This book started out strong, lagged in the middle - to the point that I nearly DNF'd it, but redeemed itself in the end. The concept is interesting - a young woman adrift in life finds purpose and community around a bookstore. However, the execution nearly had me screaming. Often, things in romance don't always follow logic. On the Fated Mates podcast, Sarah MacLean explains this away as "romance reasons." It requires a bit of suspension of disbelief on the reader's part. I get it. I enjoy it, normally. However, this book and it's main character's actions go just a bit too far to suspend disbelief for me. Maybe it's because I am a nerdy accountant, but I wondered where she - a formerly unemployed person living with her parents - scraped up the money to buy the book stock she sells covertly (the "banned books" in the title). Why was no one reviewing purchasing invoices rather than just sales reports (that's the auditor in me), etc. Also, the deceit! There's much hand-wringing over it, but it just continues and continues. It didn't sit well with me that her best friend and her new boyfriend were just, you know, pretty okay with all the deceit in the end.

So - this book had some issues for me, but it was engaging and enjoyable in the end. I think others would probably not be as critical of some of those lagging middle bits as I probably was.