The Lost Bookshop

I feel like I'm being pranked/gaslit by the internet. This book is so-so. What drew me in was the promise of being drawn into a rich literary world, filled with cities with a rich literary history. Initially there was some promise of that: Paris and Dublin are beautiful backdrops with the aforementioned ambience. There is a hint of magic that kept me intrigued.
As I was reading it, I was torn between “I'm not the target audience for this” and “just hold on... There might be just enough intrigue and mystery for me to enjoy this.” Sadly, by about halfway, I realized I'd been duped.
The characters are boring (save for one minor character who seemed to only serve as a catalyst for romance to bloom and then there was no mention of them).
The author wants opaline to be written as a struggling suffragette, but always seems to be under the thumb and influence of other male characters. Her most interesting story is the climax between her and her brother, which, I'll admit, was a page-turning section for me.
Martha is a marginal step up, but seems unrelatable due to her emotional distance from the reader and vague backstory from which she all too neatly overcomes.
Henry is just a Hugh Grant-esque awkward English boy with all the cliches that come along with it.
As I mentioned above, the one character that I truly found interesting was a minor character: Madam Bowden. But we learn nothing about her. Was she the spirit of the house personified? Was she another past owner? Was she the daughter of Opaline? Who cares! The author just flicks her away to the side. At least make her sing and dance around like Tom Bombadil if you're going to treat her as a throwaway mystery.
Anyway: I don't understand why so many ppl are raving over this book. It's barely a “cozy bookstore read” as some have said. There's very few sections that even deal with the cozy bookstore atmosphere. One really nice scene is where Opaline is first decorating the store when she initially moves in. I would have loved more of that and less cliched cheese.
I'm still giving it three stars, because, as I said, there was enough there to keep me going toward the finish line. But I would not revisit this again. I'll likely forget about it in the weeks to come.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Love but with notes

4.5 - Love it so much I want to highlight the book but still with notes

5.0 - Love it so much I want to highlight the book and notes are very positive

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Family drama, bad romance, and underwhelming magical realism.

This was another book that had more than 1 story going on. But just like with Magpie Murders, I wished they just stuck with one. Maybe if the author focused on just 1 story, they could have made it more interesting. Unfortunately, that was not what happened. In my humble opinion, I ended up reading 2 unenjoyable stories for the price of 1. And I want a fucking refund.

While Opaline’s story dealt with a lot of interesting topics (forced arrangement marriage, sexism, abuse in asylums, forced adoption), those were not the topics I expected here. It’s not that I’m opposed to reading about those topics, but I have to be in the right mood to read heavy topics.

Martha and Henry’s current day story was boring. Disappointing given how this was the part with the magical realism elements. A good chunk of it was about their “relationship”. I put that in quotes because I am unconvinced those 2 fell in love. I mean, I guess they can. But maaaan, both were so uninteresting. It’s like 2 soggy pieces of white bread getting together.

Also, the title of this book is “The Lost Bookshop” but if they were honest, this book should be called “The Lost Bookshop Owner”.

Not all was bad, I appreciated the prose.

I am on the fence about DNFing this book. I don’t want to be a quitter but at 66% of this book, I kind of no longer care about the ending.

Updated:

I did finish this book.

After much thought, I thought that Opaline's story is ok. The end to her arc had somewhat redeemed this whole thing.

Martha's story was still boring though.

I would have enjoyed this more if they just stuck with Opaline.

this was so cute and fun

Between 4.5-4.75

There's a lot of characters to keep straight and the ending left more questions than answers! But I did really enjoy it!

The idea of lost is so prevalent in literature, but the way Evie Woods weaves this theme into the story of a bookshop with history as deep as the roots of a tree brought me to a place of childhood wonder. I loved the story told in parallel between our two main characters Opaline and Martha. To feel the sadness when they felt sad and to feel the joy when they were ecstatic was a journey I was happy to be on.

Though there were aspects of this story that brought me to a place of anger and upset, it was not with the literature, but with what the book said to us and showed us in the way women were treated in their pursuit of something bigger. To be bigger and better than their family name or the role assigned to them by their fathers or the men in their lives. This aspect of reaching and climbing to something grander than what we had or could have.

The three women who's lives we spend the book with are all relatable in their own ways and at different parts of their lives as we see their stories weave in and out of each other. One moment we are in Dublin in the past, chasing down rare books. The next, we are in Dublin in the future, solving the mystery of stories, The final, we are in Dublin, searching for the next person who would fill the void.

This book will live on, rent free, in my head for quite awhile and I am happy for it to do so.

This book was an amazing read! 

I kind of figured the two of the characters were related the more I read on! 

But all in all, it was a really good read. 

This was mostly boring until about 2/3rds of the way through when Opaline made her way back to the bookshop. But otherwise, it was confusing and full of plot holes.

