Lost for Words

On the face of it, Lost for Words is the kind of book you might pick up in the airport as easy holiday reading. It's set in a secondhand bookshop, has a cast of lightly exaggerated characters who are amusing in different ways, and its narrator is a single minded young woman who goes on a journey.

Beneath the surface, though, is a story about pain, rejection, personal trauma and the power of books to help you escape reality. It's also about trust, discernment and being bold sometimes.

The narrator's favourite book is A S Byatt's Possesion. I felt a kinship with her in that, and I liked how three of the characters in Lost for Words mirrored the three academics pursuing Lamotte and Ash in Possession.

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Wow, this book got to me in ways I never expected it to. The Lost for Words Bookshop by Stephanie Butland left me with my heart hurting, tears streaming down my face, and a desire for it to go on and on and never end. We follow Loveday in present-day 2016 and learn of her, at first wonderful and later difficult, past in flashback chapters. We see her in school plays, reading with her father, baking with her mother, and hiding with her secrets in her bedroom. She's kept her past private, her family consisting of the people she chooses, specifically bookshop owner Archie. Lost for Words is her happy place, her escape with the books she connects to better than people, but the bookstore also show more brings to her people, like a lover, a poet, and someone with boxes that take her right back into the past.

"It's good to be reminded that the world is full of stories that are, potentially, at least as painful as yours."

Loveday is an enigma, she functions with little help from others, shares very little personal information, but allows the first lines of novels to tell her story for her as tattoos on her skin. She's hiding from a past she doesn't want to admit she has, hiding from comfort of sharing herself with another, and yet so desperate to tie the books she reads to her past in some way. She's like a child in many ways, though more caution with her feelings and matters of the heart. I ached for her, even before I knew what her past was made up of. She was meek in many ways and yet so strong and stubborn in others. Her past making up much of who she is, though unaware of how impactful those around her presently also are in making her into someone new. Loveday is a reader and The Lost for Words Bookshop is a book for book lovers.

"I suppose it's the fact that these small memories come from the kind of tiny reminders that you simply can't predict, and so can't protect yourself from, and they catch you, paper cuts across the heart."

Stephanie Butland's writing is lyrical, the story is fresh, and the poems that tie Loveday to another such a romantic way to reveal feelings. I loved every single secondary character in this novel, even those who are more foe than friend. Each sparks a match to Loveday, pushing her to reveal more of herself, to accept more of herself, and showing her to accept the open arms of others. Archie is the best man I've ever met in a book and he's not even what one would consider handsome. He's described as portly and jovial, the kind of man who tells a tale that you know must be embellished, only he's got the odd friends to show for it. His love of Loveday, his support of her, is so much like that of a father and I really ached for Loveday and how she didn't recognize him as such. He's so important in her growth in this novel and I easily could have read the story of them working together for ten years forever. They're quite the pair, I think I would've liked to know him. Of course, there's Nathan, a boy who charms her and disarms her, bringing forth a Loveday that I had come to think we would only see in her childhood flashbacks. He's the knight who helps her take down the walls she'd spent so long building and fortifying. Every character felt so real, with Stephanie Butland's descriptive storytelling bringing each to life along with the quant York setting.

"'And be brave, Loveday. Ask the questions you want to ask. Seek out the people you want in your life. It might not be as hard as you think.'"

The Lost for Words Bookshop is not what I would call chick lit, but rather Women's Literature and really a book anyone with difficult baggage can relate to. With heavy topics covered like mental health, trauma, and abuse, Stephanie Butland tells a romantic story with a purpose. As a bibliophile I connected with this book, with Loveday and her only-in-my-dreams tattoos, and the unique take Stephanie Butland had on burying the hatchet, finding oneself, and embracing life's quirks whether joyous or difficult. I had a fantastic giggle when Loveday, as a child, pointed at that being a reader makes saying words aloud so much more difficult, as we really haven't a clue how it really should sound. So true. I do suggest you prepare yourself with tissues, because for every laugh I had at the character's wittiness I also shed a tear for the heartache Loveday had come to accept. I know this is a book I will reread many times, in fact I can already picture the cold winter nights with cocoa in hand and Loveday to keep me company.

