The Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore - Book Review

HOPE F MCGEE

Theo, Vienna, and Jonas… I think we’re in Kansas. 

No, I know we’re in Kansas. 2 ½ hours from the Oz Museum that I will be visiting later today; as a part of a much longer journey from visiting my family outside of Chittenango, New York to coming  home to the desert outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. But first, a book review. 

Now it would be amiss for me not to acknowledge the tamer nature (in this reader’s opinion) compared to book 6. I will also admit that it is unfair to compare book 1 to book 6 simply because I read them out of order. I am only stating this because if you read book 1 and it wasn’t quite your style you might still want to consider giving the other ones a try. Especially now that I’m realizing I might be a Mac girl. Unfortunate to say the least, but not surprising as someone that would pick Finn over Logan in Gilmore Girls.

I did love the trope of reading romance books about the type of man you’re into and using the themes in the book to seduce him. That “white tank top” really worked for Jeanie. Tropes are important. This coming from someone with an entire playlist dedicated to her Chevy Silverado: LA ROY. I live for a good trope.

Now what does this have to do with the Wizard of Oz? Besides “Dot” being short for Dorothy. The costume contest… Laurie Gilmore has done it again. Even if technically for the first time. She lured me in with sex just to uncover a deeper magic at hand. The Wizard of Oz has been on my radar ever since I landed back at Harry Reid Airport after a birthday trip to Costa Rica, in June 2025. I looked out the plane window towards the strip, still on the taxiway, and BAM the words “There’s no place like home” appeared plastered across the Sphere. Vegas has always felt strange to me. It was the determining factor on why I moved there. But after that day I knew my journey in the desert had only just begun.

I had already worked for AMR in Tao Nightclubs in Las Vegas for almost a year when that happened. Fast forward 5 months to Halloween 2025 and I find myself at work at Tao Nightclub in my standard “work appropriate costume”: a witch’s hat. I had worn it the year before for Halloween at Omnia Nightclub. Halloween 2025 was very different from Halloween 2024 because I was intrinsically surrounded by waitresses dressed as movie Dorothy. Supposedly to promote the Sphere’s newest attraction: The Wizard Of Oz at Sphere. My witch hat was suddenly Wicked; and my neon green hair only added to the ambiance.

Back to Laurie Gilmore. With pop-star named barn animals: including an alpaca named Harry Styles (I love alpacas), stake-outs, criminal activity, running in the rain; The Pumpkin Spice Cafe is wholesome. It’s a beautiful story of a person taking control of their own life, making friends, and finding community. Things many people overlook and take for granted. As someone from a small town I wouldn’t even call it romanticized. It might be exactly what many people need especially after Covid-19 shoved into society's faces the aspects of their lives that were lacking. This is the perfect book for someone that knows they need to create community within their lives but doesn’t know how. This is not a book about being on the road or a grand adventure. It’s about the beauty that can come from settling in and getting to know the people around you. You never know what you may find. I’m not saying you should move to a small town. It’s more likely than not you won’t like it. It takes a special kind of person to not mind getting bit by an alpaca. But I am saying Jeanie was able to take purposeful steps to find her place within her community.

And of course I read the preview for the Cinnamon Bunn Bookstore even though I already have the entire series with me. And yes I know it’s Hazel’s birthday tomorrow so this review had to be cranked out IMMEDIATELY. I just love the way Laurie Gilmore can flesh out a character in a way that you really want good things to happen to them; and the idea of Hazel stumbling upon a book and that book being the catalyst to setting up the entire story appeals to me in an intransient way.