BATTLE OF THE BOOKSTORES

Two rival booksellers vie for the same position following the announcement of a merger.

Josie Klein and Ryan Lawson are bookstore managers on the same street in Boston, but that’s where their similarities end. Josie manages Tabula Inscripta, a shop catering to literature, while Ryan runs a romance-only bookstore named Happy Endings. When both find themselves under the new ownership of Xander Laing, a notorious developer who’s already purchased most of the block, their futures hang in the balance. Xander wants to merge the bookstores with a nearby coffee shop, and surely the new space doesn’t need two managers. Josie and Ryan vacillate between disliking each other and attempting to unite behind the common goal of preserving their beloved spaces. However, many of the details are wrong. Josie is somehow the only staff member of her bookstore, which in reality would be nearly impossible. The stores are also located in Somerville’s Davis Square, though the setting is frequently described as being in Boston. Josie is particularly antagonistic toward romance as a genre and the Happy Endings team, only begrudgingly coming to the realization that romance novels can also be literary. While Josie does eventually soften her judgment of other people’s taste in books, reading so many putdowns of the genre isn’t a lot of fun for a romance reader. There’s also a You’ve Got Mail–style subplot in which Josie and Ryan are online friends through a forum for book lovers without knowing each other’s identity. It’s fine, but there are better options when it comes to Nora Ephron–inspired rom-coms.

A bookstore romance best left on the shelf.