Joy Blackwood has no idea why her French art dealer husband has left a valuable painting to a woman called Robyn Tessier in Ballycove, a small town on the west coast of Ireland, but she is determined to find out. She arrives in Ballycove to find that Robyn runs a rather chaotic and unprofitable bookshop. She is shy, suffering from unrequited love for dashing Kian, and badly in need of advice on how to make the bookshop successful.
As Joy gets drawn into the dramas of everyday life in the town, she finds it more and more difficult to confess why she really came, let alone find the truth about the painting she brought with her. When she does finally summon up the courage, it sets the cat amongst the pigeons in the close-knit, friendly community she has come to love.
My thoughts: Faith Hogan’s books are always little delights and this one, set as it is in a bookshop, is exactly that. I love books about bookshops and bookshop people, and the people of the Ballycove bookshop are a family of treasures.
I would quite like an Uncle Albie of my own, complete with pet giant tortoise called Dolly Parton. I have always wanted a tortoise and a kindly great-uncle who listens and offers good advice would be lovely (sadly I’ve run out of those).
Robyn is luckier than she realises when she accidentally railroads a visiting American called Joy into helping out in her newly acquired bookshop. Joy is actually there to find Robyn, though it takes her quite a while, and a lot of tears, to get around to telling her why.
Joy’s late husband’s last words and a bequest in his will are all she has to go on as she travels from their home in Paris to Ballycove, and the bookshop, with a painting under her arm. Once there she meets the delightful Albie, charming coffee shop owner Shane and grumpy baker Leo (Albie’s son), as well as Robyn and her mother Fern, an artist.
As the women work together to get the bookshop ready for it’s relaunch (and Dolly snoozes under the stairs), they bond, but the revelation about who Joy really is will smash their new relationship apart.
A joyful celebration of books, bookshops, family, and finding your place in the world at any age. Just lovely.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 