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A review by athenaowl
The Lost and Found Bookshop by Susan Wiggs
3.0
I really wanted to like this book, and for the first half, I did. But there were a few things that took me out of it in the second half. I did really enjoy the premise, I think every book lover dreams of owning or working in a bookshop, and it was fun to read the titles the author dropped in when Natalie (the protagonist) recommended or sold a book. I really liked the character Andrew aka Grandy and how respectfully Wiggs treated his POV chapters and his dementia.
Be warned I kind of go on a rant below this line. In short, there was limited and bad character growth, some bad writing, some plot points that don't make sense, and a lot of telling not showing when it comes to characterization.
My biggest issue with the book comes from feeling like Natalie didn't really grow as a character until maybe the last chapter of the book. I kept on waiting for her to slowly let her guard down, for her to gradually move past her grief and live her own life. And she never really did. She kept on talking about how she wanted to and then suddenly Peach proposed (and I have a few things to say about that!) and Natalie suddenly became an impulsive and non-risk averse person. It took like 30 seconds to change her entire character. And then we never got to see her and Peach's relationship. It was a will-they-won't-they thing for most of the book and finally at the end they get together but it's so rushed. I almost would have preferred it without the epilogue because it just felt tacked on. Like Wiggs went oh here are all of these kinds of loose ends I need to tie up but I don't want to write them in any detail, lets just do newspaper articles instead.
I also felt like Wiggs was often too heavy-handed with Natalie's grief and worry over her grandfather. I'm not at all saying that there is a right and wrong way to handle grief in the real world, but the job of an author isn't to write the real world, it's to write things in a way that feel truthful to the reader and that don't leave the reader rolling their eyes because Natalie said "oh Grandy," sadly 21for the millionth time in a chapter, or because Natalie decided that she has to bring her dead mom up in almost every conversation she has.
There are also some things that just didn't make sense and narrative opportunities that weren't explored. To keep this review somewhat readable in length I'll just list out some of my pet peeves: 1) Natalie apparently has great abs but she never talks or even thinks about working out. I know it's a small thing, but it just felt unrealistic and took me out of the story. 2) Trevor's secret was so dumb. It's built up to be this big thing, and I'm thinking that maybe he doesn't actually write the books, but no, it's just that he lied about his childhood. 3) Trevor, someone who is apparently super-duper famous, was somehow able to keep his real childhood a secret for years, despite having a mother who is in and out of rehab and has no problem telling Natalie the truth. Like, no journalist decided to dig into his very vague backstory? 4) The smoking a joint in bed thing. I don't care about smoking weed but it felt incredibly out of character. 5) Natalie never really thinks about Rick except in the "oh I was so wrong about our relationship so now I can't trust my instincts" kind of way. I get that she didn't love him and that her grief for her mom is much larger, but I find it hard to believe that she could just move on without any hangups over the fact that her boyfriend died the night he was going to propose to her. 6) Peach's proposal. It's insane and out of character for both of them and I hated it. 7) the fact that apparently, every guy was into Natalie, and whenever Trevor met any other man around Natalie her would size them up or something. It just felt very cliched and unnecessary, like something you would find in a not-great YA novel. 8) I don't get why Trevor likes Natalie. She's always so awkward on their dates, doesn't come across as particularly charming, never does anything nice or sweet for him in return, and just seems kind of boring around him. And this is in part because we're just told as an audience that Natalie is nice and kind and loyal, but I felt like we never really saw that. She doesn't seem like a great friend, I mean her close friend was many months pregnant and Natalie just had no idea? I feel like a lot of the time the reader was just told that a character acts a certain way or feels a certain way and we're just expected to believe it with no proof. 9) Last one, I promise. there were so many cool historical parts that could have been drawn out or woven in better that just seem random. The old war medal they find, it's just never mentioned again once they give it to the family. The same thing with the vase. I feel like these were just planted there to show how good a person Grandy was for not wanting to sell them and to return them to their rightful owner. And that's sweet and all, but narratively kind of meaningless.
Be warned I kind of go on a rant below this line. In short, there was limited and bad character growth, some bad writing, some plot points that don't make sense, and a lot of telling not showing when it comes to characterization.
My biggest issue with the book comes from feeling like Natalie didn't really grow as a character until maybe the last chapter of the book. I kept on waiting for her to slowly let her guard down, for her to gradually move past her grief and live her own life. And she never really did. She kept on talking about how she wanted to and then suddenly Peach proposed (and I have a few things to say about that!) and Natalie suddenly became an impulsive and non-risk averse person. It took like 30 seconds to change her entire character. And then we never got to see her and Peach's relationship. It was a will-they-won't-they thing for most of the book and finally at the end they get together but it's so rushed. I almost would have preferred it without the epilogue because it just felt tacked on. Like Wiggs went oh here are all of these kinds of loose ends I need to tie up but I don't want to write them in any detail, lets just do newspaper articles instead.
I also felt like Wiggs was often too heavy-handed with Natalie's grief and worry over her grandfather. I'm not at all saying that there is a right and wrong way to handle grief in the real world, but the job of an author isn't to write the real world, it's to write things in a way that feel truthful to the reader and that don't leave the reader rolling their eyes because Natalie said "oh Grandy," sadly 21for the millionth time in a chapter, or because Natalie decided that she has to bring her dead mom up in almost every conversation she has.
There are also some things that just didn't make sense and narrative opportunities that weren't explored. To keep this review somewhat readable in length I'll just list out some of my pet peeves: 1) Natalie apparently has great abs but she never talks or even thinks about working out. I know it's a small thing, but it just felt unrealistic and took me out of the story. 2) Trevor's secret was so dumb. It's built up to be this big thing, and I'm thinking that maybe he doesn't actually write the books, but no, it's just that he lied about his childhood. 3) Trevor, someone who is apparently super-duper famous, was somehow able to keep his real childhood a secret for years, despite having a mother who is in and out of rehab and has no problem telling Natalie the truth. Like, no journalist decided to dig into his very vague backstory? 4) The smoking a joint in bed thing. I don't care about smoking weed but it felt incredibly out of character. 5) Natalie never really thinks about Rick except in the "oh I was so wrong about our relationship so now I can't trust my instincts" kind of way. I get that she didn't love him and that her grief for her mom is much larger, but I find it hard to believe that she could just move on without any hangups over the fact that her boyfriend died the night he was going to propose to her. 6) Peach's proposal. It's insane and out of character for both of them and I hated it. 7) the fact that apparently, every guy was into Natalie, and whenever Trevor met any other man around Natalie her would size them up or something. It just felt very cliched and unnecessary, like something you would find in a not-great YA novel. 8) I don't get why Trevor likes Natalie. She's always so awkward on their dates, doesn't come across as particularly charming, never does anything nice or sweet for him in return, and just seems kind of boring around him. And this is in part because we're just told as an audience that Natalie is nice and kind and loyal, but I felt like we never really saw that. She doesn't seem like a great friend, I mean her close friend was many months pregnant and Natalie just had no idea? I feel like a lot of the time the reader was just told that a character acts a certain way or feels a certain way and we're just expected to believe it with no proof. 9) Last one, I promise. there were so many cool historical parts that could have been drawn out or woven in better that just seem random. The old war medal they find, it's just never mentioned again once they give it to the family. The same thing with the vase. I feel like these were just planted there to show how good a person Grandy was for not wanting to sell them and to return them to their rightful owner. And that's sweet and all, but narratively kind of meaningless.