Hot, steamy and sensual! Book People is a smutty romance about two rival booksellers in a small village. We navigate their enemies to lovers journey as they work out how to plan and deliver a literary festival. Kate Jones is our sunshine character - bubbly, bright, and innovative who just can't understand why Sebastian Blackwood, the towns aloof and reclusive literary snob, doesn't like her.

I was hooked by the characters and the premise from the get go. I loved seeing how the main characters communicated and how their relationship changed across the book. The two ultimately complimented each other perfectly! My only gripe being the "alpha male" behaviour that Ashenden loves to write about gets ramped up too far at times in this. While it makes sense for one of the characters to be like this, it isn't really in character for the main lead.

A throughly engaging romance and a fantastic read!

Book People by Jackie Ashenden is both an enjoyable enemies to lovers romance and a love letter to books themselves.

Book People is the story of Kate and Sebastian, rival book sellers in a small town setting (already sounds good tight?!). Kate is looking for a fresh start after leaving her job and abusive ex in London, following the death of her mother. Despite everything she’s been through she’s strong and determined, very much the sunshine to the grumpy Sebastian, who feels himself cursed by the Blackwood name to live alone and so has chosen to close himself off. Yet the pair are forced to work together in the name of reviving the villages literature festival. In doing so they uncover a mystery that brings them closer together, and really can one steamy kiss really hurt?!

There are so many well known and well loved tropes going on in this one, we’ve got:
📖 small town setting - Wychtree is the type of village where everyone knows your business and gossip travels fast
📚 opposite attract/grumpy sunshine
📖 rival bookshop owners - their love of books flows through the pages
📚 enemies to lovers - though it’s clear they’ve each been attracted to one another from the start but fighting it
📖 (spoiler alert) the ex receiving a good punch from a very protective (though somewhat possessive MMC)
📚 a great romantic subplot with the discovery of some lost letters - this whole storyline was one of my favourite parts of the novel

I enjoyed this one and it was certainly a quick and easy read. The building chemistry between the MCs was good and worked well. I preferred Kate out the MCs, she felt more real and had more to her. Sebastian was a decent enough MMC but I found him to be a little more flat and more of a caricature, he was rather repetitive in his brooding; he worked better when with Kate than when on his own.

I really enjoyed the build up to the festival and how much Ashenden’s love of all things books shone through. Overall this was a solid read that I enjoyed.

Book store rivals.
Enemies to lovers.
Say no more.

Owning a bookstore is a dream, and to read a story of someone owning a bookstore is like eating an entire bag of candy. Really good candy, ok.
I enjoyed this one! It followed two bookstore rivals who have shops across from each other. Kate, owner of Portable Magic, is the sunshining neighbor to Sebastian, owner of Blackwood Books. Reluctantly, (on Sebastian's end) they both wind up working together in planning a book festival for their town. Along the way there is banter, angst, a mystery of love letters, and the enemies do become lovers.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a chance to read this arc. Above is my honest review, and will be posting it to Goodreads. See below for link.

Sadly, this book really did not do it for me. Trying to jump on the Emily Henry-Hypetrain of cosy, book-centered romance reads, this misses a lot. The story is predictable in a boring way, the characters are so cliché, the pace of their romance seems far too rushed and unnatural. Sad!

I loved this book! The story was very interesting and it kept my attention the whole time. And the banter and romance was very well done.

Book People sounded like an incredible book, but it ended up falling flat for me.

Kate needs a major life change and moves to the small town her mother is from and opens a book store. Her book store is modern and teeming with romance books, thrillers, fantasy, mysteries and sci fi. Across the street, Sebastian has another more traditional book store with literary fiction, poetry, and nonfiction books. Kate and Sebastian are set up to be rivals but slowly warm to each other as they plan a book festival together.

I like many others love books about books and writers and book stores. But this one lacked the character development that I wanted. Sebastian felt too broody and overly macho man protective of Kate who he just met. The grumpy sunshine just fell flat. Also, the letters plotline felt shoehorned in and was immensely predictable.

Tropes

* Grumpy Sunshine
* Small Town Romance
* Bookstore Owners
* Rivals to Lovers
* Love Letters

3 stars

Book people is a rom com about two rival bookstore owners that reluctantly work together to revive a book festival in their small town.

Kate just broke up with her toxic boyfriend and moves to her family's hometown that she hasnt been to since she was small. She opens a bookstore across the street from the rival bookstore to the dismay of the sexy and brooding owner.

I loved how both characters cared for one another while trying to heal from prior relationships. Sebastian was a little intense at the beginning, but mellowed out a tiny bit. I really enjoyed the background romance and bits at the beginning of each chapter.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars rounded to 4.
Book People by Jackie Ashenden centres around some fun rivalry between Blackwood books and Kate's bookstore across the road selling things like romance and thrillers and all kinds of genres. As Sebastian sells a different kind of book, ones I probably wouldn't buy, he feels a little superior and also resents Kate opening a bookstore opposite him

So the wars begin, however it's not long before these enemies are becoming something else. Kate is just out of an emotionally abusive relationship and Sebastian continues to believe that the men in his family are totally inept at relationships. He has built up a whole story about it.

