Pumpkin Spice & Everything Nice by Katie Cicatelli-Kuc

 

Rating: 4/5

Genre: YA Contemporary with a Dash of Romance

Themes: Living for Yourself, Small Town Life, Working in a Coffee Shop, Cozy Autumn Experiences

Premise:

Highschooler Lucy works in her mom's independent coffee shop located in a cozy New England town. It's the ideal spot for townspeople and tourists alike to grab mouthwatering beverages and baked goods, except the shop refuses to make what it deems the most cliché drink imaginable: pumpkin spice lattes. Lucy's world turns upside down when Java Junction, a multinational chain, opens across the street during leaf peeping season, a.k.a. the busiest time of year. Former dependable customers flock to the new establishment eager to drink Java Junction's famed PSLs. Fearful of what the competition means for her family's livelihood, and ruffled by the idea that her mom's shop is being threatened by a concoction that doesn't contain even an ounce of genuine pumpkin, Lucy dedicates every bit of her free time to making her own pumpkin spice latte with natural ingredients. She's not ready to give up on the coffee shop she's grown to love as her second home, which means Lucy may have to stoop so low as to ask for help from Jack, her secret crush and the son of the new Java Junction owners. 

My Thoughts: 

Objectively, this book is highly flawed, but none of that mattered to me. It's a perfect case of the right book finding the right reader at the perfect time in their life. When I needed a simple, heartwarming story to take my mind off life's stresses, Pumpkin Spice & Everything Nice landed in my lap like magic. I didn't trip over its weaknesses, though they certainly exist, and instead I felt compelled to keep turning pages and breathe in the story's innate warmth and palpable love for autumn. It's a love letter to the -ber months and readers who desperately look forward to them each year. My entire reading experience felt comforting, and I was gleefully blissed out on the cozy ambiance inherent to the book's setting of Briar Glen. The town is nothing short of my dream location. (I'd probably sell my soul to live there.) The small, intimate setting feels like quintessential Hallmark material or something pulled straight from Gilmore Girls. It's so inviting that I easily dreamt of getting lost in Briar Glen's fall foliage, wandering into the mom and pop shops, and admiring the surrounding mountains with a cold brew in my hand and contentment in my heart. 

Pumpkin Spice & Everything Nice is equivalent to the ultimate fall bucket list. Every quintessential autumn activity's represented, and if you're a basic fall girlie like me, you'll be able to appreciate the book's festivities. From exploring a sun-dappled apple orchard to attending a seasonal festival and basking in the glow of a vibrant bonfire, I felt like I was living every fantasy I could conjure. And don't even get me started on the food descriptions. Everything was apple this or pumpkin that. My stomach was ravenous, while my mouth watered for the tasty treats Lucy cooked up.

Besides blanketing you in a million shades of autumn goodness, Pumpkin Spice & Everything Nice isn't afraid to examine real-life problems. What I thought would be a low-stakes story turned out to encompass heavy anxiety surrounding financial security and the need for evolution. Cup o' Jo, the coffee shop Lucy's mother owns, is going through a rough patch. Its menu isn't bringing in the customers, so Lucy takes it upon herself to expand it, capitalizing on her barista skills to make the perfect pumpkin spice latte. While she adores concocting new recipes and tweaking ingredients for culinary perfection, she begrudgingly compromises her beliefs to make the PSL. She swore she'd never dabble in something so basic. Her decision to set aside her interests for that of the shop is a case study in obligation and devotion. When do you live for yourself, and when do you live for others, altering your decisions out of love? Lucy struggles to find that balance, wading through voices telling her what she should and shouldn't be doing. It's by trial and error that she discovers her own motivations and what lines she's willing to cross. This complex examination of inherited commitment vs personal values was a pleasant surprise to the plot and made for a more nuanced read, demonstrating just how hard it can be to find stability during different seasons of life. 

Considering that I adored this book and found it utterly bingeable, you may be wondering why it has such an abysmal GoodReads rating and is barely hanging on to a 3 star status. Unfortunately, there are a handful of failings that'll likely bother most readers:

• Romance: This book is heavily marketed as a romance, which I think is a mistake. The primary plot is navigating the coffee shop's financial downturn, meaning the romance becomes secondary at best. Any semblance of a potential relationship is virtually nonexistent for the first 100 pages, and when romantic undertones do become more apparent, they aren't fully fleshed out. One minute, Lucy seems interested and the next she's acting cold and distant. The whiplash makes it hard to justify Jack's interest. He clearly has a crush on her, though why he does is never made apparent. It sounds like the two hardly talked until October (when the book takes place), leaving out a satisfying build-up to Jack chasing after Lucy for her attention, and even when she fails to reciprocate his interest, insulting him and acting distant, he consistently forgives her and continues to put himself out there because he "cares for her." I want to know where the devotion stems from. Why keep trying to build something when the other person doesn't want to help lay the foundation? Furthermore, the romance hardly goes anywhere. There's some intense staring into each other's eyes and almost touching foreheads, but not one kiss is shared. If you're looking for fireworks or swooning, Pumpkin Spice & Everything Nice is not the book to pick up. It dances around the romance, arguably never solidifying what the couple means to each other. They fail to define their emotions out loud, so it comes across as if the build-up is still happening by the closing chapter. 
• Behavior: Lucy might be interpreted as a frustrating character to follow. She has the tendency to be temperamental and melodramatic, going from a high to a low in a matter of pages. As briefly touched on, one minute she likes Jack and the next he's public enemy number one. This clash of ideas isn't isolated, either. She vacillates between warring views throughout the entire book. Another example is how she feels content with her friends but in the next breath she wants to distance herself from them and shut down their conversations. An emotional rollercoaster is ridden the entire book, and you may get whiplash trying to keep up. Instead of a passionate character, she wrongly translates as an unpleasant one whose fickle behavior can run on the immature side.  
• Repetition: The emotional seesaw Lucy's dealing with coupled with recurring arguments throughout the story make for a repetitious read. The same problems are brought up in different dressings or, in other instances, with the same exact language. Just when you think you're done with a conflict, it's drug back up and re-examined. Lucy's mom and friend group stress identical points of whether Lucy should be trying to make the perfect PSL. They voice concern over how much time she dedicates to the coffee shop, arguing Lucy doesn't do enough for herself. Her friends regularly question her more cynical ideas about Jack, too. Round and round they go, dancing over the reworked dilemmas. Pumpkin Spice & Everything Nice would be more satisfactory if issues were laid to rest with more finality instead of rehashed. 

Conclusion: Pumpkin Spice & Everything Nice was exactly what I've been needing. Its setting is the perfect blend of cozy and dreamy, and I couldn't get enough. Sure, there're critiques that could be made, but they were all overshadowed by how much autumnal joy the story brought me. If you're thinking about picking this one up, enter expecting a contemporary tale about a girl trying to hang on to her life while making room for new experiences. It's a bumpy ride, but I loved every second of it. 

Recommended for those who enjoy:

 Hallmark films

 quintessential fall activities

 quick, simple reads

 mild romances

 and immaculate, autumnal New England fantasies