Martha, Opaline, and Henry are all looking for their place in a world they feel estranged. Opaline wants to settle in safety, making a living with the books she loves. Martha wants to live comfortably in anonymity. Henry hopes to make his name in the world by finding a magical bookshop holding a lost manuscript.
Magic, books, and historical accuracy—why would I give that one star?! First of all, this book was unbearably boring. I kept waiting for the characters to get more interesting and the plot to pick up, but it never did. Opaline is selfish and that never changes. Henry is plain boring and hardly does anything for himself, always being led around by the women in his life. Martha goes from hating books to loving them in the snap of a hat and is so surface-level.
I have nothing good to say about this book. The characters, magic, plot, and setting all fell flat. I cannot recommend this book on any level. Even the “women empowerment” that could have been done well got stuck in the weeds and turned more into “men are the worst” (unless they quietly follow you around) which is such a disappointment.
The Lost Bookshop begins in the present day with Martha, an older woman, telling a little boy about the book she’s written and is preparing to send to her supporters.
Immediately, you’re sucked into 1920, where a young woman named Opaline flees an arranged marriage and lands in France. From here, you switch between Opaline, Martha, and Henry.
Martha first mistakes Henry for a peeping tom and demands he leave, but soon discovers he’s looking for a lost bookshop that should have been next door. Together they begin uncovering Opaline’s past in search of her bookshop and the lost Brontë manuscript.
Opaline escapes from London to France, beginning a book dealing career there. Then she escapes her brother again and flees to Ireland where she continues her career and accidentally gets pregnant. Finally, after being drug to a mental institute in Ireland and losing her child (which you discover was actually stolen from her and sold), Opaline escapes and swears vengeance on her brother, which she exacts by ruining his reputation with good evidence of his war crimes against his own men.
When she tells him what will happen the next day, he tells her about her shameful origins. She is his child from when he was promiscuous in France, but he doesn’t even remember the woman’s name. He also tells Opaline that her child was stolen and sold and that she would have fetched a better price if she were a boy.
Once he spits his final poisonous words at Opaline, he kills himself and she simply walks away.
Martha and Henry get into investigating together and come closer and closer to finding Opaline’s final locations and to each other. Martha quickly loses the ability to read Henry’s life story just like she did when she fell for her husband.
Woods employs the misunderstanding trope when Henry leaves a note for Martha that he’s going to break off his engagement in England and has to stay longer when his sister goes into labor. Martha never got the note. While there, he makes amends with his father who is in an alcoholic rehabilitation facility.
Meanwhile, Martha’s husband returns drunk and menacing. Madam Boden throws him down the stairs, killing him immediately.
After an annoying amount of time, Henry and Martha make up and return to their investigations. They finally discover that Martha is Opaline’s great-granddaughter, Madam Boden was Opaline’s spirit all along, and she’s been living in the bookshop.
Martha is suddenly able to read Henry again. She explains that this is because it isn’t love that blocks her ability, but denying a part of herself because of someone else. This explanation was terrible and unnecessary. They could have just left her unable to read him.
Finally, we come back to the present day, where Martha is finishing telling the little boy her story. She encourages him to become whatever he wants to be and gives him a book to help him along.
Henry comes back and “they kiss so long they have to close the shop.”
And blessedly, the story is finally over.