We follow Opaline, Martha and Henry whose lives are circling around a somewhat mysterious bookshop.

This took me awhile to read, parts of Opalines story were hard for me to read and I just hoped for her to turn John Wick but that didn’t happen (there will be fanfic!!). Her story was still my favorite but there were a few things that I didn’t like, because I’m picky like that.

Martha was a bit meek, which is understandable due to her circumstances but she was confusing. I assume her age was maybe 20 but I don’t remember (age wasn’t mentioned much), and she doesn’t know you need a library card. She thinks you walk into a library, grab some books and leave.

Henry, dull, bye.

I liked the magical elements, I liked some of Opalines story but will I ever think of this book ever again? No.

TRIGGER WARNING: Forced institutionalization Not a major spoiler but you will know what happens to one of the characters.

3.5, felt kinda slow but it was a good plot

3 stars, Metaphorosis Reviews

Summary
The lives of two present day people and a 1920s bookseller are intertwined through a bookstore in Dublin that's only there some of the time.

Review
I downloaded and read two ARCs at about the same time – this book and A Harvest of Hearts – and a very faint similarity of covers somehow made me consider them together. As it turns out, one had stronger writing, the other a stronger story. This is the one with the better prose.

The writing throughout The Lost Bookshop is smooth and assured. The plot is on the predictable side, but appealing. Unfortunately, while Woods' prose is strong, the characters are less so. There are three principal actors – a woman in the 1920s, and a woman and man in the present day. While each have different backgrounds and motivations, I found their voices relatively indistinguishable. They appear in succeeding chapters throughout the book, and the chapters are short – too short, perhaps, to allow them to settle in, initially. Because we have so little time with each, and because they all sounded the same to me – in their approach and inner dialogue – I often found it hard to tell which chapter I was in – which decade and which gender.

The problem becomes more marked because the book leans a little more toward romance than fantasy, yet I tended to lose track of who was reluctantly falling in love with whom and why. The why is often thin in any case, and sometimes forced. The fact that the characters sometimes act inconsistently didn't help.

While Woods has clearly done a fair amount of research into her true-to-history characters, there's less attention to some of the practicalities. All three major characters seem to generate funds out of thin air; they're often short on cash, but somehow the magic of economics allows starving runaways to pay rent, buy stock, and immediately make a profit.

The secondary characters are also on the thin side, and often fairly two-dimensional – especially the villains. I think the book would have been more effective and convincing had the bad guys had a little more depth.

One fairly central mystery is never really addressed at all; it's set up, but then (as far as I could see) abandoned to simply exist unexplained as the book's magic mechanism. It's not a crisis, but I did find it disappointing that the story pointed us toward a revelation and wrapup and then failed to provide it.

There's nothing wrong with this book – it's a pleasant approach to a familiar but always appealing trope (special bookshops), the writing is good, and there are some intriguing and surprising elements to it. But I did feel that, story-wise, it didn't deliver what I had hoped for.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

As an avid reader, I opened this book and within the first page fell in love. It was atmospheric. The type of book that made you want to make a cup of tea on a rainy day and read to escape the world. You were then introduced to three different character narratives that make you wonder what would be the linchpin plot point that would bring them all together.

However, do not let the ode to books and book lovers fool you into thinking this is a completely fantastical and romance heavy book. It had three characters battling their own demons, families, and societies. It included one of the characters running from her controlling brother, another character hiding from her abusive husband, and another dealing with his alcoholic father. It beautifully twined these narratives together on the love of books, a lost bookshop, and finding themselves amidst their trials. There were parts of this book that I cried, parts that made me gasp, and other parts that reminded me this is why I love reading so much. I don't want to spoil any of the plot, but just know that when you open this book be prepared to go through a mirage of different emotions, feel deeply for these characters, and be shocked at some twist and turns.

For me this book was a 10/10! It even got me out of the reading slump that I have been in. I will definitely be checking out Evie Wood's other books yearning for the same fantastical experience.

3,5/5⭐️
Leuk boek met een ontzettend leuk concept. Fijn dat er 3 wisselende POV's zijn en dat vanuit alle 3 wil weten hoe alles in elkaar zit.

(Wel jammer dat je aan het einde nog steeds niet precies weet hoe de bookshop niet te zien is voor iedereen.
Het wordt wel deels uitgelegd aan het einde, maar hoe komt het dan dat andere mensen er wel binnen zijn geweest??)

There is a bookshop on a street in Dublin. Or so Henry has been told. He thinks he saw it on his first night in town. But did he? And where is it now?

Martha is running away from an abusive husband. She finds refuge in working as a housekeeper to an eccentric old woman. She meets Henry and he shares his quest to find a missing bookshop and to locate a missing Emily Bronte manuscript. Can Martha dare to reveal her secrets to Henry?

