The Cinnamon Bun Book Store

“There was no way this smart, adorable woman would want to date him. There was a reason Noah went for girls that were only here for the summer, tourists and one-night stands. Noah was good for fun, for a fling. Not for serious girls like Hazel Kelly.”

Noah’s feelings about Hazel here highlight his insecurities and the ways he frequently minimizes his capabilities. These insecurities haunt Noah for the rest of the novel and get in the way of his ambitions. His character arc will require him to move From Self-Doubt to Self-Acceptance and realize that the only thing standing in his way is his own insecurity.

“Hazel liked herself in general. She liked her life. But she still couldn’t help feeling like something was missing. That all those holes in her memories were turning into something like regrets. Regrets she didn’t want to bring with her into her thirties. She thought about Noah’s smiles and those crooked books and blueberry picking. Maybe she didn’t have to be stuck. Maybe for the next two months she could be…fun. She could have fun, right? That’s what summer was for, wasn’t it?”

This quote emphasizes the degree to which Hazel’s aspiration to have a summer of adventures goes against her typical lifestyle. The questions at the end of the excerpt show that she has to convince herself it is okay for her to have fun. Similarly, the beginning of the quote represents Hazel’s early attempts to reconcile the life she has with the life she wants.

“She wanted to say more. That he was a breath of fresh air in her musty life, that he was slowly reminding her how to let go, that he was waking her up like the sun after a long winter. But none of that seemed casual. And this thing between them was very casual. A few months of excitement and flirting and nothing more. Regardless of how he looked at her.”

Hazel uses a series of metaphors related to weather and the seasons to describe how Noah makes her feel. Such metaphors operate as a motif throughout the novel. Both Noah and Hazel are afraid of being too serious about their relationship, each fearing that the other is only interested in something casual. Several other quotes from the novel follow this same structure, in which a character acknowledges their feelings and then dismisses them immediately after.

“Did it bother him? He’d never been good at school. He hated sitting inside all day. It made him itchy and prickly. He was happiest out on the water, so at the start of senior year he’d decided to stick with what he did best. It had made sense to him at the time even when his parents lost their minds about it. His father had told him in no uncertain terms that he’d ruined his life. Only when he promised to start working full time for the seafood business did his dad calm down. And then Noah had screwed that up, too. But instead of confessing any of that, he said, ‘Not really.’”

At the beginning of this excerpt, Noah begins to think seriously for the first time about his complicated feelings surrounding his long-ago choice to drop out of high school. By the end of this quote, however, he is dismissing his feelings once again. This shows how Noah’s insecurities manifest in real time, and how they are all rooted in his fear of not being enough for others.

“Hazel’s face burned with a different type of embarrassment. The type that came from wondering what people thought of you and being sure it wasn’t good. Not that she thought her friends and neighbors didn’t like her, but what if they saw her as pitifully as she saw herself? Or worse, what if they didn’t think about her at all and these clues were meant for someone else and she’d just inserted herself into the story where she didn’t belong. What if she was stealing someone else’s adventure? Horribly embarrassing.”

Hazel has always felt like an outsider in Dream Harbor, as she only moved there as a teenager, while most other residents of the small town were born there. This quote shows how the opinions of others—even her friends—make her insecure. Yet here Hazel also highlights how her own view of herself is far more harshly critical than the views of her community.

“She’d chosen him for her summer of fun for a reason. She could learn to be reckless and he could get her out of his system […] They didn’t make sense together. Noah needed a girl who would go rock climbing with him or jet skiing or…or…other adventurous things like that. And he certainly wouldn’t be content to spend the weekend in bed reading and working on the Sunday crossword puzzle. Right? Right. Keeping this thing short and sweet was a win win.”

Hazel thinks this when she feels she is starting to get too close to Noah. Hazel and Noah are foils for one another in many ways—he is known as a fun-loving adventurer, while she is seen as an introverted bookworm. For much of the novel, they feel trapped in these stereotypes and unable to change. This quote shows yet another example of how Hazel and Noah’s fears about their relationship get in the way of their time together.

“He wanted to listen to Hazel talk more about books because he loved it when she did that. […] She never seemed self-conscious when she was extolling the virtues of her latest read with the inhabitants of Dream Harbor. Maybe he should remind her of that.”

Books are an important symbol in the novel, particularly as they bring Hazel and Noah together on many occasions. Books are especially important to Hazel, though she fears her bookish personality is sometimes alienating to others. However, this quote shows that Noah views her interest in books as something to be admired, something he wants Hazel to recognize in herself.

“Hazel’s body arched toward him. She wasn’t in control of it anymore. This was a new body. A body that wanted and was wanted. This body was sexy and desirable, and even if those feelings hadn’t totally sunk into her brain yet they had been thoroughly absorbed by her skin.”

