The Cinnamon Bun Book Store

The Cinnamon Bun Book Store falls into the genre of contemporary romance. Although the novel deals with serious subjects, such as complicated family dynamics, loneliness, and self-doubt, it is underpinned by lighthearted and comedic moments. Contemporary romances are categorized by their happy endings and familiar plotlines, but they often introduce more literary elements than traditional romance novels by focusing on the main characters’ personal growth and the obstacles they must overcome to achieve their happy ending. As in The Cinnamon Bun Book Store, most contemporary romance heroines and heroes are flawed; these narratives often show protagonists helping each other not only overcome barriers to becoming romantically involved but also learn to be better, happier people.

Just as contemporary romance novels rely on familiar narrative structures, they also often feature tropes, archetypes, and common situations, such as enemies-to-lovers relationships, marriage-of-convenience plotlines, and quaint settings. The Cinnamon Bun Book Store uses many conventions typical of contemporary romance novels, including the forced proximity trope, in which continually being in the same settings and situations forces Hazel and Noah to confront the feelings that they had been trying to avoid. Secret dating is another common romance convention used in The Cinnamon Bun Book Store, where pretending not to have feelings for one another makes Hazel and Noah reconsider what those feelings really are. Small-town settings are also not uncommon in contemporary romance novels and can be found in works such as Emily Henry’s Book Lovers, Ashley Poston’s The Dead Romantics, Sarah Adams’s When in Rome, and Tessa Bailey’s It Happened One Summer. Laurie Gilmore uses the small-town setting of Dream Harbor to show the strengths and struggles of tight-knit communities while examining the protagonists’ complex feelings about belonging.

The Cinnamon Bun Book Store and Gilmore’s other novels in the series also fall into the subgenre of the “cozy” romance. In “cozy” subgenres, the settings, plot points, and themes are often relatively peaceful or have lower stakes than many other novels in the broader genre. They often involve a picturesque setting like the quaint town of Dream Harbor, and the problems the protagonists face outside of their relationship are not life-defining problems. Cozy romances also often involve light elements of mystery and magic, not unlike the mystery of who is leaving defaced books at the bookstore. Though cozy romances are often considered “light reading,” they can still offer meaningful commentary on significant issues and themes.