Book Review: The Bookshop of Yesterday

The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Books about books are often some of the most treasured amoungst those of us that read a lot. I certainly find I have a soft spot for them. Let's face it, who doesn't want to read about a character like themselves that is a voracious reader and where the setting is a bookstore!

Bookish Plot
The Bookshop of Yesterday takes us on a book themed scavenger hunt and touches upon many wonderful pieces of literature including Pride & Prejudice, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and The Picture of Dorian Gray . It also touches on some less loved classics (at least by me) like Grapes of Wrath and Persuasion; but each reference is no less interesting and propels us forward in the plot. The books lead us to an ultimate reveal of information that impacts our leading lady's decisions on what life she wants to live.

Family
At it's core Amy Meyerson has written a story that is about family. Who our 'true' family is and why we connect with them. Of course there are the traditional blood connections that matter; but we are also treated to the idea that family can come from many places. Our leading lady is led through the book scavenger hunt by clues left behind by her deceased (and mysterious absent since she was 12 years old) uncle.
The drama with our gal's Mother is a bit annoying to me as I didn't really 'get' why Mom was so coy with information. However, the one thing that I tried to keep in mind is that, past events are oft embarrassing; even when you're not at fault for the outcome or event. The imperfectness of the characters and family really resonated with me as truthful and made it easy to relate to the majority of the characters.

Ambiance
I loved the descriptions of all the events and regulars at the bookstore. The setting descriptions include: the smell of leather, paper, ink and dust of an old indie bookshop. Even the choice of Meyerson to set our leading lady apart from her existing (and awful) boyfriend, to really reflect on her life, is intentional and contributes to the overall feel of the story. Additionally all the supporting characters at the bookstore create a sense of calm and add to the romance of the entire story which helps lead our gal in a certain direction. Meyerson uses details about people and descriptions of elements to really bring you into the bookshop setting and made it so I felt like I was there each time I picked this book up.

Overall
I really enjoyed The Bookshop of Yesterday and would say it's a good little drama-mystery book for summer. There's some good real-life situations addressed here including: the dynamics of split families, living away from home, grudges and blame, romantic relationships, and the idea of 'finding yourself' in the most unlikely place.
Overall, my favourite part of the whole book is that, it ends in a way that I (mostly) expected and so it felt comfortable. This may seem like an odd thing to say (especially by someone like me who loves a good shock factor) but the entire book feels safe and so it fit well that it ends as you are likely to expect early on. Sometimes you just want a sweet, cute mystery, without too much intensity, that makes you smile at the end; this book is exactly that for me. I look forward to more from Meyerson (this is her debut novel!) in the future when I am craving something contemporary and sweet.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

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