Review: The Espressologist

The Espressologist, by Kristina Springer. The GoodReads summary:

What’s your drink of choice? Is it a small pumpkin spice latte? Then you’re lots of fun and a bit sassy. Or a medium americano? You prefer simplicity in life. Or perhaps it’s a small decaf soy sugar-free hazelnut caffe latte? Some might call you a yuppie. Seventeen-year-old barista Jane Turner has this theory that you can tell a lot about a person by their regular coffee drink. She scribbles it all down in a notebook and calls it Espressology. So it’s not a totally crazy idea when Jane starts hooking up some of her friends based on their coffee orders. Like her best friend, Em, a medium hot chocolate, and Cam, a toffee nut latte. But when her boss, Derek, gets wind of Jane’s Espressology, he makes it an in-store holiday promotion, promising customers their perfect matches for the price of their favorite coffee. Things are going better than Derek could ever have hoped, so why is Jane so freaked out? Does it have anything to do with Em dating Cam? She’s the one who set them up! She should be happy for them, right?

With overtones of Jane Austen’s Emma and brimming with humor and heart, this sweet, frothy debut will be savored by readers.

Do you ever read books and wish they were real? That was totally me with this book. This whole “espressology” thing has me fascinated. I mean, figuring out people’s personalities based on their favorite coffee then matching them up with people who have complementary tastes? That’s, like, the coolest thing ever, and I so wish it were real. And seriously, this book had me craving coffee--well, coffee-flavored candy or ice cream, since I don’t drink coffee, but still. It also had me wanting to start hanging out at my local coffee shop.

This book was short and sweet. And I’m not kidding about “short”--it’s 180 pages, and I think I read the whole thing in less than 2 hours. I do wish that the book were a little longer. That would give time for more relationship development between Jane and Cam, because as it is, he’s in the book for a total of, like, 3 pages, so I had a bit of a hard time understanding why they liked each other so much. But that wasn’t a big enough deal to keep me from liking the book. I think the author did pretty well getting a whole story in such a short book.

Plus, it’s a modernization of Jane Austen’s “Emma.” Plus, the main character’s name is Jane, which is one of my favorite names. Plus, it has hot guys and awesome friends. It’s a win-win situation all around.

Seriously, you guys, this book would be perfect to curl up with on a rainy afternoon or something. It’s cute and undemanding and just left me thinking, “Awwww.” Don’t go into it with unrealistically high expectations, because the book never tries to be more than it is--a short YA romance--but do give it a shot sometime. It’ll most likely give you warm fuzzies.