by Evie Woods

A Fantasy, 2023 by One More Chapter, 444 Pages

What I Didn’t Like:

• The two POV characters have very similar (almost exact) voices. This makes jumping from one to the other a bit of a challenge. You can’t just pick one up without paying attention to the name and immediately know which one is telling this part of the story. 
• There’s almost too much going on in this story. You have the main plot about the bookstore but then there are a ton of side quest type plots. It sometimes got a little convoluted. 
• The fact that one of the characters can “read” others is mentioned frequently but underutilized. This is one of those things where if you’re going to mention it, use it to set your story apart. In this case, it felt unnecessary. 

What I Did Like:

• The idea of a lost Bronte manuscript has been talked about for a long time in literary circles. It was fun to take a look at this idea from this perspective, even if I tend to be in the IF it existed, Charlotte burned it camp. 
• I really liked the strike-out-on-your-own and make-something-happen vibe you get from both POV characters.
• All of the stuff about books is beautiful, exactly the way it was intended. Book lovers will understand all of it because it’s speaking our language. 

Who Should Read This One:

• Readers who love books and want a book loving vibe are the audience for this one. This idea that the love of books so great it can create a bookshop out of thin air is played with in this one amongst a dual storyline that weaves through history.

My Rating: 2 Stars

• For me the voices were too similar and the plot dragged a bit with the underutilized elements of fantasy.