Title: The Bookseller’s Secret
Author: Michelle Gable
Publication: August 17, 2021
Publisher: Graydon House
Genre: Biographical Fiction, Historical Fiction
Pages: 309
SYNOPSIS: (From 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…
REVIEW:
**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**
I saw this book come across my summer reads list that I got from a publisher. I saw that it was about a book shop I was hooked. I had never heard of the author and am always looking to add new authors to my “read” piles. I was excited to start reading it. I hope that it would be amazing
Katie is a train wreck. She drinks and has to be driven home from a family get-together when she tells everyone what she thinks after too much booze. On the prodding of her best friend and the subsequent purchase of a ticket to London, she heads off to London for a break that will hopefully break her writer’s block. Nancy thinks that she is a failure. Her last book seems to be a flop and she doesn’t know what else to write. She takes a job at a bookstore in London at the beginning of WW2. Honestly, I couldn’t get past 62% of this book. I dreaded reading it every night. I didn’t like the two storylines and found the character of Nancy super annoying. We get that she couldn’t write a book. We get that she was cheating on her husband with a Frenchmen. The storyline of Katie took forever to develop.
I read this book and thought that I really could care less what happened to any of the characters. They could have fallen off the edge of the Earth and I would have been ehh about it. I did enjoy the fact that it was Historical Fiction. Katie seemed whiney and entitled to me. She just needed to get back on the horse and not worry about this and that. I don’t know why she was so dead set on writing a sequel to her bestselling book. If that is what worked maybe she could have done that. Nancy always blamed her Mother and Father for her failures in life. Her Dad not having any money even though he had a title. Now, I am not saying don’t read this book but this is something I don’t think I would even come back and try to finish. I am not sure if I would look into other books by this author.
STAR RATING: 1/5
Pick up your copy of The Bookseller’s Secret by Michelle Gable on Amazon, Barnes and Noble or check your local bookstores. Also make sure to add it to your To Reads list on Goodreads and leave feedback for the author when you are finished. You can check out more from author Michelle Gable on her website HERE.