ARC provided by St. Martin's Press and Netgalley. show less

"Lost For Words" is my first "recommend to anyone who reads" novel of 2018. Set mostly in the Lost For Words bookshop in York, this novel follows Loveday Cardew as she decides whether and how to move beyond surviving in the refuge she has built for herself in the bookshop and start living a richer life, shaped by hope rather than fear.


I liked Loveday. She is comfortable in her own skin. She is a loner, not just because she has poor social skills but because she doesn't like most people. Most of the time, she prefers spending time, hunting, shelving, selling and reading books than she does talking to people and she has no problem with that.


Yet Loveday is not entirely who she wants to be. She has a secret that she hugs to herself that show more keeps a little more distance between her and the world than she would like to have. She knows that keeping the secret secret prevents her from being herself. She fears that sharing the secret will destroy the small safe space she lives in.


This is a novel about trust: how hard it is to win, how easy it is to lose, how necessary it is for happiness. Loveday has three men in her life: the larger than life owner of the bookshop who rescued her and offered her safe haven, the unpleasant and perhaps unbalanced ex-boyfriend who won't accept the ex designation and the young man, full-time magician and part-time poet, who she has just met. Her interactions with them, with the books in the bookshop and with her own past create the landscape through which Loveday is trying to find her way to a better future.


"Lost For Words" deals with abuse, male violence, mental illness, guilt and the possibility of hope while staying down to earth and credible. Loveday is someone I can easily imagine meeting. Someone hard to get to know but worth the effort.


One of the things I liked most about the book was the way Performance Poetry was used as a vehicle for the characters to find out more about themselves and each other. The delivery was unpretentious and natural, powered by a love of words and a NEED to speak. The poems were worth listening to as more than a means of moving the plot along.


The plot often has the tension and pace of a thriller rather than a romance of piece of gentle introspection on the impact of life choices on identity. There are violence and hate at life-threatening levels. There are dark secrets and broken minds. This also a deep understanding of the power of kindness.


I think this is a first-class book. I would have expected it to get the same kind of profile as "Midnight At The Bright Ideas Bookstore". Sadly, the publishers don't seem to have done well by this book. They've given it a cover that suggests some kind of Jenny Colgan meets cosy mystery hybrid that doesn't reflect the character of the novel at all. They've released it under two titles:"Lost For Words" and "The Lost For Words Bookshop".


I suppose I should look on the bright side: they did publish a remarkable book, even if they don't seem to understand what's remarkable about it. I recommend the audiobook version, superbly narrated by Imogen Church.


You can sample her performance on the SoundCloud link below.

[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/310880978" params="color=#ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true" width="100%" height="300" iframe="true" /]


I've now bought Stephanie Butland's earlier book, "Letters To My Husband" an epistalatory novel that I have high hopes of.

Here's what the publisher says:

letters_to_my_husband-395x600Dear Mike, I can’t believe that it’s true. You wouldn’t do this to me. You promised.

Elizabeth knows that her husband is kind and good and that he loves her unconditionally. She knows she hasn’t been herself lately but that, even so, they are happy.

But Elizabeth’s world is turned upside down when Mike dies in a tragic drowning accident. Suddenly everything Elizabeth knows about her husband is thrown into doubt. Why would he sacrifice his own life, knowing he’d never see his wife again? And what exactly was he doing at the lake that night?

Elizabeth knows that writing to Mike won’t bring him back, but she needs to talk to him now more than ever . . .

How much can you ever know about the people you love? show less

Not the charming bookshop romance I was expecting. A good part of the book was spent s-l-o-w-l-y revealing a dark secret from the main character’s past that, honestly, wasn’t worth the buildup. And then it used another character’s mental illness as a plot device to bump up the drama. That only works if the author does their homework so the character doesn't come across as one dimensional. Maybe this didn't click with me because poems and poetry reading were a big part of the story line and I am without a doubt an unpoetic person.

