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Nina Redmond is a literary matchmaker. Pairing a reader with that perfect book is her passion... and also her job. Or at least it was. Until yesterday, she was a librarian in the hectic city. But now the job she loved is no more. Determined to make a new life for herself, Nina moves to a sleepy village many miles away. There she buys a van and transforms it into a bookmobile--a mobile bookshop that she drives from neighborhood to neighborhood, changing one life after another with the power show more of storytelling. From helping her grumpy landlord deliver a lamb, to sharing picnics with a charming train conductor who serenades her with poetry, Nina discovers there's plenty of adventure, magic, and soul in a place that's beginning to feel like home... a place where she just might be able to write her own happy ending. show lessTags
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anonymous user Also about a librarian, this one using night-school lessons in ancient Chinese strategy to save her job, her family and her friends.
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Summary: Nina Redmond loses her librarian job, pursues a dream of a mobile bookshop, ending up in the Scottish Highlands, bringing joy to a cluster of small towns in her Little Shop of Happy-Ever-After, while longing for her own happy-ever-after.
I'm a sucker for books on books and so didn't notice that this is categorized as women's fiction, and romance, two categories I tend not to read. What is curious-er is that I actually liked it, for the most part. It was a nice break from some other heavier reads, and explored some themes I found interesting.
The story is that Nina Redmond, a librarian in Birmingham, is about to lose her job in a library consolidation. In an outplacement workshop exercise, complete with all the cliche's of modern show more corporate life, she is invited to share her own dream job. And she finally admits that it is to own her own bookshop, maybe a tiny one, where she can help match up people with books they will love. The dream lingers and takes the shape of a mobile bookshop in a van. She finds the van--in rural Scotland--and finally, with the help of villagers, persuades the owner to sell it to her. They hope she will bring her little bookshop to their town, and after being turned down for vending and parking permits in Birmingham, and a near-disaster encounter with a train, she decides to stay. At last her book-beleaguered roommate Surinder will get her and her books out of the apartment.
With the help of the train engineer, a Latvian emigre by the name of Marek, boxes and boxes of books are transported from Birmingham to a train crossing near her home at Kirrinfief. She finds a beautiful converted barn to rent from a grumpy, divorcing sheep farmer, Lennox. Surinder comes up and paints the name she chooses for her little bookshop, The Bookshop of Happy-Ever-After on her van while she fits out the inside. The bookshop is a huge success and villagers who haven't read a book in years are matched up with books they love. Some admit that when the libraries closed and no local stores were available, they just stopped reading. There is one delightful scene where she looks around the village, and sees people reading everywhere. The village embraces her and she finds she cares for them more than she would have thought--a teen girl Ainslee and her brother Ben, who are facing some trouble at home, a shopkeeper who has faced too many disappointments, and even the grumpy farmer, who she assists in delivering twin lambs that only she, with her small hands, could untangle inside the ewe.
Yes, it is a romance novel, an adult one in places. Nina strikes up this odd romantic relationship with the Latvian, Marek, who leaves books on a tree by the rail crossing for her, and she in return for him. They meet sometimes, and it nearly becomes something more. Yet, it is pretty clear to the reader that the real deal is Lennox and we all wonder what it will take to bring the two together. We wonder if Nina will find her own "happy-ever-after" or if these are just the stuff of fiction.
I loved the descriptions of the Scotland, the countryside, the short summer nights and the Northern Lights, the village life and festivals. More than this, I love the transformation that occurs both in Nina and in Kirrinfief and how books are the medium of that transformation. Nina discovers a calling in bringing people with little access to books together with books they love, books that broaden their horizons, or even books that are gateways for them into reading, as it was with Ben. In the process, we witness a village discovering what it had lost, settling for electronic media substitutes, and the joy of recovering what was lost and making the fabric of their life a bit richer. The contrast between Kirrinfief and Birmingham, with its hectic pace of life, shuttering its libraries and bookstores for an electronically mediated life, portrayed by her friend Griffin, who manages to keep his job in a technology-oriented thing called a library that has little to do with books.