Opaline leaves London to flee an arranged marriage in the 1920s. She eventually makes her way to Dublin to run a thrift shop.

The Lost Bookshop weaves the stories of these three characters together, and draws in the stories of the Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris, rare book dealers, and reclusive authors who may have hidden away a second book no one is aware of. There are also mysterious tattoos and the appearance of books on a shelf made from a tree that forms in a house and the lost bookshop itself.

The Lost Bookshop is my favorite book of 2023.

Martha searched for truth and healing in the present while Opaline searched for strength and direction in the past. Both women found more questions than answers in old bookstores and back alleys across Europe, while overshadowed by specters from their pasts.

The author wove Irish, English and French history together into a sparkling story with characters that I'd expect to meet living and breathing, here and now. A little magical realism was sprinkled across the second half, but I was so riveted by the mysterious breadcrumbs as the adventure picked up pace that I wasn't taken out of the story.

Martha and Opaline almost lost hold of their dreams and sanity as they weathered their own storms. Each found their footing in unexpected ways. The literary easter eggs also added to the richness of the characters and story.

What an exciting and fun read! I was actually sad when I finished this book.

Books with similar vibes: The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow, The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner, The London Séance Society by Sarah Penner, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Solid 3,5

A wonderful, beautiful book.

I would like to thank One More Chapter, HarperCollins Uk and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Lost Bookshop is a three POV and dual timeline story. The present timeline follows Martha, a domestic violence victim on the run, who starts working as an in-housekeeper for Madame Bowden. She meets the PhD student Henry, who is searching for an old manuscript and a lost bookshop, that should be located right next to Bowden's house.
The past timeline starts in 1921, and tells us the story of the brave Opaline and her fight for independence.

This book was an interesting read. Evie Woods writing is beautiful and immersive, and I've found myself immediately absorbed by Martha's and Opaline's lives. It is worth to mention the story is full of literary references, from the Brontë sisters to Sally Rooney, which should delight all book lovers.

I really wanted to love this book but there were too many things going on on both timelines, some of them unnecessary for the story progression and that actually worked as a distraction to the main plot, which prevented me to fully enjoy the reading.
I disliked Henry from the moment we discover he is engaged until the end. I wish the romance was addressed differently, as there was no lack of drama on the present timeline.

Still, it was a lovely read and I recommend it for both Magical Realism and Historical Fiction fans.

T.W - Physical and verbal abuse, cheating

Merged review:

I would like to thank One More Chapter, HarperCollins Uk and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Lost Bookshop is a three POV and dual timeline story. The present timeline follows Martha, a domestic violence victim on the run, who starts working as an in-housekeeper for Madame Bowden. She meets the PhD student Henry, who is searching for an old manuscript and a lost bookshop, that should be located right next to Bowden's house.
The past timeline starts in 1921, and tells us the story of the brave Opaline and her fight for independence.

This book was an interesting read. Evie Woods writing is beautiful and immersive, and I've found myself immediately absorbed by Martha's and Opaline's lives. It is worth to mention the story is full of literary references, from the Brontë sisters to Sally Rooney, which should delight all book lovers.

I really wanted to love this book but there were too many things going on on both timelines, some of them unnecessary for the story progression and that actually worked as a distraction to the main plot, which prevented me to fully enjoy the reading.
I disliked Henry from the moment we discover he is engaged until the end. I wish the romance was addressed differently, as there was no lack of drama on the present timeline.

Still, it was a lovely read and I recommend it for both Magical Realism and Historical Fiction fans.

T.W - Physical and verbal abuse, cheating

Merged review:

I would like to thank One More Chapter, HarperCollins Uk and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Lost Bookshop is a three POV and dual timeline story. The present timeline follows Martha, a domestic violence victim on the run, who starts working as an in-housekeeper for Madame Bowden. She meets the PhD student Henry, who is searching for an old manuscript and a lost bookshop, that should be located right next to Bowden's house.
The past timeline starts in 1921, and tells us the story of the brave Opaline and her fight for independence.

This book was an interesting read. Evie Woods writing is beautiful and immersive, and I've found myself immediately absorbed by Martha's and Opaline's lives. It is worth to mention the story is full of literary references, from the Brontë sisters to Sally Rooney, which should delight all book lovers.

I really wanted to love this book but there were too many things going on on both timelines, some of them unnecessary for the story progression and that actually worked as a distraction to the main plot, which prevented me to fully enjoy the reading.
I disliked Henry from the moment we discover he is engaged until the end. I wish the romance was addressed differently, as there was no lack of drama on the present timeline.

Still, it was a lovely read and I recommend it for both Magical Realism and Historical Fiction fans.

T.W - Physical and verbal abuse, cheating