The Tourist Attraction

By: Sarah Morgenthaler

4/5 🦌(How is there not a moose emoji?)

Graham is born and raised in Moose Springs, Alaska. He loves everything about the small town... Well, almost everything. He detests tourists. In fact, he loathes them so much, he ironically created a diner called The Tourist Trap that was meant to be for locals only. Unfortunately, the diner-which is close by to the resort-gained enough attention that it is always filled with tourists. Despite his best efforts and rude behavior, Graham can't seem to keep people away: they love the place!

Zoey is different than the other tourists. She's not rich or snobby. She clearly is in Alaska for a genuine adventure unlike her counterparts. Unfortunately, the trip she has spent 10 years saving up for is anything but perfect. Anything that could go wrong seems to go wrong from day one. The only thing that's right is the hunky diner owner Zoey completely embarrassed herself in front of...

As the two get to know each other, Graham and Zoey face difficult decisions and conflicting feelings. Can they make it work, or is the story just heartbreak waiting to happen?

I want to start this off by saying this book actually takes place in the summer and isn't a Christmas read; however, I don't regret reading it during this time of year at all! Honestly, I often forgot this wasn't a Christmas read because the descriptions of Alaska sounded so wintery and beautiful. (Plus, I totally plan on starting the Christmas-themed sequel tomorrow.) In fact, the setting was one of my favorite aspects of the book. It honestly made me look at the prices of tickets to Alaska when this is (hopefully) all over and we can travel again. This book definitely bumped up Alaska on my bucket list. There was also something about Graham that I really liked. His bad attitude mixed with pure straight forwardness just made him likable to me. Normally, I'd hate his character traits, but in this particular instance, it worked well. Zoey also grew on me, though at times I did find her annoying. I did love, however, that she was a bookworm but not innocent and helpless. She wasn't the perfect protagonist, which made her more real.

The romance was of course hokey, but it was exactly what I needed. I'm not much of a "love at first sight" believer.... but I'm not exactly a denier either. I don't like when relationship move ridiculously fast in books, but I also love how much love there was. Some part of my cold heart wanted to bawl at this because I'm in a long distance relationship myself, and the longing was more relatable than most stories. A larger part of me than normal was truly rooting for them to go after what they want. I'd say that regularly, I would roll my eyes and the book would lose a rating point, but not this time. Maybe I'm too in my feelings, but this book was nearly perfect!

The only dislikes I had were the length and some of Zoey's actions. I think the back and forth between Zoey and Graham went "Ross and Rachel" long, and that's just too long. There were too . many events and goodbyes. I think Morgenthaler could have cut out a plot line or two and still achieved the same result. There were also slightly too many characters to keep track of and not even character development. I think there could have been less minor characters that didn't add much. I know it was to create the sense of a small town vibe, but at some point I lost track of who was who. By the end, I just focused on who I thought was important. Regardless of these dislikes, though, I highly recommend this read and am truly looking forward to reading Lana's story in the sequel!