Hazel thinks this as she and Noah begin their sexual relationship. After feeling undesirable and unsatisfied in previous relationships, Hazel begins to feel like a new person with Noah. Hazel’s newfound sexual confidence reflects her growing self-confidence overall during her time with Noah.

“Going home meant facing everyone’s questions, everyone’s expectations. What are you going to do with your life now, Noah? The last time he’d visited he hadn’t even stopped by his parents’ house. He couldn’t have the same conversation with his dad again. He’d left. And he couldn’t go back until he had something to show for it. He couldn’t sit across the table from his father until he had more of a plan for his life than fishing tours and bartending, something to prove that leaving school and leaving the business had been the right thing to do.”

This quote highlights Noah’s fears about not being good enough for his family while also hinting that he is the source of these fears, as he discovers later in the novel. Noah’s relationship with his family, particularly his father, pains him, yet his insecurities about his abilities are what primarily get in the way of this relationship. As he will learn later in the novel, Noah does not need to prove himself to anyone to be worthy of healthy relationships with others.

“How did he make it sound so simple? Like they didn’t just alter everything between them. Maybe they hadn’t? Maybe she was overreacting.”

Hazel thinks this after she and Noah have sex and reaffirm that their relationship should stay casual. Hazel is hiding her feelings for him and pretending to be someone she is not by having a casual relationship. Ironically, these feelings also mirror Noah’s feelings for Hazel.

“Ironically, Hazel had kept all her new stories to herself. She’d started this whole summer of fun because she’d wanted to shock her friends, to have something new to talk about, to just be generally more interesting and now here she was holding out. She just…everything happening with Noah now seemed…private.”

This quote highlights the degree to which Hazel has left her comfort zone in her relationship with Noah. Her summer of adventure isn’t going as she intended, and the reasons she started it now seem unimportant. This shows Hazel’s character development: Her values are subtly shifting, and she is gradually learning that she doesn’t need to change herself to enjoy her life.

“‘Of course you can, but this just feels like—’ ‘Like what Annie? Like not my type of fun? Like it’s totally out of character for me? That’s exactly the point! I can’t…I just needed…something different.’”

Annie teases Hazel about how she always stays within her comfort zone a few times throughout the novel, but this is the first instance where Hazel snaps back at her. Even so, Hazel does realize how out of character her relationship with Noah is, showing that she is still trying to change her personality at this point in the novel.

“This was what Hazel wanted him for. This was all she’d asked for. Not a relationship. She’d been upfront about the whole thing: two months of reckless fun. He was the one blowing things out of proportion. He was the one who convinced himself she could want him for more. But Noah knew where his strengths lay. And they sure as hell weren’t with business and certainly not with serious relationships.”

Though Noah is already insecure about bringing up his ambitions, Hazel’s invitation to sneak away from the town meeting where he plans to propose his business idea reaffirms to him that no one takes him seriously. This quote also mirrors several others throughout the novel where either Hazel or Noah feels they are being too optimistic in their hopes for their relationship.

“‘You’re really good at that.’ ‘At what? Setting the mood?’ He winked but Hazel didn’t miss the shadow that crossed his features at the joke, like he thought that was all he was good at. ‘No. At making me feel good.’ His eyes widened a little at that, his expression so genuinely surprised that Hazel wondered how he really saw himself. Did he not know how sweet and loving he was? How he made everyone around him happier just by being himself?”

This exchange between Hazel and Noah occurs when they sneak away to a supply closet and Noah sets the mood by turning on some fairy lights. Not only does this highlight Hazel’s feelings for him, but it also shows that she sees his insecurities and tries to help. Hazel comes back to this moment a few more times throughout the novel as a symbol of how Noah has helped her to see things in a new light.

“He was summer and she was fall. He was adventure and she was comfort. But right now, on the cusp between the two seasons, in this liminal space they’d carved out for themselves, they fit just right.”

This quote highlights how the motif of summer and fall is used throughout the novel. Not only are the seasons compared to Noah and Hazel respectively, the summer and fall represent a change in their relationship that mimics the changing of the seasons. The novel is set at the intersection of these seasons, showing how their relationship is on the cusp of shifting.

“For all the energy she put into wondering what people thought about her, whispers about her and Noah didn’t bother her at all. Maybe because you really like him and he seems to like you and why wouldn’t you want the whole damn town to know?! God, that inner voice was really getting sassy.”

Hazel considers the gossip spreading about her and Noah. Not only does this show that Hazel is becoming more comfortable with the idea of a relationship with Noah, but it also highlights the inner voice that often appears when she thinks of him. The way Laurie Gilmore draws attention to this inner voice is particularly ironic, as Hazel seems to be able to hear it but rarely heeds it.

