Pumpkin Spice Cafe

Laurie Gilmore

HarperCollins

Review: Lauren O’Connor-May

If the author’s name reminds you of a popular noughties TV series, you’re not alone.

I’ve read that the writer chose this pen name specifically because she is a fan of the show.

Her fan status is clear in the world-building of Dream Harbour, the name of the kooky fictional town where the story is set and which has subsequently become the name of the series.

If you feel that Gilmore Girls had entirely too little spice — and I don’t mean the kind of spice in the title of this book — then you will love Pumpkin Spice Cafe.

The book tells the story of Jeannie who, in the style of every Hallmark movie ever made, leaves her high-pressured, career-orientated life in Boston and moves to Dream Harbour to run her retired aunt’s coffee shop — or as one of the characters in the book describes it, she “has an ‘eat, pray, love’ vibe”.

There she meets a wide array of strange people, like the mayor who makes important municipal decisions based on the contents of his dreams, or the members of the nosy book club who seem to read only the spiciest romances ever written and spend their meetings gossiping, and Luke, um I mean Logan, the town’s handsome, semi-reclusive, flannel-wearing farmer.

Jeannie instantly falls for Luke, um I mean Logan, but the town is very protective of their somewhat grumpy orphan who also happened to have had his heart very publicly broken the year before, so they keep an exceptionally close eye on the budding romance, lest Jeannie also abandons the soft-hearted Luke, um I mean Logan.

I jest about the book's similarities to Gilmore Girls but truthfully, it is the Gilmore Girls effect that gives the book its charm. This charm has made it a TikTok sensation and seen it flying off shelves internationally — in the hundreds of thousands — and has spawned a series that is already five books deep, despite the book only being published just over a year ago.

Out of curiosity, I checked the Libby app and was surprised to find that each book in the series had a 24-week-long waiting list.

•Three readers can win a Pumpkin Spice Cafe stocking filler consisting of the book and a few other goodies. To enter, email your name, address and telephone number to entertain.ccn@acm.co.za, by Friday November 29, at noon.

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