A review by obsidian_blue
The Bookstore Keepers by Alice Hoffman

2.0

 

I don't know if this is going to be the last book in Hoffman's series, but this felt like a very weird note to end things on. I have loved the magical realism of the other books, but this one was kind of not hitting it for me. And I think it's because of a common thing that often happens in romance books which I think is going to set off some readers. No spoilers, but I was just disappointed by it.

"The Bookstore Keepers" follows sisters Isabel and Sophie. It's been several years since Isabel has returned and is now happily married to her childhood sweetheart, Johnny. But something occurs that has Isabel waiting for someone that she loves to realize that she's right there, just waiting for them to come back to her. Sophie is also dealing with waiting. Her daughter is about to graduate college but has not come home as much as she would have liked. But now with her daughter returning to the island, Sophie thinks this means she's going to help her and Isabel run the bookstore.

I think that my biggest issue as I said above was that Isabel's story felt very unworthy of the character. I was just disappointed and will leave it at that. But I also think that Sophie did not get enough time to shine. I was disappointed that we really only had glimpses of her in this book story, and we get a little bit more from her daughter Violet, but not enough again.

This story was way too short and I was left feeling unsatisfied.