Sunday, May 5, 2024

The British Booksellers by Kristy Cambron (Review)

Genre: Historical Fiction 
Publisher: Thomas Nelson 
Released: April 9, 2024
384 pages
About the Book:

Inspired by real accounts of the Forgotten Blitz bombings, The British Booksellers highlights the courage of those whose lives were forever changed by war—and the stories that bind us in the fight for what matters most.

A tenant farmer’s son had no business daring to dream of a future with an earl’s daughter, but that couldn’t keep Amos Darby from his secret friendship with Charlotte Terrington . . . until the reality of the Great War sobered youthful dreams. Now decades later, he bears the brutal scars of battles fought in the trenches and their futures that were stolen away. His return home doesn’t come with tender reunions, but with the hollow fulfillment of opening a bookshop on his own and retreating as a recluse within its walls.

When the future Earl of Harcourt chose Charlotte to be his wife, she knew she was destined for a loveless match. Though her heart had chosen another long ago, she pledges her future even as her husband goes to war. Twenty-five years later, Charlotte remains a war widow who divides her days between her late husband’s declining estate and operating a quaint Coventry bookshop—Eden Books, lovingly named after her grown daughter. And Amos is nothing more than the rival bookseller across the lane.

As war with Hitler looms, Eden is determined to preserve her father’s legacy. So when an American solicitor arrives threatening a lawsuit that could destroy everything they’ve worked so hard to preserve, mother and daughter prepare to fight back. But with devastation wrought by the Luftwaffe’s local blitz terrorizing the skies, battling bookshops—and lost loves, Amos and Charlotte—must put aside their differences and fight together to help Coventry survive.

 

My Rating & Thoughts:    


A dual timeline novel that follows Amos and Charlotte from childhood friends to rival bookstore owners, focusing primarily on events from 1914 (WWI) & 1940 (WWII). Through the 1914 timeline, we get the backstory of the characters and what has led them to now. In the 1940 timeline, we follow Jacob, a lawyer from America, and Eden, Charlotte's daughter, along with Amos and Charlotte. The war is happening and Coventry is being attacked, we follow these characters as they are living their lives trying to save their homes and community. I really enjoyed following the main characters and discovering what happened with Amos and Charlotte in the past and wanted them to overcome all that had happened and reconnect. I had so many questions as I read, but they were answered the more I read. I especially loved how the connections between certain characters was revealed. The one thing I struggled with is that there were so many characters that at times it was difficult to keep straight who was who. This was such a horrific time in history.

(I received an ARC of this book from Thomas Nelson through NetGalley. Opinions expressed 
in this review are my honest opinion and completely my own.)

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