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.

Booksellers are a strange breed; often not the best at dealing with real people or the real world, and sometimes rather lacking in the social graces. Elizabeth Green's protagonist, Fawn Birchill, certainly fits the type. The problem is that the book is - I believe it's an American expression - a 'hot mess'. It's a bit of this, a bit of that, some diary entries, some emails to staff, competitors and a local business reviewing site but it's singularly lacking in any sense of a narrative thread. Also, whilst I read an ''uncorrected proof' from Netgalley and the publishers (thank you), the book has been published just a few days ago and I can only hope that quite a lot of work was put into improving the layout for Kindle. Trying to keep track of the emails when they stretch over multiple screens is not so easy.

Fawn is a self-deluded, smug, out-of-touch fantasist who has completely failed to move with the times. She is rude to everybody, treats her staff horribly, her new competitor with unjustified disdain, and seems only to really like her elderly tenant (who is away with the fairies) and her cat. Her resentment of her elderly father who is dying in a hospice has set her apart from the rest of her family.

This is no 'You've got mail' with small, lovingly nurtured old fashioned bookshop up against a giant chain bookstore. Instead, her competitor is a much younger bookseller who - unlike Fawn - has moved with the times. He has coffee. He has cats - five of them. He has evening 'events' that are so popular that they make lots of noise. Fawn's bookshop is old, damp, smelly and unwelcoming. Her building is falling down around her. Things leak, break, and have seen much better times.

A lot of reviewers seem to have given up really early on and I understand that. It's only my determination to provide a review that kept me going against all odds. The book was deeply irritating - the format, the characters, the premise, all set my teeth on edge. BUT, against all odds, the ending raised this from a one-star to a two-star read. It's a shame that the mess of the first 95% of the book means that most readers may well not stick with it to see how Fawn (sort of) sorts herself and her shop out.

Fern, a mid-fifties bookstore owner with a penchant for... hyperbole? pathological lying?... prepares for battle when a trendy new bookstore moves in right down the street. The novel consists mainly of emails, shop reviews, and the occasional journal entries which create a clear (if perhaps unreliable) picture of Fern, her store, and her rivals down the street.

While I appreciated the constant references to classics I love and immortalized characters, I felt like this book wasn't really the love letter to literature I was expecting— it was about a woman in her mid-fifties with a difficult childhood who decided never to grow up. Much of her behavior was childish, petty, and irresponsible and the arc was a little too gradual for me to really get into the book itself.

All in all a fun idea, and a clean read, but I found myself scrolling through to get to the end. That being said, there were some incredibly charming side characters, however, and the style was particularly funny in moments like the exchange between the bookstore employees about what kind of (culturally inclusive) store display they should have for Christmas. Grateful I read it, but I probably won't read it again!

Thank you Netgalley for allowing these opinions from the mass of readers. I must say I wanted to settle down to a good relaxing quick book at the end of very stressful days while working long hours cooped up in my home due to the quarantine measures In place in our zones.

I was attracted to this book by the title and then by the front cover, however much to my disappointment I endured a couple of hours of torture reading annoying emails from and to the main character named Fawn, who is the owner of a badly run bookstore. Ever heard the expression “You’re being a Karen“. This is when someone is an annoying know it all, who points everyone’s faults like there is no others. But does not acknowledge her own mistakes.

I cannot will not subject myself to the next 6,000 pages left to read. Simply horrid.

This felt a little bit like Bernadette - except that Bernadette made a change for the good. This main character was a pathological liar and deluded and that continued right up to the last page. I’m glad it was a short book so I didn’t waste too much time on it.

I liked the idea of the You’ve Got Mail theme and the story being told through emails and journal entries, but the woman rambles on so much that by 70% of the book, I just skimmed the last 30%.

Thank you NetGalley for this free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I love, live, LOVE a book set in a bookstore.
But I couldn't find an IN with the main character.
It might have been intentional to pain her as a naive, rude, self-centered soul in need of a therapist to help her step into kindness, grace, love, and light.
I didn't stick around to find out and gave up on this book about 20% in.
Two stars for the setting and the idea to write it as a mix of emails and diary entries.

I was lucky enough to receive an advanced reader's copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

In "Confessions of a Curious Bookseller," Fawn attempts to run her West Philadelphia bookstore. When another bookstore is opened down the street, Fawn must come to terms with the many things in her life that need to be addressed.

