The English Bookshop

It's been a while since I've stumbled across such a charming read. Lovely characters; sweet story of finding your way and being true to yourself. Started it one evening and couldn't put it down. Highly addictive and an enjoyable read. Enjoyed the storyline across Seattle and England and the descriptive details. Will definitely read more by this author.

It was so easy to lose myself in the story of Lucy, President of a family run mattress company in Seattle, Washington, who inherited a bookshop in England. Am she wanted was to save her family's business but she got so much more. Brew yourself a cup of tea, sit back and enjoy.

I started out reading this book thinking it was another light hearted cozy easy read. Well, it is and it’s not. It was a great surprise to get to a point where I thought the book was ending only to look down on my kindle app and realize that I had a few more hours of reading yet to do! Admittedly, I thought Lucy was a bit of a push over, a sort of shallow character but I am not afraid to admit when I was wrong. She is more than that. Faced with her situations she gives a great deal of though and patience to what she does and says, far more than I would. This is not the greatest book that I have ever read and it’s not my favorite. It did, however, capture my attention at that half way point and make me think about Lucy’s situations and choices. How she got to where she was, how things might play out, what would her reactions be, what would she chose and how would the characters around her react. Some of those pondering I could figure out and a few I didn’t see coming. And that is what good books are about. Making you think. Eliciting responses to characters, situations, settings, relationships, plots, twists and turns. Negative or positive, the author draws you in and makes you feel. And that is the hallmark of a good read. Thank you Ms. Wildy for such a pleasant thoughtful interlude.

As the author stated in her comments on The English Bookshop this is a comfort read. That doesn’t take away from the fun of the story or the life lessons the book provides. This is a great book to take on vacation or curl up in front of the fire with—along with a lovely cup of tea!

I enjoyed the book. It was chosen as a quick read between choices for a book club that focus on US historical fiction and biographies. It's light reading with a decent mix of regret, hope, and the promise of new beginnings. So back to the the Revolutionary War period for me after a vacation in the English countryside.

What a fresh, exciting book. I really wasn't sure how all of the moving pieces would come together but they did! I'm glad Lucy still has connections with the family business in Seattle!

I enjoyed reading this book very much, thinking about the characters, wondering what they would do. I would love to read another book by this author.

This was a gentle and comforting read with we!l developed characters and plenty of quiet suspense. The English setting was delightful. I loved its insights and wisdom too. It was a great book to read in bed before I went to sleep.

I have enjoyed Janis Wildy's first novel, set mainly in an English village. Her American heroine, Lucy, suddenly becomes the co-owner of a bookshop and her immediate plan is, with the other owners, to sell it and return to America, the money she would receive from the sale helping to prop up her ailing mattress business.But fate has other ideas for Lucy but, of course, I'm not going to spoil it for you by telling you any more here. You must just rush out, metaphorically speaking, and buy the book for yourself.However, I would say this. Like all the American writers I've read, and I have read quite a number, if they are writing from a British (or English in this case) view point, I do wish they'd get the phraseology correct. We wouldn't call the pavement a sidewalk, but it would be correct for an American - such as Lucy - to refer to it thus. So please, American writers, try just a bit harder to get the words correct. Other than that, this is a lovely story, even though the idea of a mattress company doesn't sound all that enterprising an occupation for a young woman; you could almost call it a sleep-inducing occupation! But somehow it works, and I will certainly be looking out for more of Janis's books. Overall, a good read.

Such a beautiful, effortless read, the images it evoked could have been pictures shot through Lucy's lens. Every character, description and feeling became personal. If I didn't already have a bookshop addiction, I certainly would have after reading this heart warming, cozy and enchanting read. To me it brought home the magic of books, places and people and how sometimes you end up exactly where you need to be.

This book is so wonderful and from what I've found from my google search, could quite possibly be the first from this author - and whether it is or not, it's fantastic.It gives us the story of Lucy, a woman who will do anything in order to save her family business... Until the moment she discovers that she has another family business to consider. I mean, what would you do Reading Ninjas if you were given a business out of nowhere, and you didn't want it? Ok, so let's be realistic - the business gift is a bookshop in a tiny, ideally English village - so that makes our decision so much easier. And for Lucy, it's an easy decision too... Or so she thinks.But oh, how much minds can change, lives, destinies and priorities can change so drastically when you spend a week in a little slice of heaven, getting to know about your family and rethinking the past you knew.This is such a sweet story, full of the charm of any number of English villages that I for one would give a limb or a kidney to live in and run a bookshop of my own. Complete with complicated emotions, and family drama, The English Bookshop is best read over a quiet autumn weekend with an endless supply of tea and scones.So the question remains, can you find your life by walking away from it? And how many of you wouldn't want to run an English bookshop?

Really enjoyed this beautiful story of a charming English bookshop. Would love to be in the setting of this story.