Genre: Chick Lit
Pages: 332
Published: 2016
Libraries are life, or so thinks Nina. Then Big Business wants to turn her cozy library into a media center and she is out of a job. A sudden impulse inspires her to purchase a van in a remote village and turn it into the Little Shop of Happily Ever Afters. Soon she is inspiring the residents to try new stories, and ends up helping a lot of people along the way. From children living in squalor to a train conductor who enjoys poetry to most people in the village, Nina is soon back to doing what she does best: finding everyone's perfect story. With any luck, she'll be able to create her own happy ending, too...as long as she's able to stick around.
I have been loving Colgan books lately because they often allow you to slip into someone else's life with them. You grow and meet new people along with the main character. There isn't always a solid plot structure, but they do imitate the flow of real life. Unfortunately, the lack of structure hurt things this time around.
There were some problems that were hard to ignore. For one, the story is almost identical to Little Beach Street Bakery except it featured a bookshop rather than a bakery. The premise was exactly the same: a woman escapes to a remote village to start a business. The character cutouts are also the same: the oddly-named best friend who likes to party, grumpy landlord, love interest in a thoroughly-unromantic profession, and the village cronies all show up in both novels. And there's a love triangle.
But there's the kicker: the love triangle wasn't predictable. I honestly had no idea whether she would end up with Lennox the farmer or Marek the train conductor. There's even a third possibility. Both relationships presented both "problems" and romantic aspects. Props to Colgan for not making it straightforward; what a breath of fresh air in chick lit.
But Nina isn't just in it for love. First she must obtain a van to sell her books, and then she has to get the books themselves. Her ultimate goal seems to be nothing more than just staying afloat. That's where the book lost me a bit. She obviously succeeds in putting a business together---you don't have to read the book to realize that; I mean, the summary and cover alone tell you it happened---so the rest of the story consists mostly of watching Nina sell books. While it's nice to see a cast of characters find books that are good for them, there isn't really a lot of conflict or storyline holding it together. It's day-to-day life. It could also be argued that finding love was a central problem, but it was never really a singular focus in the story. Another possibility for the book's conflict is is her wanting to prove to herself that she can take risks. However that too seems like a stretch, as some of the logistics (like finding a place to live) happen way too easily.
And okay, problems pop up. For example, Nina must take action when some kids show up who are obviously under the care of negligent parents. I would have liked to see more time spent on these issues, but they get abruptly solved in a matter of pages instead. In this case, it's by handing them over to social services who are suddenly kind and helpful despite their indifferent reputation that Nina was discussing through the rest of the book....okee dokee. And it's hard to get fully invested there, too, because I felt like Colgan summarized events rather than immersed me in them. She does utilize occasional "showing," but usually she saves that for drawn-out descriptions of nature instead of important events. More action and dialogue would have been nice---not that the book is without them. But because of the lack of tangible conflict, the novel ends rather abruptly, which isn't unbelievable considering that there was no real end goal. It was missing something...what, I'm not sure. Ah, yes...*checks notes*: "the finality of a hard-fought conflict." I guess I should draft my reviews more often. Yes, there isn't really a feeling of victory at the end because I wasn't really sure what her initial conflict even was. I also felt more invested in the relationship that didn't work out rather than the one that happened. That didn't help things.
With all this criticism, why would someone pick up The Bookshop on the Corner? To be fair, I liked seeing life through Nina's eyes. As a twenty-something really looking to kick off life, Nina's story was inspiring. I liked reading the realistic cast of kooky characters who weren't so unrealistic to be believed. I'm torn here. Nina's life was interesting. But if it wasn't, this wouldn't have been a good book. It seemed rushed and a bit lazy. If you've already read Little Beach Street Bakery, I might pass this one up. And if you're not into the "daily life" type of story, I'd ignore it altogether for one of her other novels. Colgan isn't a bad writer, and I like most of her books thus far, but this wasn't her best.
You know what, I really want to read this now. I recently read this book a few months ago. Like a year really. And it was similar--like scarily similar. But it was this woman who had to set up a restaurant in this castle, and there was the love interest, but everything with the love interest was so predictable, and so soon as she had him, everything like slid into place, and in some way it was sort of like the author was saying that the dude solved everything, and that sort of disappointed me, because I liked reading about the female lead character in the start. :(
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