“She didn’t need a new life or to be a new person. She just needed to look at herself, at her life, in a new light. In the romantic glow of some dusty old Christmas trees, or the late afternoon light of an empty beach, or the blinking lights of the Ferris wheel, Hazel was fun. And interesting. And maybe Noah had been by her side when she’d realized it and maybe he’d brought it out in her, convinced her that she was desirable, but Hazel could hold onto all of that even if she and Noah ended right now. With her birthday only two weeks away, Hazel felt like she was finally ready to embrace thirty. It was just a number after all.”

This quote pinpoints a pivotal moment for Hazel, as she realizes that she does not need to change her life to be happy. Though she highlights Noah’s help in the journey, she has learned that she is enough for herself regardless of whom she is dating. Thinking back to the moment in the supply closet, Hazel finally sees that she does not need to prove herself to anyone, but rather just needs to look at things in a new light.

“What story was he telling himself? That his family didn’t want him around because he hadn’t met their expectations? No, the story he was telling was that he didn’t want to go home until he proved to himself and everyone else that his choice was the right one, that leaving school and home and the family business was the right thing to do. […] Maybe he just needed to go home to the family that loved him. Maybe they loved him even if all he ever had was an old boat and some crazy ideas. Maybe Hazel could too.”

Noah thinks this after his sister tells him that no one is mad at him and that his family just wants to make sure he is okay. After years of blaming his family, here Noah finally sees where his own blame lies in their strained relationship. Rather than trying to be enough for others, Noah finally realizes he just needs to feel enough for himself.

“Hazel wanted to believe it could go right, she really did. But there was a reason she’d done the same thing for fifteen years, kept the same job and the same friends. Hazel liked to play it safe, and somehow that hadn’t occurred to her until she stood on this rocky boat, held by this man who might not be a safe bet. Who might end up hurting her in the end. But adventures weren’t safe, right? Getting out of your comfort zone was by definition, uncomfortable. And if these last few weeks had taught her anything, it was that good things came from being a little bit unsafe, by taking a few risks now and then. By trusting this man.”

Hazel and Noah are caught in a storm while sailing. Hazel’s thoughts in this excerpt succinctly summarize her fears about change and why her life has been stagnant. Yet this quote also shows that she is beginning to embrace change by trusting Noah and believing that happiness is worth risking comfort for.

“He’d almost learned to block out that voice that criticized him so harshly, the one that had kept him away from home and his family for so long. But sometimes it crept back in. He used to think it was his dad’s voice, but lately it was sounding a lot like his own.”

This quote again shows Noah’s shifting views regarding his relationship with his family. Though he had previously blamed his father for the discord in their relationship, here Noah is beginning to see how his own fears and insecurities have gotten in the way of their relationship as well as his life.

“They leaned against the bar as they waited for the drinks and there were so many things Noah wanted to say that the words all jammed up in his throat. Should he lead with, so I may have accidentally fallen in love with you because you are kind and sweet and beautiful and funny and so freaking perfect for me, and I really hope you could someday love me too, even though I’m basically an irresponsible idiot? Or was that the sort of thing he should build up to? Maybe just, how are you? Or I’ve missed you? Or what are you reading, tell me all about it?”

This passage shows Noah’s feelings for Hazel while also emphasizing his insecurities and his belief that he is not worthy of Hazel. Yet Noah’s last questions also highlight the simplicity of his feelings and how both characters have unnecessarily complicated their relationship by ignoring their feelings.

“And Hazel remembered that she loved it here. This was her place and she loved it. And it was fine that she had never sowed any wild oats or ever had any wild oats to begin with. She was thirty years old and she knew who she was. Hazel Kelly, bookstore manager, tea drinker, book reader, blanket snuggler, indoor cat. And she was also fun and flirty and sexy if she wanted to be. And sometimes she might get bored or antsy and that was fine, too, but Hazel liked her place here. She was allowed to be content. She was allowed to not want anything more than this.”

This quote pinpoints another pivotal moment for Hazel after her birthday, when she recognizes she doesn’t have to change anything to be happy. Though Hazel believed the clues she was following were meant to change her as a person, through them she learns the value of her life as it is. It is especially significant that Hazel emphasizes some of the traits she had been insecure about at the beginning of the novel, and even more so that she recognizes this while she is in the bookstore, where she once felt her life had become stagnant.

“But does anyone ever really believe they’ll find something like this? That someone will love them for who they really are?”

Hazel thinks this just after she and Noah admit their feelings for one another and begin their relationship in earnest. Though this highlights some of Hazel’s insecurities, it also points to a broader theme in contemporary romance about finding love where it is least expected. This quote comes from Hazel’s story, but it represents feelings held by Noah and many other protagonists in the romance genre.