The British Booksellers by Kristy Cambron Review

 

Okay, so, I WANTED to love this book. I mean, it has dual timelines. It delves into both WWI and WWII, two timelines that I have come to love reading about. There is a focus on the two bookstores, one run by Charlotte Holt and the other by Amos Darby who have this little "war" going on between the bookshops, instead of the bookstore they had once dreamed have having together. There is a second chance love story (definitely wouldn't classify it as enemies to lovers). Charlotte, an earl's daughter, and Amos, a tenant farmer were close as children, and had fallen in love once upon a time, back before WWI. Though they wouldn't admit the reality of that love as they knew a relationship would never be able to happen in that world. Charlotte indeed was wed to a man she didn't care for, a man who sort of had it in for Amos, partially because he was jealous of the relationship Charlotte and Amos had. During the WWII timeline, Charlotte has remained a war widow and Amos has been living as a recluse.

Though there IS also another love story developing that could possibly be considered “enemies to lovers,” as Jacob Cole, a solicitor from America, has come to England with a lawsuit that will impact their lives, especially that of Eden, Charlotte’s daughter. Yet he remains in England to help out and a relationship starts to develop between him and Eden.

I do love that as we go back and forth between timelines their history is slowly revealed and we see how it has impacted their present.

I loved learning more about WWII. One of the reasons I have started enjoying historical fiction so much is I get to learn things I don't remember learning about in school. I had never heard of the Coventry Blitz though I've learned that it was the "single most concentrated attack on a British city" during WWII. And there were Land Girls who came from London to help on the estate, several ladies who we hear about from time to time in the story, some of whom played a more important role than others.

There is also what seems to be an insignificant side story during the time Amos is a soldier during WWI that ends up playing an intriguing part in the story.

I would have to say my rating is really between a 3 and a 4. I didn't want to give such a low rating, but one of the things that will bring my rating down is if the book can not keep my attention and I struggle with wanting to pick it up, plus having trouble struggling to comprehend what I am reading without reading it over and over again to make it make sense.

But I also didn't care for the fact that the whole lawsuit angle of the story didn't really have a satisfactory conclusion. In addition to the fact that it sometimes popped up during the story, as if the author went, oh right, there was supposed to be a lawsuit going on here. That lawsuit didn't really have the strength behind it that the blurb made it out to be.

All in all, I did enjoy this story, it just took me so long to finish it and I had trouble focusing on it. And I can’t really pinpoint why. I will say my attention was grabbed a bit more about halfway through the story. And I loved some of the details that were revealed.

I received an e-copy of this book through NetGalley and was not required to write a favorable review. These are my own honest thoughts.