This book is told mainly through emails, letters, and journal entries. I enjoyed the writing style and would be interested in reading another book by the author.

Confessions of a Curious Bookseller follows Fawn, a perpetually agitated book emporium owner navigating her business and personal life with extreme confidence. With a dysfunctional family relationship and a hard time conducting business (especially with a new shop down the street), Fawn goes through many a trial and tribulation in the book. The majority of the novel is told through emails and notes.

This was an interesting concept! I expected something different based off of the title and the cover. This book was hard to get through at times because Fawn’s character can be very blunt which sometimes comes off quite harsh. Eventually this becomes almost endearing in a strange way later on. I have respect for the commitment to exploring why Fawn is like this, and it felt creative. But sometimes it felt like reading about the worst manager you’ve ever had.

The writing was great, and the commitment to upholding Fawn’s point of view was good. Reading about unlikable characters can be difficult, but sometimes I would find myself laughing in an exasperated way. Although I wouldn’t like to work for Fawn, reading about her was interesting.

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

First of all i found the booktitle to be very miisleading. I hate to give bad reviews, but i did not like this book. The Main characters was for Me annoying, she felt bitter and Blamed everyone Else for her dismal life. And the way this book was written, in e mails and i do not know what to call maybe diary style. Not my cup of tea.
Thank you to netgalley for letting me read this e arc in exchange for an honest opinion

I tried REALLY hard to like this book and to stick with it, but I just couldn't get into it at all. I put this down as unfinished 39% of the way through.

The blurb and cover sounded really promising, hence my decision to choose this book, and there is clearly a story to be told with some really interesting interactions along the way.

I found the format of the e-mails/texts/reviews really hard to follow and found myself skim-reading a lot of them because I didn't feel like they added anything to the story. In particular, a lot of the begging for discounts again and again in a rude manner. I understand it was meant to show how the business was struggling and that she was trying to do what was best but I just felt some of them were quite irrelevant.

I also found Fawn extremely unlikeable, arrogant and self-centered. Her tone was always quite formal and I found myself getting annoyed at her actions and the way she was speaking to people, especially her staff.

.The pace lacked for me and nothing had actually really happened plot wise at the pointed I stopped (putting human excretion outside rival bookshop door?). I tried to skip a bit to continue and felt that even in that sense I could've picked it up to carry on because nothing had happened in between.

It could've been a really interesting story but I just didn't find the characters likeable or engaging, and I really don't like cats either.....

For me, this book was not "uproariously funny" - I found the main character, Fawn, to be very annoying and not likeable at all (she sold her elderly tenant's possessions for her own gain - what?!). I kept trying to figure Fawn out throughout the book - for a while I thought her behavior was because she was mentally ill. Then I decided that the author likely wouldn't be trying to write what was intended to be a humorous book about someone with a mental illness. Then I thought that perhaps her childhood was so horrific that she couldn't help how she turned out... this also seemed unlikely as her sister, by all appearances, seemed to be "normal." I gave up trying to figure Fawn out and instead pushed through the book to see how it all turned out (the ending was as weird as the rest of the book). Needless to say, this is not a book that I recommend reading.

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for providing a copy to review.

A book told through emails, journal entries, blog posts and so on from the perspective of a fifty-something bookseller in Philadelphia as she navigates the change of her neighborhood and the addition of a competitive bookstore right near hers.

I waffled a lot throughout this book on my feelings about Fawn. There would be moments where she would write an email or do something that made me giggle and I loved her and then on the next page she would do something that would make me roll my eyes or I would be greatly disappointed in how she handled something. Because this book was presented in the way it did, plot was hard to put together and characters played a big part, so my roller coaster of feelings made me feel as though I would go back and forth on whether I liked the book or not.

With all that being said, I love reading a book with a different format, it is fun to switch up reading in that way and work through a plot in a different way. As a book lover, I enjoy all books set in bookstores and seeing the inner workings of how a bookstore functions, so seeing two bookstores in the same neighborhood and how they interact was good to read.

Interesting and different format. Not sure I would like it at first but ok reading. Not a huge fan of the main character, Fawn. Her excessive "exaggerations" made me dislike her at first then I started feeling so much pity for her when I realized why she was like that then at the end....well we won't ruin it with the end. I will let you read it.
I did have a few laugh out loud moments, some very sad moments too, so while it's an unusual format, you will still get sucked in and get a lot of feels from this book. Rated a 4 star