Book Review - The Secret Book Club by Shauna Robinson

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Title: The Secret Book Club

Author: Shauna Robinson

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: One More Chapter

Publication Date: 18th January 2024

Rating: 4 Stars

Maggie Banks loves books. And running a bookstore sounds like the best job in the world. Except in Bell River, a place that refuses to let her sell anything written this century.

But in Maggie's world, book rules are made to be broken.

And what better way to break tradition than by starting an underground book club. But keeping her new club quiet, selling forbidden books and dodging the strict literary society is proving harder than it seems. Especially when Maggie unearths a secret that could upend everything…

Bell River is both a totally fabulous location for a book, but equally between the town, the Bell society, and all of the various rules in place by Ralph, I do sometimes wonder if I was almost reading about a cult. 

Or at least the setting of a rather disturbing film, as there is something just so creepy about the hero worship of author Edward Bell. 

He wrote his most famous book in the town,  and as a result it thrives on tourism of people that are fans of the man, and thanks to the Bell Society, the bookshop in town that Maggie is looking after, it's only allowed to sell books that were around before Edward's death.  So nothing recent, and predominately classics. 

However Maggie who is doing a favour for a friend and looking after the shop for a few months, is a bit of a rule breaker,  and well things start to get interesting.   She's also just discovering an absolute love of books, and that is fabulous to see. 

I absolutely loved the secret events Maggie set up, and if I was in town I would have happily gone to them, they sounded amazing. 

However I never really gelled with the love interest in this story, I just couldn't really feel anything for him, and although I could see they were building a connection, it felt more platonic to me! 

But other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I loved hating the obvious bad guy, and seeing Maggie develop as a character and find out what she may truly want from life is inspiring. .

And above all it is clear to me that with the two books I've now read, that Shauna Robinson really really loves books! 

Thank you to One More Chapter and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.