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Thursday, August 19, 2021

Review: The Bookseller's Secret by Michelle Gable

The Bookseller's Secret
by Michelle Gable

Publisher: Graydon House
Pages: 400
Format: eARC
Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  In 1942, London, Nancy Mitford is worried about more than air raids and German spies. Still recovering from a devastating loss, the once sparkling Bright Young Thing is estranged from her husband, her allowance has been cut, and she’s given up her writing career. On top of this, her five beautiful but infamous sisters continue making headlines with their controversial politics.

Eager for distraction and desperate for income, Nancy jumps at the chance to manage the Heywood Hill bookshop while the owner is away at war. Between the shop’s brisk business and the literary salons she hosts for her eccentric friends, Nancy’s life seems on the upswing. But when a mysterious French officer insists that she has a story to tell, Nancy must decide if picking up the pen again and revealing all is worth the price she might be forced to pay.

Eighty years later, Heywood Hill is abuzz with the hunt for a lost wartime manuscript written by Nancy Mitford. For one woman desperately in need of a change, the search will reveal not only a new side to Nancy, but an even more surprising link between the past and present…


Kritters Thoughts:  Two storylines in one book, in 1942, Nancy Mitford is an author trying to survive the war and while she has a few books under her belt she still feels as though she hasn't had that success.  In present day, Katie has ended an engagement and after a disastrous holiday with the family she gets the chance to escape across the pond to a friend's house and maybe get that inspiration for her next book.  

For me when I read books with a past and a present storyline, a few things happen and sometimes I love one of the storylines and just skim the other and that happened with this book.  The current storyline had me hooked and I couldn't wait to read more and more of Katie and her adventures learning about Nancy Mitford and trying to figure out what she wanted to do next with her life, but for some reason when it switched to Nancy Mitford herself, I wasn't captivated and I wanted to return to Katie.  

I think I would love a book dedicated to the life and times of Nancy Mitford because I think her story is interesting, but for some reason either the time that was focused on in this book or the way it was written just didn't capture me as much as Katie's storyline.

This wasn't my first Michelle Gable read, but I still have some of her backlist to catch up and I hope to do it soon to see if my feelings would change from this book and how I felt about one plot vs the other and her other books.


Rating: enjoyable, but didn't leave me wanting more

Ebook 2021 Challenge: 100 out of 100

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from HarperCollins.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.


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