None of this is heavy-handed, maybe a bit cliché at times, but an enjoyable page-turning read. This was a romance in more ways in one. Yes, there is the romantic element of Nina caught between the "puppy-eyed" Marek, and the gruff, angular Lennox. But there is also the romance of bookselling--the wonderful matchmaking work between books and their readers--as well as the practicalities of getting stock and making a living at it. More than that, we have the reminder in Nina's rolling bookshop of how everything from Little Free Libraries to bookmobiles and libraries and village bookshops weave together to enrich the social ecology of a place. show less
I'm a sucker for books on books and so didn't notice that this is categorized as women's fiction, and romance, two categories I tend not to read. What is curious-er is that I actually liked it, for the most part. It was a nice break from some other heavier reads, and explored some themes I found interesting.
The story is that Nina Redmond, a librarian in Birmingham, is about to lose her job in a library consolidation. In an outplacement workshop exercise, complete with all the cliche's of modern show more corporate life, she is invited to share her own dream job. And she finally admits that it is to own her own bookshop, maybe a tiny one, where she can help match up people with books they will love. The dream lingers and takes the shape of a mobile bookshop in a van. She finds the van--in rural Scotland--and finally, with the help of villagers, persuades the owner to sell it to her. They hope she will bring her little bookshop to their town, and after being turned down for vending and parking permits in Birmingham, and a near-disaster encounter with a train, she decides to stay. At last her book-beleaguered roommate Surinder will get her and her books out of the apartment.
With the help of the train engineer, a Latvian emigre by the name of Marek, boxes and boxes of books are transported from Birmingham to a train crossing near her home at Kirrinfief. She finds a beautiful converted barn to rent from a grumpy, divorcing sheep farmer, Lennox. Surinder comes up and paints the name she chooses for her little bookshop, The Bookshop of Happy-Ever-After on her van while she fits out the inside. The bookshop is a huge success and villagers who haven't read a book in years are matched up with books they love. Some admit that when the libraries closed and no local stores were available, they just stopped reading. There is one delightful scene where she looks around the village, and sees people reading everywhere. The village embraces her and she finds she cares for them more than she would have thought--a teen girl Ainslee and her brother Ben, who are facing some trouble at home, a shopkeeper who has faced too many disappointments, and even the grumpy farmer, who she assists in delivering twin lambs that only she, with her small hands, could untangle inside the ewe.
Yes, it is a romance novel, an adult one in places. Nina strikes up this odd romantic relationship with the Latvian, Marek, who leaves books on a tree by the rail crossing for her, and she in return for him. They meet sometimes, and it nearly becomes something more. Yet, it is pretty clear to the reader that the real deal is Lennox and we all wonder what it will take to bring the two together. We wonder if Nina will find her own "happy-ever-after" or if these are just the stuff of fiction.
I loved the descriptions of the Scotland, the countryside, the short summer nights and the Northern Lights, the village life and festivals. More than this, I love the transformation that occurs both in Nina and in Kirrinfief and how books are the medium of that transformation. Nina discovers a calling in bringing people with little access to books together with books they love, books that broaden their horizons, or even books that are gateways for them into reading, as it was with Ben. In the process, we witness a village discovering what it had lost, settling for electronic media substitutes, and the joy of recovering what was lost and making the fabric of their life a bit richer. The contrast between Kirrinfief and Birmingham, with its hectic pace of life, shuttering its libraries and bookstores for an electronically mediated life, portrayed by her friend Griffin, who manages to keep his job in a technology-oriented thing called a library that has little to do with books.
None of this is heavy-handed, maybe a bit cliché at times, but an enjoyable page-turning read. This was a romance in more ways in one. Yes, there is the romantic element of Nina caught between the "puppy-eyed" Marek, and the gruff, angular Lennox. But there is also the romance of bookselling--the wonderful matchmaking work between books and their readers--as well as the practicalities of getting stock and making a living at it. More than that, we have the reminder in Nina's rolling bookshop of how everything from Little Free Libraries to bookmobiles and libraries and village bookshops weave together to enrich the social ecology of a place. show less
"Come on. You're last. You have to say what you want to do. And be honest."
...
"Well," she said, feeling herself color in that awful way. She swallowed painfully. "Well . . . I mean. Well. I always . . . I always dreamed that one day I might have my own bookshop. Just a very little one."
