The Lost Bookshop: The most charming and uplifting novel for 2024 and the perfect gift for book lovers!

Within this book they often speak on how books find the person not the other way around. I feel as if in this case this book found me as it felt like just the thing I needed to read. I loved the shifting between the story of Opaline in the 1920s and Martha and Henry in the now. I thought that just the hunt for the bookshop tied them together, but I loved watching the pieces fall into place.

The parallels between Martha and Opaline were great. Not only were they women growing into their own, but they also had to deal with horrible men controlling their lives albeit in different ways. Martha’s husband seeks to hurt her in order to keep her obedient and Opaline’s brother expects her to be obedient and just agree to this marriage. While Opaline was able to reclaim her life after 18 years in the asylum at her brother’s orders the shop decided it would not let another person take its owner. Then later revealing that Martha is in fact the great granddaughter of Opaline. Tears came to my eyes learning that in fact her baby did not die during childbirth.

Madame Bowden had me confused the entire time, I thought she might have been Opaline still alive and waiting to pass on her store. But I believe that she was in fact the spirit of the store itself. This bookstore welcomes all who are looking for a path and are brave enough to take the leap and find their own destiny.

I honestly don’t have anything bad to say. And that says a lot because I’ve read a lot!

Slow burn isn’t the word to describe it however Woods took her time & I’m so glad she did. With every letter and word, I was able to piece it all together and really feel what I was reading. Not many authors that can do that nowadays.

Magnificent. Can’t wait to see more come from her! Great read & one of my favorite birthday gifts to myself.

I liked the book, a lot, but the 'charming and uplifting' tag line is extremely misleading, if not a complete purposeful lie. Whoever came up with that line either didn't read the book, or was using a tagline just to draw people in. Of the 3 main characters, two women and one man, both of the women have been extremely emotionally abused with one of them being physically abused by her husband. To call that "charming" is obscene. Opaline is to be sold in to a marriage that she escapes from before it happens then spends the rest of her life hiding from her brother that hunts her down. When he does find her she is held against her will for years only to finally escape and continue living in fear. Martha has been physically abused by her husband during their marriage and escapes to live the rest of her life with fear, anxiety, and trust issues. Neither are charming or uplifting. The story itself is good and drew me in and made me think. I was able to journey along with the characters which is the mark of a good book to me. I take the trip with the characters instead of just reading about the journey from the outside. In my opinion the author left a few questions unanswered that would have benefitted the story much more, but that wasn't a big enough issue to effect how I enjoyed the book. My only issue with is was the very misleading tag line.

I enjoyed this very much but you kind of have to wait until the last pages for all the dots to connect…I loved the ending but kind of wish it was explained a little better throughout …the author I think was writing about a parallel time intersecting but it was not clearly explained…maybe I just need more explaining lol but I loved it and will read more from this writer she is very good :)