Guest Review: The Little bookshop of Lonely Hearts by Annie Darling

Once upon a time in a crumbling London bookshop, Posy Morland spent her life lost in the pages of her favourite romantic novels.

So when Bookend’s eccentric owner, Lavinia, dies and leaves the shop to Posy, she must put down her books and join the real world. Because Posy hasn’t just inherited an ailing business, but also the unwelcome attentions of Lavinia’s grandson, Sebastian, AKA The Rudest Man In London™.

Posy has a cunning plan and six months to transform Bookends into the bookshop of her dreams – if only Sebastian would leave her alone to get on with it. As Posy and her friends fight to save their beloved bookshop, Posy’s drawn into a battle of wills with Sebastian, about whom she’s started to have some rather feverish fantasies…

Like her favourite romantic heroines, will she get her happy ever after too?

Review:This is book 1 in the Lonely Hearts Bookshop series from Annie Darling, an author who is new to me. Although it is part of a series, it can be read as a stand-alone. I found myself quickly immersed in the tale, lost in the characters’ world as the plot unravelled.

The story is set in London, where a quaint old bookshop with a long history has been left to Posy Morland, who has lived in the flat above the shop most of her life with her younger brother, Sam. Posy, who works as a book seller in the shop, is a confirmed romantic; for as long as she can remember she has spent any spare time reading romance novels and her flat is filled with them. She is even writing a Regency-style love story. She plans to turn the bookshop, currently called Bookends, into a specialist outlet for romantic fiction to be named Happy Ever After. However, Sebastian Thorndyke, the grandson of the previous owner, has other ideas and is quite simply trying to edge Posy out. Posy has known Sebastian for a very long time and is well acquainted with his vanity, rudeness and lack of regard for anyone else’s feelings, but is determined not to give in to his bullying tactics. However, as time passes, Posy is becoming aware that she may be developing different feelings towards Sebastian.

I would describe this book as a lighthearted romance filled with interesting characters, from the sweet and gentle to the brash and domineering. I found it an easy read and didn’t mind at all that it was a little predictable. Posy comes across as a really sweet person, but I found her really quite annoying at times; I did find myself wanting to give her a shake on occasion, particularly when she was dealing with Sebastian. As well as trying to make a living out of selling books and doing her utmost to bring up her younger brother, Posy spends any spare time in the company of the characters in the novel she is writing and in which she herself is the heroine. The narrative includes regular extracts from this novel, which I did not much enjoy, but this did not spoil my overall enjoyment of the book. I am looking forward to catching up with events at the bookshop in the next part of the series.

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