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2 reviews

Lordina

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Lordina is Currently Reading

Lordina is currently reading

Sense and Sensibility

by Jane Austen

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Nov 24, 2025 03:35AM

Lordina rated a book it was ok

The Pumpkin Spice Café (Dream Harbor, #1)

by Laurie Gilmore (Goodreads Author)

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Lordina said: " As a student of English literature who doesn't read anything other than the classics, deciding to read at TikTok viral romance has been a unique experience. I was looking for a quick dopamine-filled read to have in-between long classical novels, I de As a student of English literature who doesn't read anything other than the classics, deciding to read at TikTok viral romance has been a unique experience. I was looking for a quick dopamine-filled read to have in-between long classical novels, I decided to give this novel ago so here is my spoiler free review of The Pumpkin Spice Cafe pumpkin spice cafe.

Set in the fall of New England, the novel follows 28-year-old Jeanie who is taking over her aunt's cafe in dream harbour as she seeks to find a new fresh start after a traumatic experience. She meets the reserved, laid back, Logan who is the local town farmer. We see a romance flourish between the two characters as Jeanie navigates her new life in this small town making new friends and trying her best to fit into a warming community of townspeople.

This romance novel is a very easy fast read, even for slower readers. The pacing of the storyline is very fast; within the first few pages you already get introduced to logan (the love interest). I initially wanted a fast easy read but not a fast-paced plot!

The characterization is decent—it brings the romance to life in a convincing way. However, it’s nothing extravagant or memorable enough to leave a lasting impression once the novel is finished. The characters are realistic enough to keep you reading, but not necessarily ones you'll stay attached to.

Laurie’s writing is good. I did like the intricate details and description of the body language of a character (mostly Jeanie and Logan). This and the autumn aesthetics makes up for not having a strong characterization. Laurie's writing at times evokes a very visual experience particularly for me, it’s whenever Laurie describes the pumpkin cafe from the inside.

Furthermore, I read this novel on my iPad on the kindle app, and on it also shows when a lot of people have annotated a particular line or phrase in the novel the words appear above a dashed line. This was very interesting as a literature student because the words that were dashed - underlined wasn’t of any significance? This really isn’t the type of novel to be doing a lot of annotations or highlighting as like I’ve mentioned before it’s very easy to read.

This novel is perfect for the very casual relaxed slow reader, whether you’re coming out of a reading rut for years similarly to myself (specifically in the genre of contemporary romance fiction) Or you just need a very quick mood boosting read that’s in your favourite season - your here for the aesthetics. It’s a decent novel to read to help pass time.

I wouldn’t recommend it for a seasoned reader in the romance genre it’s too basic, predictable and a bit of a cliche read. I wouldn’t recommend it for someone who is looking for good plot twists, deeply moving characters, and a novel that's impossible to put down. I personally wouldn’t recommend this to a first-time romance reader; it doesn't leave a lasting impression (you’d want this for your first read)

Although it’s not the greatest novel I’m glad I’ve read it as it personally gives me an optimistic insight to know that there are romance novels out there which are 1000 times better than this one. Therefore, I give this novel 2.5 stars out of 5.

This novel has also allowed me to identify what I do and don’t like in a novel and as a literature and writing student, I may read the 2nd novel in the dream harbour series just to compare and contrast things that can help my exploration of reading and writing my own things in the future. ...more "

progress:

(page 150 of 376)
— Jul 26, 2025 06:45AM

Jul 26, 2025 06:47AM · see review

Lordina is currently reading

Persuasion

by Jane Austen

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(page 60 of 249)
— May 28, 2023 01:16PM

May 26, 2023 10:32AM

Lordina’s Quotes

“Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”
― Oscar Wilde

tags: attributed-no-source, enemies, forgiveness, strategy

81870 likes

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”
― Oscar Wilde

84982 likes

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

tags: carpe-diem, education, inspirational, learning

77798 likes

“You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”
― Dr. Seuss

tags: attributed-no-source, dreams, love, reality, sleep

127266 likes

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
― Maya Angelou

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