Absolutely the loveliest novel that I have ever read. The words grace across the pages as lyrical as though they are singing the innermost thoughts, secret wishes, privately-held desires, heartfelt emotions of my soul. As an avid reader, retired librarian, who worked in bookstores too, this novel captures the cherished delights of everything precious to me.
Jenny Colgan created the character of Nina Redmond and shares her story with humor and zest. It is show more a story to cherish and treasure - to highly recommend - to be widely shared around the globe - with all who love books and for those whose lives are always enriched by the books they have discovered and read. In a word - priceless. show less
Oh dear oh dear oh dear. I checked this book out from the library because it sounded kind of like my life. For me, everything changed when I had to leave my job at an independent bookstore and then when it closed down for good. I had a great memory for where each book was, often what it looked like, who wrote it, what series it was in, what order the series went in, authors' pseudonyms, and what books people might like if they liked this book or that. My favourite was giving recommendations, helping people find just the right book for a friend in the hospital with depression or child about to become a big brother or sister. When I left to give birth it was a huge adjustment to be home all of the time with a baby who wanted to eat show more nonstop and would only sleep in my arms. My world shrunk by the day, especially once we got down to one working car. Now with my girl in Kindergarten, I am being told by doctors that I will never work again. So I thought this book might cheer me up, give me some inspiration, etc.
And it did, at first. I could identify with Nina from the beginning, though not with her obsession with Heathcliffe and Christian Gray, who I consider to be dangerous criminals in need of locking up, not romantic heroes. Despite apparently having been around the block a time or two and in her 30s, Nina seems more naive and childish than I was as a 23 year old virgin bride.
I completely understand her love of books and her huge hoard of them, of course--I have an entire room in my house dedicated to nothing else. But she is somehow able to sell all of her books once she realizes there's a profit to be made. What kind of real book fanatic could do that unless they were on the verge of starvation or something?
So Nina loses her library job in Birmingham, spends everything she's got to buy a van in Scotland and of course ends up moving there, getting an amazingly designed, perfect apartment in a barn for next to nothing. Oh, and it comes with a tall handsome Scotsman who has a sweet dog and adorable lambs. But of course, he's also a jerk who doesn't like books or English city girls and never fails to be gruff or downright rude.
The business takes off immediately because it's that kind of book, despite the fact that Nina names her mobile bookshop The Little Shop of Happy Ever After (which makes me want to puke), and everything is just peachy, except that Nina can't see the mysterious dark Latvian train engineer dude she's projected fictional characters onto often enough to suit her. But her landlord calls her over to deliver stuck twin lambs because she is the only one around with small enough hands. That just didn't seem likely to me. "I don't like you, you're useless, you're dangerous, but come over here and soap up and shove your hands up inside my ewe." Right.
Basically, what I found annoying about this book is that no matter how awkward and idiotic Nina is, everything she does always works out. She loves literally everything about where she lives in Scotland--sorry, but there are down sides to everywhere. Her book recommendations, even when absurdly personal to the point of being potentially insulting, all turn out better than normal...it just goes on. It was still a pleasant enough read though, until about the last quarter.
SPOILERS
Naturally there is something wrong with the handsome sad foreigner--he already has a family back home. You begin to realize this is a weird retelling of Pride and Prejudice and he was Mr. Wickham. Which makes the landlord, Lennox, Mr. Darcy. *sigh* There's even a bunch of stuff about dancing and not dancing, and you also get to see that Lennox is nicer than he seems, though he still talks in a pretty unfriendly way.
When Lennox's ex shows up and demands the farm, she is over the top, completely silly and out of place even in this unrealistic book. She even throws a rare priceless book of Nina's into the mud. So Nina offers to give up her lovely apartment in the barn and move in with Lennox, who she is now sleeping with nonstop. By this point that is pretty much all she does. They don't talk, they have nothing in common to talk about, but they "don't need to talk" because their connection is suddenly so deep. Yeah bloody right. To me this is the laziest trick in the book. And it furthers what I think is a dangerous myth, that sex is the same thing as true love. Also the one that if someone is rude, hurtful, and has nothing in common with us, they must be our soulmate. We're supposed to be happy because Nina gets to constantly have sex with her grumpy boyfriend who only reads the occasional agriculture magazine. Seriously, how long is that going to work out? It definitely doesn't seem like the kind of "happy ever after" Nina was looking for.
