Series Review: Dream Harbor Series by Laurie Gilmore

The Dream Harbor Series is currently a five book series (planned to be six) that follows various couples throughout their romantic adventures in the small town of Dream Harbor, a cozy fictional coastal town that reads like it is somewhere in the Northeastern US.

Each book in the series focuses on a different couple and how they come together during some event that would seemingly only happen in a small town. Each book has it's own themes and flair, as well as as having peeks of all the other characters throughout the series. Now, when I first started reading the series it was last year, when I only read The Christmas Tree Farm which is technically the third book in the series. Recently, I dove into the other four books and really have no regret. This entire series is cozy, comfortable and definitely has its spicy moments. Its cool to see how each couple progresses throughout the books, and how they all interact throughout the books.

Since I have read all the books (so far, I'm waiting for you The Daisy Chain Flower Shop). I figured I'd do a quick fire review of each. Each one had different reasons behind their ratings for me, and different tropes throughout them, so why not do a (hopefully) not too spoilery review of the series so far. My rating for each book will be in the caption of the photo!

4 / 5 stars

The Pumpkin Spice Cafe follows Jeanie, who just moved to Dream Harbor to take over her aunt's cafe and Logan, a local who has been through it romantically, but can't seem to stay away from Jeanie. As he tries to help her solve the mystery of the 'ghosts' in the cafe, they grow closer both as friends and as something more.

One of my favorite parts of this book is how Logan works through his past, and his fears, to let love in. This is the intro the entire town of Dream Harbor and it's quirks, which we will definitely talk about later. Overall, I found this story really cozy and liked how Jeanie and Logan fell in love.

4 / 5 stars

The Cinnamon Bun Bookstore follows Hazel, a local who has been friends with Logan and Annie (bakery) for all her life. She is the main manager of the bookstore in town, where she starts to find books that are annotated with adventures that she has never taken, and uses it as inspiration of things to do before her 30th birthday.

Noah is new-ish to town, having showed up one day and slowly worked his way into the town's fishing scene. He also has a massive crush on Hazel, but can't seem to get her to believe it. When he says he can help with these secret adventures, she takes him up on it. Now they find themselves taking more steps towards each other, acting on feelings that seem too spontaneous for Hazel.

I absolutely adored this book and Noah. Noah is great. I loved how his character evolved and how Hazel became more comfortable with herself throughout the story.

3.5 / 5 stars

The Christmas Tree Farm starts with Kira, who bought the property on a whim to annoy her parents, but mostly to have a place of her own. When she learns that Christmas Tree Farm is actually really important to Dream Harbor, she decides maybe she can reopen it, even with no experience.

Bennett is in town visiting his sister, Jeanie (remember her?) and ends up running into Kira when he is walking his, many, dogs. When he continues to help Kira, much to her dismay, they end up stuck in the house together during a snow storm. Both of them have disastrous dating histories, but as they start to move away from being stubborn, more and more feelings develop.

3 / 5 stars

The Strawberry Patch Pancake House follows Iris, a local to Dream Harbor who never seems to hold down a job. When she, literally, runs into Archer, who has recently moved to town to take care of a daughter he just learned about, she is intrigued. But Archer isn't planning on staying, at least not forever. He had a life in Paris and is looking forward to bringing Olive back there with him.

But when Iris becomes his live-in nanny, he isn't sure if he should be feeling this way about his kid's nanny, especially since Olive will barely talk to him on her own. As Archer watches Iris interact with Olive, he starts to wonder if this town is what Olive needs. Now he works as a chef in the diner, that desperately needs his help, but the town refuses to try his new pancakes and Iris might be the only one who can help him figure out the recipe. This story was really cute, and the first time we got a POV of someone who wasn't deeply connected with the town, which I found very funny. My only grievance with this story is the 'surprise pregnancy' trope, which is just personally not a favorite.

4.5 / 5 stars

The Gingerbread Bakery is the newest story, and follows our favorite rivals/enemies with sexual tension, Annie and Mac. This story finally dives into their history and into the reason why Annie seems to hate Mac, even as he flirts with her relentless in all of the other books.

We get not only the dual POV, but a time jump between now and then. 'Now' being the weekend of Logan and Jeanie's wedding and 'then' being when they were both 19 and the only ones left in Dream Harbor. These two characters have had tension of all varieties in every novel up to this point and this book was right up my alley. Mac had a lot to learn, and secrets he needs to share with Annie, and Annie needed to realize she might have been the only one who was hurt. When they have to come together to figure out something for the wedding, their old feelings, and thoughts, come back to the surface. This one was a stand out favorite of the series for me.

Now, here are things throughout all of the books that I absolutely adored:

• the nosy book club and their various ways of helping the romance along while also just being the most nosy group

• Mayor Kelly's weird dreams and how they help the town, so funny

• Town meetings...that's all

• just everyone being in everyone's business all the time

• there always being an animal (unless its Logan, he has all the animals).

Overall, I really enjoyed this series. I think they are the perfect fall/winter read. They give Gilmore Girl's vibes as well as having some more spicy than some books like this might normally have. I also really enjoyed Laurie's writing style, and how even though all the books are in the same setting they can still be different.

If you are looking for a cozy series to binge while life is a little heavy, look into this one, especially with the seasons starting to change!