Charming! A good bookshop love story and "coming of age" all in one, with some poetry mixed in. The audio might be key here for the British accents and local York vocabulary, but this was pleasant throughout, though not "fluffy." Loveday Cardew is her own worst enemy. She keeps everything bottled up tight inside and as a result doesn't know how to let people in. Fiercely independent since her teens, at 25 this has become a bit of a liability. However as a bookshop worker - the right hand to eccentric shop owner Archie, she can get away with being anti-social and clinging to her routines of working and reading. Until Nathan shows up in the shop one day. Somehow, over a couple visits
and a little "magic" he entices her out of her shell show more and convinces her to go to Poetry Night at a local pub. This opens a world for Loveday and inch by painful inch, she learns to love and trust again, second-guessing herself the whole way (truthfully a little tiresome by the very end). She has been burned so often by those she loved that it's a monumental struggle to overcome. Little by little the story of her traumatic childhood gets parceled out to the reader - her memory jogged by several different donations of books that she believes were part of her family at one time. She also made an initial bad choice in dating Rob who hit her. She left the relationship immediately, but he still skulks around the store wishing for her back and stalking her in a passive-aggressive way. He is the true danger in the story, though Loveday believes her past is. As things go well with Nathan, she is face with divulging her story and she resists right to the bitter end, almost losing him in the process. It takes a tragic and dramatic event to finally bring them together and be honest with each other. Told from Loveday's point of view, the story unfolds at the pace she sets and keeps the reader engaged in the reveal of her past as she heals her present and looks to the future. show less

Loveday Cardew's best friends are books. She tattoos the first lines of her favorite books on her body like a collection of fond memories she wants to keep close forever. She hides a secret about her past and never lets people past her defenses. Books don't judge. Books don't pity. She works in a bookshop, surrounded by the peace and feeling of safety the books give her. But, someone has found out about her past. And Loveday Cardew's quiet little world is about to tumble into chaos.

I loved this book! As the story progressed and I learned more and more about Loveday....her past, her thoughts, her secret....I found myself sympathizing more and more with her. Sometimes the past keeps a tight grip on a person that takes years to loosen. I show more know this experience personally from my disastrous relationships with my birth family. For Loveday, she hides from her hurts and emotions and only loves books...until she lets her defenses down just a bit. And the world comes crashing in. So realistic. I also love the idea of getting tattoos of first lines of favorite books, or those with personal meaning.

I listened to the audio book version of this novel. Narrated by Imogen Church, the audio is just under 9 hours long. Church's voice is perfect for this book, and I loved the audio. Even with my hearing loss, I was easily able to hear and understand the entire book.

This was a binge listen for me.....I couldn't stop once I got immersed in the story. This book is sad, hopeful, and beautiful. Despite how we remember our lives Before, there is always a life After.

I absolutely loved this book and will be reading more by this author. I usually steer away from emotional fiction, but this story is beautiful. I have to admit that this book sat on my To-Read shelf for awhile before I worked up the courage to read it. I knew it would poke at the hurts still present from my own past...and I had to work up the courage to go there. I'm so glad I did.....totally rewarding experience. Full stars from me!

**I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from St. Martins Press via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.** show less

Loveday is a confused, somewhat prickly young woman who works in a bookshop. She likes books a lot more than she likes people. She has a past of which she is ashamed, and rarely opens up to anyone.

The book is written with flashback chapters, in a first person style that felt awkward at first, but matches well with Loveday's personality. It's a moving story, with some dark sections as well as plenty of references to children's literature.

I felt the author managed to get inside the mindset of someone tied up in emotional knots, fearful of anyone else finding out about her past, getting everything out of proportion. The gradual unfolding of the past and Loveday's own tentative steps into the future make surprisingly gripping reading. By show more the time I was about half way through I could barely put it down.

More bad language than I'm comfortable with, and perhaps the ending was a bit too good to be realistic. But overall I thought it an excellent novel. show less