3.5 stars

Maggie Banks is a woman whose life is stuck when she receives a request from a friend requesting Maggie run her bookshop while she is on maternity leave. This means leaving her parent’s home and her city to live in Bell River.

Bell River is very much run by a local historian who is involved with many of the town’s businesses. The town’s big tourist draw is a late author with ties to Bell River. Much to Maggie’s surprise, the bookstore is unable to sell any books written in this century.

This doesn’t sit right with Maggie who founds an underground bookshop and book group to sell more current books. It’s too bad she can’t share this with Malcolm, her rule-following romantic interest.

While I appreciated the premise of this book and, it felt a little too long for me. The characters were not particularly interesting to me. The story is slow-moving and I began to lose interest halfway through the book. Luckily the book engaged me again near the end of the book and the ending was satisfying.

I listened to the audiobook version of The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks which was narrated by Imani Jade Powers. I enjoyed her performance which was enthusiastic and expressive. I highly recommend the audiobook version to those that appreciate this format.

I recommend this book to those that enjoy slow build women’s fiction.