Oh, and Nina ends up getting a new copy of the rare and priceless book the ex destroyed. And she loses the apartment but her best friend moves into it. So absolutely nothing is lost or sacrificed unless you count a diseased tree. Nothing whatever mars her happiness ever.
I am thoroughly disgusted. show less
And it did, at first. I could identify with Nina from the beginning, though not with her obsession with Heathcliffe and Christian Gray, who I consider to be dangerous criminals in need of locking up, not romantic heroes. Despite apparently having been around the block a time or two and in her 30s, Nina seems more naive and childish than I was as a 23 year old virgin bride.
I completely understand her love of books and her huge hoard of them, of course--I have an entire room in my house dedicated to nothing else. But she is somehow able to sell all of her books once she realizes there's a profit to be made. What kind of real book fanatic could do that unless they were on the verge of starvation or something?
So Nina loses her library job in Birmingham, spends everything she's got to buy a van in Scotland and of course ends up moving there, getting an amazingly designed, perfect apartment in a barn for next to nothing. Oh, and it comes with a tall handsome Scotsman who has a sweet dog and adorable lambs. But of course, he's also a jerk who doesn't like books or English city girls and never fails to be gruff or downright rude.
The business takes off immediately because it's that kind of book, despite the fact that Nina names her mobile bookshop The Little Shop of Happy Ever After (which makes me want to puke), and everything is just peachy, except that Nina can't see the mysterious dark Latvian train engineer dude she's projected fictional characters onto often enough to suit her. But her landlord calls her over to deliver stuck twin lambs because she is the only one around with small enough hands. That just didn't seem likely to me. "I don't like you, you're useless, you're dangerous, but come over here and soap up and shove your hands up inside my ewe." Right.
Basically, what I found annoying about this book is that no matter how awkward and idiotic Nina is, everything she does always works out. She loves literally everything about where she lives in Scotland--sorry, but there are down sides to everywhere. Her book recommendations, even when absurdly personal to the point of being potentially insulting, all turn out better than normal...it just goes on. It was still a pleasant enough read though, until about the last quarter.
SPOILERS
Naturally there is something wrong with the handsome sad foreigner--he already has a family back home. You begin to realize this is a weird retelling of Pride and Prejudice and he was Mr. Wickham. Which makes the landlord, Lennox, Mr. Darcy. *sigh* There's even a bunch of stuff about dancing and not dancing, and you also get to see that Lennox is nicer than he seems, though he still talks in a pretty unfriendly way.
When Lennox's ex shows up and demands the farm, she is over the top, completely silly and out of place even in this unrealistic book. She even throws a rare priceless book of Nina's into the mud. So Nina offers to give up her lovely apartment in the barn and move in with Lennox, who she is now sleeping with nonstop. By this point that is pretty much all she does. They don't talk, they have nothing in common to talk about, but they "don't need to talk" because their connection is suddenly so deep. Yeah bloody right. To me this is the laziest trick in the book. And it furthers what I think is a dangerous myth, that sex is the same thing as true love. Also the one that if someone is rude, hurtful, and has nothing in common with us, they must be our soulmate. We're supposed to be happy because Nina gets to constantly have sex with her grumpy boyfriend who only reads the occasional agriculture magazine. Seriously, how long is that going to work out? It definitely doesn't seem like the kind of "happy ever after" Nina was looking for.
Oh, and Nina ends up getting a new copy of the rare and priceless book the ex destroyed. And she loses the apartment but her best friend moves into it. So absolutely nothing is lost or sacrificed unless you count a diseased tree. Nothing whatever mars her happiness ever.
I am thoroughly disgusted. show less
Nina is a literary matchmaker. Pairing a reader with that perfect book is her passion… and also her job. Or at least it was. Until yesterday, she was a librarian in the hectic city. But now the job she loved is no more.
Determined to make a new life for herself, Nina moves to a sleepy village many miles away. There she buys a van and transforms it into a bookmobile — a mobile bookshop that she drives from neighborhood to neighborhood, changing one life after another with the power of storytelling.
