I’ve recently finished reading The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods, and I must say that I liked it more than I thought I would. Not for any reason other than the title sounded like so many other stories: The Stationery Shop, The Little Paris Bookshop, The Bookshop, The Last Bookshop in London. I guess I was title-weary. Another mystery around a bookshop that has multi-generational family ties, a secret, some kind of treasure, and so on. But The Lost Bookshop was a pleasant surprise in that the protagonist’s journey was one of escape and then empowerment, finding strength in unlikely sources, and ultimately in herself. There was an element of magic, which made me cautious as well, but it was simple and did not micro-manage the plot. One storyline was a romance, of course, for our heroine, and that added to the drama but not in an overpowering way – there was more to her life and her story than getting the guy. I recommend The Lost Bookshop for people who like Notting Hill, as well as The Personal Librarian. For book lovers, and bookshop lovers, it’s a sure thing.