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rikkimm 's review for:
The Lost Bookshop
by Evie Woods
I’m being generous with 3 stars because I loved the idea of it and it started out so good but the ending was not it. It fell so short of the potential it had. Numerous broken plots, emotionally immature characters, underdeveloped character building, forced romance that was painful to read, and difficult topics that just didn’t exactly flow or felt relevant to anything.
The characters had no depth to them. Opaline was the only character with even an inch of depth. Henry and Martha came across as immature sixteen year olds. They also at times felt like they were older - there was no clarity in their age.
So much was left unexplained - some noteworthy parts:
*******SPOILERS********
What/who was Madame Bowden? What was the point of her?
Why is the bookshop hidden? How is it hidden? Who hid it? When was it hidden because it wasn’t always hidden?
Why does she have EJBs manuscript on her back? Like what was the reason for that? How did it randomly complete itself without her actually finishing it?
Why was Henry able to enter the bookshop once momentarily? And also Madame Bowdens friend? Who may or may not have existed?
The last little bit about ‘oh it’s in the Irish vault BS’ felt like an after thought. A forgotten plot that the author attempted to tie up.
Martha’s mother randomly telling her about her great grandmother felt weird too. It was not relevant to the moment.
Too much was left unexplained that left me very frustrated because this book had so much potential and I really thought it would all tie in nicely at the end. It was a fail. I don’t think I’d recommend this book to anyone.
The characters had no depth to them. Opaline was the only character with even an inch of depth. Henry and Martha came across as immature sixteen year olds. They also at times felt like they were older - there was no clarity in their age.
So much was left unexplained - some noteworthy parts:
*******SPOILERS********
What/who was Madame Bowden? What was the point of her?
Why is the bookshop hidden? How is it hidden? Who hid it? When was it hidden because it wasn’t always hidden?
Why does she have EJBs manuscript on her back? Like what was the reason for that? How did it randomly complete itself without her actually finishing it?
Why was Henry able to enter the bookshop once momentarily? And also Madame Bowdens friend? Who may or may not have existed?
The last little bit about ‘oh it’s in the Irish vault BS’ felt like an after thought. A forgotten plot that the author attempted to tie up.
Martha’s mother randomly telling her about her great grandmother felt weird too. It was not relevant to the moment.
Too much was left unexplained that left me very frustrated because this book had so much potential and I really thought it would all tie in nicely at the end. It was a fail. I don’t think I’d recommend this book to anyone.