Join a book club that is reading The Lost Bookshop: The most charming and uplifting novel for 2025 and the perfect gift for book lovers!!
The Lost Bookshop: The most charming and uplifting novel for 2025 and the perfect gift for book lovers!
On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found... The Dictionary of Lost Words meets The Lost Apothecary in this evocative novel full of mystery and secrets. The Lost Bookshop is a charming bookish novel with a dash of romance, historical fiction, and a lot of magic.
BUY THE BOOK
These clubs recently read this book...
Community Reviews
2.5 âï¸ - rounded up
"The Lost Bookshop" by Evie Woods is less a cohesive novel and more a literary potluck, with five better novels crammed into one undercooked dish. The result? A narrative thatâs both overstuffed and unsatisfying. The book teeters between historical fiction and magical realism but doesnât commit to either, leaving the magic unexplained and the historical setting sadly neglected. Instead of weaving an intricate tale, it leans on clichés and predictable twists, offering little in the way of originality or depth.
I have nothing against open-ended books that invites the reader to fill in the gaps, but this one doesnât just leave threads looseâit unravels entirely.. It feels more like a first draft, with the author still trying to figure out how to tie it all together. Characters are forgotten, plot lines left unexplained, and the reader is left feeling unsatisfied with a story that feels unresolved.
The silver lining here is Opaline. Her chapters sparkled, and the twist involving her brother genuinely surprised me. But the novel overextends itself by juggling three points of view. Had the novel limited itself to just the dual POVs of Martha and Opaline, with a deeper dive into Marthaâs character and the connection these women share, I think the book could have been a four or five-star read, as the premise of this novel is fascinating and Opaline felt like the most flushed out character in the book.
Meanwhile, Henryâs chapters had me skimming. His character felt like an afterthought, with trauma tacked on for depth that never materialized and seemingly existed only to serve as a foil to Martha. His supposed growth was rushed, existing only to move the plot along, and his connection to Martha felt flimsy and unconvincing. The author frequently told us how characters felt, instead of letting their actions show it and many of Henry's choices and actions genuinely made no sense.
In the end, this book had all the ingredients for something magical but needed a stronger editor to bring them together. Instead, it overreaches, with unresolved plot lines, abandoned characters, and half-baked magical elements leaving readers with little more than disappointment.
"The Lost Bookshop" by Evie Woods is less a cohesive novel and more a literary potluck, with five better novels crammed into one undercooked dish. The result? A narrative thatâs both overstuffed and unsatisfying. The book teeters between historical fiction and magical realism but doesnât commit to either, leaving the magic unexplained and the historical setting sadly neglected. Instead of weaving an intricate tale, it leans on clichés and predictable twists, offering little in the way of originality or depth.
I have nothing against open-ended books that invites the reader to fill in the gaps, but this one doesnât just leave threads looseâit unravels entirely.. It feels more like a first draft, with the author still trying to figure out how to tie it all together. Characters are forgotten, plot lines left unexplained, and the reader is left feeling unsatisfied with a story that feels unresolved.
The silver lining here is Opaline. Her chapters sparkled, and the twist involving her brother genuinely surprised me. But the novel overextends itself by juggling three points of view. Had the novel limited itself to just the dual POVs of Martha and Opaline, with a deeper dive into Marthaâs character and the connection these women share, I think the book could have been a four or five-star read, as the premise of this novel is fascinating and Opaline felt like the most flushed out character in the book.
Meanwhile, Henryâs chapters had me skimming. His character felt like an afterthought, with trauma tacked on for depth that never materialized and seemingly existed only to serve as a foil to Martha. His supposed growth was rushed, existing only to move the plot along, and his connection to Martha felt flimsy and unconvincing. The author frequently told us how characters felt, instead of letting their actions show it and many of Henry's choices and actions genuinely made no sense.
In the end, this book had all the ingredients for something magical but needed a stronger editor to bring them together. Instead, it overreaches, with unresolved plot lines, abandoned characters, and half-baked magical elements leaving readers with little more than disappointment.
I wanted to love this book. In the beginning I did. It was hard for me to keep the two female character’s stories separated in my mind. Also, the ending was a let down. I still have so many questions!
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.