I thought this would be right up my street as I love stories revolved around bookshops! Whilst some parts were entertaining/ funny, I found Fawn really unlikeable and just not a nice character. Books can be good if there is an unlikeable character but this just wasn't one of those. I found the way it was written through emails and journals made it more difficult to read as well. I thought it was going to be a light-hearted read and unfortunately just didn't feel that way to me.

3 ‘confused but curious’ stars

The Confessions of the Curious Bookseller tells the story of Fawn, the owner of a struggling bookshop and her cringe-worthy attempts of trying to compete with the owner of a new rival book store. This book felt long. Like. Really long. And unnecessarily so at times.

The story was told entirely through a series of emails, journal entries, notes, texts and ads. But despite this the author truly managed to do a great job of bringing Fawn to life.

If Bridget Jones ever decided to quit her job and turned to owning a bookshop, I imagine it would go very much like this. I don’t think Fawn was curious, I think she was more of a confusing catastrophe. But still, I couldn’t look away.

I expected a light hearted, ‘You’ve Got Mail’ romcom type read, but that is most definitely not what I got. In fact, romance doesn’t really exist in this book at all.

While I found the main character to be irritating, she was also rather complex, and because of this felt very human, which I appreciated. I think I stayed invested as I wanted to see if the author managed to redeem the character, or at the very least make her more endearing.

There is also lack of descriptions of many characters, which I acknowledge is a matter of personal preference, but I did not enjoy this aspect of the book. Towards the end of the book I realised I did not know what Fawn looked like, nor many of the secondary characters.

This book was very much all about the main character, though she was so annoying this made it challenging to persevere all the way through. If I had a penny for every time I rolled my eyes, shook my head or sighed at Fawn’s actions… well, I’d have a lot of pennies.

However, I’m glad I did persevere. The ending made me smile, and I even felt like I could sort of relate to the main character. I found the book to be well written - the content was amusing and moving at time, though occasionally the story seemed to drag. I would be interested in reading future works from this author as the writing style made for an easy read.

If you’re looking for an odd read, can tolerate an unusual main character that might grate on you, like reading about some awkward/funny situations and enjoy a few unexpected turns, then this may be a read you enjoy.

DNF at 53%

Many people think that you shouldn't post a review to a book you didn't finish, but if your leaving before a play ends shows your thoughts of a play, why wouldn't you leave before the end of a book you really don't like?!

So, if you like:
1. misleading titles
2. no plot
3. and horrible characters
this book might be the one for you. Sadly, none of the aforementioned is my thing.

Now, I like me a bad, nasty character, I really do. But bad characters are hard to write. You need to know how to balance and not make a reader sick before they finish a book. This is not that case.

The title and the cover of this book, even the description, suggest that this is a hilarious read. I mean, bookshops, cats, secret confessions - what's not to like here!?

First of, this is nothing bad sad and miserable.

Fawn, the main character, is this lonely, miserable person whose business is failing. A new bookshop opens in her neighborhood, and she does is lie, treat everyone around her poorly and try to get vengeance for who knows what.

I just can't even explain how frustrating of a character Fawn is!
The way she treats her family, employees, customers, fellow business owners. Everything is just sickening!

The book was written in the form of email correspondence, online comments and a little bit of journal entries. If it wasn't written like this, I highly doubt that I would have read this much.

Maybe the book itself isn't all that bad, but the advertising has to do a 180.

This book is laugh out loud funny in some parts and super sad in other parts. I absolutely loved the format of emails, journal entries, and web page correspondence. I loved this and it was written very well, some parts were a little drawn out or repetitive but overall a good story with good humor.
Fawn Birchill is the owner of her very own neighborhood book store, she also has a store cat named butterscotch and has taken on the feeding of numerous alley cats, the name of her bookstore is aptly named The Curious Cat Book Emporium. The book follows her journey through being the only neighborhood bookstore and somewhat thriving to becoming the second bookstore on the block and barely surviving. We find that fawn had a tough childhood working in her fathers store and see why she is very blunt and seems to complain a good bit, Fawn can be a bit ornery but is also generous and kind when she deems necessary.
This was a quick easy read and i thoroughly enjoyed all parts of the book,.

