Author: Poppy Alexander
Publisher: Avon and Harper Voyager
Genre: Romance
Format: Kindle ARC and Audio ALC
Narrator: Karen Cass
Length: 5 hrs 39 mins
No. of Pages: 336
Date of Publication: August 19, 2025
My Rating: 3 Stars
DESCRIPTION:
A charming literary-themed novel about a young woman determined to save her great-aunt’s beloved bookshop from extinction by the shiny new competition—which also happens to be run by the handsome son of her family’s rivals.
The cute, seaside town of Portneath has been the home of Capelthorne’s Books for nearly a hundred years…
The shop, in the heart of a high street that stretches crookedly down the hill from the castle to the sea, may be a tad run-down these days, but to Jules Capelthorne, the wonky, dusty world of literary treasures is full of precious childhood memories. When her great-aunt Florence gets too frail to run it alone, Jules ditches her junior publishing job in London and comes home to make the bookshop’s hundredth birthday a celebration to remember.
Jules quickly discovers things are worse than she ever imagined: The bookshop is close to bankruptcy, unlikely to make it to its own centenary celebration, and the lease on the building is up for renewal. With a six-figure sum needed, the future looks bleak.
To make matters worse, the owner of the property is the insufferable Roman Montbeau, from the posh, local family who owns half of Portneath. The Montbeaus and Capelthornes have feuded for years, and Roman has clearly not improved since he tormented Jules as a child. Fresh from a high-flying career in New York, he is on a mission to shake things up, and—unforgivably—proves his point about Capelthorne’s being a relic of the past by opening a new bookshop directly opposite—a shiny, plate-glass-windowed emporium of books.
Jules may not be able to splash the cash on promotions and marketing like the Montbeaus, but she’s got some ideas of her own, plus she has a tenacity that may just win the hardest of hearts and the most hopeless of conflicts.
Let the battle of the bookshops commence…
The cute, seaside town of Portneath has been the home of Capelthorne’s Books for nearly a hundred years…
The shop, in the heart of a high street that stretches crookedly down the hill from the castle to the sea, may be a tad run-down these days, but to Jules Capelthorne, the wonky, dusty world of literary treasures is full of precious childhood memories. When her great-aunt Florence gets too frail to run it alone, Jules ditches her junior publishing job in London and comes home to make the bookshop’s hundredth birthday a celebration to remember.
Jules quickly discovers things are worse than she ever imagined: The bookshop is close to bankruptcy, unlikely to make it to its own centenary celebration, and the lease on the building is up for renewal. With a six-figure sum needed, the future looks bleak.
To make matters worse, the owner of the property is the insufferable Roman Montbeau, from the posh, local family who owns half of Portneath. The Montbeaus and Capelthornes have feuded for years, and Roman has clearly not improved since he tormented Jules as a child. Fresh from a high-flying career in New York, he is on a mission to shake things up, and—unforgivably—proves his point about Capelthorne’s being a relic of the past by opening a new bookshop directly opposite—a shiny, plate-glass-windowed emporium of books.
Jules may not be able to splash the cash on promotions and marketing like the Montbeaus, but she’s got some ideas of her own, plus she has a tenacity that may just win the hardest of hearts and the most hopeless of conflicts.
Let the battle of the bookshops commence…
MY THOUGHTS:
Sentimentality is definitely driving Jules Capelthorne when it comes to her great-aunt’s bookshop. The shop has been around for nearly a century, but there are a lot of factors that could definitely miss that milestone. Jules has had a successful publishing job in London, but heads to Florence, Italy to prepare the shop for its hopeful centennial celebration.
The shop had seen better times, to be sure. While Jules tries to make sense of the condition of the shop, as well as the shop’s finances, she is forced to face something that she didn’t have to deal with in London. That is a decades long feud, the Capelthornes and the Montbeaus. Jules had thought she could rid her mind of that family, especially when one of them, Roman, taunted her as a child. When Jules discovers that Roman is in the picture again, this time as her competitor.
Roman is a big-city businessman who, in fact, owns the property that houses the bookshop. At first glance, he seems to be just as insufferable now as he was in childhood. At least that is what Jules think, and this has nothing to do with the ongoing feud. She would think that at least her desire to keep her shop was important. However, Roman has big plans. Perfect plans in his opinion, and that is to open a ritzy new bookshop right across from hers.
Let the battle begin.
This was a okay read, wonderfully narrated by Karen Cass. Perhaps the fact that I recently read a “bookshop war” book previously, my mind kept switching back and forth. That is certainly no fault of the author, as I am fairly certain this would be true if I read both books the opposite way around. I will definitely give Poppy Alexander another chance as soon as her next book is released.
Many thanks to Avon and HarperVoyager and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.
There was a long gap in my writing career while I grew up, which took a long time and is arguably a work in progress. After studying classical music, for reasons that now escape me, I took up public relations, campaigning and political lobbying, with a bit of freelance journalism thrown in. This is brilliant because it all involves writing, although my favourite form of writing – making stuff up – is sadly frowned upon in PR.
I take an anthropological interest in family, friends and life in our West Sussex village (think, The Archers crossed with Twin Peaks). This provides lots of entertaining material although any resemblance between my fictional characters and real life never ceases to amaze me – life imitating art, and all that… please don’t sue.
No comments:
Post a Comment