Veronica Henry’s How To Find Love In A Bookshop features a bookshop and the people affected by it, which makes it sound like a perfect setting for every bookworm! This is my first novel from Veronica Henry so I can’t compare it to her previous works.
Imagine being a single father with no real job or goals, and he is still a dreamer. So when you get the offer to buy a bookstore for just 5 pounds, what a beautiful and exciting possibility.
Julius is 23 years old and works at a bookshop. He is a little womaniser and one day he meets Rebecca, an American student, who after they spend a night together, chooses to stay with him in Peasebrook, near Oxford. Sometimes life has its funny ways of coming at you. As fast as the pair came together, they fall pregnant, and the moment Emilia was born, Rebecca died.
30 years later, Julius dies after a sudden illness and Emilia is left alone and she is pulled between a future that she has not planned and the responsibility for the shop.
The novel is told from different perspectives. Not only from Julius and Emilia, but also from the customers who fell in love with the store and its owner. It describes how it feels for a reader to go visit a bookstore, go from one shelf to another and pick up the books that speak to you the most. Most people also cherish the atmosphere and sometimes known by the owner and their staff and a friendly owner-customer relationship can build. Unfortunately there are no such comfy bookstores where I live, but I heard of some where it can happen!
As much as I loved to read about that, it also made my kind of frustrated. The story was a bit predictable. It was about the store, but didn’t really take place in the store, as I wished it would. I am a sucker for dialogue, but in this book there was a lot of narrating and describing the lives of the person from which point of view you are reading about in a particular chapter. Reading this book felt more like opening a door in the middle of a situation and leaving in the middle of the solution. It was a small window that opens and you are part of something that is dear to a handful of people. It felt like being welcomed by strangers and be friends in the amount of couple of hours. That is why it bothers me that I didn’t really find my way into the story and instead I felt like I was missing something. Please do not get me wrong, it is still a nice afternoon read about life changing situations. I still enjoyed to read it, I just expected it be different!
How To Find Love In A Bookshop is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
Have you read How To Find Love In A Bookshop? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
The enchanting story of a bookshop, its grieving owner, a supportive literary community, and the extraordinary power of books to heal the heart
Nightingale Books, nestled on the main street in an idyllic little village, is a dream come true for book lovers–a cozy haven and welcoming getaway for the literary-minded locals. But owner Emilia Nightingale is struggling to keep the shop open after her beloved father’s death, and the temptation to sell is getting stronger. The property developers are circling, yet Emilia’s loyal customers have become like family, and she can’t imagine breaking the promise she made to her father to keep the store alive.
There’s Sarah, owner of the stately Peasebrook Manor, who has used the bookshop as an escape in the past few years, but it now seems there’s a very specific reason for all those frequent visits. Next is roguish Jackson, who, after making a complete mess of his marriage, now looks to Emilia for advice on books for the son he misses so much. And the forever shy Thomasina, who runs a pop-up restaurant for two in her tiny cottage–she has a crush on a man she met in the cookbook section, but can hardly dream of working up the courage to admit her true feelings.
Enter the world of Nightingale Books for a serving of romance, long-held secrets, and unexpected hopes for the future–and not just within the pages on the shelves. How to Find Love in a Bookshop is the delightful story of Emilia, the unforgettable cast of customers whose lives she has touched, and the books they all cherish.