Thank you to the author, Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love most anything about bookshops, cats never hurt and I enjoy reading epistolary novels. This should have been completely my jam. Unfortunately, the blurb "uproariously funny" should read "deeply miserable and depressing". Fawn, the main character is a deluded, completely out-of-touch fantasist who is deeply irritating because her treatment of everyone else is so shabby. As you read, you realize a bit of how she became the way she is, but I found her almost impossible to like. Because I do like epistolary novels, it was a quick read, and the last 20 pages make an effort to show that she is capable of change. However, it's a case of too little too late, sadly.

Actual rating: 2.5

When it comes down to it, I think that the biggest problem with this book is with its marketing. The cover, title, and description had me expecting a funny story, possibly some romance, and a whole lot of book love. What I got was an epistolary novel about a lonely, vindictive woman and her failing business.

Unfortunately, that meant that this book wasn't what I was expecting (or hoping for), and wasn't something I would normally pick out for myself. That being said, it definitely had its moments. The side characters were definitely the highlight of this story - each of them had really strong and distinctive personalities, and a lot of my favorite moments were their responses and reactions to Fawn's antics. And, although I'm not generally a fan of epistolary writing, the format of this novel was relatively effective. I ended up with a very vivid picture of Fawn's life, even without any actual narrative writing.

In terms of unlikeable main characters, this book really takes the cake. Fawn is simply dreadful. She's selfish, rude, and a pathological liar, and I just could not bring myself to empathize with or relate to her. And, while she does get a redemption arc, I found it incredibly rushed and therefore not nearly as satisfying as it could have been. Her comments and actions could be amusing at times, but other times her callousness was downright difficult to read. After a while, I got the point that she wasn't a good person, and her continued lies and snide comments were just overkill.

I am a bookseller and have been for over 30 Years. This book was different. Some of it I liked and some I didn't. I actually liked other characters better than the main charterer. Fran Birchill got on my nerves in the first part of the book and I could seem to shake that after

I read quite a few of the bad reviews of this book before diving in and I have to say it isn’t nearly as bad as a lot of people have said. Yes, Fawn is a terrible person, but she’s sad and desperate, not malicious, and there’s clearly a darker side to her history with her father that influences how she acts around others. It’s not a hilarious laugh-out-loud novel, but it is quirkily funny, something like Bridget Jones or the Bob Servant books with its epistolary style. It’s way too long though, it could have been half the length it is.

This story was very cute but I could only read it in my Humanities professors voice as Fawn had the same personality. Witty and cute but did seem to be long winded..
I did find that it was lacking in some areas.

Though I did not finish the book, I felt it necessary to give feedback. First and foremost, I thought Fawn was a great character and had a lot of potential. Her dialogue was well written and at times witty, which I really enjoyed. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t get into the story itself. I don’t mind the format of the book; I’ve actually read other books with a similar format and really liked them, so that did not deter my enjoyment of this book. However, at times I felt parts of the book didn’t flow well, and some parts felt very dry and unnecessary, as if they were just filler. I truly wish I would have found the story more intriguing, but it just didn’t grab my attention like I had hoped.

I loved the format of this book, It was written as a series of emails which was unique and easy to read. However I found the main character Fawn very hard to stay interested in. I love books about bookstores but this one didn't do it for me. The writing was well done, the author is definitely skilled. However, if I was shaving coffee with Fawn I would want to leave quickly and I felt the same way about this book. Thank you for the opportunity to read it. Sorry this one didn't work out but I will try this author again next time.

I don’t know if management characters just aren’t for me or if the main character was written to be so unlikeable that I did not want to finish the book. I don’t think that the main character redeemed herself, and I think that this would have translated better as a movie or a tv show.

Sorry, this was not for me. I hated the format and the main character is not relatable at all.
Very misleading from the cover and description. Thank you to netgalley for the ARC.

I absolutely loved it!!!!! Quick read and full of goodness on every page. Highly recommend this one.

