The Lost and Found Bookshop

Another wonderful character-driven novel by Susan Wiggs that I absolutely devoured. Natalie is making a huge presentation. Her mother has been invited. She doesn’t show. Natalie is then rocked by later receiving the news her test-pilot boyfriend (who she’d been planning to break up with) was killed in a crash. The news only gets more shocking—her mother was in the plane with him.

Natalie is left to pick up the pieces of her mother’s life—a bookshop that is heavily in debt and about to be foreclosed on. Her beloved grandfather who is suffering from dementia. As mentioned before, it’s the characters that make any Susan Wiggs book so magical, and Dorothy, a young reader who loves the books in the shop, and Peach, her father, show more and a handyman hired to do work at the store, instantly pull at your heartstrings. This was slower paced than some of the other books by SW I’ve read, but I didn’t enjoy it any less. The romance was more of a slow burn, and the family story was really at the heart of it—with Natalie’s desire to save her grandfather and the bookstore driving the action. A beautiful read.

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader. show less

Natalie Inge Harper loses her mother and boyfriend in a plane crash at the beginning of this book. The rest of the book is the story of Natalie trying to rescue her mother, Blythe Harper's, bookshop from the creditors and take care of her ailing grandfather, Andrew Harper, who helped raise her while dealing with her great loss. Along the way she meets two wonderful men, Peter "Peach" Gallagher and Trevor Dashwood, who help her out in different ways. Peach is the handyman who fixes various things in the bookshop's building and Trevor is the most popular children's author of the time who agrees to an author visit. A lot of this was predictable. The locating of various objects hidden by the previous owner/occupiers of the Sunrose Building show more seemed a bit contrived. Also the marijuana smoking incident near the end came out of nowhere. There was nothing previous to indicate these two folks would have even entertained the notion to smoke marijuana. show less

This was a sweet but very predictable book. It is very light and easy to read - it a good escape that you know will leave you happy. I always enjoys books about books and this had a lot of good literary references. I had never read Susan Wiggs before - I don't think she is an author I would typically choose. But I understand why she is so popular. Thanks to NetGalley and Book Club Girl for the digital ARC.

I usually enjoy this author. This book did not disappoint me. The feelings and struggles of Natalie were real. In spite of the tragedies of losing her boyfriend and mother, she had the fortitude to do the responsible thing in taking care of her grandfather. In the middle of it, she found her passion.

Natalie Harper's single mom, Blythe, runs an independent bookstore in San Francisco. In addition, Blythe is the devoted caregiver of her father, Andrew, who is in his eighties and has become increasingly forgetful. Natalie adores her mother, and admires her strength of character, love of literature, and people skills, but she wishes that they had spent more time together over the years. Natalie has a job in Sonoma County that she loathes; is hesitant to commit to her handsome and good-hearted boyfriend, Rick; and is skeptical about her future prospects for happiness and fulfillment.

Susan Wiggs' "The Lost and Found Bookshop" is a charming novel about a young woman who is struggling emotionally, even before an unexpected tragedy forces show more her to take over Blythe's store and look after Andrew, whom she calls Grandy. The characters are beautifully delineated, and Wiggs handles such themes as love, fate, grief, and the tough decisions that can make or break us with warmth, humor, and compassion. Suddenly, Natalie finds herself juggling a great many tasks, such as renovating the dilapidated bookshop and balancing its books. At least, Blythe had hired a handyman, Peach Gallagher, who is good-natured, hard-working, and skilled at electrical work, plumbing, and carpentry. Moreover, Natalie worries about her grandfather, who is becoming increasingly frail. When Grandy is up to it, he and Natalie reminisce about the past, look into their family history, and make some surprising discoveries.

Thanks to a series of serendipitous events, the heroine meets a wealthy and handsome children's book author who becomes infatuated with her. Should she quit her old job and try to save a failing business that can never turn a profit? Why not marry a rich man who will give her the security that she needs? A third option is to sell the shop and place Grandy in an assisted living facility. We can relate to Natalie's confusion and uncertainty as she tries to put her priorities in order. The most satisfying aspects of this enchanting tale are its emphasis on the glory of reading for pleasure; the importance of bonding with our loved ones before it is too late; and the joy we derive from friends who share our values and interests. Although the conclusion is a bit too pat and predictable, on the whole "The Lost and Found Bookshop" is a delightful and engrossing work of fiction. show less

Natalie is grieving, she’s taken over her mother’s struggling bookstore, she’s also dealing with an ill grandfather and a couple romance possibilities, yet despite all that it rarely felt as if there was enough story for the number of pages. It fell into repetition more often than I would have liked, for instance, the one and a half page prologue basically sums up what’s about to happen in the first quarter of the book. Either make use of the prologue to then start the story with Natalie’s first day in charge of the bookshop or don’t have a prologue and let events just unfold, by having both it made the beginning feel both slow and repetitive.

I also had a problem with the name of a cat, which I know sounds odd, but it was show more off-putting when it’s stated that the cat is named for Sylvia Beach not Sylvia Plath and it’s noted that presumably Sylvia Beach didn’t have mental issues. I just, I’m not sure what to make of that, are we saying that Sylvia Plath is less of a literary genius, less worthy of having a namesake, because she struggled and ultimately succumbed to her mental health issues? I just didn’t get why that aside needed to be there, why it couldn’t just be stated which Sylvia the cat is named for and left at that. It felt like a slight against the mentally unwell, I hope that wasn’t the intention, it probably wasn’t, but it unfortunately reads that way.

As for the romantic interests, it seemed pretty obvious which one Natalie would end up with and while he is a nice guy, I just didn’t find him all that appealing, which is a total personal preference thing, I’m sure there are other readers who will feel differently. However, the bigger issue for me with the romance was how long it took for Natalie to find out some basic information about this guy, it seemed highly implausible that it took that long to come up in conversation. Given previous relationships and family histories, they both had reason enough to be tentative about starting something, there didn’t need to be a convoluted misunderstanding between them.

I would have been happy to ditch Natalie’s romantic dilemmas and instead see her attempting to establish a connection with her father or better still see more of her day to day in the bookshop and dealing with customers, for me the best moments were the ones spent talking books and how to keep a brick and mortar store alive in the current climate. I would have welcomed a lot more of those scenes, especially if it led to wrapping things up in way that felt more earned and organic rather than a solution easily falling into place. show less

Natalie has just been promoted and is having a party in her honor. Her mother is supposed to be there. Come to find out, there has been a tragic plane crash and Natalie’s mother and boyfriend have been killed. Natalie moves back home to help take care of her grandfather and to sort out her mothers book shop.

Natalie discovers the book shop is in horrible financial woes. The historical building is in terrible shape and the book store is in debt. Plus, her grandfather has the beginnings of dementia. He refuses to sell the historical building because there is a hidden treasure lost in it somewhere (and yes there is…you MUST read this to find out what!)

I adore this book. I love everything about it. I love the quirkiness of the show more characters. The setting of the California Bay Area had me researching. I actually sent a text to a friend of mine who lives there and told him he had to go the the Tower Library Bar and take pictures. Oh…and the mystery of the hidden treasure and the book references. This is the perfect read for a bibliophile!

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review. show less