It's my stop on the blog tour for The Bookshop of Second Chances by Jackie Fraser today. I have a review to share with you to celebrate the book being released in paperback last week. You can click here to order your copy now. Don't forget to check out the other stops on the tour for more exclusive content and reviews.
Here's what it's all about...
Thea’s having a bad month. Not only has she been made redundant, she’s also discovered her husband of nearly twenty years is sleeping with one of her friends. And he’s not sorry – he’s leaving.
Bewildered and lost, Thea doesn’t know what to do. But, when she learns the great-uncle she barely knew has died and left her his huge collection of second-hand books and a house in the Scottish Lowlands, she seems to have been offered a second chance.
Running away to a little town where no one knows her seems like exactly what Thea needs. But when she meets the aristocratic Maltravers brothers – grumpy bookshop owner Edward and his estranged brother Charles, Lord Hollinshaw – her new life quickly becomes just as complicated as the life she was running from...
Review: I loved the premise of this book, starting over in a beautiful Scottish village, a new house unexpectedly yours and a new country and bookshop to explored. Jackie Fraser wrote a beautiful setting for this novel, it didn't always ring true to life for that part of the world but it certainly was idyllic and great to escape to without hundreds of other tourists crowding the roads as you explore. It was a great backdrop for Thea to explore and for her to heal.
Thea was a unique character. I am glad that we are getting more books with older female characters starting over again after unexpected life changes. I think adding a level of maturity to a character means scope for a different sort of coming of age or journey of transition. I enjoyed getting to read about Thea's journey and would love to get into her head and find out what she makes of her new life if we get to meet her again in future books.
There are certainly some interesting characters that Thea meets along the way. I really loved her best friend and also liked the fact that she makes so many new friends in her new setting, Two people who are key to Thea's story are the Maltravers brothers who basically run the town. They are intriguing men and although I personally didn't warm to either of them, the fact that Thea bonded with them both speaks volumes about her as a character.
I really enjoy a character driven novel but I was a little confused at first with so many new characters to meet and so many details to find out about them. I think if I could change one thing about this book it would be that level of detail, it just felt a bit much at times but I know there are readers out there who will appreciate the character development and work on their back stories that has gone into the writing of this novel. I listened to this book on audio and perhaps I would have been able to keep track of the characters better had I been reading the beautiful paperback copy, the cover is just stunning!
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