I was thrilled to read this book because everyone loves a premise and atmospheric magic that a bookshop can bring but unfortunately, this story fell short to me. I found that Fawn, our main character, was a interesting character that could be developed throughout the whole book but she remained flat to me. I was invested in reading a story about a woman who could overcome her personal problems but that didn't happened at all. I felt like the story didn't evolved as I turned the pages.

My main issue with this book was that I didn't felt a pull right on the very beginning which usually motivates me to keep reading. If there were some sort of hook, maybe the story would be more structured. I see some potential and a lot of plot work to do.

There were many things that came out of reading this book. I would like to start with the format, primarily written as chains of emails from the protagonist, Fawn, to her coworkers, family members, friends, etc.. There are also sections that include Fawn's thoughts, written like a diary entry.. This layout makes the novel easy to read, in the sense that the pages turn rather quickly. Additionally, there is an element of Fawn's customers writing reviews on phillysmallbiz.com about the bookstore she owns. They discuss their experience at the bookshop and Fawn promptly responds to their thoughts.

This is where I found it difficult to relate to the book. I can understand having a protagonist with FEW redeeming qualities, but I honestly felt as though Fawn was entirely unrelatable. She hardly had anything nice to say to people, she never took suggestions from her employees, she neglected to respond to her families plea for her to visit her father, and she only responded positively to reviews that said something good about her store. Otherwise, there was a lot of degrading dialogue that I feel discredited individuals thoughts and opinions. This made it difficult to connect to the character and therefore the book at the beginning.

After pushing through this lull, I began to handle Fawn's personality better. Her character grew out of her negative bubble and by the end she was more personable and realistic. This made the book more enjoyable and relatable.

Overall, I think the organization of the book was unique, which captured my attention. There were no distinct chapters, making it difficult to decide when to stop, so I found myself continuously flipping through the pages. There were points when I was not sure if I wanted to keep reading, but I am glad I did because it is satisfying to see the protagonist develop her otherwise lack of redeeming qualities. Definitely stick through it and you'll find it ends on an uphill slope, I just wish that side of Fawn's personality had shown through earlier on.

I like epistolary novels and the premise was so interesting, but the book was tedious. I skimmed the second half thinking there must at least be development in the end, but I was disappointed there too. Also, the title and cover are misleading.

*ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I tried really hard to like this book while the blurb and cover sounded really promising,I did not enjoy this book at all.

You know how sometimes you have to work to finish a book? This was one of those..... That's not to say the book was horrible, just kind of meh. At first Fawn (the main character who owns a bookstore) was pretty likable, cute, and quirky but as the book progressed she got not whiney, started lying more & more, and was just hard to like. The style of the book (emails, notes, etc) was a decent concept, it was pretty easy to follow along, I saw a few errors but maybe once final copy is released they will be taken care of. Overall, the story was ok, just really couldn't relate with main character at all. Thank you Netgalley for ARC.

When I began reading this book, I became hooked because I wanted to know if Fawn would break up with the fellow she was dating. Then I was wondering about the cosplay pen-pal relationship. Then I began to see the heaps and heaps of dishonesty in all of her correspondence. Her dramatic flair was amusing and kept me reading as she became shadier and shadier--and developed quite the habit of emailing while drunk (never a good idea!) I almost wrote her off as a 50-something antihero who was unwilling to change for the better.

A quote from an email from Fawn to her sister at the beginning of the book that I found was funny: "Can you believe it's been three months? Just last week, he took me out to dinner and paid for it himself! If this doesn't smell like commitment, then I don't know what does!"

What kept me going was: 1. I needed to know how the Mark Twain situation panned out and 2. the emails from Jane. I could see a glimmer of a better person lurking under all the dross* that was covering Fawn.

As a reader you really think you know where this is going to go in the beginning, it sounds as if there might be some sort of romance in that "The Shop Around The Corner" style, and it's not--at all--which is great.

If you get annoyed reading about Fawn during the first half of the book, please keep going, or you are going to miss something lovely.

*I chose to use the word dross to describe all the crap Fawn heaps on herself during this book because I'm confident she would enjoy that wording.