Unexpectedly Bookish Unexpectedly Bookish
#4 - Love in Fairwick Falls

Unexpectedly Bookish

    • 5.0 • 1 Rating
    • £4.49
    • £4.49

Publisher Description

REED

After years in corporate architecture that stifled his creativity, Reed Berry is moving to Fairwick Falls and chasing his dream: opening a cozy bookstore.

His plan? Design a bookstore that sparks wonder and a love of reading on a shoestring budget.

The hitch? Pearl Bishop—his new assistant, and the human embodiment of a "Do Not Touch" sign. She's all dark eyeliner, piercings, and attitude sharp enough to cut glass. And Reed? He's sunshine and golden retriever charm, which seems to make her want to throw him out the nearest window.

Good thing he has his anonymous, late-night confidant—impossibly_bookish—to escape to.

His steamy, secret online crush gets him in ways Pearl never would.
 

PEARL

Pearl Bishop is nobody's idea of a sweet, small-town girl. She's all death metal tattoos, piercings, and black lipstick—a girl who's perfected the art of keeping people at a distance.

Especially good guys like Reed Berry.

He's her brother's best friend, her new boss, temporary roommate, and the poster boy for annoyingly cheerful. But the way he looks at her? Like she's the only woman who exists? It's messing with her carefully crafted armor.

But Pearl's got bigger problems, like scraping together enough cash to start her allergen-free bakery and dodging her nosy neighbor, who is hell-bent on stopping both the bookstore and her bakery with permit red tape.

The only person who sees past her sarcasm and ink-stained armor is her online confidant, hemingway_cansuckit—a guy she's been swapping filthy, flirty messages with for months.

The man she's been falling for, text by text.

The man she's agreed to finally meet in person.

...What could go wrong?
 

Featuring:

•Black Cat / Golden Retriever (Opposites Attract)
•Workplace
•Plus size FMC
•Virgin MMC
•Brother's best friend
•Roommates (Forced Proximity)
•Epistolary + Hidden Identity (Shop Around the Corner)
•Autism Rep

GENRE
Romance
RELEASED
2025
31 March
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
382
Pages
PUBLISHER
Elise Kennedy
SIZE
783.9
KB

Customer Reviews

Jello Jo ,

Couldn’t put it down!

Thank you to BookFunnel and Elise Kennedy for an ARC copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I was hooked from the beginning.

Reed Berry moved to Fairwick Falls to pursue a dream of opening his own bookstore. He moves in temporarily to his best friend Luca’s house, and while Luca and his young daughter are away at Disney, he is sharing a living space alongside Luca’s sister, Pearl. Who just happens to be the girl he’s had a crush on since they were children. Luckily, he has an anonymous online (slightly steamy) situationship with a fellow booklover, and this can hopefully distract him from his new temporary housemate.

Pearl is a prickly, sarcastic, pierced and tattooed goth who takes no nonsense. Pearl also has an anonymous online situationship with a fellow booklover. Hopefully her anonymous friend can distract her from the childhood friend she knew, who now happens to be the gorgeous man she is now living with.

Both have a hard time fitting in, for different reasons, but their online personas make them a perfect match for each other, whilst they are frenemies offline.

They say opposites attract, but can they overcome their differences?

Reed has one of the dirtiest mouths I’ve read for a while and Pearl’s heart of gold has you rooting for them from the start. Each character has their own growth and development to become multi-faceted and they feel relatable and real.
There are also elements of social expectations, behaviour and attitudes, and representation of both autism and misophonia which really do help create a fantastic story, whilst giving an informative explanation about autism and misophonia for those who do not personally experience it. It is inclusive and accepting of differences which adds to
This books charm.

Unexpectedly Bookish has all the opposites attract, Small town romance, Brothers best friend, spicy romance you could want, with added plus size body confidence, straight talking, flirty texting( and sexting), happy MMC and those You’ve Got Mail vibes we all love.

I would happily recommend this, and cannot wait to read more from Elise Kennedy.

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