stars - Pretty self-explanatory. I had a sense that the name of the bookstore had something to do with the paranormal, but then I realized that the taxidermy raven was important to the story (and the name).

Cover - 4 stars - The jewel-toned purple color definitely catches the eye.

Overall - 4 stars - I stuck with this book, wading through the overdone jokes and cleverness, and it gradually grew on me. Either the authors settled down a bit, or I got used to it, but I found the book to be much more readable in the second half. There is quite a bit of drama, which culminates in a drama-packed "trial" with the townspeople involved. And I found the love scenes with Cady and Fox to be exciting, but a bit different from the usual romantic genre. All in all, this series promises to be a bit different, capturing the reader's attention with good characters and not-your-typical main characters.

This was a cute, light-hearted mystery/romance. I enjoyed the quirky characters and getting to know the town. It was a fast read, the story moved at a quick pace, and the characters were more than just flat tropes. They had different disabilities and ailments they lived with that added some interest to the story as well. Overall, I would recommend this book.