They find some commonality when they discover some old letters between their great great grandparents. They were Kate and Seb too. This adds a bit of mystery although the reader is able to put two and two together I think long before the now living Kate and Seb do.

It is written in alternating chapters in the first person by Kate and Seb - present day.  I don't usually like first person narrative, however the back and forth helps see both points of view.

I enjoyed the book, it didn't totally wow me, but the bookish setting, the two characters and their own individual histories kept me reading. Of course it has a happy ending. It is mainly set in a small town in England, however the final chapter has  been set in New Zealand, and was a nice touch to end the story.

I love an enemies to lovers book and when it involves 2 bookshop owners it’s magical.
This book is well written as you enjoy multiple POV. Being able to see what’s going on in the head of both main characters allows you to really bond with them, as you follow along on their journey.
The plot flows nicely and the added suspense of the letters keeps you invested in the storyline.
I loved this book and would happily recommend it to anyone who likes these tropes.

This was fun, spicy, banter filled and all around a lovely little rom-com. If you enjoy enemies to lovers, this will be a hit!!

This novel circles a lot of tropes (enemies to lovers, grumpy sunshine) without actually landing. There isn’t enough backstory to make their relationship- both initially as enemies and eventually as lovers- believable. Our guy is too grumpy. Our girl is too bubbly. It all leans too hard into the tropes without enough substance for me to become invested.
There is a fun subplot involving love letters from the past, and at times I was more interested in that plot line than our main one.
Overall, this was a miss for me.
I received a NetGalley arc of this story in exchange for my honest review.

This book has everything a romance reader could want!! Small town, book store owners, a book festival where to rival bookstore owners have to work together? Absolutely perfect!! I loved this! It was funny and romantic and I loved the pacing!

Book People made me realize that I actually don't mind small town romances.

I usually find them boring but in this case I was amazed at how much I liked it. It was cute overall although I think this one won't stick with me for a long time because of the whiny mmc.

This one was kind of uneven for me! I don't love first person POV from a character who is very self-loathing, so the chapters from Sebastian's POV were frustrating. It felt a little too fast-paced, but it was definitely a fun one!

Great synopsis but fell a little flat for me. Didn’t care for the male main character enough to wish for them to be together either

2 stars

I absolutely hate to say it, but I didn’t really enjoy this one. The premise is super cool: Kate and Sebastian each own bookstores located opposite of each other in a small town. Sebastian’s store is legacy, while Kate only came to town recently. For reasons unbeknownst to her, he seems to despise her… because he’s super attracted to her. Yes, you read that right. He also said, “I never dip my pen in the company ink – or the village ink, to be precise.” Let that sink in. Pen means exactly what you think it means. It’s giving high school, sorry.

So, the plot is great, Sebastian maybe not so much, but I could relate to both his and Kate’s love for books and reading (I have a feeling most of us readers will), but then why didn’t I like this? Well, it was quite insta-lovey and the communication on Sebastian’s end was really bad. They also went from 0 to 100% after one kiss and despite repeatedly saying they ‘shouldn’t do this’, they still went ahead—and I personally didn’t like how they went about it. In combination with sometimes ick-inducing writing, the book unfortunately didn’t work out for me as much as I’d hoped it would.

I enjoyed this book even more than I expected to! From the start, you can be fairly sure how it will end, but this is not about the destination but the journey. The chemistry between Kate and Sebastian sizzles and I felt my heart strings being pulled more often than I had anticipated - I felt deeply for both characters and really cared about their back story and the relationship which develops between them.

This is a love story to books and bookshops and their significance in the community and to each and every individual. The cover suggests frilly chick-lit, but this was more about passion and life and how, as humans, we interact - for good and back.

There is an secret love story which weaves around Kate and Bas' story. Again, I felt it was slightly predictable, but it was still important and I was impatient for each detail to be revealed.

Wonderful, thought-provoking read, which entertained and amused and moved simultaneously. Don't miss this one!

This book was easy to read and i really enjoyed the subplot of the romance between their great grandparents. Sebastian was kind of rude and whiny but he did grow on me.

Thank you to Headline and Netgalley for giving me this chance to read an Arc of this book. I absolutely LOVED! Such a unique love story. Loved the banter between Kate and Sebastian. This was perfect.

DNF @ 40%

This book is just tangible proof that the enemies-to-lovers trope is significantly difficult to pull off in romance books. I wanted to give it some grace, which is why I read so far into it, but the thing is- they were never enemies (shocker). Yes, they have rivalry due to them both owning bookstores right across the street from one another, but they are not enemies by any means. The MMC tells the reader in his first or second chapter that he wants the FMC. Please say it with me: they are NOT enemies!

I also just couldn't get past how childishly they treated each other at the beginning. I'm not quite sure how old these characters are supposed to be, but they are definitely a few years into their adult years and yet they're acting like high schoolers. If I had to endure him calling her "Miss Jones" one more time, I think I would've gone nuts. Maybe I have gone nuts after reading so much of this book.

Now, this is not to say that this book is bad! I just personally did not enjoy it but I can definitely see the charm that it has. If I liked the characters a tad more I probably would have continued with the book. I just truly wish the enemies-to-lovers trope wasn't so hard to execute.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange of an honest review.