From helping her grumpy landlord deliver a lamb, to sharing picnics with a charming train conductor who serenades her with poetry, Nina discovers there’s plenty of adventure, magic, and soul in a place that’s beginning to feel like show more home… a place where she just might be able to write her own happy ending. show less
Determined to make a new life for herself, Nina moves to a sleepy village many miles away. There she buys a van and transforms it into a bookmobile — a mobile bookshop that she drives from neighborhood to neighborhood, changing one life after another with the power of storytelling.
From helping her grumpy landlord deliver a lamb, to sharing picnics with a charming train conductor who serenades her with poetry, Nina discovers there’s plenty of adventure, magic, and soul in a place that’s beginning to feel like show more home… a place where she just might be able to write her own happy ending. show less
2024 Advent, Day 19: I am a complete cliche of a booknerd, but I really do love a book about loving books. This story follows a Librarian whose been made redundant and comes up with the idea to run a Bookshop bus. As someone who got my library science degree last year, it was admittedly quite depressing to read the redundancy opening chapters, but I can't say I would have reacted differently to Nina's circumstance. (Side note-- why are so many book loving book characters named Nina? ) I too would love to run my own Bookshop. (Fun fact: I do actually have all my personal books catalogued and have a functioning online library interface and borrowing system established for members of my library (friends that ask for books) and so I do, in show more a way, currently have one)
Overall, a cosy cute read that I would not say is great in a literary sense, but could be in a personal one show less
Overall, a cosy cute read that I would not say is great in a literary sense, but could be in a personal one show less
This is the book equivalent of watching a Hallmark movie.
Light reading with romantic plotlines involving humans, with love stories around both Scottish country life and books/bookstores.
I've always been a sucker for the idea of books as prescriptions for life's ailments (aka read this and call me in the morning). This has been in my pile for awhile and this seemed like the right time for it.
There's isn't a single plot twist or surprise, but if predictably entertaining chick-lit is just the thing to brighten your spirits, you won't care.
It's mostly rated PG - PG13 with the exception of one f-bomb dropped at the end which is kind of jarring only because it's so off-tone with the rest of the book.
Light reading with romantic plotlines involving humans, with love stories around both Scottish country life and books/bookstores.
I've always been a sucker for the idea of books as prescriptions for life's ailments (aka read this and call me in the morning). This has been in my pile for awhile and this seemed like the right time for it.
There's isn't a single plot twist or surprise, but if predictably entertaining chick-lit is just the thing to brighten your spirits, you won't care.
It's mostly rated PG - PG13 with the exception of one f-bomb dropped at the end which is kind of jarring only because it's so off-tone with the rest of the book.
Talk about your wish fulfillment fantasies - girl gets laid off from library job, moves to beautiful rural Scotland, opens a mobile book shop van, and finds hunky Scottish farmer. Nina's growth from socially anxious meek mouse to successful business owner and important community member is endearing and satisfying. As much as she loves books, she realizes they can't be her entire life. I just wish Colgan didn't make all of her so-called heroes so laconic and grumpy. So ignore the romance, and just enjoy the story of a woman finding herself.
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Little Shop of Happy-Ever-After
- Original title
- The Little Shop of Happy Ever After
- Alternate titles
- The Little Scottish Bookshop; The Bookshop on the Corner
- Original publication date
- 2016
- People/Characters
- Nina Redmond; Griffin; Surinder; Cathy Neeson; Alasdair McRae; Willie Findhorn (show all 18); Edwin; Hugh; Marek [The Bookshop on the Corner]; Jim [The Bookshop on the Corner]; John Lennox [The Bookshop on the Corner]; Kate Lennox; Lesley [The Bookshop on the Corner]; Ainslee Aurora Clark; Ben Clark; Aras; Bronia; Janine Clark
- Important places
- Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, UK; Birmingham, England, UK; Kirrinfief, Scotland, UK (fictional); Latvia
- Epigraph
- Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world. VOLTAIRE
- Dedication
- There is no dedication in this book because the entire book is dedicated to you: the reader. To all readers.
- First words
- The problem with good things that happen is that very often they disguise themselves as awful things.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"Once upon a time there were three children. And their names were Wallace, Francis, and Delphine..."
- Original language*
- Englisch
- Disambiguation notice
- Book was originally published as The Little Shop of Happy-Ever-After then reprinted as The Bookshop on the Corner.
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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- ISBNs
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